Chess in the museum
In Russia the chess in the museum project was started in 2012. In Estonia both the museums and chess are popular subjects. Chess at least in the past. In 2000, Keres was elected the Estonian Sportsman of the Century. In Tallinn the visitor can find a lot of museums, one of my favorites being the Estonian Maritime Museum.
The recent and the biggest museum is the Estonian National Museum. The museum is located in Tartu in the second biggest city in Estonia. I was very excited when I got the invitation to give a simul on the museum premises.
The simul is the simplest way to popularize chess. Usually the youngsters are very eager to participate. Still only handful simuls are held in overall. The initiative of the Estonian National Museum was most welcome and I hope that we can continoue this trend in the future. In Tartu 21 players took part in the simul. Most of them young boys, but also two girls were among participants. I tried not to win all the games and drew two of them winning the rest. Last boy standing had also very good drawing chances in slightly inferior rook endgame, but this time I won not giving a draw to my opponent. I just did not want to spoil the boy with a present. He has great future ahead if he continous to play chess.
The museum people treated me very well and the simul was well organized. Because of the late hour not many spectators were present though. The museum people and I agreed to make this chess day traditional event in the future.
Jaan Ehlvest
