Chess City (also referred to as City-Chess; Russian: Сити-ЧессSiti-Chess or Город ШахматGorod Shakhmat) is a large complex devoted to chess and chess competitions located east of Elista, Kalmykia, in Russia. The neighborhood-size development consists of a central, four-story domed City Chess Hall surrounded by an Olympic-style village of Californian-Mediterranean Revival Style architecture. The site has a conference center, public swimming pool and a museum of Kalmyk Buddhist art. The complex features sculptures and artwork devoted to chess, including a statue of Ostap Bender, a fictional character of popular books written by Ilya Ilf and Yevgeni Petrov, who proposed the creation of a world chess capital. The complex has been used to host visiting dignitaries like the Dalai Lama.
Completed in 1998, the idea and development of Chess City is directly the result of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Kalmykia's millionaire President who has ruled the republic since 1993 and was president of FIDE, the international governing body of chess, from 1995 until his ousting in 2018. A fanatical chess enthusiast,[1] Ilyumzhinov had the complex built in time for the 33rd Chess Olympiad.
Chess City has hosted three major FIDE tournaments: the XXXIII Chess Olympiad in 1998, the 2004 Women's World Chess Championship, and the 2006 World Chess Championship.
Future plans for Chess City include a water sport complex, skiing center, government buildings, business centers, opera and ballet theaters, museums, a conservatory, an art school, religious academies, a center of traditional medicine, and residences for any ambassadors who may be accredited to Kalmykia.
^The Dictator and His Hobby: Kalmykian Leader Makes Farce of Chess Championships - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News
ChessCity (also referred to as City-Chess; Russian: Сити-Чесс Siti-Chess or Город Шахмат Gorod Shakhmat) is a large complex devoted to chess and chess...
Chess is a board game for two players. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to distinguish it from related games such as xiangqi...
The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Ding Liren, who defeated his opponent Ian...
as GothamChess, is an American chess International Master, content creator, commentator, and author. Often referred to as "The Internet's Chess Teacher"...
Chess boxing, or chessboxing, is a hybrid sport that combines two traditional disciplines: chess and boxing. Two combatants play alternating rounds of...
a list of unorthodox chess pieces, see Fairy chess piece; for a list of terms specific to chess problems, see Glossary of chess problems; for a list of...
The history of chess can be traced back nearly 1,500 years to its earliest known predecessor, called chaturanga, in India; its prehistory is the subject...
The Leningrad CityChess Championship is a chess tournament held officially in the city of Leningrad, Russia starting from 1920. The city was called Petrograd...
as the Automaton Chess Player (German: Schachtürke, lit. 'chess Turk'; Hungarian: A Török), or simply The Turk, was a fraudulent chess-playing machine...
Computer chess includes both hardware (dedicated computers) and software capable of playing chess. Computer chess provides opportunities for players to...
American chess grandmaster, streamer, YouTuber, five-time U.S. Chess Champion, and the reigning World Fischer Random Chess Champion. A chess prodigy,...
with bids for the Women's World Cup 2022 and Chess World Cup 2023 was opened in November 2019. Each city interested to host the event had to submit their...
This is a list of the winners of the Moscow CityChess Championship from 1899 to date. From 1921 to 1924 Nikolai Grigoriev voluntarily defended his title...
Leonard Samuel Chess (born Lejzor Szmuel Czyż; March 12, 1917 – October 16, 1969), best known simply as Leonard Chess, was a Polish-American record company...
The world records in chess listed here are achieved in organized tournament, match, or simultaneous exhibition play. This article uses algebraic notation...
Chess Records was an American record company established in 1950 in Chicago, specializing in blues and rhythm and blues. It was the successor to Aristocrat...
China is a major chess power, with the women's team winning silver medals at the Olympiad in 2010, 2012, and 2014; the men's team winning gold at the...
The Berlin Chess Championship is an annual chess tournament in Germany. The first unofficial Berlin Chess Championship was held in 1853, and Jean Dufresne...
11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster, a former five-time World Chess Champion and a record two-time Chess World Cup Champion. He became the...
Milwaukee and a chess master. By the 1930s he was the strongest chess player in Milwaukee, at the time one of the nation's leading chesscities. He won the...
1884) was an American chess player. During his brief career in the late 1850s Morphy was acknowledged as the world's greatest chess master. A prodigy, Morphy...
The 44th Chess Olympiad was an international team chess event organised by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in Chennai, India, from 28 July to...
The first Paris CityChess Championship was held in 1925. Since 1989 the title of Paris Champion has been awarded to the highest-placed French player licensed...
The following people have all been grandmasters (GM) of chess. The title is awarded to players who have met the standards required by the sport's governing...