Chess architecture

Historical knowledge and information regarding our great game.
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Christopher Kreuzer
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Chess architecture

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Sun Sep 24, 2017 1:53 am

Putting this query in the 'chess history' forum, as I suspect most examples will be historical (though there will be modern examples as well).

I was wondering how many examples people know of, of what could be called 'Chess Architecture'. It will probably be mostly Soviet or Eastern European, but I think there are other examples around the world (definitely in the USA).

Some examples to start things off:

Tbilisi Chess Palace and Alpine Club

Tigran Petrosian Chess House

I suppose some criteria are needed to focus things a bit. What I am looking for are buildings specifically built for use for chess (or chess and other activities) and that have a distinctive architectural element to them.

Have just remembered Chess City (Elista, Kalmykia, Russia), with its central 'four-story domed City Chess Hall'.

I suppose the Central Chess House in Moscow, Russia, would also qualify, though am unsure if that was a pre-existing building (I suspect it was) that became famous for its association with chess, but the architectural element came before the chess element (you could say the same about the chess clubs in Hastings, Edinburgh and Manhattan!). Am less sure about places like the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, as though it is an amazing chess centre, I get the impression it is housed in a pre-existing building (and diner). Don't know how architecturally significant that building is.

So the criteria is architecturally significant buildings built specifically for use for chess. Another example of this are the chess palaces in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Or maybe only one, the Ugra Chess Academy.

I suppose any of the Pioneer Palaces from the Soviet era would qualify. Apparently there was an exhibition on this earlier this year in June in Berlin: On Architecture, Ideology and Chess. That leads to another example (as well as Georgia and Armenia), there is a chess palace in Belarus.

Not sure if that was or is part of the Minsk Sports Palace, or whether the chess palace in Belarus was something different?

Any more examples?

Ian Thompson
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Re: Chess architecture

Post by Ian Thompson » Sun Sep 24, 2017 3:06 pm

Former home of the World Chess Hall of Fame in Miami:
world-chess-hall-of-fame1.jpg
world-chess-hall-of-fame1.jpg (8.71 KiB) Viewed 1180 times
I don't know if it's still there because the Hall of Fame was moved to St. Louis in 2011.

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JustinHorton
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Re: Chess architecture

Post by JustinHorton » Mon Sep 25, 2017 10:09 am

Very classy
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

lostontime.blogspot.com


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Gerard Killoran
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Re: Chess architecture

Post by Gerard Killoran » Mon Sep 25, 2017 5:39 pm

So they play chess and listen to Boy George at the same time?

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