Sergei Prokofiev was not only a great composer, pianist, and conductor but also a talented chess player. He learned to play chess when he was seven years old. He immediately started writing down chess games in a small notebook. Sometimes, he made such notes on the back side of the sheet paper with his compositions. The young Prokofiev spent hours poring over the games of great chess players which he found in old chess magazines. He learned by heart the games between Chigorin and Tarrasch and between Steinitz and Lasker.

Moreover, the young composer enjoyed making up games between famous players and creating fantasy tournament tables.

The sixteen-year-old Prokofiev attended his first chess club meeting without telling his parents. It was the Saint Petersburg Chess Club at 55 Nevsky Prospect. The composer recalled his first visit to the club in his autobiography, “While I was standing at one board and watching a game between some strangers, a very young student entered the Club, and also lingered for a while, unsure where he could stand. Having guessed that I was also a first-timer, he approached me and said, ‘You know, I’ve never been here before.’ I replied that neither had I. He asked, ‘Would you like to play? ’ I said, ‘I certainly would.’ We took a chess set and sat down to play. I was terribly anxious, afraid that he could tear me to pieces. This is why I tried to exchange pieces at any opportunity, simplifying the game. We played three games: the first one was a draw, he won the second, and I won the third. We were both satisfied.”

For Prokofiev, the Saint Petersburg Chess Club forever remained the coziest one and his favorite, “In fact, I have visited numerous chess clubs throughout my life, but I still have a deep affection for that room, with its soft lighting and calmness, where people could put aside their cares and for some time immerse in a completely different world with its own interess.”