Case of the missing chess pieces

Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010

CHESS APPEAL: Puke Ariki exhibition technician Danny Blattler says the library's outdoor chess set just needs its black Bishop and white Knight to find their way home to be complete once more. Photo: ANDY JACKSON/ Taranaki Daily News

Hello Everyone,

This is a tale you are going to remember for a long time. We bet! Why did the Bishop and Knight walk away? Did they elope? Or are just on a vacation to an island? Or someone simply kidnapped them?

No one knows what has happened to the black Bishop and the white Knight of Puke Ariki's much-loved, long-absent outdoor chess set in Wellington, New Zealand. The set remained outside the library for well over two years. One day the staff forgot to bring the set inside in the evening and the set was stolen.

The police helped find 14 pieces. Five were found later and more followed. Somehow an extra pawn turned up too but the white Knight and black Bishop are still missing.

"They are possibly in Fiji by now," said Puke Ariki exhibition technician Danny Blattler, the man now responsible for the chess set's welfare. "If it were me I might have been spending some time in Samoa."

Puke Ariki marketing co-ordinator Tae Allison said people asked daily about the pieces and the library very much wanted them returned so they could bring chess back into the city.

You can read more about the case here.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's

www.chessblog.com

Also see her personal blog at

www.chessqueen.com