Chess in the arts
In the 20th century, artists created many works related to the game, sometimes taking their inspiration from the life of famous players (
History
10th to 18th century
Palatine Chapel in the Norman Palace in Palermo you can admire the first painting of a chess game that is known to the world. The work dates from around 1143 and the artists who created the Muslim players were chosen by the Norman king of Sicily Roger II of Hauteville, who erected the church.
The earliest known reference to chess in a European text is a
The pieces illustrating chess problems in
After chess became gradually more popular in Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, especially in Spain and Italy, many artists began writing poems using chess as a theme.[7] Chess of love (Catalan: Scachs d'amor), written by an unknown artist in the end of the 15th century, describes a game between Mars and Venus, using chess as an allegory of love. The story also serves as a pretence to describe the rules of the game. De ludo scacchorum (unrelated to the manuscript mentioned above) by Francesco Bernardino Caldogno , also created at that time, is a collection of gameplay advice, presented in poetic fashion.[8][9]
One of the most influential
19th century onwards
Since the 19th century, artists have been creating novels and – since the 20th century – films related to chess. Sometimes, they are inspired by famous games, like
Other artists have drawn their inspiration from the life of players. Vladimir Nabokov wrote The Defense after learning about Curt von Bardeleben,[12] while the musical Chess was loosely based on the life of Bobby Fischer.[13] Some authors invented new chess variants in their works, such as stealth chess in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series or Tri-Dimensional chess in the Star Trek series.
Another connection between art and chess is the life of Marcel Duchamp, who almost fully suspended his artistic career to focus on chess in 1923.[14] Salvador Dalí and Man Ray were also chess players and both designed chess sets.[15] The three artists played chess together, and one of the chess sets designed by Dalí is called Echecs (Hommage à Marcel Duchamp).[16][17] Duchamp's 1910 painting The Chess Game depicts his brothers Raymond Duchamp-Villon and Jacques Villon playing chess in the garden of Villon's studio.[18] Another Duchamp painting from the following year again depicts his brothers at the chess table.[19] Duchamp wrote a book titled Opposition and Sister Squares Are Reconciled which was published in 1932.[20] Man Ray and Duchamp are seen playing chess in René Clair's film Entr'acte.[21] A book titled Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess was published in 2009.[22]
Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris were also chess players, and both made many references to the game in their work.[23][24]
The design of Bauhaus professor Josef Hartwig's early 1920s chess set uses the shape of each piece to indicate its permitted movement.
Artists such as
In literature
Poems
- Versus de scachis (c. 997), earliest known reference to chess in a European text
- Scachs d'amor (Catalan: Chess of Love) (late 15th century). Describes a game between Mars and Venus
- De ludo scachorum (On the Game of Chess) (early 16th century) by Francesco Bernardino Caldogno . A collection of chess gameplay advice in poetic form
- Scaccia ludus (1527) by Mercury on Mount Olympus
- Chess (c. 1565) by Jan Kochanowski. An epos parody which portrays a game of chess as a battle between two armies
- Caissa, or the game of chess (1772) by William Jones. Inspired by ancient Greek mythology, the poem tells the story of dryad Caissa, with whom Mars falls in love. In an attempt to win her heart, Mars asks the god of sport to create a gift for Caissa. The god creates the game of chess
- A Game of Chess, a section in The Waste Land (1922) by T. S. Eliot
- The Game of Chess included in Dreamtigers (1960), a poem (two sonnets) by Jorge Luis Borges
Novels
- Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) by Lewis Carroll. The book is chess-themed. Most main characters in the story are represented as chess pieces, with the main protagonist, Alice, being a pawn
- The Twelve Chairs (1928) by Ilf and Petrov, partially taking place at a chess club
- The Defense (1930) by Vladimir Nabokov. The main character, Aleksandr Luzhin, suffers from mental problems because of his obsession with chess
- The Royal Game (1942), a novella by Stefan Zweig
- All the King's Horses (1951) by Kurt Vonnegut, also included in Welcome to the Monkey House(1968)
- John and the Chess Men (1952) by Helen Weissenstein, a children's novel introducing the game of chess. The author competed in several US women's championships.
