You’re invited to the opening reception of Charles Houska: Master of Play on Thursday, May 1, 2025, from 5 to 8 p.m. Meet the artist, peruse the immersive two-floor exhibition, and enjoy appetizers and fishbowl cocktails by Brennan’s. Bring your young artists to our Play and Create Space, complete with poster-sized coloring pages of Houska’s work, face painting by Circus Kaput, and open, all-level chess play with a grandmaster! Complimentary admission and valet.

Charles Houska: Master of Play is a retrospective of the artist’s work over his impressive 25+ year career in Saint Louis and beyond, including brand-new chess-themed commissions and an impressive 3-D printed chess set. Showcased inside an incredibly vibrant and immersive environment filled with his iconic floral, animal, and portrait motifs, this exhibition boasts more than 75 of Houska’s artworks. The two-floor show also explores Houska’s community projects and corporate collaborations with St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Herman Miller HQ, Absolut Vodka, and more.

RSVPs are requested. Please email [email protected] for more information or to register.

2025 FEATURED CHESS SET PROJECT

Through the Featured Chess Set Project, the World Chess Hall of Fame showcases a variety of chess sets throughout the year. These include highlights from our own collection as well as chess sets owned by friends and chess lovers who have special stories to accompany their sets.

Exhibit Overview

The World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) opened its doors in Saint Louis, Missouri, in September 2011 and has welcomed over 200,000 visitors. With exhibitions that focus on the historical and cultural significance of the game, the WCHOF seeks to celebrate the wide range of the game, from the incredible players and contributors to the game, and note how chess is intertwined with art, music, design, and pop culture. The exhibitions and related programming are geared towards visitors interested in the game, from experts to those interested in beginning to learn, and most importantly, to children and families. This year, the WCHOF is taking one of their most family-friendly shows out to thousands of chess-playing students who attend US Chess National Scholastic Events.

The World Chess Hall of Fame is proud to announce its first major collaboration with US Chess taking place outside of Saint Louis. A selection of artifacts from the WCHOF’s 2017 exhibition POW! Capturing Superheroes, Chess & Comics including original comic books and superhero-related chess sets as well as an activity book will be available to all visitors and estimated 10,000 participants in the 2024 National K-12 Grade Championships in National Harbor, MD, from December 6 to 8, 2024, and the 2025 SuperNationals VIII from May 9 to 11, 2025, in Orlando, FL.

The Exhibition
From Archie Andrews to the Avengers, from the Mighty Thor to Mickey Mouse, it seems that nearly every character in comics has taken a turn on the chessboard. It might be because chess provides a potent metaphor for the struggle between good and evil—or perhaps it is because 64-square grids and tiny sculpted pieces are so much fun to draw. Whatever their reasons, cartoonists have been offering their own twists on chess ever since the dawn of cartooning.

The ancient game of chess was created in the 6th century and immediately, the pieces became a way to tell stories, especially about battles between good and evil. As the game moved through Asia and then to Europe, the pieces were transformed to reflect current political moods, historical heroes, as well as legendary figures. Similarly, the stories and characters in comics and then later comic books would do the same thing.

A game of war, battle, strategic thinking, and artistic moves, chess lent itself well to the nature of comics and their characters. From 1940 to the present day, chess has graced the cover or stories of comics including the superhero genres, as well as horror, crime, science fiction, teen, and even Walt Disney characters. With hundreds of chess-related comic book covers, stories, and original characters, Pow! Capturing Superheroes, Chess & Comics celebrates another remarkable intersection of chess, art, and popular culture.

Eight chess sets and boards and 12 comic books will be on display with over 100 scanned chess-related comic books digitally available.

Other WCHOF Presence
Q Boutique will take part as a vendor at the tournaments offering related Chess Campus merchandise, copies of all languages of Dr. Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield’s Read and Write Chess (as of August 2024 available in 15 languages), and an exclusive activity book created for this collaboration.

Q Boutique is thrilled to be representing the World Chess Hall of Fame for our inaugural event at the 2024 National K-12 Grade Championships! Get ready for an exciting array of exclusive merchandise, including stylish vinyl chess board sets complete with chic travel bags, along with vibrant pens, pencils, and essential chess notation notebooks. Whether you’re a seasoned strategist or just starting your chess journey, we’ve got everything you need to make your experience unforgettable.

Curated by Nicole Tessmer

Crown Jewels: Donation Highlights showcases 75 stunning chess sets, artworks, memorabilia, and more, gifted from 50 donors to the World Chess Hall of Fame. Benefactors include Chess Collectors International Members Frank Camaratta, Jon Crumiller, Dr. George and Vivian Dean, and the late Bernice and Floyd Sarisohn. See the intricate metalwork on a Hungarian chess set, a bespoke chess set created for the Shah of Iran, and many never-before-exhibited artifacts.

