On 30 May 2024, the State Anteroom of the Armoury Chamber hosted the opening of the exhibition "Games Our Ancestors Played", dedicated to the history of games of the past.

The Special Representative of the Russian President for International Cultural Cooperation, Ambassador for Special Missions of the Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Shvydkoy and Director of Publishing Activities and Special Programs of the Moscow Kremlin Museums Elena Milovzorova took part in the opening ceremony. 

"The conception of our display is close to Plato’s words that an hour play with a person can tell us more than a year of communication. We emphasise the game not as a gambling activity but as a highly intellectual, important, political, diplomatic, and traditionally educating pastime, first of all, of royal members," Elena Milovzorova addressed the guests.  

"All these games are linked in one way or another to the international cooperation. If there had been no Silk Road, if there had been no "A Journey Beyond the Three Seas", we would have played very different games, even though mankind has been playing jack-stones, thimblerig and marbles since ancient times. This exhibition may seem modest in quantity, but it is quite unique in quality. Each piece presented here is a sublime event object of Russian cultural life and history", added Mikhail Shvydkoy.

"We are telling the story of games, which an author of a medieval treatise called "games that are played on boards". These are board games that were popular on the territory of our country from the 10th to the beginning of the 20th century, i.e. the display covers almost thousand years", the curator of the exhibition, Nina Pavlova, told the guests during a tour.  

A programme for the general public entitled "Everyone in the World Loves a Game" has been specially prepared for the exhibition, giving participants the opportunity to play ancient games themselves.

The exhibition 'Games Our Ancestors Played' is open until 11 September 2024.