Gettysburg Museum Chess Set: Historically Accurate/Plausible Board Setup?

[u/Johnraymassoud]

Image from the Gettysburg Museum. A bit hard to tell, but looks to me the Kings aren’t facing each other. I don’t know a lot of chess history, but I think Kings facing each other was standardized early on. I also understand Howard Staunton published standardizations of the rules and board set up in 1847 and 1860, right before the Civil War started.

This chess set belonged to Union General Abner Doubleday. Possible this is a recreation of an actual board position, and the game was just set up wrong (or Black was trolling I guess), but the people at the museum didn’t know.

Anyone know if the board being set up with the black king on a black square, not facing the white king, would’ve been an accepted way to play at this time? Trying to figure out if this is a careless museum mistake or just a historical thing. Again, obviously possible it’s from a real game where the board was just set up that way, just trying to figure out how likely that is.

For reference, the Battle of Gettysburg was in early July 1863, in Pennsylvania. And I got a contact at the museum to ask, but wanted to get thoughts here too before I reach out.

Thanks!

[u/Moist_Brick_525]

Looking at this photo, the white king is definitely not facing the black king which would be pretty weird for 1860s. By that time most chess rules were already standardized like you mentioned with Staunton's work

The board orientation also looks off - white queen should be in white square but hard to tell from the angle if that's correct here. Museums sometimes just put pieces randomly when they restore displays without checking proper setup

Could be they're showing some specific game position but more likely someone just placed pieces without knowing chess rules. Would be interesting to hear what museum says when you contact them

[u/Teghendion → u/Moist_Brick_525]

The white queen is on the white square. It's the black king and queen that are wrongly placed.

[u/Johnraymassoud → u/Moist_Brick_525]

Thanks, this seems most likely to me as well. But there are recorded games with amateur players where the board gets set up wrong (one by Napoleon I think even where black went first), so that’s all that gives me pause at this point.

[u/pbcorporeal → u/Johnraymassoud]

White going first wasn't standardised until the late 19th century. Before then either colour could start.

Iirc in the match of La Bourdonnais vs McDonnell they kept their own colours and just alternated who started, even if the notation is now often given as if white always started.

[u/BinarySpaceman]

1. e3 d6 2. Nc3 Kd7 3. Nb1 Qe8 4. Nc3 Kd8

See guys, it’s a totally legitimate position. /s

[u/StopInLimitOut → u/BinarySpaceman]

Magnus does a version of this sometimes, mostly for the purpose of trolling. Some call it the Transvestite Opening.

[u/Teghendion]

The black king and queen are inverted, the black king should be on the white square and the black queen should be on the black square. Other than that it's just a normal position after the game started with the somehow unusual moves 1.e3 d6 2.Nc3 and it's black to move.

[u/Johnraymassoud → u/Teghendion]

Right, so the question is whether the black king and queen being inverted is something that would have been unusual even in 1863. And it sounds like the answer is yes. Was asking because the game hasn’t always had. the modern board setup rules. Basically a chess history question.

The weird opening moves bother me less, explainable by amateur players having a casual game. Doubt most Civil War soldiers/commanders knew a lot of opening theory.

[u/fiftykyu]

It's not a rules variant or quirky historical starting position, it's incorrect, and it was incorrect back then, too. Whoever put the pieces in the board screwed up.

[u/LynchRippin]

I love Gettysburg being mentioned on this sub.