Cyril Endfield's early friendship with Man Ray linked him to both chess and Modernist aesthetics. He created this design in 1972. The president of the International Chess Federation and former world chess champion May Euwe chose the Endfield chess design as the Federation's commemorative chess set for the legendary World Chess Championship Match between American Bobby Fischer and Russian Boris Spasski. This new chess set edition with folding board commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Fischer - Spasski Match.
Cyril Endfield majored in Drama at Yale while also studying mathematics, mechanical drawing and silversmithing. He occasionally worked as a professional sleight-of-hand magician. Endfield assisted Orson Wells on Mercury Theater projects and then directed film noir classics. Blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1951, Endfield lived and worked in the UK for the rest of his life. He directed cult-classic films as Zulu, starring Michael Caine.
