A HISTORY OF CHESS

Chess, perhaps the most

internationally popular pas
time, is a fascinating subject
for study. This book sets out,
in as entertaining a manner as
possible,

to follow

all

the

intricacies of the colourful

history of the game.
With innumerable illustra
tions in black and white and
full colour accompanying the
very lively text, even the
non-player could not fail to be
fascinated by this History
from its obscure beginnings
in the mysterious East, with
all

the

intrigue

associated

with its evolution, into the

game as we know it today.
The editor of the English
edition, Mr. B. H. Wood, has
written a special chapter on
the Anglo-Saxon aspects of
the game, as well as devoting
a considerable amount of
time and energy to the revi
sion of the original text, and
the end product, which you
hold befare you, must surely
be a tribute to his efforts.

SOCIAL SGIENCES

(Reprocessed with Scan Tailor by jparra, 2012-06-04)

JERZY GIYCKI

ABISTORY
OFCBESS

794.1
G52z

.
'A

2
In In
o

THE

ABBEV LIBRARV,

LDNDDN

Original title Z SZACHAMI PRZEZ WIEKI 1 KRAJE

Copyright by "Sport i Turystyka" Warszawa
Chapter "Chess in Britain" by B. H. Wood
Translated from Polish by A. Wojciechowski, D. Ronowicz, W. Bartoszewski
Graphic design by T. Kowalski

First published in 1960 in Polish by

"Sport i Turystyka"

English text edited by B. H. Wood

l. S. B. N. 07196 0086 3

1972 Murray's Sales and Service Co. London

VANrOU\':i Pl.n! IC LIBRARY

CONT ENT S
page

l.

II.

111.

IV.

V.

A LITTLE HISTORY. The origin of chess. India or China?

Popularization of the garne of chess by the Persians and Arabs.
Migration of chess to the East and West. Chess in Russia. The develop
ment of chess theory and literature. The first grand masters. Chess in
Poland. The chessmen of Sandomierz. The modern era in chess history. International chess tournaments. The game of chess today. . .

CHESS IN BRITAIN. A little historical information. A chess co

lossus. The first intcrnational chess tournarnent. The timing of play.
London players dominate. J. H. Blackbume. Hastings enters the
picture. H. E. Atkins. The British Chess Federation stirs. Scotland and
Ireland. A medley of congresses. The universities. Chess by post.
A proud record. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

49

RAMIFICATIONS OF CHESS (Close and Distant Relatives of

Chess). "Birth certificate" of chess. Changes in the rules of the
garne. The evolution of the chessboard and men. The Indian gamc
"Chatrang." Thc Royal Garne. Great Chess. Tamerlane's chess. The
Courier's Game. Zatrikion. Chess in China. Shogi. Egyptian board
games. Draughts. Wei-chi. Latrinculi. "Rhythmomachy." War chess.
Typcs and variants of the modern chess game. . . . . . . . .

65

CHESS AND MATHEMATICS. The chessboard and geometrical

progression. Knights' problems. Euler's problem. Magic squares.
Knights' tours. Chess problems with queens and rooks. The
number of combinations of piece positions. The number of variants
of the game. Attempts at a mathematical theory of chess: "Introduc
tion to the Theory of Garnes." The proof of the absolute character
("categoricalness") of chess. A draw or a win for a particular party?
Abolishment of the ''theory of the draw": suggestions by Alekhine and
Capablanca. "The Mathematics of Chess Playing" by R. W. Martn.

95

SPORT, SCIENCE OR ART? The manifold character of chess play.

The essence of chess. "Morals of Chess" by B. Franklin. The psy
chology of chess play. Opinions on the role of chess. Considerations
on sport: Synthesis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

VI.

CHESS AND MACHINES. Kcmpelen and his mechanical chess

player. "Maclzel's Chess Player" by E. A. Poe. The story of the
Lieutenant Woronski. "Thc Chess Playcr" by Marseillier and Charet.
Screen plays on chess thcmcs. "Checkmate" by L. Niemojowski.
Computing machines. Electronic computers playing chcss. A master
robot. A contest of clcctronic brains. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

131

VII. LOVE AND WAR AT THE CHESSBOARD. Conncctions bctwcen

chess and the military. Terminology. Stylistic phrases. Modero pol
iticians and chess. Linguistic, literary and philosophical metaphors.
Chess as a means of expression of satire. Personificd figures. War
analogies. Conflicts at the chessboard. Duels. Fight for a lady.
"Check to the Queen." The love game. . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
VIII. LIVING CHESS. "Thc Strife of Lovc in a Dream." Chcss mas
querades and tournaments. "Live Chess" at Dame Quintessence's
court. Chess pageantry in Europe and China. Chess "Mysteries"
the duel at Marostica. "A Game of Chess" by C. Libelt. The incident
at the Globe. Chess ballets on the stage and in the cinema.
Reconstructions of famous battles. . .
. . . . . . . . . .

189

IX.

WHO ANO WHEN? Crowncd heads and chess: Charlemagne,

Alfonso the Wise, Tamerlane, !van the Terrible, Jan III Sobieski,
Charles XII, Catherine II, Napolcon. Politicians and military com
manders: Robespierre, Kosciuszko, Lafayette, Machiavelli. Philos
ophers and scientists: Luther, Leibnitz, Franklin, Buckle, Marx,
Lcnin. Writcrs: Kochanowski, Montaigne, Voltaire, Rousseau,
Diderot, Goethe, Mickiewicz, Pushkin, Tolstoy, Sienkiewicz, Irzy
kowski, Carroll. Painters: Rembrandt, Matejko. Composers and
virtuosi: Philidor, Chopin, Mcnuhin, Prokofiev. Among the film
makers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205

X.

CHESS IN POETRY AND PROSE. "A History of Chess" by

H. J. R. Murray. "The Book of Kings" by Firdausi. "Chess" by
Kochanowski. Vida. "Caissa" by W. Jones. "Frithiof's Saga" by
E. Tegner. Pocms: Pasternak, Dunsany, Tuwim, Stern. "The Game
of Chess" by K. Libelt. "Check and Checkmate" by L. Niemo
jowski. "The Royal Game" by S. Zweig. "Chess" by M. Jokai.
"Playcrs and Bunglers" and "The Emancipated Womcn" by B. Prus.
"Beniowski" by W. Sieroszewski. "Twelve Chairs" by Ilf and
Petrov. "Schach of Wuthenow" by T. Fontane. "Thc Wooden
Horse" by K. Brandys. "Goetz von Berlichingen" by W. Goethe.
Stage plays with chess themes: "Beat Philidor" opera. "The Victory"
by K. Irzykowski. In the circle of painters. Film art on chess: "Chess
7

V. Pudovkin, "The Seventh Seal" by l. Bergman, "The

King's Little Tragedy" by Groschop, "8 x 8" by H. Richter.
"The Tournament" by W. Nehrebecki. . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

Fever" by

XI.

CHESS CURIOSITY BOX. Blindfold chess. Chess by post. In

prison and prison camp. Strictly confi.dential. Chess collections.
Art,

in the large and the miniature. Chess in postage stamps. Zoo

logical curiosities. Devil's -work. Enter the detective. Infant prodigies. The chess village. The chess fan, unknown stranger.

309

INDEX OF AUTHORS OF ILLUSTRATIONS

371

INDEX OF PHOTOGRAPHERS .

372

SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS

373

l. A LITTLE HISTORY

The Polislz ''lflczele" coat of arms, dating back to tlze days of King Bolcslaw Krzyrousry (12th century) has tzvo chessboards
and its genealogy

10

can

be traced bacll to a srory connected with a game of chess.

Chess! Everybody has heard of this ancicnt

game. How old is it? Does anybody know pre
cise! y? Archaeology and the study of ancient docu
ments have brought to light many evidences of,
and references to, chess as well as related gamcs,
but no definite date of origin has been established.
As far as can be ascertained, the gamc dates
back to the middle of the sixth cennuy.
H.J.R. Murray, the eminent British orientalist
and author of the classic History of Chess
(1913), stated categorically that it originated in
India about A.D. 570. (Later he became less
categoric, conceding that the absence of earlier
references to the game was only inferential
indication of its non-existence - B.H. Wood).
By chess we mean, of course, a game basically
that of today. Many vaguely similar board
games can be traced back much earlier. These
games were based on other principies. Therefore,
we should accept the year 570 as certain and at
least proved, since proof can be found for it in
ancient literature and history. Chess is mentioned
in a Persian poem of the year 600 in which it is
said to have come from India. A book in Persian
of 650-750 describes its introduction into Persia
during the reign of Chosroes I Anuschirvan
(531-579). Chess terminology, the names of the
pieces and the rules were described in consider
able detail.
To support his date, Murray argues that
there is no mention of chess earlier than 570.
For instance, in 399-414 a Chinese traveller,
Fa-Hien, wrote about India in detail without
mentioning chess although he described various
games and pastimes. Besides, we should remember
that between 450 and 550 India was ruined by
invading Huns who were only routed by Chos
roes l.
The Persian poet Firdausi, living at the turn
of the 10th century, often refers to chess. In one
of his poems, he tells of the arrival of envoys of
an lndian rajah at the Court of the Persian Shah
Chosroes 1 bringing gifts which included a game
depicting a battle of two armies.

Chess began to spread around the world when

Persia was conquered by the Arabs.
Can the origin of chess be pushed further back?
Sorne historians maintain that a similar game
was playcd in India as early as thc 15th century
B.C. and that the story about thc chessboard
and the grains of wheat or rice (see Chapter
III), originated about 1000 B.C. The story based
on the power of a geometrical progression to
produce numbers of astronomical size could be
based on any similar board: there is no necessary
connection with chess.
Discoveries in Egypt, Iraq and India havc
from time to time given rise to rumours that chess
was played 3000 years ago but these rumours
have always proved to be without substance.
In the Archaeological Museum at Odessa there
is a big photographic copy of a fresco of the
1st century A.D. from a Black Sea town. It
shows figures of warriors on horseback and a large
two-coloured chessboard. It is not known whether
this depicts sorne game, or a military array.
Fanciful legends have been numerous. The
game, said one, was devised by Palamedes, the
Greek king, when he and his warriors became
bored during the protracted siege of Troy. The
Greeks did not seem to take to the game, and
never played it until they re-learnt it from the
Arabs centuries later. Chess in its origin in India
was a four-sided game, its name chaturanga or
chatrang being derived from the Indian word
for urour." Though it has been established
beyond doubt that there were four sets of pieces,
theories of the origin of chess have been advanced
quite recently which completely ignore the fact.
One eccentric, F. Villot, presented in Paris in
1825 a tract on the astronomical and cabalistic
sources of the game of chess claiming that it had
been invented by Egyptian priests. Magical set
ups of numbers and pieces on the chessboard
were linked with astrological symbols of the Egyp
tian calendar.
It was not until 1951 that the Yugoslav scholar
Professor Pavel Bidev presented an interesting
11

lvory chessmen made in India in the 18th century after the stylc of ancient Hindu sets.

and diversely founded thesis tracing connections

between chatrang and ideas of the mystics; these
mystics were Indian, not Egyptian. The game
was meant to illustrate the four elements: earth,
air, fire and water, or the four seasons, or the
four "humours" of man. Chatrang itself might
be an allegory of the universe. The movements of
the pieces on the board trace the outlines of geo
metrical symbols of various elements, taken from
religious rituals: the queen was a symbol of
fire or a triangle; the rook of earth or a square;
the bishop of air or a six-pointed star; and the
knight of water or a section of a circle. The king
was the paramount symbol: ether or full circle.
This theory of the genealogy of chatrang may
possibly set its date of origin further back, but
a lot more evidence is needed.
Chess was brought to the West, suffering slight
changes on the way, by the Arabs. Migrating to
the east, it took on other forms, the Korean, Bur
mese, Chinese and Japanese varieties all di.ffering.
Despite varying names, we are undoubtedly deal12

ing with essentially the same game: the aim is

uniformly to mate the principal enemy piece,
and the moves of the men are similar.
Chinese historians do not fully accept the
thesis of birth in India. They maintain that pos
sibly Chinese :md Indian chess originated from
sorne common ancestor, so far unrevealed. That
the earliest mention of chess in Chinese literature
known so far, dates from the 8th century A. D.
supports the theory of an Indian origin. It is
hard to determine indisputably whether Chi
nese chess originated from India or vice versa;
there are many legends in both countries, credit
ing the invention of the game to various mythi
cal heroic figures and but few real people.
It can, at any rate, quite safely be stated that chess
was known in both countries by the 8th cen
tury.
The Soviet journalist G. Rokhlin wrote:
"There is no doubt that chess was not invented
by one man but is a result of collective, popular
creation." Another Soviet author, B. Vainshtein,

Buimese chessmen in that country's traditional style. From th.e Pitt-Rivers collection.

extended this thought saying: "In its present

form, chess is a result of popular creation, and
not of one but of many nations." (H. J. R. Murray
definitely thought otherwise; that it was probably
substantially the invention of one man B. H. Wood).
In tracing the history of chess much assistance
has been furnished by philologists.
The Polish orientalist F. Machalski wrote:
". . . The origin (of chess) is Indian without
doubt. In the Persian literature of the Sassanid
period (A.D. 242-651) there was a work written
in the Pahlavi language (Middle Persian) entitled
Chatrang namakwor, A Manual of Chess. The
word chatrang (in New Persian at first shatranj,
and shatranj up to the present day) was taken by
the Persians unchanged from the Sanskrit where
chatur meant four, and anga meant a part or
a detachment ...
"Besides, we know from history that chess was
brought to lran from India together with the
works of the famous fabulist Bidpai (or Pilpay)

at the time of the Sassanid ruler Chosroes 1...

From the Persians, the game of chess was borrow
ed by the Arabs in the 7th century, together
with the name, spelt shitranj
in present day
chess nomenclature, we clearly discem three
linguistic layers, representing three different
cultural periods or even three distinct cultures:
Indo-Persian, Arabian, and European. Here are
the Arabian names: (1) al-shah ('king'); (2)
al-f"rrzan (literally 'sage', 'scientist'); (3) al-fil
('elephant'); (4) al-faras ('rider'); (5) al-rokh
('castle', 'tower') and (6) al-beizaq ('foot-sol
dier') . . . The name 'chess' was originally derived.
from the principal piece which the Persian called.
the Shah, i.e. king. 'Mate' comes from the word
mat (literally 'dead'), an Arabian, not a Persian
word."
The Arabs contributed a lot to the develop
ment of the game. Blindfold play was mentioned
as early as 700 A.D. The first toumaments and
qualifying contests were recorded in the second
half of the 8th century, chess problems started
. .

13

( king) carved in wood, painted in coloured

ornamented with precious and semi-precious stones. From the
llammond collection.

A 17th century Malayan chessman

lacquer

14

and

in 800, and 50 years later carne the fust book

on chess written by Al-Adli.
The Moors brought chess to Spain, the first
reference to chess in the Christian world being
in the Catalonian Testament of 1010. The game
was well known, however, much earlier than this.
In France chess was patronized by Charlemagnc
(8th-9th centuries) who was even said to have
received a fine set as a gift from the famous
Harun-al-Rashid. Chess sets wrongly described
as Charlemagne's in many museums are of later
date, as the costumes of certain personalized
pieces make evident.
Poetry, which does not necessarily give facts
precisely, placed chess in France and Celtic lands
in the reign of the legendary King Arthur and
his knights of the Round Table.
France's first woman poet, Marie de France
(12th century), described the following scene in
her romance of Eliduc:

Severa/
ro
w

chessmen

of a set

The King, rising from high cable,

Went to his daughter's chambers
To play at his beloved chess
With an invited foreign guest.
His daughter, sitting next to him,
W'as eager to learn chess, t'would seem.
Eliduc came, the King stopped play ...

Another great poet, the Norman, Broul, m

his romance of Tristram and Yseult also men
tioned chess as known in the period of King
Arthur.
To Germany chess carne in the 10th-11th cen
turies, the earliest refcrence in German literaturc
being by a monk, Froumund von Tegernsee, in
a Latn poem, "Ruodlieb," written in 1030-1050.
A chequerboard appears in the Croatian coat
of arms. It is said that Svetoslav Surinj beat the
Venetian Doge Peter II in a game for the right
to rule the Dalmatian towns.

repwed

ltave been Charlemagne's but

hich is from

/ater

period;

TOP: kiug, pawn, queen; BE

LOW: bishop (cmtre) and the

back en

of the kiug

a n d queeu.

15

Bar/y medituflal cmssmen found during excavation work

in Polish Pomerania. Dr(Jfl)ings (a and b) by M. RulnDicz
after the originals, tm rest takm from scientific publications.
a, b- wooden pawn and bislwp (Szczecin, JOrh cencury); e- wooden
pawn ( Gdarisk, 13rh cencury); d - wooden paum made on /ache (Ko
lol>rzeg, 10th cenrury ); e- bone CMSl piece (Wolin); f- bro11ze chess
piece (Wolin).

o
.
&
..

Chess reached England from ltaly through

Germany, and from Spain through France. lts
rapid spread and increase in popularity were wit
nessed by the fact that many old families in all
four of these countries incorporated chess devices
and mottoes in their coats of arms.
By the lOth-11 th centuries, it was known in
Scandinavia. A chess piece in the form of a man,
of Scandinavian workmanship, was found in 1831
on the lsle of Lewis in the Hebrides.
lt was in the 11th century that chess reached
Bohemia too, brought from Italy by wandering
Bohemian merchants.
To Russia chess came directly from the East,
quite likely in the 8th-9th centuries, the names
of the men to this day indicating Persian-Arabian
origins. The queen, "fyerzh" in Russian is a deri
vative of"vizier." The bishop is slon ("elephant")
and the rook ladia ("boat"), both derived from
Persian-Arabic. There is one theory that chess
was brought to Russia by the Tartars. There
have been unproven suggestions that chess was
independently brought in by the Teutonic
Knights from the North later on. The present
day European game came to Russia from ltaly,
via Poland among other routes.
The old Russian epic poems in blank verse
often mention chess as a really popular game.
Chess was an esteemed accomplishment of the
heroes whose praise they sang.
In the epic of Stavr Godinovich we find par
ticularly interesting references. Praising his wife,
he says:
Also, this young wife of mine
Plays well at both draughts and chess ...

'

Later on, Stavr's wife, eager to wrest her hus

band from the Prince's dungeon, gathers her
brave company:
Thirty brave master bowmen,

Chess and draughtsmen made of bone, Kiev (11th and 12th

Clnturies).

16

Thirty brave chess masters,

Thirty brave master singers ...

FROM THE LEFT: J. Arabian chess pice (king), 8th-9th centuries; 2. 12th century rook; 3. bishop of German make, 14th
cenrury; 4. Knight, Japanese sculpture of last century, after old artistic fonns.

Disguised as a man, a Greek envoy, she enters

the Prince's court, presenting an ultirnatum. De
laying his reply, the Prince entertains the envoy
and his company. At length, the Prince calls the
envoy to a chess tournament:
My dear guest and honourable envoy!
Maybe you'd play with me at draughts or
chess ( .. . )

They both sat at an oaken table

And had a chessboard brought over ( .. .)
So the young guest, the Jierce envoy,
Won the VJill of Prince Vladimir ...
In another epic, of Tsar Kalina and Prince
Vladimir, there is a mention that " ... they played
at draughts and cP,ess, a game from a foreign
land."

Russian 16th century chessmen: the bishops are elephants.

17

Scandinavian chmmen (ca. 12th century) jound on the 1sland of Lewis i11 the Hehrides.

Russian 16th century chessmen; the rooks are sailng hoats.

18

Woodcut from an Italian treatise of 1493.

19

Miniature with a diagram of

a

chess prob/em and a few liues

from

the

manuscript

of

the

Spanish king Alfonso the Wise

( 1283). The original is in

the

Escorial library.

An epic of Nikitich related that Prince Vladi

mir sent his envoys to K.ing Botyian of Lithua
nia. The King inquired whence they arrivcd
and whether:
In your country they play at Chess
Of this kind or tite German one? ...

Archaeological excavations near Kiev produced

draughts and chcss pieces made of bone in the
1 1th and 12th centuries. The chess figures, the
fyerzh (queen) and anothcr unidentifiable piece,
were delicately carvcd from one piece of bone,
known as a ufish tooth/' by local craftsmen.
At Novgorod, severa! chess pieces have been
found from sets dating back to the 12th-15th
centuries. This discovery was of great importance
historically for, being of characteristically Moslcm
abstraer designs, they proved indisputably that
the game of chess had arrived in Russia from Cen
tral Asia and the Middle East.
In many Christian countries in the Middle Ages
chess was forbidden by ecclesiastical authorities
20

because it was often abused for gambling. Saint

Bernard, writing in 1128 his regulations for the
Order of the K.nights Templars, cautioned that
'
they "should abhor chess as much as dice."
The Synodal regulations of Odo, the Bishop of
Pars of the 12th century, forbade the seminarists
to have chessmen in their rooms. In 1208, the
French Bishop de Sully forbade his clergy to
play chess at all, and in 1254, under the influence
of the Church, King Louis IX the Saint issued
an edict totally forbidding the game (although
he himself pussessed a fine set received as a gift
from Aladd.in) as useless and boring. Thc game
was also proscribed in Ruthenia and later in
Russia by the Orthodox Church which even saw
signs of paganism in it.
Still, nothing could hold back the spread of
the game. lts growing prestige was proved by
the fact it was the subject of numerous valuable
manuscripts and first prints, most of them monu
ments of culture and fine writing as well. Al-Adli's
Arabic treatise from the middle of the 9th cen-

tury, unfortunately lost, contained openings and

games, discussed the differences between the
Persian and Hindu rules and contained the first
chess problems called "mansubat."
A precious exhibit, discovered in a Yugoslav
library, was exhibited in 1958 at the Congress of
Problemists at Piran in Yugoslavia. It was an
Arabian manuscript of the turn of the 9th century,
hitherto unknown to chess historians, containing

mansubat, sorne connected with legends. There

is, for instance, one of the 10th century, called
"the Dilaram mate." Dilaram was the wife of
an Arab vizier, an ardent chess player who once
lost in the game all he possessed and f inally wag
ered his wife. The game went badly for the reckless
vizier and, judging by the situation on the board,
he should have lost. Yet, Dilaram noticed a pos
sibility of winning by sacrificing two rooks, she

Beautifully illuminated page of

a manuscript - the treatise on
games by Alfonso the Wise, with
a diagram of a chess problem
(13th cenrury).

21

Cover of
22

15th century French book

011

chess.

Ttvo wood egravingsfrom Caxto11's chess book (1474), o11e of che oldest prillts i11 E11gland.' a 111011k is solvi11g a chess prCJblem
(left); a king a11d a bishop sitting at te chessboard (right).

rnanaged to whisper this to her husband and saved

him for herself.
In 1167, the famous Spanish Rabbi, Abraham
Aben Ezra, wrote a poem about chess in Hebrew
which contained a description of a game between
the pieccs symbolizing the Ethiopians and the
Edornites. Thc game was conducted according
to the rules in force at the time in Arabian and
Spanish lands. Severa! dif ferent manuscripts are
ascribed to Ezra. In 1689, Thomas Hyde trans
lated the poem into Latn; in the 19th century,
it was translated into German by M. Steinshnei
der, who at the same time expressed doubts on
the authenticity of Ezra's authorship. Hcre is
a short extract of an English translation by Miss
Nina Davis (Song of Exile, p. 131, 1901):
... And zf by chance the King is caught
And enmared pitilessly in the net
And there is no way out to save himself,
And no escape to a strong city of refuge,
He is doomed and removed by the foe,;
There is no move to save him, and by death is he
mate ...

