Marco Bianchi spent twenty years running an elegant private club in the centre of Milan, with three national titles on the mantelpiece, all of them his. When he sold the club to give his time to the game, he did not go far. Not long after, he put his name behind Bianchi Milano, a house of tournament boards built for exactly the kind of rooms he had spent his life in: major events, serious match rooms and long evenings where the board is in use from the first game to the last.
Made for the tournament room
A tournament board has a different job from a collector's board. It has to look right under bright lights, stay calm on the eye through a twelve-hour day, travel from one event to the next and come out of the case ready to play. Bianchi knows this from the other side of the table, and every Bianchi Milano board is made with that in mind.
Pellano and Lanetto
The Pellano line is the house signature. The case is leather and the playing field is leather too, with points cut from contrasting leather and stitched into place by hand. The stitching is not decoration; it keeps the points flat and true through years of play. The colourways range from the dark and formal, such as Black Rock and Maroon, to the warmer Brown Sugar, Orange Geranium, Forest Berry and Iris Honey. Each is meant to look at home in a ballroom set out for a championship. A second line, Lanetto, is on its way: a wool-felt field for the rooms that prefer the quieter roll of the dice on felt.
Wherever serious matches are played
You will find Bianchi Milano boards wherever serious matches are played, and Bianchi himself is usually not far behind them. He no longer owns the club, but his name still turns up on the tables, and he still turns up at the events. He writes a strategy column that quotes opera more often than equity and is somehow usually right.
After the match
For Bianchi the match is only the shorter half of the evening. What he really wants is the two hours afterwards: the grappa, the conversation and a complete account of every blunder, preferably yours. He will not remember your name next season. He will remember exactly what you played in the fourth game, and what you said when he asked you about it.
