Architects Aleksi-Meskhishvili, Vladimir; Ghudushauri, Germane – “Tbilkalakproekti”, third studio

Structural Engineer Guram Mebuke

Décor creative team ‘Sameuli’: Alexander Slovinsky, Oleg Kochakidze, Yuri Chikvaidze

Design 1965 Construction 1973

Status Cultural Heritage Site, 2019

Original function Sports facility, offices

Current function same, partially rented 

Current conditon damaged

Address 37a M.Kostava St. Tbilisi, Georgia
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Tbilisi Chess Palace and the Alpine Club by the architects Vladimir Aleksi-Meskhishvili and Germane Ghudushauri was opened in 1973, on the territory of Vera Park (then Kirov Park). The Building was dedicated to five-time world champion in chess, at that time 33 years old Nona Gaprindashvili and is often only mentioned as “The Chess Palace”, while initially, it was intended for both sports. 

Three-storey Chess Palace is organically fitted in the infrastructure of a garden with a sloping relief. Auditorium, designed for 520 people, is located in the middle of the building. It goes up to third floor, surrounded with galleries and vestibules. On the third level the auditorium is separated from the side galleries with movable panels and while opening them, they provide natural light and the view inside the auditorium. The movable panels are decorated in the unusual technique for Georgia – wood intarsia, which resonates with the surface of the chessboard. All walls, columns and floors are covered with stone on the ground and first floor. The part of the outer wall is built with crown-shaped stones.

By the 2019 decree of the Government of Georgia Tbilisi Chess Palace and the Alpine Club gained the status of cultural heritage monument. (mg)

Translation: Ana Kiasashvili
Info: Nini Palavandishvili
Photos: Germane Gudushauri private Archive, Vladimer Aleksi-Meskhishvili personal Archive, Georgian National Archive, Simona Rota

Literature/Links

Gomelauri, Ina. The Architecture of the House of Chess in Tbilisi, IV International Symposium Dedicated to Georgian Art, Tbilisi, Metsniereba, 1983.

Nini Palavandishvili, Tbilisi Chess Palace and Alpine Club, in Between Caucasus and the Black Sea. Architecture in Georgia (Ed. Adolph Stiller), Mury Salzmann, Vienna, 2018.

Arabuli, Nastasia. Chess Palace – A monument of victory and demolition geo. (18.02.2019)

Tbilisi Chess Palace and the Alpine Club – Video story geo. (06.05.2019)