Program Type: Exhibition

Chess Variants: Transforming Tradition looks at the long history of chess from its beginnings to the current rules, as well as the many types of game variants that are becoming increasingly popular. The exhibition shows a colorful and robust timeline featuring the theories on the origin of the game, how it changed as it spread across Asia and Europe, the addition and changes of the pieces, the introduction of the Staunton pieces, and the modern rules and nuances of the current game as well as a brief look at how other countries adopted and adapted the original game. 

The center gallery space will be divided into sections. It will highlight the major variant categories, including starting positions, types of pieces used, mid-game and end-game rules, board shape, number of players, and chance. Each section will show various games under each category, with rules and outlines on playing some of the more popular varieties and their origins.

The exhibition is designed to be highly interactive, with videos of chess players discussing their favorite variants, explaining the rules, and demonstrating board setups. Visitors are encouraged to sit in each area and play actual games, fostering a sense of active participation. The gallery’s flexible layout, with only movable walls in the center, allows for different programming, variant tournaments, or lessons to take place, ensuring a dynamic and engaging experience for all.

The exhibition features a diverse range of contributors including important chess scholars and historians, Rick Knowlton, John McCrary, and Myron Samsin, each bringing their unique perspective and expertise to the table. Artifacts from the permanent collection, a variety of chess sets and boards showcasing the game’s historical changes, and photographs of variant boards with different shapes that allow for more than 2 players all contribute to a rich and varied experience. Additional contributors include Jon Crumiller, Laszlo Polgar, and Yasser Seriawan. A special section will highlight Star Chess created by Lazlo Polgar.

Each variant section has its own “look,” which will be part of the overall branding of the exhibition and give character to each section. The overall goal of the exhibition is to look at the history of the game, teach basic moves to our “newer” chess players, and create a fun and exciting space to play the different variants of the game.

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 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.