- From Russia, with Love (1957) by Ian Fleming, part of the James Bond series. One of the villains, Tov Kronsteen, is a chess grand master who applies chess principles to espionage
- The Chess Players (1960) by Frances Parkinson Keyes, a fictionalized account of the life of Paul Morphy.
- Forbidden Planet (1961) by Lionel Fanthorpe using the pseudonym John E. Muller, which describes an interstellar chess game played by superhuman entities using humans as pawns.
- John Brunner, structured after the famous 1892 chess game between Wilhelm Steinitz and Mikhail Chigorin.
- Invisible Cities (1972) by Italo Calvino
- The Westing Game (1978) by Ellen Raskin
- Szachista (Napoleon Bonaparte and The Turk
- The Queen's Gambit (1983) by Walter Tevis.
- The Tower Struck By Lightning (1983) by Fernando Arrabal
- The Discworld series (since 1983) by Terry Pratchett features a chess variant called Stealth Chess, which adds an assassin piece to the game. It is described in The Discworld Companion (1994)
- Unsound Variations (1987), a novella by George R. R. Martin included in Portraits of His Children
- The Eight (1988) by Katherine Neville. The main character, Catherine Velis, tries to recover the pieces of a chess set once owned by Charlemagne[9]
- The Joy Luck Club (1989) by Amy Tan
- crime novel
- The Lüneberg Variation (1993) by Paolo Maurensig
- Harry Potter series (1997–2007) by J. K. Rowling. The series fictional universe features wizard's chess, a chess variant where the pieces are similar to living beings, to which the players give orders by voice
- Grubbs Grady, lives in a family of chess players
- Dissident Gardens (2013) by Jonathan Lethem. Uncle Lenny, who once played Bobby Fischer to a draw as a participant in a simultaneous exhibition in which Fischer defeated everyone else, destroys the chess confidence and ambitions of the young Cicero.
- Zugzwang (2006) by Ronan Bennett. St Petersburg tournament 1914. Chess, psychoanalysis, murder, intrigue, terrorism.
Short stories
- Striding Folly (1939) by Dorothy L. Sayers
- The Immortal Game (1954) by Poul Anderson, inspired by the 1851 game played by Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky
- Quarantine (1977), a short story by Arthur C. Clarke, about an extraterrestrial civilization which discovers chess after visiting Earth[30]
- Unicorn Variation (1983) by Roger Zelazny, included in Unicorn Variations
Comics
- Superman: Red Son (2003)
Plays
- The Tempest (1610) by William Shakespeare
- A Game at Chess (1624) by Thomas Middleton
- Endgame (1957) by Samuel Beckett
- Der Seekadett (known in English as The Royal Middy and in Italian as Lo Scacchiere della Regina) (1876) by Richard Genée, the name borrows from Seekadettenmatt.[31]
In film and television
Feature films, short films and made-for-TV films
- A Chess Dispute (1903), a one-minute comedy by British film pioneer Robert W. Paul. Earliest known film with a chess theme.
- Dadaist film by René Clair
- Chess Fever (1925), a short Soviet comedy film featuring a cameo appearance by José Raúl Capablanca.
