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.

This morning I had to put my sweet cat, Chelsea, to rest. At only four years old, she came down with a neurological condition that didn’t bring her much joy day to day. It was hard to say goodbye, but I know she is at peace now.

If you’ve been reading the blog for awhile now, you’ve seen Chelsea’s name appear in a few odd posts, mostly funny quips about her being a lazy intern. And although her missteps across my keyboard never resulted in a post, she was my trusty sidekick, always overlooking my work from atop the printer under my warm desk lamp.

Chelsea was superbly sweet, I’ll miss her cuddled at my side every night. I’ll miss her jumping up on the couch and meowing to startle visitors who weren’t expecting her; she loved doing that. And I’ll miss her looks while I work which seemed to say “Really, are we just going to sit in front of the computer tonight?”

When I think of Chelsea, I remember a line from one of my favorite songs: “Those kind of cars don’t pass u every day”. I’ll miss you, sweetheart.

Sarah B.

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