Chess City

The neighborhood-size development consists of a central, four-story domed City Chess Hall surrounded by an Olympic-style village of Californian-Mediterranean Revival Style architecture.

The site has a conference center, public swimming pool and a museum of Kalmyk Buddhist art.

Kalmykia is a poor republic of approximately 300,000 people located in the barren steppe regions in the southeastern corner of Europe.

[2] As a result, the construction of the opulent Chess City was greatly criticized for spending large sums of money on a tourist resort.

Additionally, the desert climate of the area puts many of the planned expansions for Chess City, like the water sports complex, under scrutiny.

The main building of the Chess City complex
Buddhist temple near the entrance to the complex