- Casablanca (1942), the character Rick Blaine, played by Humphrey Bogart, analyzes a game. (Bogart was also an avid chess player in real life.)[32]
- A Matter of Life and Death (1946), main characters play chess, Alekhine book has a plot role and Philidor is mentioned[33]
- The Seventh Seal (1957), centered on a game of chess between a medieval knight and the personification of Death
- Through The Looking Glass
- No Name on the Bullet (1959), a Western movie with chess scenes that symbolize how the main characters are trying to outsmart each other
- From Russia with Love (1963), based on the Ian Fleming novel of the same name, as mentioned above
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), features a game of chess played between the HAL 9000computer an astronaut, Frank Poole
- Grossmeister (1972), Soviet film about the rise of a young grandmaster
- The Chess Players (1977), one of the subplots tells the story of two men obsessed with shatranj
- Black and White Like Day and Night (1978), German Television film directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starring Bruno Ganzas a deranged chess player challenging the Soviet World Champion
- Mystery of Chessboxing(1979)
- Blade Runner (1982), the replicant Roy Batty and his creator Eldon Tyrell play a game of chess (based on the Immortal Game)
- Dangerous Moves (1984), about two men competing in the World Chess Championship Games
- Mighty Pawns (1987)
- Knight Moves (1992), about a chess grandmaster who is accused of several murders
- Searching for Bobby Fischer (1993), based on the life of Joshua Waitzkin
- Fresh (1994)
- The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
- Independence Day (1996), features one of the main characters, David Levinson, playing chess with his father in New York City; later, David realizes that the aliens have set their ships across the world like that in chess and plan to attack
- animated short filmabout an old man named Geri who adopts two personalities to play chess with himself
- The Luzhin Defence (2000), based on the Nabokov's book The Defense mentioned above
- Charles Xavier and Magnetoboth have a passion for chess and play it in many of their scenes together
- The Chronicles of Riddick (2004) briefly features prison guards playing chess against mercenaries, using live ammunition for pieces
- Knights of the South Bronx (2005), about a teacher who helps students at a tough inner-city school to succeed by teaching them to play chess
- Revolver (2005)
- Queen to Play (2009)
- Bobby Fischer Against the World (2011), an HBO original documentary directed by Liz Garbus premiered on June 6, 2011; explores the complex life of Fischer.[36]
- Life of a King (2013), an ex-con teaches chess to inner city high school kids
- The Dark Horse (2014), about a bipolar man who helps at-risk youth by teaching them chess
- Pawn Sacrifice (2014), a dramatised account of Bobby Fischer's 1972 match with Boris Spassky
- Wicked Blood (2014), about a teenage girl trying to escape a criminal family, with a chess poem interwoven among the plot shifts – one of her uncle's was once the state champ
- Lou (2022), Lou, the title character, mentions that her son once beat her in chess at only 5 years old. Later in the film we see a flashback to the game in question.
Television series
- Noggin the Nog (1959–1965). The characters' design is inspired by the Lewis chessmen.[37]
- Star Trek (since 1966), several episodes feature a Tri-Dimensional chess variant
- Mission: Impossible (1966–1973) one episode "A Game of Chess", season 2, episode 17, features cheating in a chess tournament by using a computer.
- The Prisoner (1967–1968) one episode ("Checkmate") features outdoor chess using people as pieces
- Land of the Giants (1968–1970). The season two episode "Deadly Pawn" features the castaways as chess pieces in a game for their lives.
- The Most Dangerous Match" (1973),season 2, episode 7, has Lt. Columbo match wits with a murderous chessmaster.[38]
- Doctor Who, in the episode The Curse of Fenric (1989), features chess as a theme, both the physical game and as a metaphor for the events of the story.
- Pete Martell and Dale Cooper discuss chess moves. A chess board diagram highlighting the Capablanca-Marshallgame from 1909 covers a painting of a tree on the background wall.
- The X-Files series, in "The End" episode (1998)
- The West Wing (1999–2006), in the episode "Hartsfield's Landing" (2002)[39]
- Last Exile (2003), an anime series. All the episodes are named after chess-related terms (see the list of episodes)
- Code Geass (2006–2007), an anime series
- The Jerk" (2007), about a prodigy with behavioral problems
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008–2009) – the origin of the Skynet organization is a computer chess program; chess tournament is featured in season one episodes
- season ten(2009), in which a young genius is seen obsessing over a chess game
- The Wire (2002–2008), Dee uses the game of chess to explain the drug trade to Bodie and Wallace.
- Endgame (TV series), (2011) Canadian television series that follows former World Chess Champion Arkady Balagan who uses his analytical skills to solve crimes
- Cybermen
- The Queen's Gambit, a 2020 Netflix adaptation of the 1983 novel by Walter Tevis, starring Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon, a chess prodigy.
