A TABLE WITH SINGAPORE ROOTS

Local company using wood sourced here for piece of world chess c'ship history

- Melvyn Teoh

When reigning world champion Ding Liren and challenger Gukesh Dommaraju square off from Nov 25 for the World Chess Championship at Resorts World Sentosa, it will be a battle of Asia's best – China versus India.

But what local chess fans and spectators might not know is that there will be a Singapore touch to the table that will be used for the main event from Nov 25 to Dec 13.

The best-of-14 series will be played on a bespoke table made by local furniture company Roger&Sons with locally sourced wood. An electronic chessboard, provided by the International Chess Federation, will be fitted onto it.

Roger&Sons was approached by the Singapore Chess Federation (SCF) two months before the event.

Ryan Yeo, 29, operations director of Roger&Sons, said: "They first approached us to see whether we can commission a table for the game.

"Then over a few months of planning, once we got the design locked down, that's when we started fabrication.