Antique Napoleon chess set at St Petersburg Museum

Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010

Chess pieces depicting Napoleon Bonaparte and two of his marshalls, Louis Nicolas Davout and Michel Ney./Kirill Kudryavtsev/Agence France-Presse—Getty Images

Hello Everyone,

We found this (New York Times Chess Blog) nice news snippet about the Napoleon chess set.

The Russian Museum of Ethnography in St. Petersburg, Russia, is displaying a remarkable chess set as part of an exhibition of the Jewelry House Anna Nova. Called “The Chess. 1812,” the set depicts military leaders leaders of the Russian and French armies from the French invasion of Russia in 1812. The White king is Napoleon Bonaparte. The Web site of the museum identifies the Black king as Alexander II, but that is probably a typo and should be Alexander I, the tsar at the time. Alexander II was not born until 1818. The pieces are made of white and black jade with gold and silver details and decorated with 6,700 diamonds, 9,400 rubies and 3,200 sapphires.

Also read our earlier post on the Napoleon theme chess set.

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