Exhibit Overview

Clash for the Crown: Celebrating Chess Champions explores the histories of the World Chess Championship and Women’s World Chess Championship through a display of artifacts from the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF), the International Chess Federation (FIDE); and loans from world chess champions and private lenders. The exhibition will begin with the 1886 World Chess Championship, held in New York City, Saint Louis, and New Orleans, won by Wilhelm Steinitz, and continue through the present world chess champion, Ding Liren. It will also track the history of the Women’s World Chess Championship from its first winner, the legendary Vera Menchik, to Ju Wenjun, the reigning women’s world chess champion. This exhibition is being held in connection with the 100th anniversary of the founding of FIDE.

Displays in the exhibition will include an area where visitors can view videos of many of the past world champions and women’s world champions and interactive stations where people can learn about past champions. Programming will include lectures about the history of the World Chess Championship, collaborations with FIDE celebrating their golden anniversary, and possible collaborations with current and past champions.

Highlights

• Replica of the 2023 World Chess Championship Trophy won by Ding Liren, lent by FIDE
• Amber chess set once owned by World Chess Champion Mikhail Tal and is now owned by World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen
• Chess set used in game 3 of the 1972 World Chess Championship
• Women’s World Championship medal won by Women’s World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk
• Women’s World Chess Championship trophy won by Women’s World Chess Champion Susan Polgar (also the first woman to be inducted into both the U.S. and World Chess Halls of Fame) and dress and scarf worn by her at the closing ceremony of the competition
• Tablecloth created by Martha Lasker (wife of World Chess Champion Emanuel Lasker) featuring the embroidered signatures of two world chess champions (Emanuel Lasker and Jose Raul Capablanca) as well as Women’s World Chess Champion Vera Menchik
• The medal won by Nona Gaprindashvili in the 1975 Women’s World Chess Championship
• A signed first-day cover from the 1984 Women’s World Chess Championship between Maia Chiburdanidze and Irina Levitina
• Photos by famed photojournalist Harry Benson CBE from the 2018 World Chess Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana and the 1972 World Chess Championship
• Artwork by LeRoy Neiman depicting the 1972 World Chess Championship
• Videos from World Chess Championships
• World Chess Championship medals lent by World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand
• World Chess Championship trophies lent by World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen
• Prototype of the table used in 1978 World Chess Championship created by Cesar Iligan
• Score sheets from numerous World Championships and Women’s World Championships lent by FIDE

Exhibit Overivew

Donna Dodson: Match of the Matriarchs and other Amazonomachies is the first solo exhibition by a female artist hosted by the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF). The show, which centers on women’s stories, women’s lives, and their place in the history of chess, includes Dodson’s monumental, life-sized chess set Match of the Matriarchs, which contains 32-large scale wooden sculptures representing all-female representations of cephalopods battling cetaceans.

The exhibition also showcases eight additional “Amazon” sculptures depicting historical, literary, and mythological female heroes, including figures from Mulan and Black Panther; a minotaur; Tomyris, a queen of Turkey; references to an aunt; Cybele; and Lakshmibai, a queen of India.

Debuting in the exhibition is The Madwoman of Chess or Autonomous was a Woman, commissioned by the World Chess Hall of Fame. She will be part of the museum’s permanent collection. This dynamic and powerful sculpture harkens back to the backlash received when there was a significant change to the rules of chess— the queen transformed from a piece with limited movement to one that combined the powers of the bishop and the rook. Some called this new version of the ancient game “madwoman’s chess.”

Donna Dodson, a Boston-area sculptor, has been carving images out of wood for nearly 20 years. Her sculptures explore feminine beauty and evoke humor, playfulness, grace, power, and emotional strength. Her unique vision responds to the relationships of animals to the human spirit that have existed since ancient times. Her figures are almost always female and range in size from the intimate to the monumental.

The exhibition centers on women’s stories and lives and women’s history in chess.

Supplementing the displays of Dodson’s artwork are marine-related chess sets from the permanent collection of the WCHOF and loans from the distinguished group Chess Collectors International, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary as an organization in 2024. Also included are videos of underwater sea creatures and places to play chess while learning about variants of the game of chess related to marine life and Amazons.

Biography

Donna Dodson is an American sculptor who has exhibited her artwork around the world. Dodson has completed successful residencies in Verbier, Switzerland, Cusco Peru, Keelung Taiwan, and Ringkoebing Denmark. Donna is a Resident Scholar at the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center. Dodson’s recent show, “The Amazons Among Us” at the Boston Sculptors Gallery, was critically acclaimed. Donna is a 2022 Fulbright US Scholar at Q21/MuseumsQuartier in Vienna, Austria, working as an artist in residence with her host institution, Tricky Women/Tricky Realities, the world’s only animation festival for women.

