ST. LOUIS -- The Gateway City, also known as "Chess City of the Year," is a premier destination for chess aficionados and lovers of fine art.

The World Chess Hall of Fame partners perfectly with the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, both located in the Central West End and one across the street from the other. The World Chess Hall of Fame is a combination chess playing center and museum.

The World Chess Hall of Fame, originally known as the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame, opened in 1988 as a small museum in the basement of the United States Chess Federation's headquarters in New Windsor, N.Y. In 1992, the U.S. Chess Trust purchased the museum from the Federation and moved its contents to Washington, D.C.

It remained there until 2001, when the institution moved into a new facility at the Excalibur Electronics headquarters in Miami and renamed before finally coming to St. Louis a few months ago, after Chess Club founders Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield provided seed money. The building across from the Chess Club just happened to be for sale, and it was renovated for more than a year to make it the World Chess Hall of Fame's home.

"It has a different mission than in Miami, looking at the game's multicultural aspects in music, journalism, film, literature and all aspects of everyday life," said Vice President-Exhibitions and Curatorial Affairs Shannon Bailey, who has an art and museum background. "Now I see chess everywhere; we're hoping everyone else will see chess everywhere."

Due in part to the World Chess Hall of Fame relocating to St. Louis, the city was named "Chess City of the Year" by the United States Chess Federation. Besides the Chess Club making St. Louis a chess destination, the city held the first world chess championship in 1886, Bailey said.

"So, there is 125 years of great chess in St. Louis," Bailey said. "The family who had the Chess Hall of Fame in Miami was no longer able to keep it there, but they knew of the success of the Chess Club, which has all kinds of recognition throughout the United States. They thought it was a good opportunity to move the Hall of Fame here."

The World Chess Hall of Fame, a nonprofit institution committed to advancing education about the cultural and artistic significance of chess, offers educational outreach initiatives to promote chess and the proven cognitive and behavioral benefits it offers players.

It is the only institution of its kind and offers a variety of programming to explore the dynamic relationship between art and chess, such as the Chess Masterpieces: Highlights from the Dr. George and Vivian Dean Collection exhibition, created by consulting curator Larry List of New York City, through Feb. 12 featuring priceless and one-of-a-kind chess sets, including the only two Faberge sets in the world.

"Chess and art have shared a close relationship virtually since the invention of the game," List said. "Throughout the long and rich history of chess, the three-dimensional playing pieces have provided artists and craftsmen with seemingly endless opportunities for creative interpretation and expression, resulting in a tremendous diversity of forms ranging from the representational to the abstract."

Chess Masterpieces contains numerous examples of artists who have found ways within the standardized arrangement of 32 pieces on the square grid of the game board to transform the timeless and universal game into something fantastic, novel and unconventional.

The 30 works from the Deans' world-class collection were chosen from more than 1,000 chess sets, which the couple collected in 50 years of travel and study. These examples help trace the development of the game of chess and the design of fine chess sets from 900 CE to the early 20th century.

Chess, which is a game of war and also known as "The Royal Game" because it originated in royal courts, has more than 20 myths concerning the origin of the game.

"First mentioned in factual documents in the seventh century, it is generally acknowledged that the game of chess originated in northwestern India," List noted.

An Indian delegation from the court of Rajah Dewarsah presented to the Persians an ornate chess set and board decorated with rubies and emeralds, of which examples are displayed in Chess Masterpieces. Islamic designers' work also is displayed in abstracted pieces and sets, as the Koran discouraged human and animal form representation.

From Germany, 1740, the exhibit features a chess set of delicate multi-colored glazed Meissen, which is Chinese-made porcelain. Other sets in the exhibit employ precious metals, tortoise shell and papier mache, among many other materials. Ivory appears in almost half of the works in the exhibit.

All but one or two of the exhibit's works were made before the availability of electric lights or power tools.

Some of the more spectacular chess sets of the collection include a fantastical castle set representing a clash between Neresheimer French and Germans. The pieces are set on a silver and gilded silver castle board with the Hanau, Germany, 1905-1910 set containing ivory, diamonds, sapphires, pearls, amethysts, rubies and marble.

Another royal set featured is the Habsburg Dynasty set and board, circa early 1900s, from Austria, which is made of patinated silver, gilt, enamel, garnet, turquoise, pearls, emeralds, and diverse other gemstones and mother-of-pearl and tortoise board with silver and gilt inlay and enamel decorated base with gemstones.

The only two complete Faberge chess sets in the world are at the World Chess Hall of Fame, List noted. They are a 1905 Faberge Kuropatkin set and board and a 1915 Faberge Egyptians versus Assyrians set, each with a presentation case and both made at the House of Faberge in Russia. The former is made with venturine quartz, kalgon jasper, silver pieces and Siberian jade, apricot serpentine, aventurine quartz, and cast and engraved silver board, designed by Karl Gustav Hjalmar Armfeldt; the latter is made with cast silver and gilt by Armfeldt.

The exhibit commemorates the 50th year that the Deans have been collecting chess sets together. They purchased their first chess set in the Middle East and thereafter acquired a set in each country they visited. Their collection as a whole, "Chess Masterpieces: One Thousand Years of Extraordinary Chess Sets," by George Dean with Maxine Brady, received the 2011 Cramer Award for Excellence in Chess Journalism.

A more modern take on the chessboard and pieces presents itself in Yoko Ono's Play It By Trust, 2002, made all in white, on display through Feb. 12 from the Sinquefields' collection.

"She's a pacifist; she wanted to make it into a peaceful game," Bailey explained about former Beatle John Lennon's widow, famous as a peace activist with Lennon when he was alive and who remained so after his murder.

Ono is an internationally renowned conceptual artist in her own right, whose extensive career encompasses performance, instructions, film, music and writing.

Chess players also can appreciate the art exhibit's chess boards, which are set up as games and which players can follow.

The third floor of the World Chess Hall of Fame contains the actual Hall of Fame, in which two in the U.S. class and one world chess expert was inducted this year.

The World Chess Hall of Fame took custody of 3,000 objects, which it will rotate among the third-floor permanent exhibit containing historical documents and items related to chess. An iPad kiosk contains lengthy biographies of inductees, whose images are hung on the walls.

The World Chess Hall of Fame is located at 4652 Maryland Ave. in St. Louis. Visit www.worldchesshof.org for more information or call (314) 367-9243.