You just never know what’s lurking behind some homes in the Richmond District… The Examiner ran an article recently on outer Richmond resident and artist, Nomi Klein, who has turned her backyard into a giant chess set.

You’ll need your brain and your brawn to play with this chess set. The board, made with paving tiles, measures 16 feet square and the chess pieces are as tall as 43 inches and weigh 12 pounds. That could lead to some dramatic check-mating!

A photo showing Klein’s giant chess pieces. Inset photo of her Richmond garden, courtesy of the Examiner.

According to the Examiner article, Klein said she first thought of creating a massive chess set when she was a child visiting Salzburg, Austria, where she saw people playing the game outdoors.

Her art and design career took her from Israel to New York, Mexico and San Diego. She studied machine design and did mechanical drawing during military service, as well as studying art.

She created her first giant chess set while she was in Mexico. Some 10 years after she started, her chess pieces — which are all made by hand — are in hotels and private gardens around the U.S. and abroad. A set of her giant pieces sells for $15,500 on chessusa.com.

Read the full article at SFExaminer.com.

Sarah B.