If chess is 'the supreme board game', then it deserves to be played on boards like these

With his Gaelic name and love of board games, 6ft 3in, russet-bearded furniture-maker Eion Gibbs bears more than a passing resemblance to his medieval predecessors, those Norse-Gaels who whiled away the dark northern evenings playing chess and backgammon in their chilly longhouses and castle halls.

Based in the Highlands, where he was brought up and now works in a converted cow byre, Eion makes furniture and fittings for private houses, whisky companies, pubs and clubs, but his speciality is beautifully crafted board games.

His trademark pieces are of Scottish elm inlaid with dark and pale walnut and sycamore, backgammon points recessed into the slab, chequerboards laid flush within a border of oak from the surrounding woodlands. Contrasting with these geometrical veneers, the gnarled cr