I had an afternoon meeting in St. Louis today, so it was the perfect time to carve out a little time to swing by the World Chess Hall of Fame. Did you even know that it is located in St. Louis? Yep, and it is pretty cool I highly recommend checking it out.
Here are 10+ things about my visit.
- The Hall of Fame is in the Central West End neighborhood, feet away from cool bars, restaurants, and a chess club.
- In front of the building is the largest chess piece in the world (as confirmed by Guinness).
- There is also a pretty cool, giant chess set.
- The building is not super accessible, so I could not really get my wheelchair inside. I walked around as much as I could, and took many sitting breaks.
- It seems like the whole thing is primarily funded by Rex Sinquefield, a major chess buff.
- My dad taught me chess when I was a young boy, and stopped playing with me when I could beat him, around 12.
- There is actually a world women's league for chess. I woud have thought the two leagues would have merged by now.
- There were two temporary exhibits, lots and lots of chess boards. One was actually owned and used by Catherine the Great (a great chess player), made of amber and ebony. So beautiful.
- They had a wall display of pop culture pieces, including the Peanuts and the Flintstone characters.
- A board was set up, to be played, with characters from the Super Mario Brothers video game.
- My friend Greg Wolff and I like to play chess. We are definitely due for a game.
- I really feel like they should have a human board, available for play at any time. Surely Mr. Sinquefield could come up with the money for that.
- My personal board is hand carved, from Mexico, and it used to belong to my dad. It is one of the last things I have of his.
- This visit was my introduction to the idea of chess boards as art. Definitely glad to have this particular horizon expanded.
 |
| Catherine the Great's Board |
 |
| Super Mario Chess Board |
 |
| Pop Culture Pieces |
No comments:
Post a Comment