What's Happening at the World Chess Hall of Fame

Hola Darlings!

I have been on hiatus and may be so (although on good days I will be here) for the foreseeable future.  I have been dealing with health issues, which is an absolute fricking bummer, let me tell you!  I have experienced a set-back and at the present time, I do not know if things will get better. This sucks, big time!  But I'm here tonight, at least for a short time -- nope, I haven't croaked yet, Thank Goddess.  I'll do what I can, when I can.   

Received this email today from the World Chess Hall of Fame and Museum in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, and it's really cool, about all the goings-on in St. Louis.  Enjoy!  Some day, Goddess willing, I will travel there again.  It's only about a 30 minute jet ride from Milwaukee.  Would love once again to visit the World Chess Museum and the Scholastic Center and Chess Club right across the street from it, and walk the surrounding neighborhood.  It is a beautiful area.  I posted tons of photographs during my visit  - when the hell was that?  September, 2011?  Don't take my word for it. The heart meds I'm on causes "fuzzy brain" syndrome, unfortunately.  Ach!  If you're interested in reading about the Chess Collectors International Regional Meeting that took place in St. Louis, MO that coincided with the Kings Versus Queens Chess Tournament hosted by the St. Louis Scholastic Center and Chess Club, please do a word search on this blog.  Without further ado, here's the email:

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July was a great month here at the World Chess Hall of Fame! We received some exciting press coverage in the Wall Street Journal and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for our upcoming exhibition A Queen Within: Adorned Archetypes, Fashion and Chess, celebrated International Chess Day on July 20, and hosted Jon Crumiller, who led a fantastic guided tour and discussion of Prized and Played. Looking ahead, we're excited to see what the rest of summer and fall will bring!

Due to upcoming exhibition needs, please note that Bill Smith: Beyond the Humanities has a new closing date of August 25. From September 4 - 15, we will host a small exhibition in our first floor gallery highlighting the Piatagorsky Cup, a series of high-profile chess tournaments during the 1960s sponsored by chess benefactor Jacqueline Piatagorsky. This exhibition will coincide with the groundbreaking Sinquefield Cup tournament taking place at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis and serve as a preview to Jacqueline Piatagorsky: Patron, Player, Pioneer, appearing on our third floor October 25, 2013 - April 18, 2014.

Following the closing of Prized and Played: Highlights from the Jon Crumiller Collection on September 15, we will be closed to the public September 16 - October 18 for the installation of A Queen Within. But even though our exhibitions will be in transition, we will be keeping busy behind the scenes! In addition to preparing our upcoming shows, we are thrilled to host two concerts on September 18 and 25, in coordination with the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra respectively. Stay tuned for more information on these special events!

Whether your plans this month involve vacations, back-to-school errands, or just staying in the air conditioning, we at the WCHOF wish you a safe and happy August, and hope you will make time to visit us soon!

Checkmate,

Susan Barrett, Director

Miscellaneous Photos from St. Louis Trip

Miscellaneous photos of our St. Louis experience.  The dinner party photos were taken by Georgia (Isis) on Saturday evening, September 10, 2011: 

Our beautiful dessert!  The salad was delicious, the entre' of chicken breast and salmon was so-so -
my chicken was very overdone, I could not even cut it!  I gave up and concentrated on the salmon,
which was delicious.  There were also asparagus spears perfectly done (el dente) and some sort of
vegetable something-or-other - I didn't know what it contained so I did not venture a taste!  That's
me, though.  I'm very conservative in my food tastes.  The dessert tasted as good as it looks!  All
in all, a very well done meal, and it was impeccably served by the wait staff.

Former CCI President Tommy Thomsen addresses the dinner party.

Me, enjoying dessert!  Were my eyes closed because I was saying a silent prayer to the Goddess?

Some of our table mates at the CCI dinner party the evening of September 10, 2011:
Jon Crumiller (closest right) and Mr. and Mrs. Duncan Pohl.  We had a great time
at dinner. It was serendipity that landed us at this particular table, we had fascinating table mates!

This charming gentleman was photographed on Friday, September 9, 2011, when 'Sis and I were
walking back from the opening of the World Chess Hall of Fame/Museum.  He was impeccably dressed and
reminded me instantly of the great dressers who are photographed in New York for
Advanced Style, a very popular blog.  We asked if we could take his photo for our blog and he agreed.
 He is in his 70's and teaches ballroom dancing part-time.  He charmed me right to my toes - you can see part of my floaty
top in the right lower corner of the photo. He was a flirt!  I'd have married him if he had asked. 

More St. Louis Photos

See prior posts.

