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. 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 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.

History

Steven Doyle, president of the United States Chess Federation from 1984 to 1987, 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. The museum's small collection included a book of chess openings signed by Bobby Fischer; 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. 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.

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. Reopened in 2001, it was renamed the World Chess Hall of Fame and Sidney Samole Museum. 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. He also renovated its new building, across the street from the Sinquefield-founded St. Louis Chess Club.

Hall of Fame There are 74 members in the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame.

There are 53 members in the World Chess Hall of Fame. The winner of the first Women's World Chess Championship, Vera Menchik, was the first woman to be inducted into the WCHOF in 2011. U.S. Chess Hall of Fame Inductees 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.

Count Inductee Induction year 1 Reuben Fine 1986 2 Robert Fischer 3 Isaac Kashdan 4 George Koltanowski 5 Frank Marshall 6 Paul Morphy 7 Harry Pillsbury 8 Sammy Reshevsky 9 Sam Loyd 1987 10 Wilhelm Steinitz 11 Arpad Elo 1988 12 Hermann Helms 13 Al Horowitz 1989 14 Hans Berliner 1990 15 John W. Collins 1991 16 Arthur Dake 17 Arnold Denker 1992 18 Gisela Gresser 19 George MacKenzie 20 Pal Benko 1993 21 Victor Palciauskas 22 Arthur Bisguier 1994 23 Robert Byrne 24 Larry Evans 25 Ed Edmondson Jr. 1995 26 Fred Reinfeld 1996 27 Kenneth Harkness 1997 28 Milan Vukcevich 1998 29 Benjamin Franklin 1999 30 Edmar Mednis 2000 31 Lubomir Kavalek 2001 32 Lev Alburt 2003 33 Walter Browne 34 Donald Byrne 35 Anatoly Lein 2004 36 Leonid Shamkovich 37 Yasser Seirawan 2006 38 Irving Chernev 2007 39 Jeremy Gaige 40 Joel Benjamin 2008 41 Larry Christiansen 42 Nick de Firmian 43 John Fedorowicz 2009 44 Burt Hochberg 45 Diane Savereide 2010 46 Jackson Showalter 47 Herman Steiner 48 Boris Gulko 2011 49 Andy Soltis 50 Alex Yermolinsky 2012 51 Gregory Kaidanov 2013 52 Mona May Karff 53 Abraham Kupchik 2014. 54 Jacqueline Piatigorsky 55 Alexander Shabalov 2015 56 Gata Kamsky 2016 57 Maurice Ashley 58 Edward Lasker 2017 59 Bill Goichberg 2018 60 Alex Onischuk 61 Max Judd 2019 62 Susan Polgar 63 William Lombardy 64 Rex Sinquefield 2020 65 Jeanne Sinquefield 66 James Sherwin 2021 67 Frank Brady 68 Daniel Willard Fiske 2022 69 James Tarjan 70 John Watson 71 Yury Shulman 2023 72 Lisa Lane 73 William Shinkman 74 Charles Henry Stanley 2024 75 Irina Krush 2025 76 Bruce Pandolfini

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

Count Inductee Induction year 1 José Raúl Capablanca 2001 2 Robert Fischer 3 Emanuel Lasker 4 Paul Morphy 5 Wilhelm Steinitz 6 Mikhail Botvinnik 2003 7 Tigran Petrosian 8 Vasily Smyslov 9 Boris Spassky 10 Mikhail Tal 11 Alexander Alekhine 2004 12 Max Euwe 13 Anatoly Karpov 14 Garry Kasparov 2005 15 Siegbert Tarrasch 2008 16 Vera Menchik 2011 17 Elisaveta Bykova 2013 18 Mikhail Chigorin 19 Nona Gaprindashvili 20 Maia Chiburdanidze 2014 21 Paul Keres 22 Olga Rubtsova 2015 23 Lyudmila Rudenko 24 Carl Schlechter 25 David Bronstein 2016 26 Sonja Graf 27 Howard Staunton 28 Johannes Zukertort 2016 29 Paula Kalmar-Wolf 2017 30 Viktor Korchnoi 31 Alla Kushnir 32 Aron Nimzowitsch 2018 33 Richard Réti 34 Kira Zvorykina 35 Akiba Rubinstein 2019 36 Mark Taimanov 37 Xie Jun 38 Miguel Najdorf 2021 39 Judit Polgár 40 Eugene Torre 41Bent Larsen202342Lajos Portisch202343Susan Polgár202344Zhu Chen202445Irina Levitina46Elena Donaldson-Akhmilovskaya47Fridrik Olafsson48Lev Polugaevsky49Nana Alexandria50Robert Hübner51Vladimir Kramnik52Efim Geller53Oscar Panno54Pia Cramling202555Vlastimil Hort56Jan Timman

References

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