An article that will describe the most famous and concurrently the largest chess museums in the world. Below you can read about the chess museums of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Elista, St. Louis, Ankara and Swiss Lucerne. Reviews and addresses of museums will be provided.
This is not just a game.
Chess is both a sport, a science, and an art. World Chess Day is celebrated on July 20. Tribute to this great and very age-specific game has been given in many places around the world and the largest of them will be described below.
Chess Museum in Moscow
Since its opening, the Moscow Museum has become known for its unique atmosphere and unique chess accessories. The basis of the exhibits at the Chess Museum on Gogolevsky Boulevard was posthumously invested by Vyacheslav Dombrovsky. During his lifetime, he collected absolutely everything related to chess in one way or another, from photographs of famous chess players to chess pieces of all colors of the rainbow. In addition to what Vyacheslav Dombrovsky collected during his lifetime, awards won by the Russian chess team regularly fall into this “temple”. Nevertheless, the most interesting are the old exhibits: chess pieces of ancient tribes, a set of wire prisoners from the Gulag. The Chess Museum in Moscow is open in an old building, which is now a cultural monument.
Here you can find marble sets, porcelain, made of stone, of wood of various unusual species, of elephant bones and even bread. Of particular importance for the chess museum on Gogolevsky are African kits of the 17th century, Italian sets of the 18th century. There are samples belonging to famous persons. There are chess sets by Pushkin, Mendeleev and even Peter I. The pieces were made with special scrupulousness and accuracy, and sometimes you might think that it is possible to feel the spirit of the era through them. The museum was opened in 1980 with the help of the Chess Federation and is located at: Gogolevsky Boulevard, 14, Moscow, Russia, 119019, the nearest metro station is Kropotkinskaya.
Chess and Porcelain Museum in St. Petersburg
The museum composition contains over one hundred and fifty sets, including busts of celebrities, empresses, as well as chess in the form of half-naked ladies. The Museum of Chess and Porcelain in St. Petersburg is staffed by exhibits by German Alexandrov, who is an expert on chess culture and a lover of beautiful porcelain figures. Most of the kits were made in the last century, but there are samples of the eighteenth century. The museum has more than a thousand copies. The halls illustrate porcelain chess. The Chess Museum in St. Petersburg is the chess pearl of Russia. German Alexandrov, like many others, believes that chess is an art, not just a game.
The Chess Museum in St. Petersburg contains individual thematic chess sets placed on various display cases. In one of them are soldier figures - the heroes of the battle of Borodino, right there Napoleon and Josephine, the second reflects the era of the end of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, and it contains figures of participants in the battles of those times. Immediately presented Battle of the Ice and Russian heroes. Sculpture painters turned everything into a flight of their imagination: animals and historical heroes are here. Thimble chess, revolutionary figures and Kama Sutra chess. There is a separate place representing chess in the form of cartoons for politicians, figures of which were made in 2000 in Holland. Putin with a crown, in the costume of a judoka, standing in front of Bush.
The Chess Museum is open 5 days a week, except Sunday and Monday, from eleven to half past six in the evening. Address: Aptekarskaya Embankment, Building 6, St. Petersburg, Russia, 197022, entrance from Instrumentalnaya Street. The museum bribes, in every sense, its visitors with ticket prices: for students a discount of half the price is provided, a visit will cost 50 rubles, and for schoolchildren and senior citizens the price is 20 rubles at all.
Chess Museum in Elista named after Mikhail Tal
Reviews about this place can be found contradictory, but it is unlikely that a true chess connoisseur will be able to unflatteringly respond to it. This chess museum is one of the most spacious in the world and can accommodate more than two thousand players at a time. It is divided into two parts: in one you can see medals and photographs of Mikhail Nekhemievich, and in the other the merits of other athletes.
The museum was built for the 1998 World Chess Olympiad. In the chess temple there are many copies, according to which you can trace every stage at which the development of chess as a sport and culture took place.
A large section of the museum is separated by cartoons of famous players. In total, the number of museum items includes more than three and a half thousand units. Things related in one way or another to Mikhail Tal are represented in the amount of three thousand. In the halls you can seat about one and a half thousand players, and in the whole City Chess about five thousand. Museum address: Russia, Republic of Kalmykia, Elista, City Chess.
Chess Museum in Ankara
To visit this magical place, it is not necessary to be Garry Kasparov.
These words belong to businessman, collector and great chess fan Akyn Gekay. In 2013, with the help of local authorities, he created and opened a local chess museum, which became a tourist attraction. In the museum as in the temple there is no place for hectic. Around the countless chess sets. Peacekeeping and peace surround you.
On the boards you can see politicians and multi-heroes, cultural works and echoes of the fighting of history. The cost of exhibits today ranges from 150 to 10, 000 dollars. In 2012, the Akyn collection was included in the Guinness Book of Records. At that time, the collection totaled 416 chess sets, and today in the museum you can count 560 units.
Akyn Gekyay collected his collection around the world. He has visited 103 countries of the world, out of 93 of them he brought home a new part of his amazing collection. He regrets that he could not bring the board from every place he visited. Sometimes they were so large that they did not fit in luggage, and sometimes he had to wrap them with toilet paper and carry with him. He recalled with emotion how he bought the first set in Milan in 1975, not knowing how far his passion for chess would go.
Today you can visit this temple of chess by paying 10 lira for a ticket, while a children's ticket will cost half as much. The museum is located at: Sakarya Mahallesi, Hamamarkası Basamaklı Sok. No: 3, 06230 Altındağ / Ankara, Turkey.
The place leaves an amazing impression. Some even consider it underestimated. Here, through chess, you can get to know casual cultures of different nations and enjoy a cup of coffee with carrot and cinnamon cake. Even people who have, to put it mildly, a vague idea of chess, spoke of this museum only positively.
Chess Museum in Lucerne
Lucerne is a small town near Zurich, which is known for its amazing panoramas and the famous ski resort. If you can visit it, you can enjoy not only its famous architectural monuments, but also visit the chess museum, founded by the brothers Ronald and Werner Rupp. The main attraction of this place is the unusual chess boards and pieces. After the Chess Olympiad in 1982, Werner and Ronald decided to perpetuate chess in Lucerne. The museum is located at Industriestrasse 10, Criens, Lucerne 6010, Switzerland.
Having visited this temple of chess art, tourists take away exclusively positive emotions. First of all, everyone speaks warmly of unusual chess sets, of a sincere, cozy and calm atmosphere. In addition, the chess museum is far from most other architectural objects and therefore it is never too crowded there.
Chess Museum in St. Louis
Initially, the museum was opened in New York in 1986, after, in 1992 it was in Washington, and in 2001 in Miami. By the opening of this museum in St. Louis, a tournament was held according to the Schevening system. Between the women's and men's teams, games were played in rapid and fisher chess. All those present were satisfied with the museum.
The exhibition is open in a luxurious three-story building, which is completely filled with chess and themed accessories. Every year, the great chess players of both the USA and other countries are forever immortalized within the walls of the institution.
This chess museum is located at 1 Fine Arts Dr, St. Louis, MO 63110, USA. Its opening took place on September 9, 2011.
