Straight Up Chess

06/05/2025

A few years ago I put up a building behind our home for my woodshop and I do all of my woodworking there. But the chessboards take a separate warehouse for the inventory, picture framing equipment, shipping boxes, along with the areas to do the assembling and shipping. Even though I don't have any health concerns, I'm just getting too old to sign another 3 year lease. So I am phasing out the chess part of the business and now have my plan of attack. The Acrylic shelves are expensive so I am making enough boards to use up all the shelves. If you ever wanted a Straight Up Chess board, now is the time. I have reduced the price of the boards and chess piece sets to clear out as much as I can in the next few weeks. Then I will frame the remaining chessboards and take them to a climate controlled storage unit where I can pack them up as they sell, the framing part will be done. Once I move the boards, I'll be putting the prices back to where they were. My target to be out of the warehouse is August 1st. I should have enough chessboards left to get into the Holiday season.

I have shutdown my website and Amazon and now only selling on Etsy. Between Etsy and custom products I wholesale I can keep about as busy I like. I have new little product I'm excited about but I need to wait until I have time to keep them made up.

Here is a link to my Etsy page.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/Verticalchessandmore?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

If you have questions, please call or email. 720 -837-0114, [email protected]

Steve

Shop View my Straight Up Chess Shop by Verticalchessandmore located in Omaha, Nebraska. Smooth shipping! Has a history of shipping on time with tracking. Speedy replies! Has a history of replying to messages quickly. Rave reviews! Average review rating is 4.8 or higher

07/29/2023

These days I only sell online but prior to Covid, I did Festivals. When it came to Art Festivals, even though I called my Straight Up Chess boards Art, the judges for getting approved for the festivals looked at them as manufactured. So it was hard to get into some Art Festivals, and when I added my imported chess pieces it was never going to happen. So I needed to find a way to make chess pieces. Here is one of the sets I made. I also make a modern design. I love the designs, the way they stand out well against the board backgrounds and that they are very durable but I have not listed them online because they needed weight on the bottom for stability. Those sets have been sitting on the shelf for three years so recently I started looking into how to add the weight. I had a lot of ideas but everything was going to take too much time, add too much cost, had to buy too many or it was just not enough weight. I finally found the perfect thing to use for weight, bullets. No gunpowder, just the projectile. For now, I'm using a 220-grain, 44-caliber slug, which is equal to 1/2 ounce per piece. Unlike many items, they are precise in diameter, come in various sizes, and are very reasonably priced. You can see the bottom of the bullet in the photo of the chess pieces. I drill the hole, drop in 2 or 3 drops of Gorilla Glue, drop in the bullet, and then stand the piece up on a flat surface. The bullet drops back down to be flush with the bottom of the chess piece and the glue runs down around the bullet to glue it in place. Quick and simple process. I'm still perfecting some of the processes, experimenting with the woods, and the colors and I'll be making an adjustment to the Modern design. I'm having fun making these right now between custom orders and keeping my inventory up but as it gets closer to the holidays I will not have the time. https://www.etsy.com/listing/1532699459/black-walnut-straight-up-chess-board?click_key=765b5ae6a74297717bab1e8e9872d829e0b28f8f%3A1532699459&click_sum=58885feb&ref=shop_home_active_1&frs=1&sts=1

01/16/2023

Just in case you can't find anything better to do at Yosemite National Park, you can now go to the Pine Tree Market and play some Straight Up Chess. I've been told there is also a board at the Starbucks inside the Marriott in Maui but I never received a photo.

01/04/2023

Introducing a new frame option for my Straight Up Chess boards. I am calling this the Tuxedo frame. This frame is available on all my board options. Here it is on the Black Maple board.

08/08/2022

This is a Black Cherry board with a Red Accent frame and Acacia chess pieces. The brown color of the Acacia chess pieces stands out well on many of my boards. Acacia wood is a harder wood than White Oak or Hickory. You can buy the board only or select from optional chess pieces.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/906643323/black-cherry-straight-up-chess-board?click_key=68682b7dcaa200bd8141861e9bd823fcefdc6f68%3A906643323&click_sum=21b45585&ref=shop_home_active_16&frs=1&sts=1

07/26/2022

I try to make every custom cribbage board that is requested. Lately, it's been from the Chicago Blackhawks to Snoopy and a lot in between. Most are teams but I'll try any theme. I make two sizes. The standard size has 1/8" holes, they are 6x15" and come with your choice of wooden, metal or brass pegs. The large boards have 3/16" holes, they are 8x22" and come with 2" metal pegs. Here is the link. https://www.etsy.com/listing/794947170/custom-image-theme-2-or-3-person?click_key=0895eacfdcbb6ca9384a93cb01aa38fe8efeb681%3A794947170&click_sum=dc2676e6&ref=shop_home_active_2&crt=1&sts=1

05/13/2022

The bad thing about inflation is that business has slowed down. The good thing about inflation is that business has slowed down and I'm finally caught up with orders and starting to build my inventory again after a year and a half. I'm now ready for graduation and Father's Day. I've decided I like my Etsy site the best. I like having the mixture of my Chess boards, Cribbage boards, and Aggravation boards on one page. https://www.etsy.com/shop/Verticalchessandmore?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

02/01/2021

I can make vertical chess boards for sets up to 4.5" tall. For taller sets I can make display boards. Rather than have the chess packed away in a closet, you can have them out for display. In this case the king is 5.5" and the pawns are 4.5".

01/23/2021

Once upon a time in November 2020, a Netflix Series came out called "Queens Gambit". That's about the last thing I remember. I see we have a new President. Whew! that was the busiest 2 months ever. I'm finally getting caught up and I was able to relax a bit this week. Although, it was a big week for international orders. This week I sent chess sets to Canada, Australia, United Kingdom, Netherlands, and two orders to Germany. I have an order going to Turkey and today I've been emailing with a person in Saudi Arabia for an order. It's good to have the world playing chess again.

01/12/2021

King and a rook...

55299 views and 7095 votes on Imgur

09/07/2020

I know many of you are aware of my Straight Up Chess website, but are you aware that I also have an Etsy page? I keep a few of my chess sets on Etsy but it's where I keep most of my cribbage boards. If you have not been there, check it out. Below are a few of my travel cribbage boards. If you don't see what you like, let know and I'll make it for you. https://www.etsy.com/shop/Verticalchessandmore?ref=seller-platform-mcnav