Board & Display Settings

Customize the board, pieces, colors, fonts, and visual overlays

The board is the centerpiece of Chess.ceo. These settings let you customize how it looks — from the piece design and board colors to coordinates, backgrounds, and the overall application theme. All display settings are found under Settings (gear icon in the sidebar).

Piece Sets

Choose from 30 piece designs. The default is Alpha — a clean, modern set that works well at any size. Change your piece set in Settings → Board.

The collection covers a wide range of styles:

• Classic & clean: Alpha, California, Cburnett, Companion, Monarchy, Maestro, Spatial
• Traditional & ornate: Celtic, Dubrovny, Fantasy, Leipzig, Cooke, Governor
• Playful & stylized: Anarcandy, Horsey, Pixel, XKCD, Shapes, Kiwen-Suwi
• Other: Caliente, Chess7, Chessnut, Firi, Gioco, ICPieces, Mpchess, Pirouetti, Reillycraig, Rhosgfx, Riohacha, Letter

Board Themes

There are 16 board color schemes that control the light and dark square colors. The default is Brown. Change in Settings → Board.

Board Background

The area surrounding the board can use one of two backgrounds:

• Theme Default (default) — matches the current application theme color.
• Wood — a wood texture that gives a classic over-the-board feel.

Change in Settings → Board.

Coordinates

Board coordinates show rank numbers (1–8) and file letters (a–h) as inset labels along the edges of the board. They're on by default and can be toggled in Settings → Board.

Navigation Buttons

Adds forward/back buttons below the board for stepping through moves. Off by default because most users prefer keyboard or mouse navigation:

• ← / → arrow keys to move backward/forward
• Mouse wheel to scroll through moves (when the "Scroll Through Moves" setting is enabled)

Enable in Settings → Board if you prefer on-screen controls.

Remove All Padding

Strips all padding around the board to maximize its size on screen. This is useful on smaller displays or when you want the board to dominate the layout.

Application Theme

The application theme controls the colors of the overall UI — panels, menus, sidebar, and backgrounds. It does not change the board squares (that's the Board Theme above). Found in Settings → General.

Six themes are available:

• Blue — blue-tinted dark theme
• Dark (default) — neutral dark theme
• Light — light background with dark text
• Green — green-tinted dark theme
• Purple — purple-tinted dark theme
• Color Blind — optimized for color vision deficiency

Font Settings

Font sizes can be adjusted independently for different parts of the interface. All size settings range from 10px to 20px with a default of 14px.

You can also choose a font family in Settings → General:

Highlights & Arrows

You can draw colored highlights and arrows directly on the board to mark squares and visualize plans during analysis. These annotations are saved with the game.

Drawing highlights

Hold Alt and click a square to highlight it. Click the same square again to remove the highlight.

Drawing arrows

Hold Alt and drag from one square to another to draw an arrow.

Color modifiers

Combine Alt with mouse buttons and modifier keys to get different colors:

Quick Reference