On November 21, 2025, an employee of the Bolgar Museum-Reserve Sabirova L.A., together with specialists of the State Autonomous Social Service Institution “Rassvet”, conducted an interactive museum lesson “Medieval games” for 12 students of Bolgar boarding school.
The Volga Bulgars paid great attention to the upbringing of children, and board games were often an integral part of this process. They developed logical and imaginative thinking, and attention.
The event took place at the Museum of Bulgarian Civilization where an educational tour was conducted for the students. After the tour, the children became acquainted with the history of the most popular games among the Volga Bulgars – “Alquerque” and “Mill”. Alquerque (Arabic “fortress”) is a board game of the draughts type common in the Middle Ages. The main features of checkers are already clearly visible in the game “Alquerque”. This is a battle of equivalent units of 12 chips each, where the capture is carried out by jumping – and it is mandatory. The “Mill” is a logical board game for two players. The goal of the game is to remove all the opponent’s chips.
The children not only became familiar with the history and rules of these games, but also actively played them, and had a lot of positive emotions and impressions. At the end of the event, the students received memorable gifts from the museum-reserve.