Another manuscript, by the Spanish king,

Alfonso the Wise in 1283, was the greatest work
on chess and other games in any European
language the Middle Ages have left us. It is
particularly important as a link between Arabian
and European chess literature. It contains 150
miniatures in colour, based on Persian originals,
providing a valuable picture of rnediaeval cus
toms, costume and interior design. Its chcss in
eludes a collection of end-gamcs derived from
Arabian literature, sorne varietics of ten- and
twelve-squarc chess and astronornical chess.
It is in the library at thc Escorial.
This \vork existed in onc copy only and was
not reproduced in manuscript form, but thc scc
ond famous chess work of thc Middle Ages,
an extensivc Latin trcatise by Jacobus de Cessolis,
was a real best-seller for centuries. A Dominican
monk from Rheims, de Cessolis wrote his book
towards the end of the 13th century (the year
usually quoted is 1275). The work is of a moral
izing character, chess being used as a basis for
ethical, moral, social, religious and poltica! pre23

Chess players in a garden. Ger

man 15th century copperplate.

cepts. De Cessolis infused not only chess play

but even the rules of the game with moral lessons.
His text was interspersed with numerous quota
tions from the Bible, from ecclesiastical and lay
writers and the classics. The result was quite an
unusual book, and an odd one for the reader of
today.
This treatise, "De moribus hominum ct de
offics nobilium super ludo scaccorum" (''n
the Customs of Men and Their Noble Actions
with Reference to the Game of Chess "), circulated
in many Latn copies and was translated into
German, French, Czech, etc. There are, for in
stance, ninc copies in the library of Prague and three
in Cracow. lt suffered from frequcnt adaptation
and plagiarism. It also inspired original national
versions in which the monk's old text was supple
mented with new ideas and precepts. The first
printed edition appeared in Latn in 1473. lt was
24

soon followed by numerous editions pnntcd in

other languages. "The Game and the Playe of
Chesse," published in 1474, one of the first books
ever printed in English, was a translation of the
Cessolis's original Latn by William Caxton,
as enthusiastic a chess player as he was famous
a printer.
Other famous chess morality books of this
kind included a manuscript by a German monk
from the Rhine Palatinate, Konrad von Ammen
hausen (1337), known from a printed edition
of 1520, and a manuscript by Doctor Jacobus
Menncl, an official scribe of Freiburg, printed
in 1507 in Constance - a rare tem nowadays.
In the Vienna Library there is the only copy of
a Czech manuscript by Toms of Stitn, a 14th
century author, the father of national Czech liter
ature. This was an adaptation of de Cessolis's
work, introducing notes about the country then

under the rule of Charles IV. Toms of Stitn's

work also got into print.
In 1956, it was issued in Prague in a fine philo
logical edition aKnizky o hfe sachov a jin"
("Books on Chess, and Other Works"). It ended,
characteristically of morality books:

Permit us, Jesus Christ our King,

always to play this way
and later enter perpetua! happiness.
Amen.
Morality texts were followed by books confined
more logically to the game alone. Thc guide to

Copperplate by Jacob van der Heyden from Selenus's work, 1616.

25

the gamc of chess by thc Spanish master Lucena

which appearcd in 1497 was the first book of
true chess theory.
A book by the Portuguesc, Damielano (or Da
miano), publishcd in 1512, won wide rcnown;
it was rich in problems and opening analyses.
Another work on chess theory, by Ruy Lpcz,
a splcndid Spanish chess master of the time, carne
out in 1561. In 1597 appcared a treatise by Gia
nutio (or Mantia), an Italian. This work sur
passed its predecessors in analysis of games and
cndings. A manual of chess play, by Salvio,
a fine Italian p1ayer, first published in 1604, went
through a host of editions. To the second edition,
in 1634, he added information on the history of
chess. For a long time afterwards, authors inserted
fragments of Salvio's books into their own works.
A book of chess by Selenus published in Leip
zig in 1616, was based almost wholly on thc works
of Lpez and the Italians. Selenus was a pseudo
nym used by Augustus the Younger, Duke of
Brunswick, a great enthusiast for chess play.
A treatise by the Italian Carrera, published in
1617, comprised more than 500 pages and contain-

ed much analytical material. A manual by a not

cd player, Gioacchino Greco ''Il Calabrese,"
printed in 1Rome in 1620, greatly influenced
chess theory and practicc. In 1625, Greco re-edit
cd his manual, altering the laws of castling ami
enlarging the end-games and analyscs sections.
This new edition appeared in print severa! years
later, after his death. He left in manuscript
much other material on the thcory of chess,
sorne of which was later published. About thirty
vcrsions of Greco's manuscript are known, in
a varicty of editions and translations. Such abun
dant literaturc - we have mentioned only rela
tively few of the books which appeared in thc
Middle Ages - could only havc originated frorn
a flourishing chess activity in which most of thesc
authors engaged. The end of the 16th and the
bcginning of the 17th centuries was a goldcn
age for chess in France and Spain - renowned
masters reigned, and sorne matches became ncws
all over Europe.
Ruy Lpez was a modest man in the small town
of Zafra in Spain. He had unusual talent for chess,
surpassing in his ability for combinations numer-

Chessmen of chilla covered with

coloured glaze, made in Russia,
mid-eighteenth celltury.

26

.1 Meissen china chessboard of the 18th century, purple-and

Set of chessmen made of ebo11y, torroise-shell and mother-of

green with drawings of personified chessmen in Oriental styl.

pearl, a gift from the Turkish sultan ro the Polislz hetman Adam

(Cracow National lHuseum).

Sieniawski in 1726 (Cracow National Museum).

T:.:.'o-lided board for pfayiug chess and mill, richly inlaid, which was in Baron Kronmberg's colfection in W'arsaw up to 1939.
1t was lost during the ruar.

27

Cheu at an old Polish

28

manor

house. An engraving dated 1872, after a drawing by Kruger.

ous players who were invited to the Court of

King Philip 11 from many lands. As a reward
for defeating several eminent playcrs in Rome
in 1572, he was presented by the King with an
award of several remunerativc church livings
and a fine golden chain with a golden rook pen
dant. He was an authority on problems of stra
tegy and openings, and bis work, "Libro de la
invencion liberal y arte del juego del Axedrez"
(''Book of the Liberal Invention and Art of
Playing Chess") established bis reputation as
a theoretician.
He was rivalled by an Italian, Giovanni Leo
nardo da Cutri, an ambitious player, who showed
great talent for chess. Defeated by Lpez, he
trained and prepared himself over a considerable
period, then travelled to Spain to challenge bis
vanquisher again. In a tense match staged at the

Royal Court in Madrid in 1575, which is depict

ed in a painting by L. Mussini, after losing
twice (apparently so as to raise the temperature
of the contest), he won three games in succession,
to take the match and with it a big money stake.
He also defeated other Spanish and Portuguese
masters. Mrer rcturning to Italy, he died from
poison administered by an unknown person said
to have been jealous of bis fame.
On bis journey to Spain, da Cutri was accom
panied by another prominent Italian, G.C. Polerio.
During the matches, Polerio wrote down the
games; thus he became not only one of the first
known "seconds" but also a forerunner of chess
tournament reporters.

Another biographer of da Cutri was A. Salvio,

LL.D., a theoretician and historian of chess, mas-

Chess p/ayers. French engraving

of the late 19th century, after
a painting

from the Algerian

cycle by E. Delacroix.

29

ter player and teacher of later famous chess

players. His pupils included Gioacchino Greco
"Il Calabrese" who defeated his master at the
age of 14. Greco won fame as a chess genius in
matches in France and England. Later on he visit
ed Spain, where his successes continued. He
agreed to accompany a certain Spanish grandee on
a voyage to the West Indies, where he died.
These encounters, the personalities of the
experts and the numerous books all no doubt
fostered increasing interest in the game. There
developed in southern Europe several strong cen
tres of chess from which interest spread to arcas
where chess had been the pastime of restricted
social groups or had not even spread beyond the
precincts of the court.

The exact date when chess arrived in Poland

is not known. Tradition has it that Polish knights
returning from the Crusades during the reign
of K.ing Boleslaw Krzywousty at the beginning
of the 12th century, brought it back with them
and taught it to their friends. The game - not
an easy one to all - must have spread slowly and
was known only among a few people for sorne
time but achieved considerable prestige in the
royal and ducal courts as a scope for intelligence
and wit. Ability at chess was regarded as one
of the accomplishments of a knight. Consequent
ly, chess became a frequent theme in heraldry
throughout the West.
A heraldic crest named Wczele, granted in
1103 during the reign of Boleslaw Krzywousty,

The Arabs did a /ot to popu/arize chess. Scene from the German film "Die Geschichte vom
kleinen Muck" (1954).

30

Alchough Clllirch authorities were oftm agaiwt playing chess, it zms a favourite game
teries. Scene from the Genna11

had a black and yellow chessboard on a shield

and a crowned Moorish woman bearing a smaller
chessboard. As explained in Polish books on
heraldry, the design was based on a legend.
". . . A Slovak named Holub visited the Moors
in his travels. He was famed for knightly valour
and a skillful chess pi ayer, too. When news of
his arrival reached the royal court, the king's
daughter who considcred hcrself a fine player,
challenged him to a game.
"Confident of victory, she proposed that thc
stake should be simply that the winner should
hit the loser on the head with the chessboard.
Though the Slovak refused for a long time to
agree to such a condition, the other insisted; he
won the game and exacted the penalty.

film

in monas

"Der Klosterj<iger" (1953).

''The Moorish king quite approved, and placed

both the board and the coloured princess on his
(Holub's) erest."
A chessboard device was incorporated on the
coat of arms of the Duchy of Legnica and Wroc
law, on the pennons of the Duchy of Legnica and
Brzeg in Silesia (13th century), and on the coats
of arms of the House of the Silesian Piasts and
thc old city of Kalisz (Calisia).
A chcss rook is quite common in heraldry.
''The Duke of Mazovia when gravcly preoc
cupied with wars, asked a knight named Pierz
chala to play chess with him to take his mind
off his troubles. Pierzchala mated him with a rook.
The Duke magnanimously placed the rook
on his crest and granted him an estate."
31

I India, rhe erad/e of chess, rhe game rerains its popularity

to this doy. Scme from the Indianfilm "Pardosi", (1939).

A game

of

chess in old Spain. Scene from rhe Spa11i;h

film "Locura de amor" (1953).

Chess sce11e from the Gennan silhouette film "Abenteuer

des Prinzen Achmed" (1926).

32

lnteresting crests with a chess motif have re

sulted from mergers. For instance the crest
named Wieruszowa (on a white shicld-a goat
half black and half chequered) perpetuates a union
of two noble families, onc of which had a goal
on its crest, the other a chessboard.
A controversy on the origin of the crest named
Zabawa (Play) has not been settled yet; one half
of the crest itself bears a chequerboard with black
and red squares. According to sorne opinions, it
originated from a fact of playing (holding back)
the enemy until the arrival of reinforcements.
There is, however, a more probable version of
this story, namely, that the name originated from
the game (play) of chess, and in a metaphorical
and symbolic way it recorded distinguished com
bat against an enemy, illustrated by a battle on
the chessboard.
The Arcemberski crest which appeared in
1630, shows a stag on a chessboard. It was bestow
ed by the Duke of Pomerania on one of his
courtiers. The Duke was playing chess at a hunt
when a stag sprang hard by but was soon brought
down with three arrows shot by the courtier.
More Polish crests with a chess motif are those
of Wyszogota, Karega, Kizinek, Szachman and
Pudwels.
Research by Polish archaeologists in connection
with the thousandth anniversary of the Polish
state - the crossroads of inftuence from East and
West - brought to light cbessmen from the
10th-13th centuries, excavated in Pomerania,
which indicated that chess had been spread by
sea trade routes as well as land.
Excavations in 1962 in Sandomierz, an old
Polish town on the Orient to North-West trade
routes - yielded a remarkable find of chessmen.
Chessmen are carved by hand (with no use of,
for example, a lathe) in animal bone (presumably
hartshorn). All are the same in colour - slightly
yellowish - and not over 25 mm in size (kings 25 and 23 mm., queens - 20 and 18 mm., rooks
-20 mm., bishops -20 and 18 mm., knights
-18 mm., and pawns-17 to 19 mm).

''Oh my lady answered Sharr-Khan, v.Jhoever plays with you must lose." lllustration to a tale
in the Arabian Nights. Drawing by Janina Petry-Przybylska

Individual pieces and pawns differ in detail of

workmanship and ornamentation, shape and size,
but they are easily distinguished into two oppo
site sets which, for reasons of convenience, will be
referred to in the text as "White" and "Black."
The forms of the chessmen are based on Arabic
patterns with their characteristic abstract shapes
avoiding representation of real things in compli
ance with the Islamic commands prohibiting the
reproduction of images of live things. The purely
geometrical shape of the chess pieces is but rem
iniscent of the symbolic features of f igura!
chessmen of India and Persia (e. g. the two pro
trusions on the specimens of a bishop represent
either elephant tusks or a couple of riders mount
ed on elephant; a single such protrusion on the
knight is a remnant of a rider on horseback; the boss
on the king piece is a monarch on an elephant, etc.).

Chns

was

The two opposite sets dif fer in the quality of

workmanship. The "White" (all chessmen, in
cluding two knights slightly dif fering in designone of them perhaps a later: addition - and only
five pawns, including a single unornamented one,
clearly a substitute) are more carefully made,
more lavishly ornamented and are less worn from
usage. The "Black" - the full set -are plainer in
design, shiny from wear, carved less accurately
and less ornamented. This seems to indicate that
in the game was used not a single combined unit of
two opposite issues of chessmen, but two individ
ual separate sets. Perhaps there was no observance
by manufacturers and traders of the rule of
making two sep:rrate 16-piece sets but the matter
was left to their discretion, a fact motivated by
the need to dif ferentiate the chessmen, which
were identical in colour.

a favourite game at the courts of the French an"stocrats. Scene from the French film "Les
visiteurs du Soir'' (1942).

33

During the reign of Elizabeth 1, chess was very popular in England. Scene from the American
film "The Sea Hawk" (1942) .
As early as the start oj the 19th century chess was played in Warsaw cafs. Scene from the
Polish film "Mlodost! Chopina" (Chopin's Youth) (1952) .

34

In a French salon of the First Empire, a comemporary drawing.

The question remains open whether the chess

by way of mediaeval Russia seems unquestionable.

sets of Sandomierz were manufactured locally or

This may have preceded even the Crusades

whether they were brought over from foreign

which provided a secondary route -in addition

lands. According to Mr and Mrs. GlJ.ssowski, the

to maritime trade centres -for propagation of

discoverers of the sets, it can be assumed that

the game.

the chessmen were a local product, with the addi

The thesis of the Arabic origin of chess in

tion that in producing them their maker dosel y

Poland has been further confirmed by recent find

imitated the Arabic chess pieces at that time popu

ings in Novgorod where archaeological excava

lar in the region. The ornarnentation of these

tions revealed a number of chess pieces ofthe Ar

sets which consists of linear cuttings and minute

abic type with many remarkable variants of shape,

circles, resembling that on Arabic products, is

workmanship, material and period of production.

not opposed to Slavonic decorative motifs. The

The chessmen of Sandomierz are undoubtedly the

local character of the chessmen seems to be also

oldest and most complete sets yet discovered.

reinforced by the fact that they were made of harts

(Novgorod pieces represent a large span of time,

horn, while in the case of the Arabic East ivory

and yet with the considerable number of pieces

would be more typical.

discovered they present no complete single set

The answer to the pertinent question must

of chessmen).

be left for further research, but the affinity of

the Sandomierz
Middle

Asia

chessmen with

and

Near

East

Today it is even harder to surmise what conclu

those of the
is,

sions a thorough analysis of findings atSandomierz

however,

undoubted. The penetration of chess to Poland

may lead to; and a great number of questions

concerning them yet awaits solution. One thing is,

35

chess set from the early mediaeval times is a rarity

among the European collections. This distinguish
es the f indings at Sandornierz arnong the unique
European collections; they not only supply re
markable material evidence for the history of cul
ture in Poland but also enrich considerably the
record of proofs of the f lourishing of a world civil
ization at the crossroads of Eastern and Westem
influences. Sandomierz, as mentioned, was an
active commercial centre on the Orient-North
-West route.
The town has been for sorne time the site of
systematic archaeological investigations carried
out by teams from the Institute

of Material

Culture

of Sciences,

of

the Polish Academy

which has a permanent scientific post establish

ed

there.

On

October

9th, 1962, a team of

archaeologists, under Dr Jerzy Gssowski and

Eligia Gssowska, M.

Se., during excavation

work at the settlement on St Jacob's Hill, dis

covered, in a large partly dug-out hut in a depres
sion filled with dry earth, a collection of 29 primi
tive chess pieces. The age of the settlement is
estimated to within a range of 180 years, with the
later extreme falling to the 1259-1260, when it
was

completely

destroyed by

Tartar raiders.

The ancient hut ( still bearing traces of handicraft

occupations of its inhabitants) is situated in the
older part of the settlement, and on the basis of
The French musician Andr Philidor was a leadi11g chess
player of the second half of the 18th century. Dozens of editions
of his treatise "L'Analyse du jeu des checs" appeared in many
languages. Drawing by J. Skariyski.

the arrangement of its subsequent strata, its ori

gin may be traced back to the late eleventh or the
early part of the twelfth century. The chess dis
covery is evidently of the same period. It should
be borne in mind that the chess pieces, which bear
traces of extensive usage (omaments worn out),

however, certain that the 1962 Sandornierz Piast

chessmen are the most sensational archaeological
discovery in Poland ever recorded.
The chess sets of Sandomierz are a highly val
uable

piece

period, and the theory that they were used for play
in Sandomierz in the eleventh century is highly
plausible.

as including an almost

The research indicates that chess reached Po

complete set of chessmen (only three pawns are

land in three ways: by sea routes, through the

lacking) with carefully' established localization

commercial ports; by knights returning from

both in space and time. Such a fairly complete

the crusades; and finally via Russia, as proved

36

museum

could have apparently been made in an earlier

A chess player. French lithllgraph of tlze mid-19th century.

37

Thefamou s Caf de la Rgence in Pars, where chess playing f lourshedfrom the mid-18th
century to the end of the 19th century.

A game of ches s in a French 18th century sa l o n. Gravure by Jules Noel, mid-19th century.

38

Chess players. One of the first daguerreotypes in England.

A photograph by W. H. Fox Talbot (1840).

Anderssen and Morphy playing chess in Pars (1858).

A contemporary engraving from an original photograph.

by similarities between men excavated in Sando

literature

mierz and Novgorod.

with poetic art of the highest order. The poem

for

its

blend

of

chess

content

Janko of Czarnkow, writing in the 15th century,

was an important contribution to the history of

told how chess in Poland a century earlier had

chess in Poland. lt showed the great respect chess

fallen foul of the law, being classed as a game of

enjoyed in the country by that time.

chance.

Poland's first chess manual was little known

During the Renaissance period, when Queen

outside. The compilation of Jan Ostrorg writ

Bona Sforza carne to Poland with her numerous

ten in the 17th century was never actually pub

courtiers from Italy, chess gained prestige and

lished; thc manuscript was to be found in the

popularity, and became a Palace game.

Krasinski Library in Warsaw until it went up

In a work by Lukasz Grnicki, "Dworzanin"

inflames during the Nazi invasion. Though main

( The Courtier) of 1566, which was a free Polish

ly based on works by foreign authors, it had

translation of an ltalian work by Castiglione,

original features, notably the introduction of

there were sorne thoughts on chess. The game was

algebraic notation.

also provided with a permanent and imrnortal

Jan Bystroi said in his "Dzieje obyczajw w da

monument by Jan Kochanowski in his poem,

wnej Polsce" ( The History of Customs in Old

"Szachy" ( Chess), c. 1654, unparalleled in world

Poland) that later on, as the intellectual level of

39

the population declined, this game, requmng

throughout the country. Both chess and draughts

a mental effort, began to give ground to cards

were given up: they took to cards... "

and draughts. If chess was played at all, this

was done without any ambition and in a haz

Obviously, chess as a gambling game could

not compete with cards.

ardous manner, for sums of money. T. K. W

As the intellectual leve! of Polish life declined,

gierski, a poet of the Polish Renaissance, wrote in

chess became less popular than cards or d.raughts

one of his poems:

and even what chess remained was often played

You also asked, how our young men in Warsaw

fared?

as a game of chance with dice thrown to decide

the piece to be played.

Well, some of them now play at gambling chess . .

Good chess did not disappear from Poland en

Another Polish historian of customs, L. Gol

tirely. A few dedicated enthusiasts kept it alive.

biowski wrote in his "Gry i zabawy rznych sta

One amusing story centres about a Jew in War

nw" (The

Games and Pastimes of Various

Classes) of 1831, about the spreading of cards:

saw. A superb player, a foreigner (in sorne versions,

an Englishman) was

invited to play chess at

" ... the game was known to few but it began to

the court of K.ing Stanislaw August. The vis

spread, f irst in the Capital, from 1740, and soon

itor defeated every opponent put up against him,

"Mr. and Mrs. Bar ry playing chess." Canvas by an unknown English paimer (19th century).

40

The famous chess player Rosenthal giving a simulraneous display on 30 chessboards in Paris ( 1891).
Dra'Wing by Louis Tinayre.

even Stanislaw Trembecki, a distinguished writer

royal court. The Englishman lost not only his

and strong player. All felt the country's prestige

buttons, one by one, but also his temper and,

was at stake.

grasping garments now somewhat in need of sup

Trembecki

invited

the

Englishman

to

his

house. Feigning indisposition, he asked his guest

if he would not divert himself for a while at

port, ran out into the courtyard ... and finally left
Warsaw.
The King laughed and laughed at this occur

a game with a Polish Jew, 'quite an able player.'

rence and at the proud man's downfall. The win

The proud foreigner cast a look of disdain, sug

ner, loaded with honours and gifts, carne to stay

gesting a high stake. The Jew agreed to pay it

with Trembecki as a bosom friend, playing him

if he lost, but ori the other hand declared that if

many a game of chess.

he chanced to win he would not desire the Eng

The names of the unfortunate English chess

lishman's money but would like to cut off one

player and the Jew befriended by Trembecki are

of his buttons as a souvenir. The Englishman

equally unknown. The story could have been

agreed, sat down to play, and lost.

''Well, I've won one button," said the Jew.

based on sorne authentic incident but is prob

ably f ictitious.

He cut off a button from the other's trousers,

as if loath to spoil his jacket.

*
*

The surprised and morti.fied Englishman play

ed on and on with worse and worse results.

