An unusual Soviet chess set with unusual rooks, probably made in the 1920's or 1930's. The pieces are made of wood and are moderately weighted. King height is 9.85 cm or 3.85". The white side is covered with the usual reddish-brown varnish often seen in Soviet sets. The black side is covered with a black lacquer. The kings with a very pronounced crown and hat in green colour with a red finial, the queens of almost equal height but with a red ball inside the crown with a red disc and a small ball finial on top (the black queen with some damage, unfortunately). The rooks are extremely unusual in that they are shown as cannons mounted on a circular pedestal. The knights as carved horses' heads of typical Russian or early Soviet shape. The bishops with a long cone shaped corpus and a green coloured pointed finial. The pawns also with a smaller cone shaped corpus and a coloured drop finial (in red for the white side and in brown for the black side).

The position shown in the last picture is from Alexander Alekhine vs. Alexey Sergeevich Selezny at the Breyer Memorial Tournament held in Bad Pistyan in 1922. White to move and win.