Something to keep you warm during cold winter nights, or cool during hot summer days: a chessboard in MySQL!

Note: You should see chess pieces here below. If not, you’re not watching it using UTF-8, or get yourself a good browser!

CREATE TABLE `chessboard` (
  `x` tinyint unsigned NOT NULL,
  `a` enum('','♔','♕','♖','♗','♘','♙','♚','♛','♜','♝','♞','♟'),
  `b` enum('','♔','♕','♖','♗','♘','♙','♚','♛','♜','♝','♞','♟'),
  `c` enum('','♔','♕','♖','♗','♘','♙','♚','♛','♜','♝','♞','♟'),
  `d` enum('','♔','♕','♖','♗','♘','♙','♚','♛','♜','♝','♞','♟'),
  `e` enum('','♔','♕','♖','♗','♘','♙','♚','♛','♜','♝','♞','♟'),
  `f` enum('','♔','♕','♖','♗','♘','♙','♚','♛','♜','♝','♞','♟'),
  `g` enum('','♔','♕','♖','♗','♘','♙','♚','♛','♜','♝','♞','♟'),
  `h` enum('','♔','♕','♖','♗','♘','♙','♚','♛','♜','♝','♞','♟')
) DEFAULT CHARSET=utf8;

Populating it with Python using MySQL Connector/Python (only piece of script shown):

def create_board(db):
    c = db.cursor()
    table = """CREATE TABLE chessboard (
        x tinyint unsigned not null,
        a ENUM('','\u2654','\u2655','\u2656','\u2657','\u2658','\u2659',
            '\u265A','\u265B','\u265C','\u265D','\u265E','\u265F'),
        b ENUM('','\u2654','\u2655','\u2656','\u2657','\u2658','\u2659',
            '\u265A','\u265B','\u265C','\u265D','\u265E','\u265F'),
        c ENUM('','\u2654','\u2655','\u2656','\u2657','\u2658','\u2659',
            '\u265A','\u265B','\u265C','\u265D','\u265E','\u265F'),
        d ENUM('','\u2654','\u2655','\u2656','\u2657','\u2658','\u2659',
            '\u265A','\u265B','\u265C','\u265D','\u265E','\u265F'),
        e ENUM('','\u2654','\u2655','\u2656','\u2657','\u2658','\u2659',
            '\u265A','\u265B','\u265C','\u265D','\u265E','\u265F'),
        f ENUM('','\u2654','\u2655','\u2656','\u2657','\u2658','\u2659',
            '\u265A','\u265B','\u265C','\u265D','\u265E','\u265F'),
        g ENUM('','\u2654','\u2655','\u2656','\u2657','\u2658','\u2659',
            '\u265A','\u265B','\u265C','\u265D','\u265E','\u265F'),
        h ENUM('','\u2654','\u2655','\u2656','\u2657','\u2658','\u2659',
            '\u265A','\u265B','\u265C','\u265D','\u265E','\u265F')
        ) default charset='utf8'"""
    c.execute("DROP TABLE IF EXISTS chessboard")
    c.execute(table)

def set_start_position(db):
    c = db.cursor()
    # Numbers correspondent to the ENUM fields
    wdata = { 'x' : 1,
        'a': 4, 'b': 6, 'c': 5,
        'd': 3, 'e': 2,
        'f': 5, 'g': 6, 'h': 4}
    bdata = { 'x' : 8,
        'a': 10, 'b': 12, 'c': 11,
        'd': 9, 'e': 8,
        'f': 11, 'g': 12, 'h': 10}

    stmt = """UPDATE chessboard SET a=%(a)s,b=%(b)s,c=%(c)s,
        d=%(d)s,e=%(e)s,f=%(f)s,g=%(g)s,h=%(h)s WHERE x = %(x)s"""
    c.executemany(stmt, [wdata,bdata])

    stmt = """UPDATE chessboard SET a=7,b=7,c=7,d=7,e=7,f=7,g=7,h=7
        WHERE x = 2"""
    c.execute(stmt)
    stmt = """UPDATE chessboard SET a=13,b=13,c=13,d=13,e=13,f=13,g=13,h=13
        WHERE x = 7"""
    c.execute(stmt)

Now you can select the chessboard:

mysql> select * from chessboard;
+---+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
| x | a    | b    | c    | d    | e    | f    | g    | h    |
+---+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+
| 8 | ♜    | ♞    | ♝    | ♛    | ♚    | ♝    | ♞    | ♜    |
| 7 | ♟    | ♟    | ♟    | ♟    | ♟    | ♟    | ♟    | ♟    |
| 6 |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |
| 5 |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |
| 4 |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |
| 3 |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |      |
| 2 | ♙    | ♙    | ♙    | ♙    | ♙    | ♙    | ♙    | ♙    |
| 1 | ♖    | ♘    | ♗    | ♕    | ♔    | ♗    | ♘    | ♖    |
+---+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+------+

The possibilities.. oh yeah!