World Chess Hall of Fame

World Chess Hall of Fame

Street view
Location within St. Louis
Former name	U.S. Chess Hall of Fame World Chess Hall of Fame and Sidney Samole Museum
Established	1984 (1984)
Location	Central West End, St. Louis Missouri
Coordinates	38°38′39″N 90°15′40″W / 38.644301°N 90.261153°W / 38.644301; -90.261153
Type	Hall of Fame Art museum
Public transit access	MetroBus
Website	worldchesshof.org

The World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) is a nonprofit collecting institution in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1984, it features chess exhibits, engages in educational outreach, and maintains a list of inductees to the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame and World Chess Hall of Fame.

Formerly located in New Windsor, New York; Washington, D.C.; and Miami, Florida, it moved to St. Louis on September 9, 2011.^[1] It is run by the United States Chess Trust.

The World Chess Hall of Fame is located across the street from the Saint Louis Chess Club, with which it collaborates on programming, instruction, and outreach.

The museum's permanent collection and temporary exhibitions highlight the great players, historic games, and cultural history of chess. Rotating exhibitions feature items from the permanent collection, including a 500-year-old^{[citation needed]} piece from an Egyptian game called senet, the earliest known board game; a custom-made set of chess furniture that belonged to Bobby Fischer; and the first commercial chess computer. The museum also displays two temporary exhibitions per year.

Steven Doyle, president of the United States Chess Federation from 1984 to 1987,^[2] founded the World Chess Hall of Fame in 1986 as the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame.

It opened in 1988 in the basement of the Federation's then-headquarters in New Windsor, New York.^[1] The museum's small collection included a book of chess openings signed by Bobby Fischer;^[3] a silver set awarded to Paul Morphy, American chess player and unofficial World Champion; and cardboard plaques honoring past grandmasters.

In 1992, the U.S. Chess Trust purchased the museum and moved its contents to Washington, D.C., where it featured America's "big four" chess players: Paul Morphy, Bobby Fischer, Frank Marshall, and Samuel Reshevsky.^[4] It displayed the World Chess Championship trophy won by the United States team in 1993 as well as numerous chess boards and chess pieces. The museum gave visitors the opportunity to play against a chess computer. By 2001, the collection had grown to include numerous chess sets and boards and plaques commemorating inductees to the U.S. and World halls of fame.^[4]

In the late 1990s, Sidney Samole, former owner of Excalibur Electronics, proposed to move the hall of fame to Miami, where it would be located in a rook-shaped building constructed by Excalibur. Although Samole died in 2000, the U.S. Chess Trust accepted the proposal the following year.^[1] Reopened in 2001, it was renamed the World Chess Hall of Fame and Sidney Samole Museum.^[1][5] The museum continued collecting chess sets, books, tournament memorabilia, advertisements, photographs, furniture, medals, trophies, and journals until it closed in 2009.

Soon afterward, billionaire Rex Sinquefield agreed to pay to move the museum to St. Louis and renovate its new building.^[1]

There are 73 members in the U.S. Hall of Fame, including Bobby Fischer, Benjamin Franklin, and Paul Morphy.

There are 43 members in the World Hall of Fame, including José Raúl Capablanca, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov, and Boris Spassky. The winner of the first Women's World Chess Championship, Vera Menchik, was the first woman to be inducted into the WCHOF in 2011.^[6]

The U.S. Chess Federation Recognitions Committee considers candidates for the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame and sends its nominations to the U.S. Chess Trust annually. The trustees of the U.S. Chess Trust vote on who should be inducted. The induction itself takes place at the U.S. Chess Federation Awards Luncheon during the U.S. Open or at the World Chess Hall of Fame itself. The induction is almost always performed by the chairman of the U.S. Chess Trust or the chairman of the Hall of Fame Committee.

2017 members of the committee included John McCrary (chair), Frank Camaratta, John Crumiller, William John Donaldson, John Hilbert, Randy Hough, Alexey Root, Sophia Rohde, Andrew Soltis, Peter Tamburro, and Fred Wilson.^[7]

The World Chess Hall of Fame inductees are nominated by representatives of the World Chess Federation (FIDE).