In painting
As the popularity of the game became widespread during the 15th and 16th centuries, so too did the number of paintings depicting the subject.[40] Continuing into the 20th century, artists created works related to the game often taking inspiration from the life of famous players or well-known games. An unusual connection between art and chess is the life of Marcel Duchamp, who in 1923 almost fully suspended his artistic career to focus on chess.[41][42][43]
- I Giocatori di Scacchi (The Chess Players) (c. 1590) by Ludovico Carracci
- Arabes jouant aux échecs (Arabs Playing Chess) (1847) by Eugène Delacroix
- Les Joueurs d'échecs (The Chess Players) (1863) by Honoré Daumier
- The Chess Players (1876) by Thomas Eakins
- The Veterans (1886) by Richard Creifelds
- La famille du peintre (1911) by Henri Matisse
- Portrait de joueurs d'echecs (Portrait of Chess Players) (1911) by Marcel Duchamp
- Femme à côté d'un échiquier (1928) by Henri Matisse
- Super Chess (1937) by Paul Klee
- A lot of paintings by Samuel Bak
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Moors from Andalusia playing chess, Book of Games by King Alfonso X, 1283
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Niccolò di Pietro, 1413–15, The Conversion of Saint Augustin, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon
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Lucas van Leyden, c. 1508, The Game of Chess, oil on oak, 27 x 35 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
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Liberale da Verona, The Chess Players, c. 1475 (The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
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Paris Bordone, c. 1545, Chess players, oil on canvas, Mailand, Wohnhaus
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Antonis Mor, 1549, Von Sachsen vs. a Spaniard
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Hans Muelich, 1552, Duke Albrecht V. of Bavaria and his wife Anna of Austria playing chess
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Karel van Mander, 1600 (attributed to), Les joueurs d'échecs
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Edward Harrison May, 1867, Lady Howe mating Benjamin Franklin
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Honoré Daumier, 1863, The Chess Players
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The Chess Players
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Richard Creifelds, c. 1886, The Veterans, Brooklyn Museum
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John Lavery, 1929, The Chess Players
In video games
- Parasite Eve II (2000) features GOLEMs, villainous genetically enhanced cyborg super soldiers that are divided into different types named after chess pieces: Pawn GOLEMs, Rook GOLEMs, Knight GOLEMs, and Bishop GOLEMs, plus a unique leader known as No. 9 (King GOLEM).
- Killer7 (2005)
- Deadly Premonition (2010)
- Baba Is You (2019) features the objects Pawn and Knight in its level editor.
In music
- Checkmate, a ballet by the composer Arthur Bliss
- In 1968, the composer photoelectric cells underneath the chessboard.[44]
- Chess, a musical by Tim Rice and Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson of ABBA
- The game is referenced in Wu-Tang Clan songs such as "Da Mystery of Chessboxin'". "I love the game of chess", explained founder RZA. "The person who taught me chess was the girl who took my virginity. She was pretty good at chess and the pussy was even better. Now I take that shit seriously. I hate losing."[45] In 2005 Wu-Tang Clan member GZA released an album entitled Grandmasters in which every track had a chess theme.
- Songwriter, musician, and Nobel Laureate Bob Dylan is a chess player.
See also
References
- ^ a b c d Litmanowicz (1974), p. 13
- S2CID 162079385.
- ^ Sonja Musser Golladay (2007). "Los Libros de Acedrex Dados E Tablas: Historical, Artistic and Metaphysical Dimensions of Alfonso X's Book of Games". University of Arizona. Archived from the original on 2011-07-17. Retrieved 6 August 2010.
- ^ The Immortal Game: A History of Chess
- ^ Raymond Keene (10 March 2008). "Renaissance chess master and the Da Vinci decode mystery". The Times. Retrieved 2022-12-04.
- ^ "Experts link Leonardo da Vinci to chess puzzles in Renaissance treatise". Winnipeg Free Press. 14 March 2008. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
- ^ Litmanowicz (1974), p. 11
- ^ Litmanowicz (1974), p. 12
- ^ a b "Elenco romanzi e racconti sul gioco degli scacchi" [List of novels and short stories on chess]. Terni Scacchi (in Italian). Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
- ^ a b Litmanowicz (1974), p. 14
- ^ Roesch vs Willi Schlage (1910) in chessgames.com
- ^ Tim Krabbé. "Open chess diary 1–20 (entry 3)". Tim Krabbé's blog. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
- ^ Harold C. Schonberg (8 May 1998). "Does Anyone Make a Bad Move In 'Chess'?". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-04-27.
- OCLC 319214976.