Continuing my tour along Kingshighway Boulevard.  I saw one Parthenon-like building, and a block away, another.

Vacant. 

The building on the corner across the street, another pillared-porticoed building, is for lease, too.  I don't know about the Jewish school building next to it.

This imposing church, with an overgrown courtyard (not photographed, it was too sad), is also vacant and for sale.

I turned a corner and wandered down a side street.  I looked up an alleyway that showed me the bell tower of the imposing but now vacant church fronting on Kingshighway Boulevard.

A few steps further and I crossed the street and found myself on Westminster Place.

The facade on this house caught my eye.  I don't know if it's stone or concrete made to look like stone. I love the little fence around the front yard and the dignified staircase.

The young lady I talked to lived near the beginning of the street.  She was working in her front garden.  I noticed scaffolding at the front of the house so I stopped and called out a greeting, and asked if she was renovating the home, a red brick two story with mansard-style roof, newly shingled, and a deep front porch with a center entrance.  She stopped her work and said no, they were having new rain gutters installed...

We chatted for a good 10-15 minutes.  She and her young family have lived in the house 9 years.  They moved in when the neighborhood was still somewhat "iffy", but a nearby hospital and university that have spent a lot of money redeveloping the area had acted as a stablizing influence, and adventurous urbanites began to venture back into the neighborhood of huge imposing homes because of their dirt cheap prices. 

Some people, of course, never left.  The young woman said that some of her neighbors had been in the area for 40-50 years, from which I deduce that they probably inherited houses in the neighborhood that were built around the turn of the century.  To respect her privacy, I did not ask if I could take a photo of she or her lovely house.  Instead, I pushed further up (down?) the block toward a church she told me was a few blocks away, one she said was worth seeing.

Another interesting facade on Westminster Place.  I love the punctuation of the old-style streetlamp.

This house is just before the parking lot area of the church in the next several photos.  I don't know if you can see him, but a very large fat squirrel munching one of the many chestnuts from the trees in the area was sitting in the ornamental tree, just about centered over the red cap of the upper post at the top step.  He's a sort of dark blotch!  I tried but failed to get a photo of him in close up.  He saw me with my camera and decided he did not want his picture taken.

Through the trees, I saw an imposing roofline.  I crossed the street to get a better view.

I said goodbye to Westminster Place and headed in what I thought was the general direction of the hotel. It isn't hard to get my bearings, as it is the tallest building in the area and I never felt "lost."  On the way back toward Euclid Avenue, I passed this well-preserved brick alley.  This would have been a mews area a century ago, filled with horses and carriage houses!

I could have stayed on Euclid, but I see another gated street and I head down it, instead!

This street looked especially well cared-for, with liriope blooming in many curb strips.

This street was filled with one beautiful house after another.  The air was so still, though, and heavy.  I was tired.  I'd been out nearly 2 hours.  I knew I was not going to make it to the club to watch Rounds 3 and 4 today; I still wanted to stop at Straub's to pick up a few things.  I'd left Georgia at the hotel, still sick in bed.  I thought she must have food poisoning, but that doesn't last for more than 24 hours at the most.  She's been sick off and on since Friday afternoon.

So, I headed to Straubs.  I took a few more photos along the way, some that didn't turn out.  For instance, there are still plenty of robins down here whereas back home in Milwaukee, most have already left for the season, and there are only a few left, probably the ones who are going to stay to winter-over.  When I espied a robin redbreast, barely out of fledgling stage, I tried to capture him on film, but he was leery of me and my camera.

Do you see the robin?  I caught him in flight, he was headed away from big scary me!

A second later, he landed on the railing and I was able to get a second shot before he flew away.

Bricks and concrete are no match for determined tree roots.

More St. Louis Photos

These are from a long warm walk I took earlier today.  I'm staying put now at the hotel - got an early flight tomorrow morning and need to pack and try to get a good night's rest.


Another gated road.  I headed in the opposite direction on the sidewalks, most of which are open, though the roads are closed at one end to thru-traffic.

I did not make a note of this street name. While the sun was hot, the air was still and humid, these side streets with their canopies of green offer some relief from the heat of the day. 

Here is Hortense Place, another gated road.  Pretty imposing, heh?

This is looking out from Hortense Place toward Kingshighway Boulevard.  Hortense Place was inviting, but I turned back to Kingshighway because there were some imposing buildings further down the road I wanted to photograph.