The World Chess Hall of Fame moved to St. Louis in 2011. Its permanent collection includes historical chess artifacts, as well as art and artifacts on loan from various artists and collectors.

Out of the Box was a contemporary art exhibition displayed from September 9, 2011, to February 12, 2012, and was curated by Bradley Bailey, assistant professor of modern and contemporary art history at Saint Louis University. It featured artworks that consider chess both at the formal level and at the level of actual play. The artists featured in this exhibition were Tom Friedman, Barbara Kruger, Liliya Lifanova, Yoko Ono, Gavin Turk, Diana Thater, and Guido van der Werve.^[9] On the exhibit's opening night, Dutch contemporary artist Guido van der Werve performed on a chess piano that he built. The piano sounded a note as each chess piece was played, while nine string musicians from the Saint Louis Symphony played van der Werve's score. On closing night, the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis hosted an event featuring Liliya Lifanova's performance art piece Anatomy is Destiny, one of the pieces in the exhibition.

On view from September 9, 2011, to February 12, 2012, this show celebrated the Deans' 50th year of collecting; it featured works that illustrated the development of the game of chess and the design of fine chess sets from the tenth to the early twentieth century.^[9] Sets came from Austria, Cambodia, China, England, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Kashmir, Morocco, Persia, Russia, Syria, and Turkey. Among the works displayed were pieces owned or commissioned by Catherine the Great, Napoleon, Czar Nicolas II, and the British royal family.^{[citation needed]}

On view from March 9, 2012, to August 12, 2012, the exhibition showed Marcel Dzama's artistic works, including films, related drawings, paintings, sculptures, and dioramas. Dzama's references and artistic influences include Dada and Marcel Duchamp. His film features characters based on chess. Dressed in geometrically designed costumes of papier-mâché, plaster, and fiberglass and wearing elaborate masks (including a quadruple-faced mask for the King), the figures dance across a checkered board to challenge their opponents in fatal interchanges.^[16]

On view from March 9, 2012, to October 7, 2012, this show featured photographs by Harry Benson, the only person to have private access to Bobby Fischer during the entire 1972 World Chess Championship match in Reykjavík, Iceland. Benson, who captured intimate images of Fischer, and delivered the news to the grandmaster that he had won the match.^[17]

On view from September 13, 2012, to February 10, 2013, this chess-inspired, site-specific wall drawing was executed by nine St. Louis artists known as The Screwed Arts Collective.^[18]

On view from October 18, 2012, to April 14, 2013, this show explored how chess is represented in contemporary culture: magazine advertisements, rock music and movie posters, and other forms.^[19]

On view from October 18, 2012, to April 21, 2013, this show explored how chess has influenced American presidents since George Washington.^[20]

On view from March 7, 2013, to August 25, 2013, this show featured the work of Bill Smith, which explores how rules guide the creation of our world's structure and behavior. Smith used videos and constructions to show the underlying similarities of chess, nature, life, and all things—the ubiquitous patterns and interactions common to music, games, technology, animals, molecules, and the galaxy.^[21]

On view from May 3, 2013, to September 15, 2013, this event showed more than 80 antique chess sets and other artifacts.^[22]

On view from October 19, 2013, to April 19, 2014, this show curated by Sofia Hedman and Serge Martynov explored the archetypes of a queen in fashion and storytelling.^[23]

On view from October 25, 2013, to July 13, 2014, this show featured Jacqueline Piatigorsky, one of the best female chess players of the 1950s and 1960s, and a noted patron of the game.^[10]

On view from May 8, 2014, to September 21, 2014, this exhibition curated by Larry List included live performances of the work of 20th-century composer John Cage and contemporary multimedia artist, Glenn Kaino.^[10]

On view from May 8, 2014, to September 28, 2014, this exhibition curated by Bradley Bailey focuses on the games designed by the Michael Graves Design Group.^[10]

On view from July 24, 2014, to June 7, 2015, this exhibition explored the career of Fischer, considered one of the greatest American chess players of all time.^[24]

• World Chess Hall of Fame official website
• World Chess Hall of Fame, Saint Louis, Missouri in Google Cultural Institute