GG Smirnov

Mikhail Smirnov shaped fine chess sets on a lathe for half a century, each figure from a single block, in a trade where the material decides the pace. The same workshop also produces Smirnov Boards, his affordable entry-level wooden backgammon board, made with much the same discipline and very little interest in haste.

He plays a long match at one speed. He also announces his move before making it, every time, plainly and without commentary, which newer opponents take for courtesy and older ones recognise as something else: he has already found the reply and would like to see whether you do. Very occasionally somebody finds a better one. He thanks them, sincerely, and writes it down.

The cube is the exception. He says nothing before turning it, and after fifty years of announcing everything else the silence lands like a change in the weather.