The mid 18th century began a period of splen

Other guests drifted in, sorne of them from the

dour in chess. Two names became the corner41

Wilhelm Steini tz defending his

title as world champion in the
famous duel with Mikhail Tchi
gorin (1892). Contemporary
Russian caricature.

stones of the modern era in the history of the

game: Stamma and Philidor.
A French musician, Andr-Fran\=ois-Danican
Philidor (1726-95), had an inborn talent for the
game. At only 14 years of age he had bcaten
strong players at the famed Caf de la Rgence
in Paris, a Mecca for leading French players and
enthusiasts from abroad.
Soon Philidor had toured England with daz
zling success. All the best English players went
down before him. At the age of twenty he wrote
"Analyse des checs" ("An Analysis of Chess"),
a manual which was soon to be found in almost
every household of culture. It appeared in Lon42

don in 1749. 1 t contained an introductory historie

al outline of the development of chess, sorne
observations on the rules, descriptions of numer
ous openings with critica} analyses and a selec
tion of end-games. He employed a descriptive
and rather cumbersome notation. About sixty edi
tions are known. Its fame was abused by sorne
dishonest publishers who continued to bring
out pirated editions for many decades afterwards,
even though the practica} value of this pioneer
work soon diminished as the theory of the game
began to advance by leaps and bounds. Philidor
himself as an author inspired fresh research.
His visits to Berln, Potsdam and London, as

stay in London he published another edition of

his collection of problems and end-games with
a supplement containing analyses of more than
fifty new openings.
Philidor's

teaching

helped

the

Englishman

Staunton to achieve mastery. In Russia there

appeared Petrov, author of the first Russian manual
of chess in 1824. In France, La Bourdonnais won
considerable fame. In Germany, great success
fell to Anderssen, a professor of

mathematics

in Breslau. It was he who gained first place in

the first international chess tournament held in
London in 1851, and for a long time he was re
garded as the best chess player on the Continent.
The genius of Morphy, the American player,

Emanuel Lasker, world chess champion in 1894-1920.

well as bis activities in Paris, confirmed his fame

as the greatest player of bis day. Mter defeating
Lgal, the leading French player, he was present
ed by his supporters with a chess sceptre as
a symbol of grand mastership.
Philip Stamma, an Arab from Syria, was a pro
fessional chess player, yet there was nothing re
ally to distinguish him as a practician. He was
distinguished as a composer of problems,

hun

dred excellent ones being published in bis book

of

1737. He was the first to use the algebraic

notation in print. In the preamble of ls book

he described the origin of chess in Arabian lands.
He suggested that the contestants should treat
chess as a real combat, hence military strategy
was an example to be followed. During a longer

Jos Raoul Capablanca, the "chess king" in 1921-1927.

43

Alekhine's grave at the Mont

parnassc cemetery, Paris, with
the

tombstone

erected

/nternational Chess

by

the

Federation

in 1956, on the 1Oth anniversary

of his deach.

shone briefly. For three years (1857-1859) he

when, in 1866, he defeated Anderssen in London.

toured, beating the best players of Europe and

He retained it through a series of great matches

America; then he suddenly, unexpectedly, left

with Zukertort (1886), Tchigorin (1889), Guns

the chess scene for good. He made a great contri

berg (1890) and Tchigorin again (1892). Only in

bution to the development of chess play, teaching

1894 was he defeated by the German Emanuel

the beauty of combinations and of subtle strategy.

Lasker, an eminent theoretician, mathematician

He was undoubtedly one of the more interesting

and journalist. Lasker held his chess sceptre for

figures in the history of the game, but became an

many years, shaping the course of chess until

example of the tragic fate of a talented genius

the 1920's. He confirmed his championship in

plagued by intrigues. In his later years he suffered

a return match with Steinitz in 1896 and success

from delusions.

fully repelled attempts to unseat him by Mar

The title of "World Champion" was first as

sumed by a German player, Wilhelm Steinitz,
44

shall (1900), Schlechter (1907), Tarrasch (1908)

and Janowski (1909).

Lasker's defeat in

1921 by J. R. Capablanca,

his mind worked along mathcmatical lines. By

a young Cuban, surprised the world. Capablanca

contrast, the twenty-odd-year-old Tal was an

introduced a new atmosphere into the game, dis

adherent of the neo-romantic school. His play

sipating many outdated views. A devotee of sim

was keen, sometimes reckless, but full of origi

plicity, he hardly ever lost. And yet ... he was

nality, ingenuity and imagination. He constantly

1927 by Alekhine, the Russian. Con

confronted his opponent with situation demand

sidering that he reigned only for six years, Ca

ing unusual resource, often in situations little

pablanca gained an astonishing degree of fame.

analyzed before. Tal was then a young scientist,

routed in

It has been said that no other chess champion has

a lecturer in philosophy at the University ofRiga,

ever been so renowned in the world outside chess.

and a comparative newcomer to the science of

Alekhine raised the art of chess to the heights.

chess. His success confirmed the view that chess

He infused romance into the game whilst em

offered

ploying the most precise mathematical thought,

possibilities, and it could always provide new,

an iron logic, and far-reaching analysis. Once and

relational creative achievements.

for all, he destroyed the idea, which had gained

credence in Capablanca's day, that chess might

incxhaustible

conceptual

and

tactical

However, Botvinnik d.id not tolerate bis defeat

for long. A year later

(1961), he won again in

perish through an excess of drawn games. Alekh

ine showed

that

chess was a wide-open field

for creative thought yet.

He retained his world championship until his

1946, with the exception of a brief period,

1935-1937, when he was robbed of it by Max

death in

Euwe, the brilliant Dutch player, at a time of slight

physical and mental breakdown.
Alekhine's death was followed by an interreg
num which was ended in

1948 by Mikhail Botvin

nik, a Soviet player who had taken over the mande

of Petrov, Tchigorin and Alekhine. In

1957, Bot

vinnik lost his title to another fine Soviet player,

Vassily Smyslov but regained it in a return
match in

1958. A new World Championship

challenger was now coming forward every third

year.
In

1960 Botvinnik was defeated in brilliant

style by another Russian, Mikhail Tal.

The course of this match stirred the world.
The building in Moscow in which it took place
was mobbed daily. The play was reported by
both press and radio. World interest was especially
aroused by the contrast between the respective
contestants' styles of play, their temperaments
and tactics. Botvinnik, as a representative

of

the classical school, founded his play on precision

and logic. An electrical engineer by profession,

Soviet chess champion David Bronstein. The picture taken

by a staff photographer of "Der Spiegel."

45

A Scr.Jiet cartoon by B. Yejimov published in "Krokodil" in 1948 when Mikhail Botvinnik became world champion.

a return match, achieving the unparalleled feat

of winning the world title for the third time.
Yet new attacks on the throne were constantly
developing. In a tournament of world cham
pionship "candidates" held on the island of Cura
ao in the Dutch West Indies, first place went
to another Soviet arch-master, 33-year-old Tig
ran Petrosian, who thus won the right to challenge
Botvinnik. The rules were changed. For the first
time the champion, if deposed, was not to have
the right to a return match. The new champion
was to keep bis title for three years in any event
and only the winner of the next "candidates"
tournament should challenge him. Botvinnik
46

accepted these conditions though it was seriously

considered that he might have been justified in
declining them, or retiring undefeated. The match
between the now 52-year-old Mikhail Botvinnik
and Tigran Petrosian, the Armenian journalist
nearly twenty years bis junior, consequently took
place on the stage of the Moscow Revue Theatre
in March 1963. lt aroused even greater interest
both among the Soviet public, who filled the
theatre to capacity, and the outside world. Mter
a dramatic struggle still undecided after seventeen
games, Petrosian won.
The ninth official world champion, Tigran
Petrosian was born in 1929. He has a positional

style of play, does not seek for showy combina

tions but gradually strengthens his position,
not yielding lightly any advantage once gained.
His mastery of technique and quiet strategy is
greatly reminiscent of Capablanca. In 1966, he
retained his title against an assault by Boris Spas
sky.
Spassky was beaten, but emerged as a player
worthy of competing for the highest position in
the hierarchy of world's chess players. Before he
secured the privilege to measure swords with
Petrosian, he became Champion of the Soviet
Union (in 1962), and much earlier,in 1955,as a 18year-old youth, he had won the title of the world's
junior champion.
At another match, however, held in Moscow in
the spring of 1969; Petrosian was defeated by
Spassky in a dramatic meeting. And thus a new
king ascended to the chess throne - Boris Spas
sky, a journalist by profession (born in 1937)
a dynamic player distinguished for his brilliant
strategy and tactics.
In 1972, the American grand master Robert
Fischer became the eleventh- one of the young
est in the history of chess - world chess cham
pion, when at the exciting and dramatic "match
of the century" held in Iceland's capital city,
Reykjavik, he won a decisive victory over Spas
sky. A superb chess player, noted for his crisp
style of play, boldness and resourcefulness as
a tactician, his urge to innovate and high-pre
cision playing, Robert Fischer (bom in 1943)
obtained the title of the United States champion
as a fourteen-year-old boy, and the title of inter
national master as a sixteen-year-old hoy. He
secured the right to confront Spassky in the
trial heats when he scored a sensational advan
tage over his contestants and won 6 to O in the
game he played against the Russian Taimanov,
and again 6 to O over the Dane Larsen, and 6.5
to 2.5 in the game against the former world
chess champion, the Russian Petrosian.
Robert Fischer has ascended the chess throne!

Mikhail Tal roon the title of wor/d champion in 1960, but

had to hand it back to Bo tvinnik a year later.

47

TOP LEFT: Mikhail Botvinnik mintainad his reputation

as the world'.< best chess player from 1948 to 1963, losing
the title of che world champion only twice: in 1957-58
and 1960-61.
TOP RIGHT: Tigran Petroi.:m becams world champion
in 1963 after an exciting match with Mikhail Botvinnik,
and retained the titJe in 1966.
LEPT: In a match in 1969, Tigran Petrosian was
defeated and Boris Spassky won the title of world
champion. He was defeated by Robert Pischer in 1972.

48

Robert Fischer born in 1943, the United States grand master and the world
chess champion after the "match of the century" played against Boris Spassky.
(Phoro C. Fox and Co., Inc., rhe "Newsweek").

11. CHESS IN BRITAIN

Karel van Mander (1548-,1606)

Ben Janson and William Shakespeare a clwss (1600) .
50

That the origins of chess in India are obscurc

is made very evident elsewhere in this book. The
date of its arrival in the British Isles is no less
vague.
Henry Davidson in his ashort History of
Chess" makes it reach England about 1500.
It is hard to see how he squarcs this with the
publication of Caxton's "The Game and the Playe
of Chesse," thc second printed book in the
English language, 26 years before. At the othcr
extreme, we have Kenneth Matthews in "British
Chess" telling us that the first known chess
player in the British Isles was King Can ute:
"He used to sit up all night playing. According
to one chronicler... playing against a Danish
Earl on St. Michael's eve in 1027, he made a bad
move and wanted it back. When the Earl objected,
Canute promptly had him murdered." Canute
had, of course, come from Denmark which chess
reached before England on its way from India,
so he rnight have brought it with him as some
thing new here.
We cannot be certain, however, whether the
game he was playing really was chess; confusion
with other early board games is rife among the
early chronicles.
Seventy-eight chessmen carvcd in walrus tusk,
discovered on the lsle of Lewis in the Hebrides
in 1831, confronted the experts with a rare puzzle.
At least two authorities have ascribcd them to
the 12th century, but another investigator picked
up a curious legend on the island, to the effect
that rhey had been brought there by a ship
wrecked Icelandic sailor (they are distinctly

Icelandic in style) and that a shepherd had mur

dered the sailor and buried them. If this were
true, the chessmen could be as recent as the 17th
century. Similar ivory chessmen found in Meath
in Ireland have proved just as hard to date.
There can be no doubt, however, that chess
had becomc a familiar pastime throughout Eng
land before the Renaissance. Richard the Lion
Hcart played it and it seems highly probable
to me that he and his soldiers learnt it from the
Arabs and brought it back with them from the
Crusades.
Queen Elizabcth playcd with the historian
Robert Ascharn, and presented Lord Mountjoy,
when he distinguished himself in the jousts, with
a golden chess queen. Charles the First spent
hours at chess with the Marquis of Winchester.
The clergy frequently frowned on chess but as
frequently acknowledged its ubiquity by refer
ences to it in their sermons.
Chess never thrives so happily as in a coffee
house, and at least two of these existed in London
in the early 1700's: Slaughter's in St. Martin's
Lane and Parsloe's - the first gathering in
England to be known as a chess club - in St.
James's Street. The ((Club," limited to 100 mem
bers, at one time had among its members an ex
Prime Minister (the Marquess of Rockingham)
and an ex-Secretary of State, the Hon. Henry
Seymour Conway. Andr Philidor, fleeing from the
French Revolution, was engaged as a profession
al. Slaughter's put forward the Syrian Stamma,
a government translator, as their man for a match
against Philidor, but he lost 1-8.
51

"When the nineteenth century began, Paris

was the capital city of the chess world, London
the challenger.'' William Lewis, a prolific author
of chess books, went over and challenged the
leading French player Deschapelles, to a match,
but the Frenchman insisted on conceding the
odds of pawn and move so that, though Lewis
won one game and drew two in a three-game
encounter, he was unable to claim himself the
better.
In 1834 carne a famous trial of strength. Louis
-Charles Mah de la Bourdonnais, 39, grandson
of a French colonial governor, faced Alexander
MacDonnell, 33, a well-known economist, secret
ary to the Committee of West India Merchants.
The two were quaintly contrasted. Ma:;Donnell,
ponderous and phlegmatic. Of La Bourdonnais,
C. J. S. Purdy recalls how, throughout the play
he would gesticulate, swear, burst into snatches
of song, joke with bystanders ... "He won!"
concludes Purdy perhaps a little too meaningly.
After six games, MacDonnell was a point ahead.
Soon, however, he was 5-16 down. Though he
almost held his own after that, an extraordinarily
protractcd match terminated, after 84 games,
with the score 44 to La Bourdonnais, 27 to
MacDonnell, with 13 draws. Strangely, within
six years both were dcad, both buried in Kensal
Green.
A CHESS COLOSSUS
The next epoch was Howard Staunton's.
Reputcdly an illegitimatc son of thc fifth Earl
of Carlisle, he bcstrode the chess scene like
a colossus. The mantle of La Bourdonnais in
Paris had fallen on Saint-Amant, a traveller in
wines who intermittently entered French Govern
ment scrvice. Staunton was 33, Saint-Amant 43,
when they sat down in Pars to a match of 21
games arranged with ceremony and punctilio,
for a stake of !100 a side - a considerable
sum of money then. Staunton ran away with the
match from the start; only a blunder in a won
52

position in the tenth game prevented him from

establishing a 9-1 lead and he finally emerged
winner by 11-6 with four draws. The match had
established a new chess style, ultra-safe and
conservative, which sorne have found dull.
Staunton himself was not very proud of the games.
They set him on the road to lasting fame,
though. Soon he was made editor of the chess
column in the "Illustrated London News" which
continues to this day, 129 years old as I write,
under my pen. lt is far and away the oldest chess
column in existence.
Staunton chessmen are now in universal use.
These he introduced about 1849 and, though no
sweeping departure from earlier designs, they
were distinctly more stable and less prone to
obscure each other during the game. Whether
Staunton designed them, as Murray states, we
doubt. What is certain is that the firm of Jaques
patented the design and, no doubt paying Staun
ton a generous royalty, marketed them for nearly
a century in boxes bearing a facsmile of his
signature, "none gcnuine without it."
Staunton next wrote the best-selling chess book
of all time. His achess Player's Handbook" was
still selling freely a century later, during World
War II. He wrote two other books only a little
less famous. In the last he put forward a new
Code of Laws of Chess which he had pioneered
and which is in all main respects the code of
today. He took over the "Chcss Players' Chron
icle" and kept it going as the one chess magazine
in English for decades when chess magazines,
here and abroad, were falling by the wayside
almost yearly.
THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL CHESS
TOURNAMENT
Staunton conceived and put through, under
the presidency of the Duke of Marlborough,
the chess tournament of 1851, a memorable
event with compctitors from Germany, Hungary,
England and France. A Russian arrived too late.

At Norcinglzam 19.16. A warld famous picrurc a( che s c r ougcs t imcmational toumamcnc cvcr o rga 11i:;ed iu Hritaiu.

l.cfr

co

right,

seated: Sir G. A. Thomas, Dr. Emanuel Lasker (Germany)., J. R. Capablanca (Cuba) , A lderman J. N. Derbyslzir,:, pacron of
che coumam en t, and his xuifc, Dr. M. Euwe (Iiol/and), Dr. A. A. Alekhine (Frmzce), W. Winter. Left to r(o:ht, standing: Reuben

Fine (U.S.A.), Dr. S. Tartakower (Poland) , Dr. M. Vidmar

C.

(Yugoslmia),

E. D. Bogolubov

(Germany), T. H. Tylor,

H. O'D. Alexander, S. Flohr (U.S.S.R.), S. Reshevsk_v (U.S.A.), M. M. Bocnnik (U.S.S.R.) a nd A . ]. Mackene (Con

troller). Lasker, Euwr, Alckhi11c ami Capubla11ca

aocrc

post or f'J"c:oll <tcorld <hampi,lls a11d Hvwinuik ztas to bccomc o11c.

53

Nowadays, with an intcrnational chess tourna

ment starting somewhere in the world every
few days, it is difficult to realise that such an
event had, prior to that date, never been known.
It was entirely Howard Staunton's idea and
inspiration.
A mighty man. Where is his biography ? There
is none, though about Paul Morphy, who played
chess brilliantly for six years, but contributed
nothing else to the game at all, maybe a dozen
absorbing books have been written.
The truth is that Howard Staunton was a most
unlikeable man. He had a few good friends but
countless enemies.
In his "Illustrated London News" column,
enthusiastic admirers writing in to send their
games or suggestions received replies like "Your
games are disfigured by errors." "You are signally
wrong"; '"'Your problem is defective" ;" Inferior";
crMuch too simple" were typical observations.
Once he wrote: "A player may have two or
more pawns on the board at the same time."
Simply that. A puzzling statement in view of the
fact that each player starts with eight pawns and
rarely ends with fewer than three. One mystified
reader plaintively seeking enlightenment received
the broadside: " 'Pawns' was an obvious misprint
for '"Queened Pawns' or '"Queen'." No apology ;
just (in effect) "You fool!"
He once published an unsound problem ; over
a hundred readers remonstrated but he verbally
mowed down the lot.
Paul Morphy carne over to Europe in 1858,
bent on challenging Staunton, as the world's
acknowledged best player, to a match. He never
got even a game. It was 1 5 years since Staunton
had beaten Saint-Amant. His powers were declin
ing, he had for months been devoting most of
bis time to a huge commentary on Shakespeare,
and knew Morphy would beat him. He equivocat
ed and gibed at the young American through
his column, earning general odium. Freud's
biographer Ernest Jones has seriously maintained
that Staunton's attitude fostered Morphy's mad54

ness. Morphy himself was over-sens1t1ve and

provocative. Anyway, the two of them provided
a rcady-made Oedipus thcme for the armchair
psycho-analyst of today.
Howard Staunton will nevcr be forgottcn but,
could he only have tempered his arrogance,
our respect for his extraordinary achiever.1ents
would have bcen greater.
England has certainly produced no such
colossus of chess before or since.
THE TIMING OF PLAY

Among othcr campaigns, Staunton constantly

pressed for some sort of control ovcr thc time
spent per move.
The La Bourdonnais-MacDonnell match gamcs
somctimes went on all night, though there was
a stipulation in the tcrms that they should be
adjourned at 4 a.m. Two hours or more were
often spent on one move: either player could
take as long as he liked.
Staunton's own great tournament of 1851 had
been sadly marred by slow play. His campaign
for sorne sort of timing in chess was to succeed,
but only after his death.
For one match, it was stipulated that no move
should takc more than twenty minutes ; even so,
one game took fifteen hours. Obviously a player's
time allowancc must be spread over a number
of moves. For instance, three minutes per move
might be a fair average ; but for the first move
of the game, three seconds might suffice ; on the
other hand, three quarters of an hour might be
justified, or evcn insufficient, at a crucial stage.
Sand-glasses were tried. One was allocated to
each player, running only whilst he pondered;
if an hour's sand had run out before his twentieth
move had been made, he had lost. The draw
backs of sand-glasses were many and obvious.
Next carne a double pendulum dock arrange
ment: the dock of the player thinking out his
move ticked merrily whilst his opponent's was
stopped by being tipped well over.

There has, just once in history, bem a British Commonwealth Championship. This was at Oxford in 1951, when adva11tage was
taken of the adventitious presence of severa[ strong Commonwealth players. Left to right are A. Yanofsky (Canada), G. Berryman
(Australia), the Master of Balliol Col/ege and his wife, W. A. Fairburst (Scotland), Leonard Barden (Eng/and), R. G. Wade
(New Zealand), Sir Robert Robinson F.R.S. (a keen and gifted amateur p/ayer) and W. Heidenfeld (South Africa). W. A.
Fairburst won. One of the greatest bridge designers this country has ever produccd, he has been British Chcss Champion once and
Scottish ten times.

55

Finally, about 1880, carne chess clocks as we

kow them today; the modero chess dock is
a British invention.
The great tournament of 1851 was followed by
a series of matches involving British players and
the continentals it had brought to London, and
a tremendous boost this must have given the
game. London became for thirty to forty years
the Mecca of chess, drawing and adopting many
of the world's greatest players. Steinitz from
Vienna assumed the title of world champion
as a resident of London. Polish-born Zukertort,
his main challenger, lived in London, too. A Ger
man, Harrwitz, followed Steinitz into the editor
ship of "The Field." The sirnilarly named Hor
witz also carne from Germany; Lowe from what
is now Czechoslovakia; Lowenthal, Hoffer and
Gunsberg from Hungary; Falkbeer, like Steinitz,
from Austria; J anssens from Belgium, Mason
from America.
In spite of the presence of this powerful group
of visitors, the most gifted player of all for at
least a decade was the English historian Henry
Buckle. A determined amateur, he put bis
"History of Civilisation," which earned him
world fame, before his chess, though how he
loved the game!
Asked ((Why don't you play a match with
Staunton ?" "1 was always careful to maintain
friendly relations with him," Buckle replied!

