Chaumont redesigned the black set: he first lathed, then hand carved the wooden works into unique chess pieces to reference those that proliferated from different cultures before the game’s look ...

John Gapper (“Chess faces stalemate in its match with machines”, Opinion, November 27) is right. Chess needs a redesign ... two new pawns each and two new pieces called “troubadours”.

Most are plain on the outside, but each holds a set of 32 chess pieces. There’s everything from “Star Wars” to GI Joe to ancient Chinese pieces of art and a tournament set used by chess icon ...