This remarkable chess set was designed by a guy called Dave Pickett and is actually made out of skeleton keys.
They’re all brass – one set is sandblasted, while the other has a liver sulphur patina.
I’ve been a huge chess fan since I was first taught it by my next-door neighbour Martin, when I was just three!
For many years, I travelled around London at weekends playing chess tournaments to a very high standard.
I was lucky enough to be coached by an international master called Nigel Povah and for a while, I lived and breathed chess, with all its endless variations of the Ruy Lopez and the Sicilian.
Needless to say, the call of a social life meant that my obsession with the game faded away as I got older.
Of course, it could just be that I heard George Bernard Shaw’s famous quote about chess and saw the light: “Chess is a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever, when they are only wasting their time.â€
I do still love the game, though, and once I no longer have children rampaging around the house, I would love to have on display a hand-carved set I bought in Russia.
