Murder on the Chess Board — Tony Nash

One of Tony Dyce's friends is abducted and viciously maimed by a gang of international crooks, in the first move by them to obtain the second half of an antique Chinese chess set, which, when complete, gives the location of one of the hoards of Nazi gold. After years spent trying to decipher the clues from their half set, without success, the pieces have for maximum security been spread around among the ex-SAS soldiers. Their peaceful civilian lives are destroyed, and those lives are at stake, along with the chess pieces, as the crooks go to extreme lengths to achieve their aim.