Chess Gift Ideas for Nerds!

learningchess.net certainly has an asthetic for youngsters, but actually has courses from complete beginner to pretty advanced .

Level Up Your Chess by Remote Chess Academy is for intermediate chess players who have plateaued in their chess skill.

As for chess courses for advanced players, that's more tricky. There are many courses on Remote Chess Academy and many other websites have courses which target very specific skills. If you don't know what part of chess the advanced nerd wants to dive into, it's going to be very hard to get a course good for them!

The most popular place to play chess online is called chess.com (shocker). The free version is more than enough for new players, but the paid version has features to help more experienced players to learn from their less obvious mistakes. You can gift a subscription here.

Beginners will probably be interested in How to Win at Chess by Levy Rozman. Not only is he a good chess educator, but he also has a very popular chess youtube channel which the beginner nerd may already be watching!

For intermediate to advanced players, How to Reassess Your Chess by Jeremy Silman will teach a decent chess player how to think about chess so they can become a fearsome chess player!

For something more hands on, maybe a chess puzzle book is what you're looking for. Don't let the title of 1001 Chess Exercises for Beginners fool you. This book contains a wide range of chess puzzles for beginner to advanced players. Beginner players just won't be able to do all the puzzles and advanced players will find many to be trivial, but probably still fun!

For the complete beginner , this educational chess set might be a helpful teaching tool. The bottom of every piece has a nifty diagram showing how that piece moves!

You can't go wrong with a roll up chess set. The set is cheap, travels well and has a larger size when laid flat on the table making it the jack of all trades of chess boards.

If you really want to get good bang for your buck, this chess, checkers and backgammon set is a 3 in 1!

You can't go wrong with a roll up chess set. What differentiates this from the one in the under 15 dollar version is that this one has triple weighted pieces, which means that they are quite a bit heavier. This weight makes the pieces much more satisfying to handle! There's also an identical set with a fancy bag.

Now this one is just silly, but also fun. Behold! The 15-in-1 chess set! This strange game combo contains chess, checkers, Parcheesi, Pass Out, Dominos, Snakes and Ladders, Chinese Checkers, Tic Tac Toe, Mancala, Solitaire, Poker Dice, Backgammon, Go Fish and Old Maid

Most chess sets under $50 don't look fancy, but this unique leather chess set is! 'nough said.

There are also a few good choices in this price range in the travel chess sets section!

I don't have much commentary for these sets. They are all made from premium material. Just look through them and see what looks good!

The Ambassador chess set provides a more ornate look. Also available in brown, green, blue, and red.

This one is similiar to the Ambassador chess set above: Wegiel Handmade.

The Championship Series Chess Set has a nice clean and simple look. I'd have a hard time imagining someone actively dislikes it! You can select from a variety of chess colors. Personally I think the Purpleheart Gilded and Natural Boxwood color set looks nice!

The Superior Grandmaster Chess Set is honestly not my favorite, but I include it for those who want the really basic look with with quality materials. Maybe the nerd loves this kind of thing!

Now, if you want to go crazy , Wobbly Chess has got you! All your pieces will be wobbling around wildly as you play a speed game of chess. Good luck!

By combining magnets, flat pieces and a foldable board, you get the incredibly portable 6" by 6" chess set. Also comes in two larger sizes: 9" by 9" and 12" by 12"

If you want something with regular pieces and a large board, then this set will interest you instead.

What about something made of wood, which looks nice and comes in a nice gift box? The Amerous 15 Inches Magnetic Wooden Chess Set may be what you're looking for.

There's a similiar set to the one above which I personally like a little less, but it does come with magnetic checker pieces as well making it a 2-in-1! =

What about something... less square? This 6" chess set or 9" version is both fancy looking and portable.

Does the nerd want a chess clock with a physical button that you smack down? Maybe look at the DGT Easy Timer (also available in red).

What about one with a touch sensor you just need to silently tap? The ZMart Fun II looks sturdy fit for the job!

The above two clocks both have one thing in common: they require batteries. If the nerd wants something a bit old school and interesting, they may be interested in this wind up mechanical chess clock. The big downside is this clock does not support increment which may or may not be important to the nerd.

Does the nerd just want a fancy box to hold their pices? The Macassar Ebony chess box can hold both player's pieces.

What about something a bit different? This is a chess set that looks more like a shelf and hangs on your wall! Check it out here.

All of these look a bit small? Want something you can play outside while hanging out with some friends? This huge chess set (featuring 25" kings!) may be right up your alley!

3 player chess! This isn't a really competetive way to play chess, but it is quite fun.

4 player chess! Like 3 player chess, but... with 4 players. 'nough said.

If you can't make up your mind about what the nerd might want, you can always go for a gift card. I would generally recommend taking a small risk instead, but if you really have no idea what they want at all, this can work. The House of Staunton is chock full of chess sets and accessories and sells gift cards here.