Dodson has won grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the New Hampshire Guild of Woodworkers, and the George Sugarman Foundation. Her work is in the permanent collection of the Provincetown Art Museum, the Art Complex Museum and the Fuller Craft Museum in Massachusetts, The Noyes Art Museum in New Jersey, and the Davistown Museum in Maine. Donna’s work has been reviewed in the Boston Globe, Sculpture Magazine, The Daily Beast, and Artnet. She is a member of the Boston Sculptors Gallery, The International Sculpture Center, and the Wellesley College Friends of Art at the Davis Museum.

Dodson is a graduate of Wellesley College. She enjoys public speaking and has been a guest speaker at conferences throughout North America. Donna is a freelance writer whose articles in newspapers, magazines, and blogs demonstrate the arts sector’s economic impact and global reach. Her recent paper, “What do we call courageous women,” was presented at the Society for Classical Studies annual meeting in 2022.

About Donna Dodson

Donna Dodson has been carving images out of wood for nearly 20 years. Her sculptures explore feminine beauty and evoke humor and playfulness but also grace, power, and emotional strength. Her unique vision responds to the relation of animals to the human spirit that has existed since ancient times. Her figures are almost always female and range in size from the intimate to the monumental.

Dodson’s pre-med studies and her passion for Egyptian art led her to study wood and stone sculpture. African sculptures and Native American totems also influence her work.

She uses logs of osage orange wood from her grandfather’s farm in Illinois, and ash, cherry, locust, and maple from New England.

Dodson has worked in a series using an elephant-headed goddess to explore female figureheads in positions of power. Recently, Dodson created large-scale outdoor pieces, engaging in a public dialogue about her work. The site became a more prevalent theme. Today, Dodson has returned to creating statement pieces such as a cardinal goddess for the women of the Catholic Church who aspire to be ordained and Madam President- a monument to the first female president of the USA.

Exhibit Overview

T. S. Eliot: A Game of Chess explores Eliot’s famous poem, The Waste Land, through the theme of chess. After World War I, the Spanish Flu, and his father’s death, Eliot wrote The Waste Land, a poem expressing grief and feelings of alienation in a rapidly modernizing society. Situated just steps from his parent’s home in Saint Louis’ Central West End, this exhibit features artifacts and multimedia displays relating to Eliot’s poem, his chess metaphors, and the many strands of his life that he wove into his writing.

Born in midtown Saint Louis in 1888, T. S. Eliot went on to become an internationally renowned poet, British citizen, and Nobel Prize winner. In 1922, he published what became his most famous poem, The Waste Land, including a section entitled “A Game of Chess.” This exhibit will center on Eliot’s use of chess in this poem and circle outward to ways in which The Waste Land reflects his Saint Louis childhood, his personal and familial relationships, the cultural wound of World War I, and the poet’s deep reading in literature and philosophy.

Chess was an important part of the poet’s life as a form of connection to his father, with whom he played transatlantic chess by letter before his death in 1919, and as a pastime with his wife when communication failed. Eliot worked chess into The Waste Land through the theme of royalty, specifically the Fisher King whose illness parallels the “wasting” of the land, echoed by references to other kings and queens from Shakespeare’s plays, and through chess as a metaphor for sexual intrigue, drawing on two Renaissance plays by Thomas Middleton, A Game at Chess and Women Beware Women.

In Eliot’s poem, an unhappy couple spars verbally, the wife represented as a queen on “a burnished throne.” They make conversational moves but do not connect with one another. Ultimately, the husband silently envisions the endgame of their day:

“And we shall play a game of chess,
Pressing lidless eyes and waiting for a knock upon the door.”

In a poem concerned with connection and disconnection (“I can connect/Nothing with nothing”), his chess imagery suggests people seeking union and understanding but instead betraying and disappointing one another. Woven into the theme of royalty are gestures of grief for the passing of his father, who was a kind of “king” in Saint Louis as the former President of the Hydraulic Press Brick Company.

Co-Curated by Bradley Bailey and Shannon Bailey

With extraordinarily rich histories in common, it is no wonder that there are innumerable points of intersection between the respective stories of chess and music. From master chess players who are deeply passionate about writing, playing, and experiencing music to world-renowned musicians with insatiable appetites for both the competitive and collaborative aspects of chess, the art of music and the sport of chess have enjoyed an enormously productive and mutually influential partnership over the centuries. But the players of chess and the performers and producers of music who share an interest in each other’s discipline are only one facet of the many dimensions that comprise the larger picture of the association between art and chess.

With compelling, eye-catching objects, a diverse sound palette, and videos that will entertain and inform, Sound Moves will appeal to chess enthusiasts of all levels, writers, performers, and lovers of diverse genres of music, and novices of both activities with an interest in popular culture and a desire to be exposed to a fascinating story featuring a thoughtful and dynamic presentation.