LONDON PLAYERS DOMINATE

About 1880, international chess tournaments
began to be organized on the Continent. Not
unnaturally in view of the city's intense chess
activity, Londoners repcatcdly took the honours.
To Vienna in 1873, for instance, went Steinitz,
Blackburne and Bird. Against opposition from
Anderssen, Rosenthal, Paulsen, Meitner, Schwartz
and others, Steinitz and Blackburne finished
first and second, Bird fifth.
56

G. H. Mackenzie, the strongest player Scot

land produced in centuries, three times won the
U. S. Championship; at Oeveland in 1871,
Chicago in 1874 and New York in 1880.
In 1882 Vienna organized a still greater tourna
ment than 1873's. Steinitz, Zukertort, Blackburne,
Mason and Bird went from London with Mac
kenzie now representing the U.S.A. Winawer,
Tchigorin, L. Paulsen, Englisch and Weiss headed
the opposition. Steinitz tied first; Mason finished
third; Mackenzie and Zukertort equal fourth
fifth; Blackburne sixth. Of the 8,800 francs prize
money, 4,800 fell to four London players and
another 350 to Ross-shire-born Mackenzie. But
from now on the Germans began to take the lead
in both organization and play.
Steinitz's stamping-ground for years, and
virtually the centre of world chess, was Simpson's
restaurant in the Strand where you could get
a coffee, a cigar and an afternoon's chess for
a shilling. Though chess long ago left this great
restaurant, there is still preserved, in a showcase
in the foyer, a World Championship chessboard
nearly a century old.
Chess columns in newspapers and magazines
have played a tremendous role in fostering British
chess, but throughout the second half of the 19th
century, whether through Staunton's influence
or not it is hard to say, they were persistently
misused as organs of vituperation and hate.
Scurrilous invective was the rule. If two clubs
became rivals, the columnist, ever eager to pour
oil on the troubled flames, converted dislike into
hatred. Perhaps this was why so many decades
went by before a national governing body carne
into existence. Lowenthal, a pleasant-natured
man, toiled hard and long to establish a "British
Association for the Promotion of Chess" which
did a certain amount of good work but it lapsed
with his death in 1876, nobody being sufficiently
enterprising to continue his work.
Yet there was enthusiasm and power in British
chess at the time. In 1884 the City of London
Chcss Club had 225 mcmbers. In 1885 thc British

Chess Association had Lord Tennyson, the Poet

Laureate, as its President, with Lord Randolph
Churchill, Sir Robert Peel and John Ruskin
as Vice-Presidents; apparently, however, more
than distinguished patronage was needed, for
the Association petered out in little more than
a decadc.
It is piquant that the Scottish Chess Associa
tion of today was founded in 1884, decades
before the British Chess Federation which now
rules, and even a year before the British Chess
Association from which the B.C.F. grew. Older
that any is the British Chess Magazine which
started i 1881, gestating in quaint fashion from,
of all thmgs, the Huddersfield College Macrazine
hich, in the coursc of eight or nine year , had
1tself developed from a typical college magazine
with a reasonably sized chess section to one in which
the chess had, like a cuckoo in the ncst, displaced
almost everything else. Today, only one cxisting
chess magazine, the Deutsche Schachzeitung,
can claim a greater age than the ''B.C.M."
and whercas the English magazine has had an
uninterrupted existence, the Gerrnan ceased
publication from 1940 to 1950.

J. H. BLACKBURNE
Comparable almost with Staunton's fame was
that of J. H. Blackburne who, born in 1842,
virtually lived chess, from the age of eighteen
when (already a fine draughts player) he learnt
the moves, to bis death in 1923. Throughout half
a century or more, if he was not taking on all and
sundry in sorne chess caf or engaged in sorne
tournament abroad, he was travelling around
giving simultaneous displays the length and
breadth of the country, often getting through
4,000 games or more in a season. Though the son
of an earnest temperan ce reformer, he enjoyed
whisky as much as chess, in spite of which and
of bis strenuous life (travel itself demanded
stamina in those days), he maintained bis powers
for an extraordinary lcngth of time. At thc agc

of 72, he opened with the ridiculous move l.P-K.3

against Nimzowitsch at St. Petersburg - and
won!
HASTINGS ENTERS THE PICTURE

1895 was noteworthy for the great Internation

al Tournament at Hastings, precursor of - up
to now - 45 other great tournaments there '
.
.
a senes wh1ch has made that little Sussex seaside
town the rnost famous chess venue in the world.
Hastings 1895 was a tremendous event with
sad echoes. The writing on the wall became
deprcssingly clear. The young American Harry
Nelson Pillsbury won. A Russian, Tchigorin,
finished second; four Germans, another Russian
and an Austrian took the remaining six prizes
and only two places later carne the best of the
Englishmen, Blackburne. British leadership of
world chess had departed, not to return.
Chess languished a little in the early years
of this century, in England as elsewhere. Bur
the present-day British Chess Federation carne
into being, and provided the country with, at
any rate, one reliable annual event, a British
Championship and a British Ladies' Champion
ship. The pattern was at once set which has
continued to this date, of a congress with a differ
ent venue each year - Hastings in 1904, then
Southport, Shrewsbury, Sydenham, Tunbridge
Wells, Scarborough, Oxford, Glasgow, Rich
mond, Cheltenham, Chester in turn. Apart
from the cha.mpionships, the main events were
the famous cable matches between Great Britain
and the U.S.A. for the Newnes trophy, annually
from 1896 to 1903 and 1908 to 1911. With three
successive wins in 1909-11, Britain won the
trophy outright. This proved to be the kiss of
death, for the event then lapsed.
H. E. ATKINS
H. E. Atkins was the dominant figure of this
cpoch. A product of the :;ame Huddersfield

....

-...--

The Engli.<h editor of tltis book (centre) has been President

of the

1954 when this photograph of the annual congress ruas tahcn, was

British Universities Chcss Association for the last 26 years.

a

vimage year for the Asso.:iation. In che picture are, among

others, B. Cafferry, P. C. Gibbs , G. J. Martn, L. Edelstein, V.G. J'nson,J. R. Nicolson, D. E. Lloyd, J.

became very ucll known in British chess competition in the ensuing decade.

58

H. Watts, all ofwhom

College which had gestated the British Chess

Magazine, he modelled his style on that of Stei
nitz, with such success that he won the British
Championship from 1905 to 1911 without a break,
and again in 1924 and 1925. His record of nine
titles was broken only by Jonathan Penrose
in 1969.
At Hanover in 1902 Atkins finished third to
Janowski and Pillsbury ahead of Mieses, Napier,
Tchigorin, Marshall and others, but he took his
duties as a schoolmaster seriously and hardly
went abroad again.
England's main torch-bearers now became Sir
George Thomas and F. D. Yates. Two curiously
contrasted figures. Sir George, the son of a dip
lomat, a courteous dilettante, a badminton in
ternational and excellent at tennis, serving games
as administrator, for years on the committee at
Wimbledon. Always immaculate, always taking
care of himself.
F. D. Yates, blessed with perhaps a spark
more genius, was eventually ru:ined by the lack
of the prvate means to which Sir George must
have owed a lot. Blackburne had been hardly
less humble of origin than Yates but possessed
a business sense that the latter conspicuously
lacked. Yates died a sloven, a drunkard, in pathet
ic circumstances; but he was British Champion
six times - once above the ephemeral Indian
wonder Sultan Khan - and he twice defeated
Alekhine when Alekhine was at his best.
Sir George Thomas's halcyon day was to come
when, at Hastings in 1934-5, he crowned decades
of steady effort by tying for first place with Euwe
and Flohr, ahead of Capablanca (!), Botvinnik
and Lilienthal.
Each of two world wars in turn gave organised
chess a noteworthy boost. Chess seems to fl.ourish
in service conditions; war nowadays seems to
station numbers of people in bleak surroundings
with time on their hands.

J. H. van Meurs emerged as an outstanding

figure. This irascible, domineering, loveable

Dutchman made the secretaryship of thc Lond')l1

Chess League his own for about forty years.
He started the annual England-Holland matches.
Probably his most permanently valuable work
carne in the provinces. Pushing, prodding,
persuading, he brought into existence about half
the County Chess Associations we have tod ay,
welding them into the British Chcss Fcdcration
to make that body really nationally reprcsent<1tivc
at last. Four devoted secretaries scrved thc
B. C. F. well in turn: L. P. Rees, R. H. S. Stc
venson, H. Meek and A. F. Stammwitz. Among
devoted workers outside London, the namc of
J. T. Boyd cannot be passed over. Rees cxccllcd
himself above all in the inauguration of thc T ntcr
national Team Tournaments. The first of thesc,
London, 1927, drew sixtecn teams. Hungary
won, with Denmark second and England, led by
Atkins, Yates and Thomas, third. The "Chcss
Olympiads" became the outstanding evcnts of
the entire world chess calendar. Havana's in
1966 attracted 52 teams, the USSR, the U.S.A.,
Hungary and Yugoslavia taking the first four
places with the B.C.F. team now a lowly 21st,
Scodand 28th and Ireland 40th.
Throughout the between-war years, London
had the world's greatest chess coffee house, thc
Gambit rooms in Budge Row. Miss Edith Pricc,
a dear soul and strong player who, curiously,
barred others of her sex from the place entirelv
(apart from waitresses) held court.
Not even Simpsons' in its day challenged thc
Gambit for world fame. Any world master of
renown finding himself within a hundred miles
of it would unfailingly head there. Yates and
Winter became resident professionals, taking
on all comers, but at a miserable sixpence or
shilling a game. In 1947 the entire building was
demolished, to be replaced by a huge block of
offices.
Incidentally Kriegspiel, not ordinary chess,
was the first game you encountered as you walked
into the Gambit, the set of three boards in the
front window being manned from morning
59

till night, often by near-millionaire business men

from the City nearby. The game, then and since,
has had considerable popularity in England.
Each player toils away in ignorance of the
disposition of his opponent's pieces, except what
he can deduce from bumping into them with his
own. G. F. Anderson wrote an entertaining book
entitled "Are there any?" from the question
repeatedly asked of the umpire during the game
"Are there any pawn captures?"
In 1935 thc writer founded a new magazine
CHESS; Iivelier and in popular style, it soon
outstripped the "B.C.M." in circulation but the
old magazine, in its 90th year as we write, goes
happily on. The CHESS offices at Sutton Cold
field soon became a sort of clearing house for
chess goods, Iiterature and even thought, serving
sorne 120 differcnt countries throughout thc
world.
In 1936, Alderman Derbyshire in Nottingham
brought about single-handed the greatest tourna
ment in England since 1895. He had won a minor
event in an earlier congress there. This had to
be celebrated, though it was to cost him weii over
fl,OOO. To four world champions, Alekhine,
Capablanca, Lasker and Euwc, went appearance
fees of f 200 each. Botvinnik - soon to become
another - finished in first place, tied with
Capablanca. The home contingent, comprised
of Tylor, Alexander, Thomas and Winter, collaps
ed neatly into the Iast four places.
After the Second World War carne a spate of
radio matches. England held the U.S.S.R. to
a score of 6-14 (the U.S.A. had been beaten
7-12! in a similar event just before). Australia
beat France over the ether soon after but as air
travel developed these atfairs became unnecessary.
Cork-born C. H. O'D. Alexander, the strongest
player Ircland ever produced, beat Botvinnik
in one of their 1946 radio match games. He
finished first at Hastings in 1946-7 above Tarta
kover and Janowski and again in 1953-4, equal
with Bronstein above O'Kelly, Matanowic, Olafs
son, Teschner, Tolush and Tartakowcr. He was
60

a leading figure in the British Chess Federation's

consolidation through four decades.
Lacking Alexander's fire though more depend
able at his own leve!, H. Golombek (b. 1910)
earncd world fame as a prolific author with 30
fine books on chess to his credit, and gained the
first O.B.E. awarded for services to the game.
BRITISH CHESS FEDERATION STIRS
The British Chess Federation had limped along
hampered by inadequate finance (its leading
figures were possibly a little too remote from the
man in the street). lts prizes were being exceeded
by congresses of Iesser status. Suddenly, from
a South African as unknown before as since,
carne a bequest which expanded the prize fund
annuaiiy by f 180 at a stroke. Jonathan Penrose,
student son of a world-famous professor of gen
etics, won the title seven times in succession and
thrice more later. He fared Iess well in internation
al tournaments in Madrid and Buenos Aires,
but defeated Tal in one fine match game. Sadly,
Iikc Atkins, in bygone days, he rates his profes
sion as a Iecturer above chess and has even
declined more than one invitation to the short
ten days contest at Hastings. He too was awarded
the O. B. E., in 1971.
The British Chess Federation's National Club
Championship has produced sorne worthy tussles
but sutfers from the adjudication of games in
finished after one session, a practice rife among
the Leagues until its drawbacks were recognised,
which has played havoc with British players'
ability in the end-game.
1951 was marked by two events of importance.
The "Staunton Centenary Tournament," in
memory of 1851, was held in Cheltenham, Leam
ington and Birmingham. It attracted Gligoric,
Trifunovic, Pire and Matanovic from Yugoslavia,
Stahlberg from Sweden, Donner and Van Schelt
inga from Holland, Rossolimo and Tartakover
from France and Unzicker and Bogolubov from
Germany.

Scene at start of a day's play in one of the Chess Festivals organised by the English editor in Eastbourne Town Hall.

(jJ

Chess rakes over in a cypical Englislt

public housc.

The other was the first-ever World Junior

Championship, with entries from Yugoslavia, Ar
gentina, Denmark, Finland, Switzerland, France,
Germany, Austria, Australia, lceland, Canada,
Norway, Eire, Scotland, Sweden and Belgium.
lvkov won, with Malcolm Barker second.
Barker's rare promise was matched only by his
insouciance: within a few weeks, he had given
up chess for good. Competitors destined to be
come famous were B. Larsen (fifth) and F. Olafs
son (12th!).
This was W. Ritson Morry's heyday as an
organizer; he played the major part in each event.
The Junior World Championship immediately
became an irreplaceable tem in the world's
chess calendar.
1953 saw the start of the writer's "Chess
Festivals" which have continued annually at
Cheltenham, Skegness, Southend, Whitby, East
bourne and Southport in turn, big prizes and an
easy-going atmosphere attracting 250-300 entries
a time.
62

SCOTLAND AND IRELAND

If 1851's was the first, Dundee's in 1867 was
the fifth international chess congress ever held,
with Steinitz as invitee. Its. centenary was cele
brated by a five-nation affair sponsored by
W. A. Fairhurst, an adopted Sassenach who, in
the intervals between designing some of the
finest bridges in Scotland (or, indeed the world)
annexed the Scottish Championship ten times.
J. M. Aitken was his main rival. As we write,
a new star seems to be rising in lanky A. M.
Davie.
We have mentioned how G. H. Mackenzie
and C. H. O'D. Alexander, the best players
Scotland and Ireland ever produced, went
abroad for their fame. J. J. O'Hanlon was Ire
land's next best player, as well as a generous
promoter of the game. Enda Roban brought
a World Championship Zonal Tournament to
Dublin in 1956 and another international tourna
ment to Cork but vanished from the chess scene

as suddenly as he had appeared. Ireland's

greatest contribution to recent chess has come
from C. Parker Glorney of Dublin, who donated
a fine cup for a competition between teams of
juniors which has enticed not only England,
Scotland and Wales but France and Holland as
well into the ring.

A MEDLEY OF CONGRESSES
In 1935 we could rely on just two chess con
gresses per year, the British Chess Federation's
in the swnmer and Hastings in its already tradi
tional date just after Christmas. Then H. G. T.
Matchett organized three big gatherings at Mar
gate. Though these carne to an end with the out
break of war, the attraction of the end-of-season
Easter date had becorne very apparent. A positive
explosion was to follow, when the war ended.
By 1968, there were Easter congresses at Wol
verhampton, Birmingham, Leicester and Dundee,
Weymouth, Swansea, Aberystwyth, Folkestone,
Penzance, Richmond, Southend, Liverpool, Man
chester, Wallasey and Bognor Regs. Each drew at
least 50 competitors; Wallasey's junior congress
drew 880. At Liverpool, T. J. Beach, G. A. M. Bos
well and their co-workers regularly break all
world records with attendances of 1,400 juniors
or more.
Around May and June 1968 there were con
gresses at Birmingham again; Rhyl, Scunthorpe,
Ilford, Dorchester.
The summer saw a seven weeks' unbroken
run, Whitby being followed by the B.C.F.'s
congress, the Chess Festival and Paignton's in
turn.
Llandrindod Wells, Marlow, Ayr, Dublin,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Edinburgh, Glasgow,
Hull, Brighouse, Plymouth, Hatfield were other
venues for chess congresses in this one year, 1968.
It is difficult to convey a true picture of the
proliferation of chess congresses in this country
without our recital degenerating into a catalogue.

There may be over a thousand players engaged

m a dozen differcnt towns the same day.
THE UNIVERSITIES
The Universities have been for a century the
backbone of British Chess. The annual Oxford
Cambridge match started in 1873 and it is hardly
an exaggeration to say that the two teams have
supplied since that date about one third of the
keenest and best chess players of the land.
In 1945, the other British Universities carne to
life with the formation of the British Universities'
Chess Association, which, under the writer's
almost permanent presidency, has sent a team
to every Students' Chess Olympiad and organised
annually an individual championship which has
rather languished, but a team championship
which has prospered beyond belief; on Swansea
in April 1968 there converged enthusiastically
23 teams of ten. Only London has challenged
Oxbridge with any consistency in this later
event. British students had their greatest moment
when a team comprising M. J. Basman,

British problem composers have throughout decades been

among world's best. Here, Comius Mansfield, universal/y
recognised as the greatest composer of mate in two move
problems, enjoys a joke with Dr. K. Fabel (Germany, n'ght)
who is as distinguished in the realm of Fairy chess as in orthodox
problemdom.

63

harmony, fostered by T. Vaughan Williams and

R. J. Poner as president and sccrtary, and ex
cmplified by the grace with which thc B.C.C.A.
gave up the right to control the charnpionship
to the new Federation. In 1944 the writer founded
the Postal Chess League, a competition for teams
of ten which draws 60 to 70 teams per year and
took over control of the British Postal Chess
Team Championship in 1967.

A PROUD RECORD
R. JIV. Bonham (riglll Celllre) is Brirain's leadin: blind
player, though T. H. '.(vlor in his day was great 11r. A chess
olympiad for blind players dre-JJ teams from the U.S.S.R.,
Yugoslavia, Rumania, Germany (GDR and FRG), Czecho
slovakia, the U.S.A., Austria, Hungary, Spain, Israel and
sorne othe l'Oulllries m Weymouth i11 196'8.

W. R. Hartston, R. D. Keene ami A. N. White1ey

beat the Soviet Union in Czechos1ovakia in
1 967 by three games to one.

CHESS BY POST
Correspondem:e chess has been developing
in Britain more intensive1y than perhaps in any
other country except Gcrmany. The pioneer
body, the British Correspondcnce Chess Assoda
tion, foundcd in 1906, organiscd the British
Correspondcnce Chess Charnpionship under thl:
B.C.F. from 1921 on. Other group:; of correspon
dence players came into being and keen rivalries
developed but a British Postal Chess Federation
united all in an atmosphere of extraordinary

54

So Brain organized the first modern type In

tcrnational Chess Tournament and introduced
the code of laws in use everywhere today. Britain
started the Chess Olympiads and the World
C'..hampionship for Juniors. Britain brought in
the chessmen and chess dock all chess-players
u!>e and can boasr the oldest chess column and
the o1dest chess magazine with a continuous
history. British chcss literature is unsurpassed.
There are 3,500 senior clubs and as many
school and junior clubs. 8,800 players are affiliat
ed to the B.C.F. but sorne 100,000 others are not.
Yet, for a century, no Briton has attained the
topmost rank. Thc intensive organization is
starting to produce young players of great pro
mise. Shall we sce a British World Champion
in our lifetime? l doubt it. There are still serious
obstacles, particularly the lack of financia! in
centive. Even a Jonathan Penrosc canno t risk his
forrunes on chess. The government hands out
.flOO,OOO to opera, not a farthing to chess. Nor
is there any group of dedicated enthusiasts, pol
ishing their skills against each other, such as Lon
don's in the 1870's, or those of Moscow, New
York or Yugoslavia today.

m. RAMIFICATIONS OF CHESS

Lucas van Leyden (1508): "A game of chess." A version of chess known as "Courier's Game," p/ayed on a 12 x 8 board;
very popular in the Netherlands, France and Germany in the 14th-16th centuries (The Berlin Natio11al Gallery) .
66

We have become accustomed to playing chess

on a black and white chequered board of 64
squares with sixteen men on each side; but it
has mutated during the centuries through
a fantastic variety of forms, sorne so eccentric
as to be hardly recognisable as chess at all.
Its family tree has been painstakingly compiled
by researchers in history, art, literature, philology
and other branches of learning. Archaeologists
have made useful contributions. Though much
remains obscure, a reasonable certificate of origin
can be drawn up.
Firstly, we have to ask: what is chess, and
what is not?
( 1) It is a board game played between oppos
ing forces;
(2) Opponents each make one move in turn;
(3) The aim is to checkmate your opponent's
principal piece, i.e. to bring about a situ
ation in which it is doomed.
So - an important point - victory is not gain
ed, necessarily, by either reaching any partic
ular part on the board or purely by captures.
Can we define chess without describing the
pieces or the board... ? Yes; our definition cov
ers a variety of games but curiously, and per
haps not by chance, they are all recognisable as
forms of chess. Sometimes the moves of the men
are familiar but their names are strange; sorne
times the reverse.
On the other hand, games may resemble chess
in sorne respects but fall outside our definition.
Draughts (chequers), for example, uses the same
board but is certainly not chess.
Chess as we play it today has remained sub
stantially unchanged since the turn of the 15th
century. Previously, however, it had gone through
considerable alteration.
For instance, among the Arabs up to 1200,
the queens were weak; they could move only
one square diagonally. In the Middle Ages they
became the strongest pieces on the board. Up
till about 1200, a bishop was limited to a three

square jump diagonally (it could jump over

another piece on the way). A rook could at one
time move two squares only. That the other
pieces were so much weaker greatly increased
thc kings' powers of resistance, and slowed down
the game. To make it more exciting, its attack
ers were given greater and greater powers.
These increases in the powers of the attack were
felt by the Polish writer Karol Irzykowski (18731944) to have had an explosive effect on the game
comparable to that of the invention of gunpowder
on the history of mankind.
In sorne places, innovators went to extremes.
In Russia, for instance, an "absolute queen" was
tried out which combined the powers of a queen
with those of a knight. For a long time, whenever
they started a game, players had to agree whether
their queens were to be ordinary or absolute.
Castling has varied a lot.
About 1560, in Spain, an unmoved king, not
in check, could leap two squares in any direction,
provided he did not cross an enemy line of fue.
In France it was the same but in addition, if the
squares between the king and one of his rooks,
previously unmoved, were unoccupied, he could
be moved up to the rook and the rook brought
on to the square thus vacated. In Italy, sorne
players followed the Spanish method; others
gave the king a longer leap and sorne allowed
a pawn to move in front of the newly castled
king, all this counting as one move only! Sorne
players simply interchanged king and rook;
others admitted no "castling" move at al!; yet
others castled as we do today.
"Free castling" had a long vogue. In this,
the rook was placed on any square up to and
including the king's and the king moved to any
square beyond the rook. This method persisted
in parts of Italy up to the end of the 19th cen
tury.
Finally, in Iceland and sorne other countries
thc king was allowed to move, once only during
the game, as a knight!
Castling was in many places given a name wit67

A11 carly 14th cemury miniawre

depicting a woman <And a yow/J
playing

board game

British

tily based on the idea that the king fled from his
foes into the kitchen.
In the early days of chess, "bared king" was
often counted as a loss, victory going to a player
who captured all his opponent's men except the
uncapturable king. This rule did not persist
beyond Arabic times. Warfare itselfhas, of course,
developed similarly. Whereas victory commonly
implied massacre, it has come to be accepted
when one side has the enemy leader completcly
in its power.
In the battlc of Brenneville (11 19) in which the
French were defeated, Louis VI's bridle was
seized by an English soldier who shouted ''l've
captured the king!" Louis cried: "The king
cannot be captured!" and in a moment the non
plussed attacker was felled by the King's sword.
Emanuel Lasker devised, in "Fress-Schach,"
a game in which the king was not inviolate; the
game could go on after he had been taken. Chess?
No!
Experimentation involved not only the men
and their moves; the board has taken many shapes
and sizes, too. Until about 1300, the squares
were not black and white at all: for half its
68

(Tite

Mwcwn).

history to date, chess has been played on a plain

board with ruled lines only. Diff icult as we might
find it to imagine chessboards without contrast
ing colours, they are common even yet through
out the East.
In many countries today thc opposing mcn
may be distinguishcd apart, not by colour, but
merely by marks or notches or by being kept
throughout facing the enemy - or cven by mem
ory alone.
The German explorer H. Geist describes chess
among the Bataks in Sumatra, played in a native
hut with the f loor as the board. The squares werc
marked out by thinly cut lines with no contrast
in colour. The men were random objects of
various shapes and colour; bits of wood, shells,
stones, etc. The players and the keenly interest
ed spectators remembered without difficulty
which pieces were which, and which were "black,"
which "white." The game was being played lar
gely in the mind, the "pieces" being little more
than a reminder of the situation in the game.
The Bataks did not promote a pawn; on reach
ing the eighth rank it went back to its original
square and started again.

