The chessboard, which is featured in the collection, is designed to be played by four people. It is cruciform in shape, has 160 squares and figures of four different colors placed on it.

Ilya Nikolaevich Ulyanov, the father of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, was an excellent chess player. He taught this game to his children. According to the family, Vladimir started playing chess from the age of eight or nine. At first, he played with his father and older brother Alexander, and then with his younger brother and sister. His sister Anna recalled that when their father was not around, then their mother sat down to play with Volodya Ulyanov.

At the age of 15, Vladimir Ulyanov was already outplaying Ilya Nikolaevich. In the summer of 1886, Vladimir was competing with Alexander. They played matches in the evenings. The eldest brother was 20 years old, while Vladimir was only 16. The games were held in a small room that overlooked the courtyard. According to the memories of friends of their youth, Vladimir and Alexander also played “blindly”, that is, without the opportunity to look at the board. Vladimir Ulyanov also played blindly later, sometimes against several opponents at once.

The youngest of the brothers, Dmitry Ilyich Ulyanov, claimed that Vladimir Ilyich had a rule not to take back moves, he played seriously and did not like easy games. When competing with weaker players, Lenin gave the opponent a head start. He enjoyed the good moves of his playing partner.

The Ulyanov family also practiced four-player chess. Vladimir Lenin’s elder sister, Anna Ilyinichna Elizarova-Ulyanova, recalled,

The basic rules of four-handed chess are the same as in the classic version. In this case, the players are paired up. The allies sit opposite each other. Everyone plays with pieces of their own color, in this case white, black, red or blue. The goal of the game is to checkmate both enemy kings, or rather, to beat one king and mate the other.