A literary fantasy taken from the pages of the book The Twelve Chairs , and brainchild of former president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Chess City was built for the 1998 Chess Olympics and has an air of surreal suburban bliss. It's clustered on the edge of steppe as a large ensemble of cottages around the glass Chess Palace. Marshrutka 7 takes you there from Hotel Elista.
From Chess City, take marshrutka 7 back one stop or walk back about 500m to the roundabout, where you find the Ostap Bender monument, complete with all the tale’s 12 chairs (which you can sit on).