Allegoric dJmoitlg showing four-handed chess, known as "The royal game," on the
riele page of a chess treatise by C. Weickhmann published at Ulm in 1664.
69

.r

'

/
y
/

'

The Bataks of Sumatra have bcen great chess enthusiasts from time immemorial. Drawi1g by M. Majezuski.

Among the Chinese, the board needs no con

trasting colours anyway, as the garne is played
on the lines, not on the squares, the pieces
being posted at interscctions.
Chess is not necessarily a game for two persons.
Severa} players can battle on thc board, each with
a full set of his own.
In fact, chess started as a game for four, as
its old Indian narne Chatrang reveals. As in
modern bridge, partners sat opposite each other,
playing against opponents at their sides. The San
skrit word chatrang indicates a military forma
tion of four units (chatur: four; anga: part), so
implies a quadruple four-fold contest. There
were four kinds of arms (elephants, horses,
war chariots and infantry), and four armies.
Each army was of a different colour: yellow and

70

red fought against black and green. An army con

sisted of four pawns and four pieces, starting
in one corner. Dice were cast to decide which
player should move, and what piece he should
move (!). If a player managed to place his Rajah
in his opponent's royal space, he took over the
other army as well as his own. The aim of the
garne was to capture both enemy Rajahs, this
being an important development from an earlier,
relatively short, period when victory could be
gained by capturing other men.
Though card games were known in the Egypt
of the Pharaons, the division into four suits in
a modern pack almost certainly originated from
chess. In early card games, the aim was to de
fend the king, just as in chess. As if to repay
the debt, about 1890 two Germans patented

a card game called Schachett, with cards which

were of two suits, black and white; court cards
were chess pieces, others pawns, and the rules
were a blend of cards with chess.
The lndian Chatrang soon became a game for
two, and remained so. Perhaps four players
could not always readily be found. The use of
dice persisted, on and off, for centuries but the
improvement when chance was eliminated and
only skill told was too obvious to gainsay.
Yet the quadruple game did not die without
a struggle. More in the East than in Europe, it
lingered on sporadically throughout the Middle
Ages.
Catherine 11 of Russia liked the quadruple
game. Old books and manuscripts describe and
illustrate it. Chessboards were sometimes in the
shape of a cross, with lines crossing diagonally
as well as at right angles. Although the depar
tures from ordinary chess might be pronounced,
the aim of the contest, to mate the enemy king,
and the resemblances of the pieces to those of
today identified the game, clearly, as chess. Four
handed chess was called "The Royal Game" for
centuries but later this name was adopted by or
dinary chess.
"Great Chess" is another variant which origi
nated in India and enjoyed considerable favour
over great areas for awhile. On a 144-square
board (12 x 12) stood 48 men. Each player had
12 pieces and 12 pawns. Sometimes dice were
cast, sometimes players exercised their own ini
tiative. Each strove to checkmate bis opponent's
Rajah. The pieces were named after real or leg
endary creatures: the Aanca Bird (Phoenix?);
the Crocodile, the Giraffe, the Unicorn, the Lion;
also two more normal to us, rooks. For Tarner
lane too, the famous 16th century Mongolian
conqueror and a passionate devotec of the game,
an 8 by 8 board was not big enough. He devised
his own "Great Chess" on a board of 11 O squares
(lO x 1 1) with one additional square in the middle
of each edge adjacent to the player. Eleven kinds
of chessmen were drawn up in three ranks. He

: f)
8.
1

.. ....

tl

1. ...
111 ...
l: e 1...

c=::a

'

a

=

_.,16
... ..
... ..
... ..

Old Indian Four-a-side chess, "chaturanga." The drau:ing

shnws the chessmen set out for the start of a game. The yellow
and red chessmen (in the drawing - the light ones) play
against the "green" and "black" (rhe dark ones) .

The chessboard for " The Royal Game" as described by

C. !fleickhmann in 1664. The board was in the shape of a cross,
with lines crossing diagonally as well as at right angles.

71

invented rules to suit his own military tastes.

Besidc thc king, there were a General, a Vizier,
a Camel, an Eiephant, a Giraffe, a War Machinc
(chariot ?), a Knight, a Rook and so on.
A 1 5th century Uzbek poet, Alisher Navoi,
described "Great Chess" as played in Central
Asia in the 1 3th and 1 4th centuries. Each side's
men started in three ranks on a 1 00 square board.
The king had the assistance of two Viziers, an
Elephant, a Giraffe, a Bear, a Carne!, a Ruh
bird, Horses and Pawns.
Another kind of "Great Chess," called the
"Couricr Game," played on 96 squares (12 X 8),
spread widely during the 1 4th and 16th enturies
throughout the Netherlands, France and Ger
many. Apart from the men named above, each
player had four more pawns and two Couriers,
a Counsellor and a Jester. The pieces being weak-

er in those days as we have seen, the ncw Cour

iers, moving like thc bishops of today, at once
became popular for their speed and range. It is
the "Courier Game" which the eminent Dutch
painter Lucas van Leyden depicted in his famous
1 520 oil painting "The Chess Players." A set
of "Great Chess" pieces was presented by the
Elector, Prince Frederic of Brandenburg, to the
German village of Strobeck, in 1651, but van
ished about a century later.
"Astronomical Chess" was the most complicat
ed offshoot of all. Seven players took part. The
"men" were the planets and the stars. The board
represented Heaven and was divided into twelve
zones marked by the signs of the zodiac. There
were seven concentric circles, representing the
orbits of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun,
Mars, Jupiter, and Saturo, each the field of ac-

An attempt to combine chess and cards, a German invention of the late 19th century, ca/led Schachett. The cards had only two
suits, black and white, corresponding to chessmen: the "honours" - to the rook, knight, bishop, king and queen and the remaining
cards from 1 to 8
to "pawns." In the drawing: a black rook, white king and white knight.
-

72

tion of one of the players. Thc pieccs moved

according to mathernatical calculations.
One variety of "Astronomical Chess" used ordi
nary chcssmcn, rnoving on 64 spaces on, again,
a circular board. This was Zatrikion, or Byzan
tinc chcss. The board was divided into four con
centric circles each divided into 16 segments by
radii from the centre. Anna Cornnena, daughter
of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I (1081- 1 1 18)
told in a biography of her father how Zatrikion
had been brought to Byzantium by the Arabs.
Chinese chess, called Hsiang-chi, developed
from Chatrang along different lines from E:no
pean chess. It is played on a rectangular board
of 9 by 10 points, divided in the middle by a blank
neutral belt, the "river," which separates the
opposing forces. The pieces move along the lines
and stand at their intersections. They take the
form of small discs, marked on top with symbols
which indicate what they are. The chief piece
is the General, who stands with two Chancellors
(there is no corresponding piece in European
chess) in a reserved part of the board apart the headquarters as it were - which they may
not leave. Next, there are Counsellors, rather
like bishops, to reinforce the General's defence
but they cannot attack; they cannot cross the
river. There are Chariots like our rooks, and
Horses like our knights except that they cannot
leap over other men.
The pawns can move one point forward and,
after crossing the river, one point sideways as well.
Last come pieces unknown to us : Cannons . These
move like rooks but can check or capture an
enemy man only when separated from hirn by
anothcr.
Games of Chincse chcss are generally short. It
is more like thc original chess of India than might
be thought.
In an article entided "Chess in China" by
George F. Cooks and I-Chang which appear
ed in Lasker's Chess Magazine in December
1 905 and January 1906, is given an extensive
description of Chinese Chess, also called the

"Big chess" played

cm

a board of 144 squares. Apart from

kings, the chessmen included exotic animals. A mi11iature dated

1283, from the manuscript of Alfonso the Wisc.

Elephant Game. Thc analysis of the game is

accompanied by a considerable nwnber of
interesting observations on local customs and
manners. Among other things the article reads :
"Thc natives are very fond of thc game, and
one rarely finds a village which does not contain
sorne who both understand and Jove it. But I have
never heard of a Chinese chess club . Professional
playcrs abound, and are often to be seen on the
strects with the board set up for a rniddle or
end game and offering the passcr-by thc option
of playing either side, the loser to pay a forfeit.
For John Chinaman is so made that he would not
really enjoy the game unless it brought with it
the chance of making a few sach. They play
as a rule very iapidly and there is no call for
73

Tire sky, planets, and signs of the

Zodiac were the elemenrs of
se ve11-hand "astronomic chess"
played on a round board wirh
concemric circles. The planetary
system was that of Ptolemy;
FROM THE CENTRE: Moon,
Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Ju
piter and Saturn. In certain
divisions of the Zodiac the open
ing arrangement of the various
planet-pieces has been marked
(drawing after a diagram in
l\1urray's "History of Chess") .

such a control as a timing dock. 'Touch and

move' are unknown, to 'tap a chessman' being
a common phrase for pondering and meditating.
There are no penalties for illegal moves. It
is more or less understood that on removing
the hand from a piece the move is completed,
and usually on the 'river' is written a short
rhyming couplet which roughly translated reads :
The Yellow River who can wade ?
When your hand is off your move is made.

But your opponent will make no remark if

you repent of your move before he has made
his, and probably only a mild protest will be
made if after his move you replace the pieces
to reconsider a move your opponent's answer
has shown to be unsound. Sorne players 1 have
met do not call 'check' and should you fail to
notice it, will take off your king and claim the
74

game. Chess 'sans voir' is practically unknown,

although one of my teachers told me the following
story :
A famous warrior had come disguised to spy
out the land he wished to conquer. Sleeping one
night at an inn, he heard two women talking
behind the thin partition of bis room. Peering
through a crack he could see nothing for they
had lit no lamp. So he listened to their conversa
tion and found they were playing together
a game of chess in the dark and with no boards.
This great wonder astounded him, and he went
away to seek other fields to conquer, reasoning
that if the women of that country were so power
ful, what would the men be.
Books on end-games for the use of professional
player abound, but 1 have not been able to
obtain any on the openings though such do

exist. The problem art is not popular and

compared with the perfection reached by our
home artists may be said not to exist. Chinese
poems and proverbs contain sorne references
to chess and 1 append a few rough translations,
and it will be seen that sorne of the ideas ex
pressed can doubtless be applied to the game
as played in our own land. One says : 'Chess
playing is like being put in charge of a bank,
it fills one with such anxiety. ' Another 'The
affairs of this world resemble chess, where every
combination is a new one, and things get very
mixed. ' And lastly this ditty seems to hint that
love of chess in China is dying out :
Of o/d rich men did but desire
To play at chess, and touch the lyre,
But modern men are growing rude
Their one desire is /ots of food.

The concluding passage of the article carries

an interesting note of a historical nature :
"The Chinese scholars in this place say that
their classics prove that the 'elephant game' was
invented by Wu-Wang of the Chou Dynasty
B. C. 1122. This Emperor wrote the following
in one. of his edicts :

one of its corners being kept pointed towards the

opponent. Each player has 20 pieces of eight
kinds placed in three ranks. The main pieces
"Generals of precious stones," face "'each other
across the central belt. On either side, are generals
of lower rank, one of gold, the other of silver.
Of pieces familiar to us, there are Shogi (knights),
bishops, rooks, and pawns - with, of course,
different narnes in the Japanese. The pieces not
like ours are the Chariots. As in Chinese chess,
there is no piece corresponding to our queen.
We now stray a little farther afield. Egyptian
"chess," of which traces have been found in
excavations dating back thousands of years B. C.,
is really not chess at all. The most carefully in
vestigated among the relics have proved to be
of Senet, a board-game akin to draughts. lts
similarity to chess is superficial, lying possibly
in the shapes of the stone pieces which are built
up, not small discs.

We invent music to resemb/e scho/aship,

We invent chess to resemb/e warfare.

Now the Chinese words 'resemble' and 'ele

phant' are practically indistinguishable, and these
scholars affirm that in the good old times chess
was always known as 'Resemble war game,' that
the word war was afterwards dropped for the
sake of brevity; and that 'Resemble game' and
'Elephant game' became synonimous in Chinese. "
Chess travelled via Korea i n due course to
Japan where it became further transformed and
re-named Shogi or "The Generals' Garne." This
is played on the squares (not lines now) of a singly
coloured board 9 by 9. The pieces all have the
same colour and shape - an irregular pentagon and are marked on top with symbols. The direc
tion in which a piece is playing is indicated by

Byzantine chess, "Zatrikion,, played on a round board, the

chessmen and their moves being similar co those in Arabian
chess of the same period.

75

That board games and card-games werc popu

lar at the Egyptian Court and among the pricsts,

1-Isiang-chi, or Chinese chess. Thc chessmen move along the

lines. The chessboard is divided in two by a neutP"al belt kuown
as the "river." Grcen men play the red ones.

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,

Men set out for the Japanese version of chess known as shogi,
or "the generals' game."

76

numcrous paintings in the tombs make clcar.

There are 30-space boards with 12 men as wcll
as 1 44-space boards with 48 men. Sorne boards
are narrow and oblong. Contrasting colours are
absent.
Then there is draughts. A distant relative os
chess ; shall we say a half-brother ? Both games
use the same board. They have been with us for
a long time, sometimes competing, at other times
peacefully co-existing. The origins of draughts
can be traced in various types of board games,
from the most ancient of all, yet in the form gen
erally known it is none too old, in fact is about
six centuries younger than chess. lt may have
developed as a cross between chess and a Span
ish game, "The Mill," in which one captures
a piece by leaping over it.
A Polish author Bystro, writing on the history
of customs in old Poland, describes how chess
was found too difficult. "Draughts . . . an easier
game . . . was incomparably more popular. lt was
played at courts and in camps, to relieve days
of waiting and boredom."
Draughts played on a board of 100 squarcs,
though carly named Polish draughts was, in con
trast to the 64-square variety, never played in
Poland. It was devised in the 1820's by a French
officer, together with a Polish lieutenant from
the retinue of Princess Maria Leszczyska, at
the court of the French Prince Regent Philip 11
of Orleans. The Frenchman courteously gave the
full credit for the invention to bis friend. "Polish
draughts" gave an mpetus to the invention of
other types of draughts of which a number of
countries throughout thc world have different
national varieties.
Not everybody has considered draughts inferior
to chess. The Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz
wrote a highly complimentary poem about
draughts, as a counter-blast to Bishop Vida's
famous Latin poem on chess. Here are a few
lincs :

KnowJ thenJ this is an image of array;

Ground is wanted to bring troops to play.
First, then, accoutre well the list for Draughts,
Marked on each side with seven equal shafts;
Next, fashion al! the Black and the White squares,
Place the altemate on the thoroughfares
When the lot is marked, writ and bound,

Do not be slow to cal! the knights to ground.

Twelve men has one side, so does the other;
With pawns they fight, as Pawns they are gathered.
So as to shun an error in the crowd,
Some wear the Black, and others the White Shroud.

In Nicholas Gogol's "Dead Souls," winning

at a game of draughts decided the conditions
for thc purchase of "dead souls" - that is, of
dead seifs still figuring in the records. Nozdryov
wished to sell his dead to Chichikov but in order
to avoid the form of a comrnercial deal he suggest
ed they settle the deal by a game of cards :
'Well,' said Nozdryov after a short pause, 'what
about it ? Won't you play for my dead souls ?'

Egyptiall

caricature

B.C.) showing

( 1 3th

/ion and an

'l've told you, my dear fellow, that 1 don't play.

1'11 buy them if you likc.'
'1 don't want to sell them. It wouldn't be acting
like a friend . 1 don't want to make a profit out
of any damn thing. Now, a game of cards is a differ
ent matter. Let's have j ust one game, anyway! '
' I 've told you already 1 won't . '
'And you won't exchange them for anything ?'
'No.'
'Well, loo k here, let's have a game of draughts.
If you win, they're all yours. You see, I've got
lots who should have been struck off the census
register. Hey, Porfiry, bring the draught board
here.'
'You needn't trouble, I'm not going to play.'
'But this is not cards : there's no question of
luck or cheating here. lt's all a matter of skill,
you know. In fact 1 must warn you that 1 can't
play at all. You really should give me a piece or
two.'
'Well,' Chichikov thought to himself, 'why not
sit down and have a game of draughts with him ?

cemury
antelope

plu.ying a board game. Th lio11 sy nbol

izes th e Pharaoh
ro

Hrip

courr

Rameses JI/, who used

di 11itaris of their mouey .

77

Anciem Egyptian interior. In the foreground,

a table seroing to play senet, a precursor of draughts.
Drawing by S. Siennicki.

Egyptian board-game (senet) found in Tutank

hamen's tomb. In the background an ancient Egyp
tian wall-painting showing two people at play.

78

I used to play draughts quite well and it will be

difficult for him to get up to any tricks at
draughts.'
'All right, so be it. 1'11 have a game of draughts
with you.'
'The souls against a hundred roubles! '
'Why a hundred ? Fifty's enough.'
'No, what sort of stake is fifty ? I'd better throw
in a middling puppy or a gold seal for your watch
chain.'
'Oh, very well,' said Chichikov.
'How many pieces will you give me ?' asked
Nozdryov.
'Whatever for ? I won't give you anything.'
'You might at least let me have the first two
m oves.'
' I won't. I'm a poor player myself.'
'We know you', said Nozdryov, moving a piece.
'We know what sort of a poor player you are.'
'Haven't touched a draughtsman for I don't
know how long,' said Chichikov, also moving a
piece.
'We know you, we know what sort of a poor
player you are,' said Nozdryov, moving another
piece and at the same time pushing forward another
with the cuff of his sleeve.
'Haven't touched a draughtsman for ages,' said
Chichikov. 'Hullo, hullo ! What's that, my dear
fellow ? Put it back.'
'Put back what ?'
'Why, that piece there,' said Chichikov, and,
at the same time, saw almost under his very nose
another which seemed to have got almost far
enough to become king ; where it had come from
goodness only knows. 'No, sir,' said Chichikov,
gening up from the table, ' it's quite impossible
to play with you. One doesn't play like that with
three pieces all at once ?'
'Why with three ? I'm sorry, I made a mistake.
One was moved accidentally. 1'11 put it back if
you like.'
'And where did the other one come from ?'
'What other one ?'
'Why, the one which is going to be a king.'

'Good Lord, don't yo u remember ?'

'No, my dear fellow, I don't. I've counted every
move and I remember them all. You've only just
placed it there. That's where it should be!'
'What ? There ?' said Nozdryov, reddening.
'1 can see, my dear fellow, you like to imagine
things. '
'No, m y dear fellow, it's you who seem t o be
imagining things, only not very successfully.'
Napoleon Bonaparte preferred draughts, bas
ing on it his military tactics of lightning-quick
regrouping of forces for attack.
Edgar Allan Poe wrote in "The Murders in

Louis XIV playing draughts. A cartoon with political cnoer

tones, from a late 18th century calendar.
79

Satirical drawing by Honore

Daumier from the Pars period
ical "Le Charivari'' in 1847 with
an ironic caption: "Parians who
will uever be under observatiou
by th secret po/ice."

Draughts enthusiasts at a Paris

cajJ in the 19th century. Contem
porary lithograph by de Boi/ly.

80

" The queen is captured" - a satire on enthusiasm for draughts. Early 19th century
French caricature.

the Rue Morgue" : "To calculate is not in itself

to analyse. A chessplayer, for example, does the
one without effort at the other. It follows that
the game of chess, in its effects upon mental
character, is greatly m.isunderstood. I am not
now writing a treatise, but simply prefacing
a somewhat peculiar narrative by observations
very much at random ; I will therefore take occa
sion to assert that the higher powers of the re
ftective intellect are more decidedly and more
usefully tasked by the unostentatious game of
draughts than by all the elaborate frivolity of
chess. In this latter where the pieces have differ
ent and bizarre motions, with various and var
iable values, what is only complex is mistaken
(a not unusual error) for what is profound. The
attention is here called powerfully into play.
If it flags for an instant, an oversight is commit
ted, resulting in injury or defeat. The possible

moves being not only manifold but involute, the

chances of such oversights are multiplied ; and
in nine cases out of ten it is the more concenttat
ive rather than the more acute player who con
quers. In draughts, on the contrary, where the
moves are unique and have but little variation,
the probabilities of inadvertence are diminished,
and the mere attention being left comparatively
unemployed, what advantages are obtained by
either party are obtained by superior acumen. To
be less abstract - let us suppose a game of
draughts where the pieces are reduced to four
kings, and where, of course, no oversight is to
be expected. It is obvious that here the victory
can be decided (the players being at all equal)
only by sorne recherch movement, the result
of sorne strong exertion of the intellect. Depriv
cd of ordinary resources, the analyst throws
himself into the spirit of his opponent, identifies
81

A game of draughts in the Warsaw flat of Frederic Chopin's parents. Scene from the
Polish film "Chopin's Youth" (1952) .

Draughts on a hotel terrace, 1929. An original variety of the game demanding physical as
we/1 as mental effort.

82

himself therewith, and not unfrequently sees

thus at a glance, the sole methods (sometimes
indeed absurdly simple ones) by which he may
seduce into error or hurry into miscalculation."
In China, for sorne thousands of years, a game
has been played called "Wei-chi," i.e. "The
Siege Game." It is a peculiar form of draughts
on a board marked with 19 horizontal and 19
vertical intersecting lines. Each opponent has
180 stones. The aim of the game is to seize ter
ritory and trap opposing pieces. Play starts with
only a few men on each side; further pieces are
gradually brought in from the players' reserves.
The men are posted on intersections. Chinese
draughts has a rich tradition and an extensive liter
ature, and is advancing steadily in popularity
in Europe and America.
Ludus Latrunculorum, "the game of soldiers"
or Latrunculi for short, was very popular in
the ancient Roman Empire. lt had certain re
semblances to both draughts and chess. It was
played on a tablet like a chessboard. Each player
set out two rows of men; a rank of "great" sol
diers moving like the queen in chess, and a rank
of "small' soldiers corresponding to draughts
men. The game was played all over the board
and whoever captured or trapped all his op
ponent's men won. Owing to the double meaning
of the word latro, which means "a soldier" also a "brigand" - the name was often wrongly
translated as a "game of little brigands." The
word latrunculus is a diminutive of latro and
definitely means "a little soldier." But this was
not the end of errors: later on Latrunculi was
repeatedly confused with chess. In Poland for
instance, one author, in translating Jan Kocha
nowski's poem "Chess" into Latn, rendered the
title as Latrunculi, whilst another, translating
Seneca into Polish, made a similar mistake in
reverse by calling latrunculi chess. To make
things worse, he wrote in his preface: "It is
obvious that chess was often played among the
Romans." Chess was, however, definitely un
known in either ancient Rome or Greece.

