Exhibition of the Czech chessmen

Schnirch’s chess pieces and their offspring

[11.06.2015 00:00:00] - “I try to make the chess public acquainted with a part of the chess history – the Czech chess pieces called “české klubovky”. They have accompanied us since the end of the 19th century, and they still do even now. They exist in a wide variety of types, I myself have proofs of more than a hundred different kinds,” says the chess pieces collector Petr Král, whose collections are featured at the exhibition at ČEZ CHESS TROPHY 2015 festival.

The original shape of the “české klubovky” was designed in the 1880s by Bohuslav Schnirch, one of the most significant sculptors of the Czech National Theatre generation. Schnirch’s most famous and undoubtedly greatest artwork is the huge bronze battle chariot (the so-called triga) with the goddesses of victory on the pylons of the National Theatre, which took him three decades to finish. Bohuslav Schnirch was also the first president of the Czech Chess Association, founded on the 2nd February 1888.

“The most beautiful pieces which I have seen during the long years of my chess career are the redesigned Schnirch’s chess pieces from the 1950s. Unlike the original, they are not so thin and they have a slightly fuller shape, but otherwise they are a faithful representation of the original,” adds Petr Král. You can see two versions of the Schnirch’s chess pieces replicas at the exhibition at Michna Palace.

Apart from these, you can also see the chess pieces used at international tournaments in Czechoslovakia at the end of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s, including the zonal tournaments in Mariánské Lázně in 1951 and 1954. These two chess pieces are accompanied by both younger and older siblings; 11 chess sets show how the “české klubovky” changed between the end of the 1960s and the present time, while a couple of individual chess pieces represent the chess sets at the beginning of the 20th century, including a few originals by Schnirch.

The vernissage of the exhibition is open to the public and will be held on Sunday 14 June at 3 PM in the entrance hall of Michna Palace (entry through Všehrdova Street or via the bridge across the Čertovka Channel). The exhibition will be also open for the two consecutive days, during the ČEZ CHESS TROPHY 2015 festival.



The chess pieces designed by the famous sculptor Bohuslav Schnirch in the 1880s became the basis for the shape of the “české klubovky”, which were given more than a hundred different forms throughout the century.



The “české klubovky” used in FIDE zonal tournaments in Mariánské Lázně in 1951 and 1954.

| Pavel Matocha | visits(3961x)