Chess

• The pinThe board stands on the pin's flat head; you can see the shaft below it.
• The squaresThe grid of 64 light and dark squares is edged by a light frame.
• The shapes of the piecesThe king, the rooks, the bishops and the pawns are easy to tell apart.
• The positionNot all 32 pieces are on the board: you are looking at the middle of a game, and some pieces have already been captured.

• BaseThe head of a pin
• BoardAbout 2 × 2 mm, 64 squares
• MaterialGold; the dark squares and pieces are made of a dark metal
• 1973Year created

He turned each piece from gold one by one on a tiny lathe of his own making. He did not paint the 64 squares: he cut them out individually and fitted them together into a regular grid.

Capablanca never finished the last, adjourned 34th game. On 29 November 1927 he resigned in a letter written in French: “I give up the game. So you are the World Champion and I congratulate you on your success.” The letter can still be seen in the FIDE online museum.