"A Game of Draughts." Lithograph by Edouard Vuillard,

French impressionist.

Yet another game, "Arithmetical Chess,"

though outwardly bearing little relation to chess,
was in practice very close to it as a result of
the fact that the aim was to trap the main
piece.
The board was divided into 128 black and white
squares (8 x 16). Each player had 24 pieces mark
ed with numbers. There were three kinds of
pieces - round, triangular, and square - moving
in different ways. Capturing and mating were
based on numerical combinations. The rules were
fantastically complicated. An interesting game
but one demanding great mathematical skill. lts
complexity put amateurs off whilst mathemat
icians preferred to employ their talents in other
83

 )
.

,..
...
.

'

1'l

' V
..

!<-- .
-

Henri Matisse's "Family evening," in oil. From the Eremitage col/ections, Leningrad.

directions so that, though it had a certain vogue

in the Renaissance period, it faded out soon after.
War games of various kinds allied to chess
have been devised in sorne variety and new kinds
are still being invented today. One's opponent's
forces may be invisible, so that their dispositions
have to be found by trial. "Sea Warfare" is one
quite well-known game of this type.
Another which appeared in England in 1770
was described in a book "The Game of War, an
Improvement on Chess. " The board, divided
into black and white squares, served as a battle84

field for a number of pieces - more than in

chess. The king had to be checkmated by new
pieces called Cannons. In 1782, Helwig presented
a similar game, Estralography or Military Chess,
in which each player stormed an enemy fort.
The pieces represented not only Infantry, Cav
alry, Artillery, and Transport but also Fortified
Camps, Stores, etc.
About 1850, another type of "war game"
was suggested in book form. lt was based on
a plan of the battlefield of Ostrolka, 1831, in
which Polish insurgents fought the troops of

the Tsar, this plan of the battlefield being divided

up like a chessboard. We fear war has diverged
very far from chess these days.
Innumerable modifications of chess such as
changing the shapc and size of the board, in
troducing new pieces etc., have been suggested
to reduce the value of book knowledge. A lot
of people have felt that study of the openings
has gone too far and they try to foil the "swot".
Of the hundreds of suggestions put forward,
we can quote only a few.
The pawns are usually left unaltered but many
changes in the pieces have been proposed. In
one game, the players start with an empty board.
White places one of his men on any square
he likes ; Black places a similar man wherever
he likes, then placcs a second on the board
wherever he chooses. White places a second
and third piecc, then Black a third and fourth
and so on, until the whole array is out. It has
been calculated that the game could start from
any of at least ten thousand different positions,
so that all established theory becomes useless.
A long way down the scale, more than one
innovator has asked "Why not simply inter
change White's king and queen ?"
Another simple idea : we start play in normal
fashion until Black has made bis tenth move.
Now we turn the board round so that the player
originally Black makes bis eleventh move with
the white men. After move 20, another half-turn
again reverses the players' roles. This variety
of chess, called "Rotational" (England, 1913)
testifies to its designer's sense of hwnour, but to
little else.
In the group of games based on chess may
be included, as specific individual variants, those
in which one contestant plays merely with pieces
the other merely with pawns. Described below
is a variant which may, after J. Boyer, be termed
"one-move pieces against two-move pawns. " The
game, invented by Verney in 1884, has recently
been recalled by an Englishman named Vesselo
in his pamphlet "Chess in Schools." The

Jl?ei-clti Playcrs." Drawing from the period of the Sung

dynasty (960-1279) .

...

:t

E
'W-

,.o-

Chinese draughts "wei-chi" derives its name jrom a word

meaning "siege." Tlze drawing shows the 19-line board with
some examples of men besieged by adversary jorces.

85

The men and board set outfor "rhyrhmomachy," or arithmetical

chess. The men move according ro their shape.

Capturing

is govcrned by numerical combinations and position. Tlze game

was practised in tlze 1 6t h century.

opening position of che!>smen is that likc in the

ordinary chess, the difference being that White
has only pawns and a king, all alone and deprived
of other pieces, whereas Black has no pawns
whatsoever. Each contestant strives to check-mate
86

his opponent's king. The black pieces move

and capture in accordance with conventional
procedures, making one move at a time, but
when White makes a Capture on his first move,
he forfcits his second move. Moreover, the black
king may be checkcd only on the second move.
In the case of thc white king being checked by
Black, the first move has to be made by thc
king to escape the check, and the second is at the player's option - madc either again by
the king or by any individual pawn. It has been
found out in practice that the odds are in favour
of White especially since an individual white
pawn, upon reaching the eighth rank and being
promoted to a piece, rapidly concludes the game
having two moves at its command. The game
creares amusing situations.
In 1942, another variant of the pawn-vcrsus
-piece game was proposed by Lord Dunsany.
Black pawns, thirty-two in numbcr, occupy
thc upper half of the chcssboard and havc no
king. White chessmen on the other hand include
no pawns . The Blad;: are dcfeated when all
their pawns are capturcd by white pieccs, whercas
thc whitc king is to be checkmatcd in accordancc
with thc rules of the convcntional chess. On
rcaching the eighth rank a black pawn is promot
cd to a bishop or other piccc. Despite appcar
ances the gamc requires unyielding attention, and
will punish any nonchalant playing by cnding
in the rapid defeat of any player who is contemp
tuous of his adversary.
Four-a-side chess has also been modified with
four teams of sixteen chessmen each . White
and red play against black and blue, on two
ordinary chessboards placed side by side. Partners
sit side by side facing opponents. The game can
end with the checkmating of one king or both
one side's kings, at choice.
Capablanca once played Maroczy in a public
exhibition on a 12 x 16 chessboard consisting of
two normal boards side by side with an addition
al four rank wide belt in the middle.
Byzantine chess with its circular board was

once taken down from its cupboard and dustcd

and rules drawn up for playing it by three or
four combatants. Normal chess has also been
ingeniously adapted to make it a game for
three.
Among a host of new chessmen proposed for
use on an expanded board have been Grenadiers,
Engineers and, after the first World War, Tanks
and Aeroplanes.
A notable Polish lawycr, Stanislaw Hofmokl
Ostrowski, devised a system which he called
"Mephisto. " Two teams of 20 battled on a 1 0
b y 10 board. The normal chess set was expanded
by two extra pawns and by two Devils with a
move like a knight's but continued one jump
further. Whereas a knight always moves a square

of different colour, a Devil ends up on a square of

the colour it left.
Many inventors strved to develop a hexagonal
chess, experimenting with various forms of
chessboard, varying the number of pieces and
adapting the rules of thc game to new geometrical
condtions. In 1 926, the rules for Hexagonal
and Three-coloured Chess were published by
Lord H. D. Baskervlle. His chessboard consisted
of eighty-thrce hexagonal fields arranged in
the form of a rectangle with a zig-zag border
line. The h>.agons were whitc, blue or red.
Each contestant had - as in the traditional
garr.e of chess - sixteen pieces, however, diffe
rently arranged on the chessboard, their moves
adapted to the possibility of travelling in six

Three chessboards placed with

their corners touching, so that
three people can play at once.
Each has white men on one
board and black on another.
This is not so much a variety
of clzess, as a small-scale
sinndtaneous display.

87

In modern, four-handed chess, as in bridge, two pairs of

players compete with each other. White and red chessmen play
against black and blue.

Hexagonal chess is played on a board of 91 squares - black,

white and brown. Each player has a set of 18 pieces, including
three bishops a11d 11i11e pawns.

directions. Baskerville's system failed to be adopt

ed as being a compromise between the tradition
al game of chess and its new variant which
opened far greater prospects of radical changes
in the rules of the game that was the case with
the system proposed.
The system invented by Glinski, a Pole
living in London, proved more of a success. His
version of hexagonal chess, introduced in 1949,
was further modified in 1953 and was patented
in that form. Glinski's chessboard consists
of ninety-one three-coloured hexagonal fields
arranged in the form of a large regular hexahe
dron. The position of the pieces at the open
ing of the game is shown in the diagram.
Pawns, to the number of nine, move and take
like those in the ordinary chess. The chessmen,
consequent on the possibility of moving in six

directions, are subject to modified rules which

may easily be deduced from the geometrical
analysis of the chessboard. Since squares of the
same colour are not adjacent to one another,
bishops (to the number of three) travel diago
nally along the rows of hexagons of different
colours. The movements of rooks in perpendi
cular lines are obvious, while their horizontal
movements are made by leaping over to hexagons
of the same colour. Glinski's variant makes for
an exciting game and creates original situa
tions.
For "Atomic Chess," which was patented in
France in 1949, the board was of 1 2 squares
by 12, and Tanks and Aeroplanes reinforced the
normal set. When a pawn reached the twelth
rank, it became an Atom Bomb. This could
be used only once but then destroyed every

88

piece, friend or foe, in a certain area around

it. The atomic explosion did not necessarily end
the game. If the king perished, his functions were
taken over by the strongest remaining piece.
Mate had been abolished. The aim was destruc
tion.
Why not combine chess with football? 1 t
has been tried!
In the late 1 940's, we were offered "Football
Chess" devised by the French author Henri
Boissicr . On a board of 9 by 9 squares stood the
normal pieces with a second queen on each side
instead of the king. No pawns. The middle
squares in each player's back rank were empty,
and represented the goals. The "hall," a special
piece, was placed in mid-board. You could use

a starting whistle if you liked. Each player

attacked the "hall" with his pieces trying to
push it on before them into the goal.
Our survey would not be complete without
three-dimensional chess. Play can be conducted
over the surface of a globe, the pieces being
pegged into holes in ruled-out "squares." Or
the "board" can be a cylinder. Perhaps the most
frequently tested type of three-dimensional chess
is that in which the men move inside a frame
work of eight squares erected one above the other
to form a cube. Transparent plastic is a highly
suitable material for this. Nearly a century ago,
the famous chess player K.ieseritzky had hit upon
this idea, that chess might be played on (in ?)
a "board" of 5 1 2 cubes 8 by 8 by 8.

Another way to play four-handed chess: two chessboards placad side-by-sidc forming the field of battle.
Light-coloured armies play the dark ones. The "allied armies" differ in colour ouly slightly.

89

One can srnile at sorne of these extravagancies.

None has seriously challenged chess. Anyway,
why should not people cnjoy thernselves like
this if they choose ? One group in Paris has
set up a "Centre d'tudes des Jeux de Cornbi
naison" which publishes booklcts, organizes
rnatches and tournaments and initiates invcstiga
tion of unorthodox varietics of chess and draughts,
on an international scale.
"Alcoholic Chess" has given birth to a host of
anecdotes. This is played on a large board on
which, stand instead of pieces, glasses or bottles
of strong drink. If you capture a piece, you
rnust drink up its contents. lt is said that in one
garne in Hungary in 1898_, played on a billiard
table appropriately rnarked out, the king was

represented by a bottle of champagne, the queen

by liebfraurnilch, other pieces by tokay and the
pawns by vin rouge. The garne beat the players,
for they both finished up under the table with
quite an interesting rniddle-game position on the
board.
(Lasker is said to have won a game of "Aicohol
ic Chess" by sacrificing his queen in ridiculous
fashion at the very outset of the garne. The
queen contained about a quarter litre of cog
nac; quaffing this scriously incapacitated his
opponent in the ensuing cornplications
B. H. Wood).
Thus traditional chess, though it has accepted
a few slight changes, has withstood one assault
after another. Sorne suggestions were too simple,
-

Shortly before the last war, an Austrian player invented a new version of clzess, using a 100-square board and introducing extra
men: aircrafts (a combination of a rook a nd knight) and banks (a combination oj a bishop and knight).

90

Alee Guinness with an extraordinary set of draughts in thc Americanfilm "Our Man in Havana"
( 1960) , based 011 Graltam Greene's novel.

91

" If you

utm t

to 1drr, you

rr. ;st mO'IJe the qucen."

Cartoo11 from "Percc", 1 9.'9.

No comments.
Cartoon by

E. Lipi.ski (" Przekrj") .

No comments.
Cartoon by K . Baraniecki i n "Szpilki."

92

"This is my new iuvention."

Cartoon by J. Hegen ("Frischer Wind") .

"And rww the black piece moves to t,.!.Kt

5."

Cartoon by L. ll7ern.r ("Neue Berliner Illustn"erte") .

"They have been playing for four weeks

without

any

Cartoon by J. Hegen ("Frischer Wind") .

result . "

"Something's wrong!" Cartoon by

S. Kobylinski (" Polityka") .

others too complex. In sorne forms, the game

became too slow.
lt may be that chess has achieved a most
delicate balance in its present form. lt is not
easy. lt could never bore; yet its essentials can
be mastered by any reasonably intelligent person
in an evening. lt is even not so cut-and-dried as

to rule out the possibility of a little luck, or scope

for intuition.
It may suffer a few slight amendments yet
but any modification of its essential characteristics
seems unlikely for as long as it continues to be
played.

IV. CHESS AND MATHEMATICS

" Wair a momenr, please, rill we've finished rhe game."

(" Zeir im Bild") .

" They agreed ro a draw."

Cartoon by /. Zubov (''Ogonyok") .

"The king is in check!"

Carroon by J. Kosieradzki ("Szpilki") .

"Agiration."
Carroon by A. Franfois ("Przekrj").

96

"On a desert island."

Cartoon by K. Baraniecki ("Karuzela").

" U7e wonder what kind of game to buy. '

Cartoon by J. Hegen (" Frischer Wind") .

"It'l notfair, al/ of you against one!"

Cartoon by K. Klamann ("Eulenspiegel") .

Sorne fifteen hundred years ago, a Hindu ruler

caBed Shehram brought his state, by poor
governrnent, to the verge of ruin. One of the
Brahmins, the sage Sessa, son of Daher, stirred
up h..is courage to draw his ruler's attention to
the unwisdom of his actions, by a tactful method
which avoided any provocation to Shehram's
anger. He devised a game in which the most
important piece, the Rajah; could achieve nothing
without the assistance of his fellow men. It was
chess. Shehram perccived the lesson and mended
his ways.
Eager to repay the sage who had provided
him not only with a valuable lesson in the con
duct of affairs, but also a fine new game, he
offercd the sage any reward he chose. Sessa
named an apparently modest reward. He asked
for a grain of wheat on the first square of a chess
board; two grains on the second. On the third
again twice as many, i.e. four grains, and so on,
to the 64th square, the number of grains being
doubled each time. Shehram agreed, glad that
the sage's demand was so moderate. Grain was
brought from the granary. But soon it became
evident that there was not enough grain in the
world to satisfy the sage's demand. Centuries
later, it was computed that the 64th square alone
would demand 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 grains.
The total number of grains requ..ired, being the
sum of the series composed of the figure 2 with
all the powers in numerical order from O to 63,
i.e. 1 +21 +22+23+24, etc. would amount to :
18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains,
i.e. 18 trillion, 446,744 billion, 73 milliard,
709 million, 551 thousand and 6 1 5 grains. If
20 grains fill a cubic centimetre, 20 million are
requ..ired for a cubic metre. So the number of
cubic metres would be more than 922,337,203,685.
It was subsequently computed that, in order
to obtain this amount of corn, it would be neces
sary to sow the whole of the Earth's surface and
harvest the lot eight times over.
In this way, Sessa taught his ruler a further
lesson : not to make rash promises.

Though these computations are only incident

ally connected with chess, they provide a glimpse
of thc fantastic mathematical possibilities of the
apparently simple little 64-square board.
Arabic manuscripts reveal that the chessboard
was occasionally used as a sort of aux.iliary abacus
for purposes of calculating. It became quite
important for this purpose in England from the
12th century onwards. The French name "l'chi
qu..ier" became the "Exchequer," the main
financia! department of the State, nowadays the
Treasury. The state budget was portioned out on
a special chequered board, each square of which
represented a different kind of expenditure. The
fmal fiscal allocations wcre decided by transferring
definite sums of money from one square to
another. In Ireland there were once two families
whose representatives played a game of chess
once a year. The winn..ing party was entitled
to receive the income from the loser's estates
for the ensuing twelve months.
Most published mathematical monographs on
chess have concerned themselves with the num
erical mysteries of the chessboard and of the
movements of various pieces on it, not with the
theory ofthe game itself. Efforts to create a math
ematical theory of chess have not so far produ
ced any sensible results as obvious as, for instance,
the application of geometry to billiards. Probably
the largest of known works was a big, three
volume treatise by the Russian mathematician
and theort:dcian C. F. von Jaenisch, published in
1862, in French, under the title "Trait des
applications de l'analyse mathematique au jeu
des checs" ("A Treatise on the Applications
of Mathematical Analysis to the Game of Chess").
This started by defining the powers of the
pieces in various situations, the relative effect
of exchanges, etc. The principal works in this
respect, by the Belgian scientist M. Kraitschik,
a contemporary of ours, have not taken us much
further. Kraitschik has, however, gone with
particular thoroughness into problems with
many queens on the board, knights' tours etc.
97

The Brahman, su/tan and ches;, as seen by tlle cartooni!t

G. Miklas:mvski.

The same subject, the birtll

cartoonist,

98

of chess, as seen by another

M. Pokora.

The problem of finding a general method of

moving a knight around the board in such a way
as to move over every square without stopping
twice on any one, has attracted mathematicians
through two centuries. The first to examine and
describe thc "knight's tour" in detail was the
great Swiss mathematician Leonard Euler. In
the second half of the 18th century, he presented
works analysing the movement of the knight
in what is known as the closed cycles, i.e. those
in which, after of a series of moves, it returns to
the starting point. This type of knight's tour has
been named the Buler.
The Polish author Szczepan Jelenski in his book
about mathematical games, "Lilavati," described
four knights' tour methods : Euler's ; Moon's,
a "frame" mcthod of 1 843 ; Moivre's, from the
beginning of thc 1 8th century, another frame
method, i.e. depending on the setting apart of the
centre squares of the board and of a "frame"
around ; and, finally, Roget's, from the middle
of the 1 9th century, which is based on dividing
the chessboard into quarters.
The possibilities for knights' tours are greater
than it would seem. lt has been calculated that
the number of different solutions on a 64-square
board exceeds 3 1 million.
Tours for other pieccs have been investigated,
mainly for thc rook, but also for combinations
of knights with other pieces . The thcme attracted
interest among the Indians, Persians and Arabs
as early as a thousand years ago.
Sometimes the piece had to return to its original
square, sometimes it had to describe a magic
square.
The mention of "magic" squares rccalls
a discussion by thc Polish poet Julian Tuwim
in bis collection of literary curiosities named
"Pegasus head-over-heels ." This was a famous
mediaeval lettered square made up of five myste
rious cabalistic words, in which by using (in
general) , a knight's move (a move severa! times
with another piece according to a hitherto unre
vealed key pattern is to be made) , we obtain an

An

Arabian

chessboard

used for

counting: the horizontal rous of white

or black squares rauge according to

4
mil.

6
mil.

8
mil.

tqs.

40

so o

20

mil.

4 00

tqs

10
mil.

arithmetical progression; the diago

nal ones, according

to geometrical

progression.

4 00

tqs.

60

600

tqs.

(IJS.
40

tqs.
so

mil.

60

tqs.
8 00
2 00

(IJS.
10

600

lts.

tqs.

80

2 00
.

tqs.

20

tqs.

lts.

t OO

tqs.

9 00

l1J8.

90

30

tO

(IJS.
9

tOO

tqs.
9 00
3

tqs.

[fjS.

3 00

(IJS.

'Z OO

(IJS.

70

50

90
30

[IJS.
'Z'
tqs.
5 00
500

(IJS.

CJ

300

tqs.
'l OO
j

lts.
50

{f/S.
70
,

mil.

additional solution beyond the basic meaning of

the words themselves, of a "mystic" character :
S A T O R
A R E P O
T E N E T
O P E R A
R O T A S
Going over the letters in knights' moves, we
read twice PATER NOSTER AO, where A and
O stand for the Greek letters Alpha and Omega,
or metaphorically the beginning and the end.
The knight's peculiar move has been the key
to many a mental puzzle. His moves would spell

'Z
mil.

i.

m1l.

'Z

mil.

out sorne phrase through the letters on the

squares he traversed. Or the squares might bear
pictures which, grouped in the order of the
knight's move, themselvcs conveyed a message.
The Soviet film "Blue routes" ( 1 947) in a story
set after the Second World War, showed the So
viet Navy disarming minefields laid by the Nazis.
Three minefields, lying in the route of transports,
were causing great trouble. Out of 36 heavy
magneto-sonar mines laid on each field, the
engineers had disarmed 32 only. The remaining
four could not be traced and threatened every
ship passing over. Captain Ratanov decided
99

T/ knight and his rdatiom.

Carto011 by L. Mimycz

( Przellrj") .
"

to unravel the scheme of their lay-out at all costs.

Examining all the circumstances connected with
their lay-out, he learned that it was designed by
a German engineer who chanced to be deeply
interested in chess. Captain Ratanov was also
a keen chessplayer, and had recently becn
interested in knights' tours. He arrived at an
unexpcctcd conclusion that the mines had been
laid as if on a chessboard, following a plan based
on knights' movl!s from rhe centre. He was
right ; the remaining mines were traced and
rendered harmless.
Lasker is said to have had one casual game with
an unknown opponent, who lost quickly then
asked, "what do you think of my play ?" "lt is
curious," replied the champion, "why, for exam
ple, haven't you moved your knights even once ?"
"Why ? Because, dear sir, 1 haven't the faintest
idea how they do move! "
The short puppet film "Desire" produced in
Czechoslovakia in 1962 by Jifi Trnka features an
1 00

amusing scene : a casualty of a bicycle accident,

all in bandages, is driving his one-cylinder engined
inval id chair. Rattling past a couple of chess players
at a game he catches up sorne of their knights.
Thc knights, thrown into the engine skip around
likc fleas, adding to thc engine's power and
revolutions. On the car goes! Such is the pow
er of the chess knights!
Many scientists have been attracted by the
mathematical aspects, not only of the movements
of pieces about the board but of situations in
which a number of pieces have to be placed
:1ccording to specified conditions. For examplc,
that they should cover the maximum number of
squares, or the mnimum number of squares ;
that they should not attack each other and
so on.
Ir is possible to place five queens on a chess
board, so that they cover every square, in 4,860
different ways.
The problem of placing eight queens on the
board, so that none attacks any other, has attract
ed tremendous attention. The German mathem
atician Karl Gauss calculated that there are
92 positions in all. Of these, only twelve are
essentially different ; the others can all be obtained
by rotating the board or reflecting one of the
cssential twelve as if in a mirror.
The same problem with eight rooks has no
fcwer than 40,320 solutions. Eight bishops or
eight knights give rise to even greater numbcrs
which nobody has been able to compute exactly
at lcast, nobody has tried.
On the other hand, much time and cffort has
gone to trying to find how many different posi
tions are possible in chess as a whole. This prob
lem is more of the essence of chess than mere
pastimes such as knights' tours or the puzzles
of the queens.
Two kings can be placed on a board in 3,612
different ways. Add one pawn and the number
of diffcrent positions rises to 167,248. Naturally
illegal situations are not included, for instance
those with a white pawn on White's back rank.