- ^ "Dont forget. Marcel Duchamp. A game of chess with Man Ray and Dalí". Murcia Today. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
- ^ Dalí, Salvador. "Echecs (Hommage à Marcel Duchamp)". Christie's. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
- ^ "Imagery of chess exhibition brochure, Duchamp Research Portal". www.duchamparchives.org. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
- ^ "The Chess Game". philamuseum.org. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
- ^ "Portrait of Chess Players". philamuseum.org. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
- ^ Castle, Jack (2020-03-31). "'Finding the right move': Marcel Duchamp and his passion for chess". Christie's. Retrieved 2022-12-14.
- ^ "René Clair. Entr'acte. 1924 | MoMA". The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2022-12-04.
- ^ Oisteanu, Valery (2009-11-05). "Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess". The Brooklyn Rail. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
- ^ Picasso, Pablo. "Chess, Paris, autumn 1911". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
- ^ Gris, Juan. "Chessboard, Glass, and Dish". Philadelphia Museum of Art. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
- ^ Turk, Gavin. "The Mechanical Turk". Christie's. Retrieved 2022-12-04.
- ^ "Tim Noble & Sue Webster – DeadAlive, 2012". www.timnobleandsuewebster.com. Retrieved 2022-12-04.
- ^ "Yayoi Kusama, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Paul McCarthy and Tom Friedman star in The Art of Chess | art | Agenda | Phaidon". www.phaidon.com. Retrieved 2022-12-04.
- ^ "7 Chess Sets Designed by Famous Artists". Widewalls. Retrieved 2022-12-03.
- ^ "Checkmates: how artists fell in love with chess". the Guardian. 2012-09-06. Retrieved 2022-12-04.
- ^ Arthur C. Clarke. "Quarantine". IBM. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
- ISBN 9781527505292.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-12-17.
- ISBN 0-8517-0479-4. A chess game as a metaphor for the struggle for life eleven years before Bergman's The Seventh Seal: to Powell and Pressburger the idea may have been suggested by the death of Alekhine in 1946, the very year in which they made this film.
- ^ "The Actual Chess Endgame in the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Movie". The-Leaky-Cauldron.org. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
- ^ "The Jeremy Silman (Harry Potter position) - Chess Forums". Chess.com. Retrieved 2023-12-10.
- ^ hbo.com
- ^ "The Saga of Noggin the Nog". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 31 July 2010.
- ^ "Columbo: Season 2, Episode 7". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2024-02-20.
- ^ Heisler, Steve (15 August 2011). "The West Wing: "Hartsfield's Landing"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2021-12-28.
- ^ Władysław Litmanowicz, Dykteryjki i ciekawostki szachowe (Chess trivia and anecdotes), in Polish. Warsaw: Sport i Turystyka. 1974, pp. 11–27
- ^ "Marcel Duchamp." Kynaston McShine.1989.
- ^ ""Becoming Duchamp" by Sylvère Lotringer". Toutfait.com. Retrieved 2014-05-11.
- ^ Brady, Frank: Bobby Fischer: profile of a prodigy, Courier Dover Publications, 1989; p. 207.
- ^ ""Becoming Duchamp" by Sylvère Lotringer". Toutfait.com. Archived from the original on 12 March 2013. Retrieved 11 May 2014.
- ^ Wilkinson, Roy (July 1997). "One of these men is God". Select: 60.
Further reading
- Raabenstein, Peter (2020). Chess In Art. Prague: HereLove. ISBN 978-8090577657.
- ISBN 0713462140.
- Fox, Mike; James, Richard (1994). The Even More Complete Chess Addict. London: Faber & Faber. ISBN 0571170404.
- ISBN 0-19-280049-3
- Litmanowicz, Władysław (1974). Dykteryjki i ciekawostki szachowe [Chess trivia and anecdotes] (in Polish). Warsaw: Sport i Turystyka. pp. 11–27.
- Griffin, Jonathan (2014). The Twenty First Century Art Book. Paul Harper, David Trigg, Eliza Williams. London. )
External links
- Chess In Art (Streatham and Brixton Chess Club)
- McClain, Dylan (May 22, 2009). "Chess on Film". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-05-24.
- "Elenco romanzi e racconti sul gioco degli scacchi" [List of novels and short stories on chess]. Terni Scacchi (in Italian). Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 2 August 2010.
- “Chess in Fiction” by Edward Winter
- Picasso and the Chess Player: Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, and the Battle for the Soul of Modern Art