"Chess House" or the House with Augurs (Troitsky's Gambling House)

A striking example of Art Nouveau, the Troitsky gambling house, the "Chess House," the "House with Augurs" – one of the lost landmarks of Nizhny Novgorod. The entrance to the house was made in the shape of a horseshoe, and the field inside the doors was decorated with chess squares. The cornices above were adorned with male heads bent over a chessboard, which was represented by the roof of the house.

This house belonged to Troitsky, who opened a gambling house here where he played chess for money. According to city legend, one day a visitor came to him, against whom he could not win a single game. Trying to recover his losses, Troitsky owed a huge sum. But the winner did not take the money. Introducing himself, he named himself Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin — one of the strongest chess players not only in Russia but also in Europe. And as a prize, he asked the owner never to play chess for money, so as not to disgrace the noble game. In memory of the visit of the great guest, Troitsky decided to completely rebuild the house. He commissioned the project to Sergey Alexandrovich Levkov, one of the most popular architects of Nizhny Novgorod. In 1908, the building was reconstructed. The porch also draws attention with its extremely unusual shape, made in the form of a horseshoe, which was supposed to bring luck to players entering the house for cards and billiards. After all, Chigorin's "curse" did not apply to these games, so Troitsky's mansion remained one of the most famous gambling establishments in Nizhny Novgorod until World War I.

In 2013, the Chess House was sold to the local market owner Bagdasaryan for 16 million rubles with the condition of restoration. And over six years, he brought the house to a state of emergency and the collapse of a wall.

In April 2019, the house was demolished. What we see today is a complete replica, including the main facade.

Moreover, the owner was required to refine the facade to match the original. What he initially built lacked many decorative details, and the heads of the augurs stood without tilt and looked not at the chessboard but at each other. It is said that their noses were even changed from Greek to Armenian style, though I don’t know how true that is...

Sources:

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Игорный_дом_А._И._Троицкого

https://korolevvlad.livejournal.com/126463.html