An imposing residence on Kingshighway Boulevard.  During my conversation with a lady I saw gardening outside her home on Westminster Place (coming up later), she told me that houses in her neighborhood some 10 years ago were going for a couple thousand each, and even the big mansions (like this one) were going for under $20,000.  I've seen this kind of destruction of beautiful old neighborhoods happen in my own city, and it's spreading in Milwaukee rather than getting better.  White flight has destroyed Milwaukee proper and now minorities are spreading into the inner-ring suburbs, with more white flight resulting.  I see it first hand, up close and personal, five days a week, twice a day, as I take the regular city bus from my home to the office downtown.  The city has gutted express bus service which used to cater to people taking the bus from inner suburbs and outlying areas to and from downtown jobs.  As a result, bus ridership has dropped as those people would rather take cars than ride the bus through what are, frankly, scary neighborhoods with some scary people!  I guess because I grew up in some tough neighborhoods and have always taken the bus as my primary mode of transportation I'm used to it - but it's getting harder to ignore the kind of people who have taken over formerly middle class neighborhoods and seeing the actual deterioration of the properties in the affected areas.  Gang graffiti all over, nightly shootings, trash and garbage dumped all over the streets, with nobody bothering to clean up outside their houses and storefronts.  Another city area in a death spiral.

This impressive building is modeled on the Parthenon. I don't believe it is vacant, but the following buildings are all for sale and/or lease and are either vacant or mostly vacant.  Sad, very sad.

Some More St. Louis Photos

It got hot and steamy here today.  I went for a long walk and took neighborhood photos and had a chat with a nice lady working outside in her garden - I'll post those later.  These photos are ones I did not have a chance to post earlier - they're from 9/9 and 9/10.

Gated road:

This gated road ends Maryland Plaza which is one corner of the hotel, intersecting with North Kingshighway Boulevard.

Walking on Maryland toward Euclid and the chess club, there is a fbeautiful development of condos and townhomes across the street and shops on the other side, anchored by a fountain.

Some Sets from the Vivian and George Dean Collection

Thirty sets from the extensive collection of the Deans is currently on display at the Chess Hall of Fame and Museum.  I toured the exhibit with other members of the CCI Saturday morning.  Here are some photos of my favorite sets.  I also took photos of the descriptions but I'll have to wait to put them up until I get home and can print them out in large print so I can make them out -  they turned out too blurry to post here!  Picture quality isn't the greatest either.  We weren't allowed to used flash, and without a tripod I couldn't keep the camera still enough to get crisp, clear photos.  However, I did purchase the Dean's book in the gift shop at the Museum and I will scan in some of my favorites when I get home and have a chance to catch my breath!

I believe this is a Moghul set - stunning.  The pieces are decorated with diamonds for white and rubies for red.



A collection of ancient Islamic pieces.

This is called a "tulip" style set - carved ivory, on top of an Indian
cloth chaturanga board.  Beautiful!



I believe this is an early 17th century pegged set.

 

"Good" v. "Evil" set.



St. Louis Photos



Lunch 9/9/11 with Alexandra Kosteniuk.  What an awful fricking photo of me, geez Louise!
Alexandra was charming and at a little shy at first, but she soon relaxed.  We had a good private chat.



Blurry shot of Susan Polgar and me outside the Chess Hall of Fame, 9/8/11,
taken by 'Sis with her cell phone.



Thursday night 9/8/11 outside the Chess Hall of Fame and Museum.



IM Irina Krush outside the Chess Club/Scholastic Center, 9/8/11.



More Exploring St. Louis

Hola darlings!  I finally got Isis stirring around noon when I went in with alarm bells and a fresh cup of black coffee, strong the way she likes.  LOL!  Poor 'Sis!

I mercilessly badgered her until she finally got ready and we left the uncleaned suite about 1:30 p.m. or so - far too late to do any of the things we'd planned the night before, but definitely well-rested.  Wouldn't you know it, we round the corner on Maryland Avenue and I show 'Sis the fountain near Bissinger's, famous for its chocolates, desserts and apertif-wines.  Sis sits down at the edge of the fountain and is looking through something or other when I snap a photo, and then another when she looks up.  Beautiful pictures! Then the fountain goes off and she jumps up and runs toward me.  Then she wants to take my photo in front of the fountain.  Disaster strikes in the form of a recalcitrant fountain that refuses to behave decently.  It douses me once with water; twice; three times.  I found myself 30 seconds later in jeans that look like I'd peed in my pants, and felt like it too.  Damn!

Meanwhile, it starts raining again so, not only am I sopped from the fountain, my frizzy hair (reacted to all the humidity from the rain) is now hanging down in my eyes and I can't see a thing, but is otherwise plastered on the sides of my face.  I look hideous.  To Bissiger's, WE'RE GOING IN HERE, 'SIS.  PERIOD.

And so, we went...

