High marks for design and quality of wood. My criticism is the lack of craftmanship for an expensive board. If you familiar with woodworking you will understand the process to glue edge-to-edge alternate bars of wood to form the pattern of white and black squares. You will understand that the surface needs to be planed perfectly smooth to make sure the joints fit together. If you don't have smooth flat surface, you will have gaps between the two different pieces of wood. The gap may or may not be filled with the wood glue used to bond the alternating pieces together. My complaint was the board I received had several gaps that I found extremely disappointing. The gaps were all consistent running horizontal across the entire board. The set was a special gift and I really wanted it perfect. I also felt like that for the price, the quality should have been better, especially since other areas were perfect I knew they were capable. I reached out to Chess House and customer service was stellar and did not treat me like a whiny customer expecting too much -- they quickly dispatched a replacement board. The new board was better than the first but still had the same problem. Still disappointed but didn't feel like the manufacturer cared so I kept the 2nd board. A big shout out to Customer Service / Paul Adams for going the extra mile to resolve the quality issue that was beyond their control.