Do you ever feel like playing chess, but then realise the pieces are too big and the board is huge?

Are you disappointed that you don’t need a microscope to play?

Turkish micro-sculptor Necati Korkmaz has solved this problem.

Working six hours a day for more than six months, he has sculpted a chessboard he says is two times smaller than the current world record holder.

Mr Korkmaz has not yet applied to register his petite chess set with Guinness World Records, but he’s sure he has unofficially broken the record.

The chessboard Mr Korkmaz made is 9mm by 9mm and the pieces are between 1.5mm and 3mm.

The current record for the world’s smallest hand-made chess set is held by Ara Ghazaryan, with a chessboard measuring 15.3mm by 15.3mm.

“It is almost two times bigger than ours,” Mr Korkmaz told Anadolu Agency.

“We want to beat this record and bring it to Turkey.”

He says the chess set, which is about the size of a thumbnail, is perfectly usable but you need a microscope and special sticks to play.  

I prepared a really useable micro chess set.”

The Turkish micro-sculptor has completed more than 40 other works that can only be seen via a magnifying glass or a microscope.

Among his artworks is a 2mm-doctor sculpture on a syringe needle to raise awareness for front-line medical workers fighting COVID-19.