Chess matryoshkas

I was always attracted by the matryoshkas, those Russian nesting dolls. I've never been to Russia myself (yet), but I remember seeing quite a few of them at shops in Prague's Stare Mesto (Old City).

Today I came accross a few chess matryoshkas in Weburbanist, the post is called "gaming matryoshkas" and it is worth having a look to the non-chess-related ones.

Regarding our game we have 3 sets here and in each of them one minor piece is missing (the bishop in the first one, the knight in the other two). It looks as if the set is decorative. We would need a big matryoshka to make the 16 chessmen each side needs to play a game, and also there would be problems as each pawn should be smaller than the previous one.... also, the colour is ambiguous.

The fact that the Knight or the Bishop are always bigger than the Rook draws my attention, as if inconsciouslly I assumed the hierarchy of points must be respected.

"Chess" shop in Ginza, Tokyo (Japan 2007)

For this one I need looser standards as it can be argued that this is not a chess image at all. Many Japanese productions (literary works, cinema, tv) revolve around their vernacular games (shogi, go) or just use them as one more element within a bigger plot. It is not uncommon for the translators or adaptors of those work to use the word "chess", to help Western audicences understanding.This is more appropiate in the case of shogi that in the case of go, as shogi belongs -as chess does- to the chaturanga family of games.

This is a game shop in Ginza, a shopping area of Tokyo. A place in which you will feel like an ant, like many times in Tokyo. It is a wonderful occasion to link the videos of the famous Shibuya crossing.