With two kings and two pawns, we can have about

7,400,000 legal positions. We are already among
the millions! Two kings and two pieces can be
placed in thirteen million ways; two kings,
twelve pieces and a pawn in a number of different
ways which contains 27 figures.
If you start to set up all 32 men on a 64-square
board, you have at your disposal at least 7,534,
686, 3 12, 361, 225, 327 x 1033 different ways of
doing it.
Even these astronomical figures give only
a small idea of the variety of possibilities in an
actual game.
White can make his first move in any of twenty
different ways (sixteen moves with pawns, four
with the knights). Black has as many possibilities
in reply.
For his second move, White has the choice
among 28; for his second, Black among 29.

Diagrams showing knights' tours of the board,

no

For his third move, White has 30 possibilities ;

for his third, Black has 3 1 . For his fourth White
has 32, Black 33.
Mter one move by each player, we have 400
(20 times 20) different possible positions. To
simplify further computation, let us assume that
for his first five moves, each player can choose
from 20 alternatives each time, and among 30
each time after that. We can also assume that
the average game lasts 40 moves a-side. Games
can, of course, be longer or shorter. It is only
a rough estimate anyway, but the result is inter
esting. We get :
(20 X 20)5 X (30 X 30)35
210 X 370 X 1()8
25 X 10115
This is a number of 1 17 figures.
lt is many times higher than the number of
various combinations of all the 32 chessmen,
which is understandable, since every move by
=

square being visited twce, and the tour ending wllere t began.

101

either player brings about a new situation, and

the number of men alters repeatedly as a result

calculations

yield

still

higher

numerical

results determining the number of all chess garnes

of exchangcs.
Somebody

Under somewhat different initial assumptions

the

might

complain

that

the

total

possible. In the Polish mathematician's "Wstp

number obtained is an exaggeration, including

do teorii gier"

many moves that nobody in his senses would

of Games"), by Edward Kofler ( 1 963) we come

the

(" Introduction to the Theory

make. Let us make a more conservative calcula

across

tion then. Suppose, after three or four moves

contained in the chapter devoted to multi-step

following

analytical

considerations

have been played, there are only a couple of

garnes :

plausible moves to choose from each time; then,

"On his first move, player I has twenty possible

after seven moves by each player, any of 1 6,000

moves. To each of these, player II, on the second

different

reached.

move, can reciprocate with twenty moves. Thus

If there were three good moves to choose from

the original apex of a dendrite* separates into

positions

could

have

been

at each turn, then after scven moves by each

player more than five million different situations
could have arisen - all this, of course, from
only one particular opening.

49 42 40 5 1
47 52 52 45
4 1 50 48 43
55 44 46 5 3
6 1 22 16 63
19 56 58 21
17 62 60 23
59 20 18 57
Solution of

9 34 36 11
39 12 14 33
37 10 8 35
15 32 38 13
5 26 28 7
31 64 2 25
29 6 4 27
3 24 30 1

an old Arab problem: a tour of the chessboard,

and bish op moving alternately (che latter making the
move of those days, just uuo squares diagonally) .

knight

1 02

Dendrite

a geomctrical figure composed of a finite number of

segments separating from a ccrtain original apex (starting point of the

gamc) and branching off in such a
dircctly connectcd with

3 7 14 16 35
15 36 34 17
13 33 48 11
39 12 10 49
9 42 40 4 7
43 8 46 4 1
45 6 4 59
7 44 58 5
A

manner

that each end apex is

only one apex of the immediate lower leve!.

33 18 24 31
19 32 30 25

21 26 28 23
27 20 22 29
6 1 50 52 63
51 60 62 53
57 2 64 55
3 56 54 1

problem showing a tow of che chessboard with alternate

moves of knight and queen - the latter making its old move,
one square only.

t wenty

branches

with

ea eh

branch

further

divided into another twenty branches. On sub

sequent moves, the number 0f possible moves by
cach player is further increased.
We can also roughly define the upper Iimit
of the number of all possible branchcs of an
entire dendrite and that of thc number of seg
ments on individual branches . It may be assu
med - as has been shown in practice - that the
number of moves in any individual game is not
in excess of 300 ( 1 50 moves by each playcr).
It may also be assumed that the number of all
possible moves by one contestant in any individual
situation on the chessboard is not in excess of
1 00. Now we consider the number of all possible
combinations of moves by player I on the first
move with all possible moves by player II on
the second move - with all possible moves
by player I on the third move, etc. The number
in question is equal to that of all possible games
of chess. However, on the other hand, that num
ber is - in accordance with ;the above assump
tions - undoubtedly lower than

1 00 X 1 00 X 1 00 X

.. X

1 00

300 times
This

enormous

1 00300

quantity, cxpressed by 60 1

ldter puzzle based

on

che move of a kili,;hc,

cnm111011 i11

mediaezal times. Starting from el; e bold "R," by mal?i11g

digits, is just the upper limit of the total branches

" lmighc 's movc each time, rhc solver sp ells out a message.

of the dendrite. As regards the upper limit of

Sy/lablc, pictrrrc and rebus puzzles using

the number of segments on individual branches,

lrave beerz

lmighr's move

common.

this is of course equal to 300.

Since the assumptions of the principal theorem
are fulfil led ; it may be considered that the value
of the game of chess is unambiguously determined
and that each contestant has at least one optimum

tion to establish whether player 1 entering the

strategy to follow to achieve the value of the

contest - and following an optimum strategy,

gamc. In view of the enormity of the dendrite

which is of course an unknown to us - is going

it is at the present time impossible, even with

to win, draw or lose the game . "

the aid of most powerful computers, to determine

Thc possibilities o f chess are thus, for all

precisely the value and the optimum strategy

practica! purposes, virtually unlimited. All the

of the game. Thus, with the value of the game

tournaments we could organise

precisely determined, we are not yet in a posi-

thousand years would not exhaust them .

in a hundred

1 03

geometrical puzzle. The knight is to be p/aced on an empty

square so as to capture al/ the black pawns in the least number
of moves ("Mathematical Puzzles" by B. Kordemsky) .

Mathematics can to a certain extent help to

crystallise the theory of the game, but a compre
hensive mathematical theory of chess is impossible
of attainment. The famous French mathemat
ician Henri Poincar conceded this, among
other things, in his treatise on scientific hypo
theses. He pointed out that moves on a chess
board do not fall into any sequence capable of
mathematical analysis. lt is impossible to work
out any generalising theses simply on the basis
of moves played. An embracing science of chess is
out of the question. A player thinks severa} moves
ahead but the figures we have seen make it clear
that his analysis can never be complete. He is
guided by intuition to a large extent. To be able
to calculate out to the end mathematically is
possible only on the rarest occasions.
If we could analyse all the variations (each
right to the end of the game) which could occur
at any particular moment of a game, we could
formulate certain laws. In sorne end-games,
1 04

we can work out how to play so as to win, or

what the result will be, depending on the choice
of move. Rarely is our analysis accurate enough
to be reliable. We may decide that one particular
first move ensures eventual victory. Later we
discover a move by our opponent that completely
wrecks our whole plan. The difficulties, even in
an apparently simple situation, may be colos
sal.
If we were to ignore the practica! aspcct of thc
game - that we are faced with almost unlimited
possibilities of choice and method of play, which
makes it a human impossibility to arrive at a
mathematical theory - then chess could be
expressed in sorne fairly simple mathematical
terms. Let us not delude ourselves. Even though
the essence of chess became completely defined,
this would not infiuence the game itself in the
least degree. This sounds almost paradoxical
but it is the truth.
Chess, then, contains an enormous but finite
number of combinations. Because of a certain
limitation imposed by the laws, that a threefold
repetition of any position leads to a draw, the
idea that any one game might go on for ever is an
unreality. This could have happened if thc rule
about the draw were not binding. Then, for
instance, perpetua} check would really be a per
petua! check and not a draw. (Here the author
errs. The laws allow either player to claim
a draw on three-fold repetition but do not compel
him to do so ; two sufficiently obstnate players
could go on repeating moves for ever - B. H.
Wood).
Moreover, it can be proved that chess is a game
in which the result could be foretold in advance.
Only, we cannot yet say what result, whether
a win for White, a win for Black or a draw, if the

play on each side were 100 % correct.

The problem was discussed by Grzegorz
Krochmalny in the Polish weekly "Przekrj" :
" . . . No one doubts that chess is a rational game.
The initial position is always the same and White
always starts. The players move alternately.

Draughts, 'Fox and Geese,' 'Noughts and Cros

ses' and other games are of this type . . . The
outcome of a game of 'Fox and Geese' cannot
be a draw. lt could be classified as a 'categorical'
game. Chess could be made 'categorical' ifwe were
to amend its laws slightly and say that anybody
who repeated the same move in the same position
had lost. The question now is what would happen
if contestants played 'categorical' chess fault
lessly. lt might be asked 'Can you define strictly
what is a game without fault ?' Modern logic has
overcome this objection. It is possible to define
correct, victorious or faulty moves, won or lost
positions, and winning, effective or faulty meth
ods. Having done thls, we arrive at a peculiar
result. AH 'categorical' games are unjust, i.e. they
provide an assured victory for one player, irres
pective of his opponent's play. In other words,
they are all like 'Fox and Geese.' Non-categorical
games, such as ordinary Chess, are not necessarily
unjust but as long as they are just, they lead
to no particular result if both the opponents play
correctly. Ordinary chess play is so complicated

that we do not know whether it is just or not.

Thc rule that White should move first produces
a privileged colour : whethcr this colour is Black
or White we do not know - or whether the privi
lege sways the balance sufficiently to eliminate
draws. If a hundred demons, each capable of
perfect chess, sat down to play in a tournament,
the same colour would win on all fifty boards . . . "
lt clearly follows from this that if in ideal, i.e.
faultless play, the result were pre-determined
for one opponent, one player would be as privileg
ed as in "Fox and Geese, " where the geese
should always win.
To show how closely related is the concept
of games, and therefore of the game of chess,
with certain branches of modern mathematics,
let us quote sorne excerpts from "lntroduction
to Probability Theory and its Applications"
(1950), an American university textbook by
Williarn Feller. Explaining various aspects of
the probability theory, and considering its
"formal logical contents," the American mathe
matician writes :

Cartoon by J. Flisak ("Szpilki") .

1 05

A lJelgiall chc111ist G. D. lloogllc fcith an etectric 111achine of

llis own constructioll for mald11g knights' tours. After recciving

appropriare "instructiollS" 011 a small cllessboard, the machine

automatically so/ves the problem, successively lighting up the
squares to be visited by the knight. The machine was exhibited
ar the 14th Chess Olympiad in Leipzig, 1960. Thc lower pho
tograph shof's the complex consrruction of the apparatus,
with thousands of electric wircs.

106

"Axiomatically, mathematics is concerned sole

ly with relations among undefined things.
This property is well illustrated by the game of
chess. It is impossible to 'define' chess othcr
wise than by stating a set of rules. The convention
al pieces may be de5cribcd to sorne extent,
but it will not always be obvious which piece
is intended for 'king.' The chessboard and the
pieces are helpful, but they can be dispensed
with. Thc essential thing is to know how the
pieces move and act.
"It is mcaningless to talk about the 'defini
tion' of the 'true nature' of a pawn or a king.
Similarly, geometry does not care what a point
or a straight line 'really are. ' They remain
undefined notions, and the axioms of geometry
specify relations among them : two points de
termine a Iine, etc."
In the passage on "intuitive background," we
read :
"In contrast to chess, the axioms of geometry
and mechanics have an intuitive background.
In fact, geometrical intuition is so strong that
it is prone to run ahead of logical reasoning.
The extent to which logics, intuition and physical
experience are interdependent is a pro blem into
which we need not enter. Certainly intuition
can be trained and developed. The bewildered
novice in chess moves cautiously, recalling in
dividual rules, whereas the experienced player
absorbs a complicated situation at a glance and
is unable to account rationally for his intuition.
In Iike manner mathematical intuition grows
with experience, and it is possible to develop
a natural feeling for concepts such as four
dimensional space. "
Many chess players have tried t o assess how
a perfect game of chess should end from ex
perience of actual master play.
Philidor thought, for instance, that whoever
made first move and made no mistake would win.
Lasker and the majority of the masters of his day
thought that the developing knowledge of tech
nique tended to make the perfect game a draw.

Many "experts" (in the 1920's and 1930's)

announced a belief that chess was a dying game,
because chess skill had reached such a level
that neither opponent could win unless bis
opponent blundered. An anccdote based on
Eastern fables which circulated frcely about that
time, provides good evidence that there were
many to ridicule this view :
"At the time of the Caliph Harun-al-Rashid,
chess fl.ourished in Baghdad. Everybody played ;
old and young, men and women, rich and poor.
There appeared a sage, who announced that he
had discovered a way to work out the very best
move in any position. He published bis method and what happened ? Everybody made use of it.
Soon nobody wished to sit down to a garne of
chess any more. The excited group of spectators
who used to watch the games melted away.
"The wise Caliph saved the situation by having
the sage's treatise burnt. Masters in the schools
undertook not to teach bis method any more and
everybody was happy again."
"Too much learning . . . !" We are far indeed,
however, from the point where we need to start
suppressing study of chess technique.
The Cuban genius, J. R. Capablanca thought
that chess was approaching its demise ; that the
human mind was achieving the ability to choose
the best move arnong the multitude of combi
nations and variations to such an extent that two
equally gifted in this respect, must always draw.
When in 1927 he carne to defend his world title
against Alekhine, indeed 25 out of the 34 garnes
were drawn - but Alekhine won six. Alekhine
proved convincingly that the combinational
possibilities of chess are far indeed from exhaus
tion.
Soviet chess players have probably abolished
for good the idea that the "ideal game" must be
drawn. The successes in the international arena
of Botvinnik, Bronstein, Smyslov, Tal and
others, have shown how dynamic chess can be.
Their enterprises have thrilled their fellows and
the public alike.

50 ll 24
23 62 5 1
10 49 64
61 22 9
48 7 60
59 4 45
6 47 2
3 58 5

63 14 37
12 25 34
21 40 13
52 33 28
1 20 41
8 53 32
57 44 19
46 31 56

26 35
15 38
36 27
39 16
54 29
17 42
30 55
43 18

..
..
..

..
..

..
..
..

Chess problem with the knight - a magic square: the sum

of the figures indicacing che knighc's posicion is always che
same: 260.

There does exist one guaranteed way by which

a weak player can draw with, or even beat,
a master. Here again, we wander into anecdote.
The method is to play simultaneously against
two opponents, having the white men in one
game, the black in the other. Our opponent
makes his first move with white - we then make
the same move on the other board and await
the reply. We repeat the black move in turn on
the first board, wait for the reply, and in the same
vein continue the sequence against the second
opponent, and soon we shall either draw both
games or win one and lose the other. In effect,
of course, our two opponents are playing each
other, we acting merely as a go-between.
This witty idea of a double game has supplied
the basis for many a fanciful story. There is
a short story by the Russian writer V. Azov,
describing a sad thing which is supposed to have
happened to Emanuel Lasker. We summarise :
During an international tournament, Lasker,
then world champion, was approached by an
individual who said that his little son was a pro107

Five queens placed so as to check on every square of rhe

board: one solurion ro a well-known problem.

digy who would probably grow up to be a chess

genius. He proposed that the master should
play one game only with his son and, so as to
cause the least trouble, by correspondence.
Appreciating the value of the master's time, he
was prepared to pay $500 for the game his son
was of course bound to lose. He was prepared
to forfeit this for the benefit his son would gain
from a game with such an accomplished player.
However, should his son win - a contingency
not, of course, to be seriously considered - then
Lasker would pay $2500. Unable to shake off
the intruder, who kept calling on him at his hotel
daily, Lasker agreed. At first, he took his oppon
ent lightly, but when the game began to become
very difficult, he concentrated on it with all his
might and finally managed to win, though only
with the greatest difficulty. The prodigy's father
paid the $500 without demur.
Some time later, talking to Capablanca, Lasker
recalled the incident. The puzzle was then cleared
1 08

One of rhe many ways of placing eight queens on rhe chess

board in such a way that none attacks any other.

up. Lasker had really been playing Capablanca,

who had agreed similar conditions; the "prodigy"
was only an intermediary in a game which had
cost Capablanca $2500. Net profit for the "pro
digy's" father : $2000.
Other versions ascribe to Alekhine the playing
of such a "double" game. The master is supposed
to have agreed to play two unknown opponents
for a high stake under similar conditions. In
this situation, even a drawn game could have
cost him dearly. The position seemed desperate.
Unnerved, Alekhine made a very bad move on
one board. Scenting easy victory, his opponent
cast caution aside and decided he could win the
game by himself, and thus pick up the entire
stake by winning on both boards instead of only
one. This thoughtless departure from the scheme
of closely following the master's moves proved
fatal. Having separated the games, as it were,
from each other, Alekhine soon outplayed his
opponents on both.

This is not mcant to imply that nowadays -

Chess has never occupied a place as a sub

in the pcriod of cybcrnetics, clectronics and,

scicnce, assuming a namc under the form of

therefore, of computers, and also

applied mathematics .

the period

of the steady development of the theory of

I am, howcver, lcd to believe through my

gamcs approached in terms of philosophy and

own efforts and thosc of others, that a true

mathematics

inductive science of chess is capable of being

no

unforeseen

devclopmcnts

are likely to occur in future to form new links

formulatcd,

between the theory and practice of chess playing

mathematical theory of the game in its entirety,

which

will

constitute

an

exact

and purely mathematical and geometrical ques

thus forming a critique to which all ernpirical

tions and also those of calculus. We cannot

observations must be made to conform.

possibly know what results will emerge from

As early as 1 905,
article

entitled

Playing"

which

R.

"The

Such a science rnust necessarily be an evolu

tion from the simplest mathematical truths to the

studies along these l incs.

W. Martn wrote in an

more complex, and involve a series of proposi

Mathematics

tions, each becoming more hcterogeneous in its

appeared

in

of Chess

Lasker's

Chess

Magazine (April 1 906) :

construction until the whole process culminares

in a final grand law, if the series converges ;

Mathematics as a factor of chessplay,

but will be incapable of any finite limit, if the

will appear, 1 think, as a truism to the playl!r

series divcrges or continues in the same straight

of even very moderare

skill and experience.

This phase of the game I bclieve has never been

line . . . "

developed apart from the concrete problems with

of importance - it scems to take on appearances

which it has to dcal, and these at the best are

of sound forecast if we consider it in the light

usually investigated by very empirical methods.

of recent scientific results.

u...

This opinion remains feasible and - a point

V. S PORT, SCIENCE OR ART ?

The giant Gargantua, hro of Rabelais's famous novel, learns to play chess. Drawing by L. Morin in a French
edition oj "Gargantua et Palltagruel.''

112

Many have wondered why chess has attracted

so many devoted followers throughout the
centuries ; people of the most varied tempera
ments, outlooks and ways of life.
Why do millions of people in all parts of the
world today battle away on the chessboard,
study books on chess or spend solitary hours
solving chess problems or end-games ? Why has
chess conquered whole continents and occupied
so many of the leisure hours in which people
customarily satisfy their desire for arts or sciences
or sport ?
The answer is not simple. It is probably that
chess is of so many-sided a character that almost
anybody can find in it something to bis own
taste. Sometimes it does more than satisfy ; it
absorbs, consumes. lt can be just a game, a mental
pastime, a relief from work, anxiety or pain,
or a stubborn intellectual struggle, engaging
emotions as tense and endurance as severe in its
way as any competitive contest known. On the
other hand, it is a sphere of artistic and scientific
creation; a game of chess can have the same
attraction as mathematics or please like a work
of art. An enormous amount of inner satisfaction
can be derived from your own achievements on
the chessboard, from your oWn analysis with
its undertones of logic, geometry and even
psychology; the overcoming of difficulties, the
cultivation of foresight, the shaping and schooling
of habit ; the sheer struggle, not always with
your opponent but sometimes with yourself.
As one early chess master put it, "A perfect
chess player is an artist, a scientist, an engineer,
and a conqueror in one."
Naturally, not every lover of the game attains
a stature like this. Yet the possibilities of beauty,
artistry, and creativeness are always there and
few of us fail to get an occasional glimpse of them
in our games. Just as in music, literature or drama,
there exists, apart from the virtuosos, a huge
public comprised of their admirers on the one
hand and enraptured imitators on the other.

As one American observed : "Chess has ele

ments of culture and art, and has formed a part
of culture throughout the whole history of
civilization."
This idea has been elaborated by the Soviet
chess historian Y. G. Rokhlin :
"We would not maintain that chess is of practic
a! use. As in any sphere of art, however, chess
activity creates real cultural values which make
a precious contribution to the treasury of culture
as a whole. It is not without reason that the great
est national libraries and museums carefully
preserve the works of chess authors, ancient
manuscripts, prints and other materials connected
with the game. Relics like these reveal much
about other aspects of man's life in particular
periods . . . It is not by accident that encyclopedias,
which catalogue every branch of knowledge, give
chess an honourable place . . . "
Many people have tried to establish the precise
place of chess in world culture. Sorne of the
earliest literature on the game busies itself with
this problem. Pseudo-scientific exaggerations
have been common. Research in other fields has
often cast incidental light on the question.
Famous artists and philosophers, writers and
statesmen have contributed brilliant opinions.
The bibliography of the "Philosophy of Chess"
is rich indeed but, unfortunately, no book on
it has escaped severe devaluation in the course
of time . Old works abounded in faulty meta
physics, confusion or unscientific thought, or they
worked from premises so false as to be useless.
Even today haphazard theorising is too common.
A really scientific evaluation of chess is badly
needed.
The theory of games, which has been developed
a lot during the last fifty years, is largely relevant
to chess, and has a lot to contribute. The word
"game" took on a new meaning when scientists
started on a methodical evaluation. The theory
of games is becoming an increasingly important
field of research, linking up with economics,

1 13

Teacher becomes pupil. The young Swedish chess champion Ove Kinnmark teaches his swimming master to play chess

1 14

sociology, cybernetics and other b1 anches of

science.
Much importance is attached to chess in the
Soviet Union, where its essential character has
been under discussion for years, so far without
reaching any definite conclusion .
Y. Bykov stated : Chess is an intellectual sport
which permits the creation of aesthetic values and
which may help man to shape his traits necessary
for creative activity . . . "
This was opposed by Rokhlin who wrote :
"On account of its specifically creative character,
chess cannot be limited to the scope of a 'sport
ing game' ; in our times this is too narrow a defini
tion . . . Chess is a historically complex, cultural
phenomenon which is organically bound with
the spirirual life of the community and is a state
of continuous change and renewal . . . "
B. Vainshtein suggested that we might well
start by trying to define what we are talking
about. He found that "chess" had more meanings
than one might expect ; ir can be
(1) a game played on a board ; or
(2) a game conducted by correspondence (by
letter, telephone or radio) ; or

"Smokers. "

A phoco-composition by H. Braun-Chotard, 1955.

