The Museum of Chess Glory of Michael Tal

The Chess Glory Museum, or Chess Museum, is located in the capital of Kalmykia, Elista, in the City Chess Palace of Chess. The initiator and sponsor of the museum was the First President of the Republic of Kalmykia and the 6th President of the FIDE International Chess Federation Mr. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

The museum was opened in September 2001 and is still the only and unique chess museum in the world.

The exposition is based on private collection and gifts to Mr. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the city of Elista from friends from various chess tournaments, as well as awards and personal belongings of world chess champion Mikhail Tal, which, after his death, Mr. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov bought and presented to the Museum of Chess. After reconstruction in 2011, the museum received the name of this chess champion Mikhail Tal. In two sections of the Chess Museum, exhibits from various chess tournaments and items related to the personality of an outstanding chess player are presented - awards, photographs, souvenirs, personal items. Among the exhibits on display is a golden statuette of the First International Chess Championship 2006 “Man versus Machine”, where the human mind first competed with an electronic computer. Chess lovers enthusiastically consider the cups of international tournaments in Las Palmas (1975), in Termas de Rio Hondo (Argentina, 1987), where M. Tal became the winner of the chess award.

The 33rd World Chess Olympiad was held in City Chess, with which the history of this unique museum began, as well as the match between grandmasters Mr. Kramnik and Mr. Topalov, which also took place in Elista.

A separate part of the exposition causes a real delight of visitors - this is a large collection of unique chess made of various materials: metal, bone, porcelain, marble, wood, glass, made in the form of soldiers of the Petrine army, figures of famous political figures, in the form of mythological animals. In total, the museum has a collection of almost four thousand unique exhibits.

In addition to museum halls, the museum has gaming chess halls with a capacity of up to one and a half thousand people, and in the whole City Chess their number can grow to 5 thousand.

The museum is unique and is very popular among by city guests.