How to Clean and Store a Roll-Up Chess Board (and Fix a Curled One)

Clean a roll-up chess board with a damp cloth and a drop of washing up liquid, then dry it flat. Store it rolled loosely around something wide, never folded. That is the whole routine for silicone and for vinyl, and following it is the difference between a board that lasts a decade and one that develops ridges in a year.

Cleaning, step by step

1. Lift the pieces off and shake the board out.
2. Wipe with a cloth wrung out in warm water. Add a drop of washing up liquid for anything greasy.
3. For a stubborn mark on silicone, a soft brush and a little more pressure. Silicone takes scrubbing that vinyl does not.
4. Rinse the cloth, wipe again, and lay the board flat to dry completely before rolling it.

Keep away from it: alcohol, acetone, nail polish remover, bleach, kitchen degreasers and any cleaner with a solvent in it. They strip the printed squares and the notation, and once the printing goes the board is finished. This matters more on vinyl, where solvents also pull out the plasticiser and leave the surface brittle.

Do not put either kind in a dishwasher, and do not iron a board flat.

Storing it so it stays flat

The enemy is the fold, not the roll. A fold is a crease, and on vinyl a crease is permanent.

• Roll, do not fold. Roll the board with the printed side facing out, which puts the printing on the outside of the curve and under less compression.
• Roll loosely. Around a poster tube, a rolled magazine or the drawstring bag itself. A tight roll is closer to a crease.
• Store it flat or standing, not squashed. A board at the bottom of a box under other things is being pressed into whatever shape the box has.
• Avoid heat. Not a car dashboard, not a radiator, not an attic in summer. Vinyl softens and distorts long before it feels hot to the touch.

Silicone forgives almost all of this and springs back flat anyway. Vinyl does not, which is the practical difference between the two materials and is covered properly in vinyl vs silicone chess boards.

How to flatten a chess board that has curled

Two methods, in the order to try them.

Reverse roll. Roll the board the opposite way to the curl, loosely, and leave it for a day or two. For a board with a gentle curl at the edges this fixes it completely and costs nothing.

Weight it, warm not hot. Lay the board flat on a table somewhere at normal room temperature, cover it with a clean cloth, and put heavy books evenly across the whole surface. Leave it a week. Check it after a few days rather than a few hours, because this works slowly and does not work at all if you rush it.

What not to do: a hairdryer, an iron, hot water or direct sun. PVC stretches before it flattens, and a stretched square is a permanent problem where a curled board is usually a temporary one. The internet is full of people who ironed a board and ended up with a warped one.

A deep crease from being folded in a box, rather than a general curl, usually does not come out. That is the failure mode vinyl has and silicone does not.

Looking after the pieces

Wipe weighted pieces with a barely damp cloth and dry them. Do not soak them: water gets into the base cavity around the metal insert, and on a piece with an iron weight that means rust staining coming through the felt months later.

If a felt base lifts at the edge, a dot of PVA glue and a book on top overnight fixes it. If the felt is gone entirely, self-adhesive felt sheet cut to the base diameter works and is worth doing, because a piece with no felt scratches a board and drags on a roll-up mat.

What we make

Our board is silicone rather than vinyl, which is specifically why this maintenance list is short: it does not take a crease, it grips the table so it is not being dragged around, and spills wipe off because there is nothing for them to settle into. It is 20 by 20 inches, reversible, with 2.25 inch squares and notation printed on both faces.

If a board does go wrong inside a year, the 12 month guarantee covers it and we pay the return shipping.

See both sets.

Common questions

How do you get creases out of a vinyl chess board?

Reverse roll it for a day or two first. If the crease remains, weight it flat under books at room temperature for a week. A sharp fold crease often will not come out at all.

Can you wash a silicone chess board?

Yes, with warm water and washing up liquid. It can take more scrubbing than vinyl. Dry it flat before rolling it.

Should you roll a chess board printed side in or out?

Printed side out. It puts the printing on the outside of the curve, where it is stretched slightly rather than compressed, which is easier on the ink over years of rolling.

How do you store a chess board long term?

Rolled loosely, somewhere at a stable room temperature, not compressed under anything. If you have the space, flat is better than rolled.