Bless my soul, besides the two clerks behind the counter we were the only souls in the place.  I gesture 'Sis toward the counter displays of mouth-watering chocolates.  That's all I had to do...

I had read about Bissiger's online before arrriving here under "Things to do while you're in St. Louis blah blah....  As I noticed the shop yesterday, right around the corner from the hotel entrance/exit we've been using, it was a no brainer that we would stop in sometime during our stay. 

OHMYGODDESS!

We stayed for two hours - but not eating and drinking the entire time -- more to tell about that.  Although let me tell you, darlings, the very nice young lady who whipped up 'Sis's hot chocolate made a mini-cup of hot chocolate for me anyway, even though I had not ordered anything but was looking intently at all of the various exotic chocolates for sale.  You can spend an hour just looking at all of the deliciousness on display at Bissiger's, trying to decide what to buy.  It's exhausting work, but someone has to do it.  The nice clerk acutely deduced that I needed a chocolate fix but was not ready for a massive dose - and she acted accordingly.  I predict that young lady will someday run Bissiger's - or be President of the US.  I ultimately purchased some chocolates for a couple of friends where I work, after having sampled one -- it was something like chocolate apple hot pepper salt heaven, or something like that.  I have NEVER tasted anything like it. That chocolate had an after-taste impossible to describe, but absolutely incredible (in a good way).  Let me tell you, the recipients of these small boxes of chocolates will be kissing my stinky feet for the next 10 years for those chocolates, they are that good!

The other clerk at the counter, a young man, was very knowledgeable about the chocolates and the various recipes and history associated with them, and he and 'Sis happily yattered on about the origins of chocolate from the Mayan civilization.  I noshed on a sample of the chocolate apple hot pepper salt heaven and was absolutely entranced when the young man told me that I could order as many or as few pieces of that chocolate, or any other, in the store, and have them gift-boxed.  SOLD!  I never bothered to inquire how much it might cost, those two clerks made entering Bissiger's such a delightfull experience I would have paid a lot just to accomodate them.  I gave the male clerk a nice tip in my purchase.  He was so knowledgeable and not condescending, I asked a few questions about the wines on display and he knew about them, too. 

'Sis and I believe in tipping.  We're both minimum 20 percenters.  Most servers and clerks work very hard for minimum wages and they can and often do take a lot of abuse.  Just because people have to work for a living doesn't mean they can be treated like dirt!  The Bible rightly says that a worker is worthy of his (or her) hire, and we act accordingly.  And it is such a pleasure to engage in intelligent and enlightening conversation with people uniquely knowledgeable about the products they are selling or in the case of servers, serving in a restaurant.  They know the restaurant they work in.  We have noticed that, unfortunately, tipping does not seem to be a common practice amongst some of our fellow chessites here at the hotel.  Disappointing...what can possibly be an excuse for being a cheapskate?

But - back to Bissiger's!  As we were finishing up, another woman came into view at the counter where we were nattering away with the clerks and because 'Sis and I weren't making any effort to be private in our conversation - we were talking about the chess doings we'd come to St. Louis to be part of - the lady said oh, are you here for... and we said yes... and that is how we met producer Lynn Hamrick.

See the next post about our meeting Lynn!

St. Louis - Some West Central Photos

Straub's, on the corner of Maryland and North Kingshighway Boulevard.

Last night while visiting Straubs, we got some directions to the nearest Walgreens.  Although it was a little farther than anticipated, it was a nice walk this morning, although wet and very humid.  It's bordering on the sun breaking through at times (rain has stopped for the time being) and makes it very uncomfortable (warm and uber-muggy), but when the clouds thicken a jacket or light hoody is welcome.

These photos were all taken while strolling on Lindell Avenue to and from the Walgreens.

I enjoyed the landscaping at this complex.

A few doors down, units in this building (sold out) were going for base price of  $469,000.00.

As I walked, I passed Optimists International.  I thought about how lonely they must be these days.

This building, undergoing renovation, caught my eye.  It's indicative of the structures in the neighborhood.

I approached the St. Louis Catholic Cathedral and espied its mighty dome.  The grounds of the complex are beautiful.

A closer look at the Cathedral.

In the sideyard to the Cathedral's main entrance, an entrancing metal sculpture that is
designed as a gigantic windchime:  The Angel of Harmony.

A close-up of the little girl holding a bird windchime.

The bell tower.

The front doors.  It was hard to get them in one shot - I'm just not good at this photo taking.



I liked this shot of the front of the Cathedral taken from across the street on my way back from Walgreens,
even with the cars in it.  A small group of women were inspecting the Cathedral as I passed by.