(3) a game which can take the form of re

search ( e.g. analysis to find an improvell'ent
in the opening) or aesthetic experience
(e.g. search for a more beautiful way of
setting up a problem) ; or
(4) a mental exercise, e.g. the solving of sorne
set problem; or
(5) "theory," the body of knowledge and
technique which exists about chess ; or
(6) its origin and history.
" . . . If we say that chess is an art," he concluded,
"it is not any one of these manifestations but
only all of them taken together that provide
a picrure of peculiar creation. If, however, some
one maintains that chess is just a game, then
he is limiting himself to only the first of the connotations above."

"The chess problcm." Cartoon by l. Grinstein ("Ogonyok") .

115

"You're in a difficult position, doctor."

("Krokodil") .

The discussion goes on. Perhaps this book, by

unfolding the story of chess in various countries
and periods, may contribute a little to the dis
cussion.
Not to be too solemn, I might quote the Polish
author Jan Sztaudynger :
You WaiJt to catch the essence of chess ?
It's a game where you prefer your queen to some
one else's.
Yet, much as t"n lije, here too, t"nsincerely,
Whilst preferring your own you may take someone
else's instead.

It was Stefan Zweig who wrote :

" . . . In chess, as in love, someone else has to
be there."
Zweig also wrote : " . . . Is chess not also a science,
an art . . . ? Thought which leads nowhere; mathem
atics which does not compute anything, art
without work, architecture without substance,
and yet ncvertheless, something more enduring
116

Chess enthusiasm knows no obstac/es.

Cartoon by Chaval ("Sie und Er") .

than many books and works ? I s i t not unique

among games, belonging to all peoples and to
all times; a game of which nobody knows what
god sent down to Earth to kili boredom, sharpen
the senses and tensen the spirit ? Where is ts
beginning, where its end ? Every child can leam
its basic rules, and yet, within the confines of this
narrow square, masters can arise who cannot be
compared with any others ; men with one sole
talent, specialist geniuses in whom vision, patience
and technique function along strictly defined lines,
just as in mathematicians, poets or musicians . . . "
Benjamn Franklin, the cminent American
scientist, politician and educationist of the 18th
century, was noted as a pioneer of writing on
chess, treating it from an educational, ethical and
moral point of view. In his work "Morals of
Chess," the first book on chess published in the
United States, Franklin saw in it such character
shaping properties as the creation of an ability

to plan and foresee, of a sense of reflection, prud

ence and carefulness, and finally, of responsible
decision.
"The Game of Chess is not merely an idle
amusement; severa! very valuable qualities of the
mind, useful in the course of human life, are to
be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to be
come habits ready on all occasions; for life is
a kind of Chess, in which we have often points
to gain, and competitors or adversaries to con
tend with, and in which there is a vast variety
of good and ill events, that are, in sorne degree,
the effect of prudence, or the want of it. By play
ing at Chess then, we may learn :
"1st, Foresight, which looks a little into futur
ity, and considers the consequence that may at
tend an action; for it is continually occurring to
the player, 'lf 1 move this Piece, what will be
the advantage or disadvantage of my new situa
tion? What use can my adversary make of it
to annoy me? What other moves can 1 make
to support it, and to defend myself from bis at
tacks ?'
"2nd, Circumspection, which surveys the whole
Chessboard, or scene of action : - the relation
of the several Pieces, and their situations; the dan
gers they are repeatedly exposed to; the several
possibilities of their aiding each other; the prob
abilites that the adversary may make this or
that move, and attack this or that Piece; and what
different means can be used to avoid his stroke,
or turn its consequences against him .
"3rd, Caution, not to make our moves too
hastily. This habit is best acquired by observing
strictly the laws of the game; such as, if you
touch a piece, you must move it somewhere; if
you set it down, you must let it stand.
"Therefore, it would be the better way to ob
serve these rules, as the game becomes thereby
more the image of human life, and particularly
of war; in which, if you have incautiously put
yourself into a bad and dangerous position, you
cannot obtain your enemy's leave to withdraw
your troops, ami place them more securely; but

you must abide all the consequences of your rash

ness.
"And, lastly, We learn by Chess the habit of
not being discouraged by present bad appearan
ces in the state of our af fairs; the habit of hoping
for a favourable chance, and that of persevering
in the search of resources. The game is so full
of events, there is such a variety of turns in it,
the fortune of it is so subject to vicissitudes, and
one so frequently, after contemplation, discovers
the means of extricating one's self from a supposed
insurmountable difficulty, that one is encouraged
to continue the contest to the last, in hopes of
victory from our skill; or, at least, from the negli
gence of our adversary; and whoever considers,

Waiting

for the guests ("Mamhner lllustrierte'') .

1 17

what in Chess he often sees instances of, that suc

cess is apt to produce presumption and its con
sequent inattention, by which more is afterwards
lost than was gained by the preceding advantage,
while misfortunes produce more care and atten
tion, by which the loss may be recovered, will
learn not to be too much discouraged by any pre
sent successes of his adversary, nor to despair
of final good fortune upon every little check he
receives in the pursuit of it.
"1st, Therefore, if it is agreed to play according
to the strict rules, then those rules are to be
strictly observed by both parties; and should
not be insisted upon for one side, while deviated
from by the other : for this is not equitable.
"2nd, If it is agreed not to observe the rules
exactly, but one party demands indulgences, he
should then be as willing to allow them to the
other.
"3rd, No false moves should even be made
to extricate yourself out of a difficulty, or to
gain an advantage; for there can be no pleasure
in playing with a man once detected in such un
fair practice.

"4th, If your adversary is long in playing, you

ought not to hurry him, or express an uneasiness
at his delay; not even by looking at your watch,
or taking up a book to read : you should not sing,
nor whistle, nor make a tapping with your feet
on the fl.oor, or with your fingers on the table, nor
do any thing that may distract his attention : for
a1l these things displease, and they do not prove
your skill in playing, but your craftiness and your
rudeness.
"5th, You ought not to endeavour to amuse
and deceive your adversary by pretending to
have made bad moves ; and saying you have
now lost the game, in order to make him secure
and careless, and inattentive to your schemes ;
for this is fraud and deceit, not skill in the Game
of Chess.
"6th, You must not, when you have gained
a victory, use any triumphing or insulting ex
pressions, nor show too much of the pleasure
you feel ; but endeavour to console your adver
sary, and make him less dissatisfied with himself
by every kind and civil expression that may be
used with truth; such as, you understand the

In the dentist's waiting-room: chess is an excellent anaesthetic. Cartoon by Y. CherepanO'IJ ("Ogonyok") .

1 18

"Try some water!" Cartoon by Z. Lengren.

"Only 4 minutes left before we knock off, and there are

still a good 20 moves to make." Cartoon by /. Gench.

game better than 1, but you are a little inatten

tive, or you play too fast ; or you had the best
of the game, but something happened to divert
your thoughts, and that turned it in my
favour.
"7th, If you are a spectator, while others play,
observe the most perfect silence ; for if you give
advice, you offend both the parties ; him against
whom you give it, because it may cause him to

" The

rvriters' club." Cartoon by Y. Semyonov.

" IF'hen you have nobody to play with."

Cartoon by Tetsu.

lose the game ; him in whose favour you give it,

because, though it be good, and he follows it,
he loses the pleasure he might have had, if you
had permitted him to think till it occurred to
himself. Even after a move or moveE, you must
not, by replacing the Pieces, show how they
might have been placed better; for that displeases,
and might occasion disputes or doubts about
their true situation.
1 19

"All talking to the players lessens or diverts

their attention; and is, therefore, unpleasing :
nor should you give the least hint to either party,
by any kind of noise or motion; if you do, you
are unworthy to be a spectator.
"lf you desire to exercise or show your judg
ment, do it in playing your own game, when you
have an opportunity, not in criticising or meddling
with, or counselling the play of others.
"Lastly, If the game is not to be played rigor
ously, according to the rules before mentioned,
then moderate your desire of victory over your
adversary, and be pleased with one over yourself.

"Snatch not eagerly at every advantage offered

by his unskilfullness or inattention; but point out
to him kindly, that by sueh a move he places or
leaves a Piece en prise unsupported ; that by
another, he will put his King into a dangerous
situation, etc.
"By this generous civility (so opposite to the
unfairness beforc forbidden) you may happen
indeed to lose the game; but you will win what
is better, his esteem, his respect, and his affec
tion; together with the silent approbation and the
goodwill of the spectators.
"When a vanquished player is guilty of an un-

Room-mates: "1\frs. Brown, please move my knight ovcr rherc." C1.1rtoon by E. Shcheglov ("Krokodil") .

120

In the harem. Cartoon by

,
Kovarsky ("The New Yorker. ) .

.
The organte are in a panic the chamjno
is losing every
game. Cartoon by B. Tabey
("Notr et Blanc")
.

121

lleW

year card printed in London from a cartoon by

F. Themerson.

"Tizegame seems to be warming up." ("L'Echiquier de Paris") .

122

truth t o cover his disgrace, as '1 have not played

so long - his method of opening the game con
fused me, - the meo were of an unsual size', etc.,
all such apologies (to call them no worse) must
lower him in a wise person's eyes, both as a man
and as a Chess player ; and who will not suspect
that he who shelters himself under such un
truths in trifling matters, is no very sturdy mor
alist in things of greater consequences, where his
fame and honour are at stake ? A man of proper
pride would scorn to account for his being beaten
by one of these excuses, even were it true ; be
cause they all have so much the appearance, at the
moment, of being untrue."
Benjamin Franklin certainly esteemed chss!
Though the psychology of chess and its players
has been touched on by countless writers, this
does not imply that investigation has been pur
sued to any real depth.
About 1938, however, a Polish school teacher,
K. Kozlowski, contributed to the periodica1
Szachista a thoughtful article going into the in
fluence of psychological factors on quality of
play. He assumed that the final result of a game
is a vector of a certain set-up of circumstances and
facts related to the players' relative intelligences.
"In chess, we know neither all of the facts nor
their mutual interplay. We are adrift in a sea of
uncertainty. Sorne of the elements may be partly
known : combinational ability, intuition, state of
nerves, physical health, ambition, skill in ration
ing of time or application of energy, etc. These
elements may in turn be affected by the time of
day, state of nourishment, etc. Finally, there
are unforeseeable factors of the type that produce
complete upsets of form and sensational tourna
ment results. "
As long ago a s 1835, the author o f a Polish
chess manual Karol Krupski wrote : "From
men's actions we may come to know their char
acter, mental ability, emotions . . . If we cannot
see enough of their actions to judge, sorne of us
think to judge their character from their faces,
or even from their writing. 1 believe you can

In a chess champion's home. Cartoon by K. Klamann

("Eulenspiegel") .

"Are they still playing, or have they dropped off to sleep r"
Cartoon by K. Klamann ("Eulenspiegel").

estimate a man's attributes more accurately from

the way he plays chess than from any anthropo
logical or graphological examination. Every game
is a telling revelation of the player, chess above
all."
Chess as a possible instrument of psychological
investigation has produced sorne amusing aph
orisms.
"Your opponent leaves you to set the pieces
out - he is already considering himself your
superior."
"He's a poor player but won't accept odds. He
is an egotist thinking only of his own enjoyment. "
"Plays quickly and even in critical moments
still moves without reflection - he is successful
in life only when things go his way : he is fun
damentally uncertain of himself."
"Chess is a struggle ; mainly against one's own
imperfections. ''
"Playing chess does you good because it con
fronts you with repeated disappointments."
We have leapt to and fro in time. Let us see
how chess was regarded in 1868, a century ago.
A press report on a chess tournament held in
Warsaw read :

"It's my lucky day: checkmate!" Cartoon by K. Klamann

(" Eulenspiegel") .

1 23

"In the course of the tournament now com

pleted, we heard voices, quite serious ones, speak
ing against chess, as a useless and time-consum
ing game, only good for idlers. It seems to us
that this opinion is only partly justified. Of all
the games in the world, chess without doubt de
mands most ability ; it shapes and develops the
mind, instructs in deeper thinking and for this
reason, even in many educational establishments,
is being applied as a means of education."
Few people today would consider it neces
sary to defend chess like this (though in Moscow
of all places an engineer once described chess
masters to us as useless people who "could do
nothing with their hands" - B. H. Wood).
In Russia and other Socialist lands, chess falls
under the aegis of the Ministry of Sport, only
marginally separate from football, athletics etc.

In this particular atmosphere, chess may tend

to be confined to tournaments, classification con
tests and so on. The development of refined play,
the idea of producing a game with the attraction
of a work of art or the attainment of scientific
precision - these may be discounted.
To class chess as a sport, merely mental as
distinct from physical, is to over-simplify.
As a noted journalist Tomasz Domaniewski
argued in a Polish weekly : "we have read for
years about the 'sport' of chess . . . but sitting
at a chessboard, moving bits of wood about
cannot posibly be classified as physical
action . . .
"Stringy muscles and a hollow chest are a dis
advantage to a runner or thrower, but they may
be no obstacle in reaching the highest level in
chess. One can be a Titan of the chequered board

"A difficult problem with a second so/utiono" ("L'Echiquier

de Paris")

"Yes, 1 1/IUSt admit thc c11d-gamc is ViiY iutcrestingo" ("LI.l

Murseillaise")

124

"I suggest we cal/ it a draw."

Cartoon by J. Kosieradzki ( Szpilki") .

In check ! ! !
Cartoon by J. Hegen (" Frischer Wind") .

"

without having ever stepped on to a playing

:field. At the peak in chess, nothing counts but
mind."
Maybe thcre are faint analogies ? There are
matches. There are elirnination bouts ; tourna
ments; even Olympiads. There are master play
ers. Points are scored . . .
All this, however, hardly goes beyond mere
nomenclature.
Musicians have contests, poets read in com
petitions at Eisteddfods, but these do not make
music or poetry into sports, or poets into sports
men.
Sport must inescapably remain associated
with physical culture alone. On the other hand,
football, racing, polo, etc., in all their manifesta
tions have resemblances on the physical plane
to those of chess in the mental. As a rule the com
bat is between opponents with, in principie,
equal possibilities of winning. The winner is the
better, the cleverer, the more attentive contest
ant but, ideally, not the luckier.
Through the intrinsic nature of conflict itself,
the contestants go through similar emotions.
You may class a spectator at a football match as

a sportsman but a keen chess enthusiast in play

is closer than that spectator to the tensions and
exertions of a footballer on the field. Football
spectators and spectators at a chess championship,
on the other hand, may be in very similar emo
tional states.
A leading Polish chess master in the thirties
told a journalist in an interview :
" . . . an active chess player works mentally,
nervously and physicially for severa} hours
a day."
''Physically ?"
Yes, sir. Physically."
"l don't understand you."
"We were talking about the analogy between
a boxer and a chessplayer."
"It seems to me there is no analogy as far as
the physical effort is concerned."
The master smiled and said :
"There is one. The boxer loses weight before
his bout and a chess player after. For instance,
in the course of a hard tournament 1 lose severa!
pounds weight."
(Stahlberg remarked the same to us. Leading
masters and grand masters keep fit by walking,
"

125

tennis, swimming etc., but it must be confessed

that othcrs do as well with no exercisc whatever .
Keres's no-smoking or Lasker's sedentary life
and endless cigars ? Take your choice! B. H. Wood.)
Of course, we've all heard about the fellow
who tells a friend "I've won a double wor Id title :
in boxing and chess."
"How ?"
"1 knocked out Alekhine in two rounds and
beat Cassius Clay at chess."
Then there has been satire . . . "Chess develops
the thigh mus eles, thumb and forefinger."
Or this parody of sport reporting in a Polish
weekly :
"In the three-nation chess tournarnent in Bu
dapest, Poland managed to secure third place,
immediately after Hungary and Czechoslovakia.

lf we had taken our own equipment

there - our captain told us - the result would
have been better still. Unfortunately, our compe
titors could not get accustomed to the Hun
garian design of knight. We had trained under
differcnt conditions and it was not easy to handle
tltese Hungarian horses . . . "
To say that chess is not a sport in any sense
whatever is to crr. There are connections with
sport which nobody would wish to sever.
The chess playcr, for instance, must accept
the ethics of sport . He must learn to accept de
feat with grace : has sport anything greater to
teach than this ?
"Chess adversaries are not enemies. They are
rivals in noble combat, shaking each other's
hands both before and after the contest." These
words, spoken more than a hundred years ago

- 1-

"Gentlemen, it's time ro go home. The

"The champion is making a splen
"lf you'd captured the king ar the
very beginning, ir would be easier for
did effort, he's getting nearer to
tournamem entkd on Suuday, three
days ago."
a checkmate. "
you now."
Cartoons by G . Miklaszewski ("Express Wieczorny") .

126

Trainingfor the championships. Cartoon by H. Bidstrup.

1 27

. ..

- -

_ -_ -

. :_:_ -c_
-:.:c:;-

--;-:J

--
- .

:..:>. -

"One feels much better now that chess has

been included among the sports." Cartoon
by S. Kobyliski (" Szpilki"} .

_)

The start. Cartoon by Mll;:r ("Lillipuc") .

1 28

by a French chess player, Doazan, set up a time

less ideal.
Alekhine maintained that there are no short
comings or faults in a chess player's make-up
from which he could not free himself, providing
he himself fought sufficiently stubbornly to rid
himself of them and that in doing so, he shaped
his own character for the better.
"I have shaped my own character with the
help of chess," he wrote. "Chess, first of all,
teaches objectivity. In chess, you can become
a great master only by facing up to your own
errors and deficiencies, just as in life."
Those people who are enthusiastic only about
the creative side of chess and decry the competi
tive aspect he called "chess's tragic actors."
Not that chess has been free from bad sport
manship.
In the last round of an important tournament,
a master once became very nervous about his
position. Banking on the fact that his opponent

had an unusual reputation for chivalry, he

suddenly complained of severe pain which
was making it difficult for him to concentrate.
Suggesting that the position was more or less
even and that if he were to lose, it could only
be through a blunder induced by his sufferings,
he proposed that the garne should be agreed
a draw. His gentlemanly opponent sympatheti
cally acquiesced and as a result, only won the
second prize. The "invalid," who was, of course,
in excellent health, thus saved a valuable half
point.
It was Alekhine who said : "I regard three
factors as indispensable to success : first, an under
standing of one's strengths and weaknesses;
second, an exact realization of your opponent's
strengths and weaknesses ; and thirdly, a higher
aim than mere momentary satisfaction. I observe
this aim in scientific and artistic achievements
which place the game of chess in the rank of
other arts."

VI. CHESS AND MACHINES

An automatic chess player in rhe form of a Turk, found in Vienna and brought

132

ro Paris where

itwas exhibited as Kempelen'.

The idea of constructing an artificial man

fascinated many people in olden days, though
few considered it as feasible as the quest for the
philosopher's stone which could transmute metals
into gold, the elixir of life which would ward off
death and "perpetuum mobile," the machine
which would run for ever. The transmutation
of metals, albeit at great cost, is well within
the bounds of science today. The conquest
of death is just a little nearer today, with
the new understanding of cell mechanisms,
whilst perpetual motion is now recognised as an
impossibility (after all, even the earth will not go
round the sun for ever), though watches, self
wound through slight movements by the wearer
and clocks perpetually re-activated by the fluctua
tions of temperature between day and night,
have lives limited only by the wearing of their
parts.
Inventors did produce, sorne centuries ago,
a number of machines in human form which
wrote a few phrases, danced, played musical
instruments, and - long before Edison and bis
phonograph - even talked. A metal duck clucked
and laid eggs. Could such an automaton be made
to play chess ?
This task was tackled about 1 760 by one
Wolfgang Kempelen, a 49-year-old Hungarian
inventor and engineer, an adviser at the Court
of the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa. He had
already won renown and favour with an ingenious
fountain in the palace park, a steam lift, a device
for writing for the blind, a talking doll, etc.
His mechanical chess player, however, was to
earn him almost legendary fame. lt defeated even
players of international renown. The secret of
its working was strictly guarded.
Though the whole apparatus was in essence
a fraud, its construction called for unusual inge
nuity. Of course, the machine did not think
for itself. There was a man inside. The man who
had to be virtually a dwarf and an extremely
good chess player.

A figure in imitation of a Turk sat behind

a big box on the top of which were a chessboard
and men. Inside the figure was the dwarf who
directed the intricate mechanism. By a cunning
arrangement of mirrors, the box underneath the
chessboard could be opened to "prove" that
there was nobody inside.
That the machine was a fraud in a sense,
does not deuact entirely from the cleverness of
the mechanism which enabled the pi ayer, con
fined in an extremely restricted space, to "see"
his opponent's moves and make bis own.
He could not see the course of play directly.
The pieces standing on the chessboard had
strong magnets placed in their bases . Inside
the box, beneath each square of the chessboard,
was a metal ball with a thread running loosely
but freely through it. When a piece was raised,
the ball underneath it would drop, indicating
the square from which the piece had been taken.
When the piece was placed on another square
the magnet raised the ball under that square.
In spite of the cleverness of the mechanism, it
must have been a trying task to play a game from
inside the apparatus, and far from pleasant
physically.
The automaton was actually equipped with
two mechanical systems. One was secret, one
actuated by the hidden player . The one shown
to the public was over-complicated and aimed
at visual effect : cog-wheels and gears of various
dimensions turned, levers shifted, and cylinders
revolved - all aimed to produce the illusion
that the machine was thinking for itself. Every
twelve moves, the showman exhibiting the ma
chine wound it up with a huge key, incidentally
providing the hidden player with a little spare
time for analysing the position in the game.
A check to bis king was acknowledged by the
Turk with three nods. Whenever bis opponent
made a false move, he would stop playing and
sit motionless.
Kempelen, who had ambitions as a serious
engineer, did not originally intend to keep up
133

the farce for long, and referred to bis mechanical

chess player in off-hand terms. The public,
however, did not allow him to treat it as a joke.
Kempelen became a slave to his own fraud;
not only the man in the street but distinguished
men of science showered him with fl.attery.
They insisted on recognising the automaton as
the first manifestation of the "machine man"
which so many hoped would be designed. So he
refrained from explaining the mystery yet, all
the sarne, he was reluctant to allow himself
to be persuaded to take part in the automaton's
performances. At the end of his first grand
tour, he dismantled the Turk, obviously hoping
that the memory of it would die.
lt was not to be. When the Empress Maria
Theresa died, and her successor, the Emperor
Joseph 1 1 was entertaining the Grand Duke
Paul, son of Empress Catherine 11 of Russia in
Vienna in 1780, he remembered the automaton
and ordered the mechanical chess player to give
another demonstration at the court. So Kempelen
had willy-nilly to put it together again.

In tackling the job, he was carried away by

his enthusiasm as an engineer ; he improved
several details in the machinery, fitting it with
a speaking device so that the Turk could say
"Check!" This revised version of the automaton
completely enchanted the Duke, and Kempelen
was solemnly invited to take his invention to
St. Petersburg.
There followed a lengthy tour of the "chess
player" through the Courts of Europe, the chief
towns of Germany, Russia, France and England.
On the way to St. Petersburg, the automaton was
shown in Warsaw. As before, there was endless
speculation on the secret of its working. Apart
from the most common supposition that there
was a dwarf hidden inside - which was under
mined by the ingenuity with which the box was
apparently shown to be full of works - there was
considerable speculation as to the possibilities of
remote control.
Mter Kempelen died in 1804, his chess player
was purchased by the impresario, Maelzel, who
soon took it on a tour of German towns. In

An automatic "Turk" chess p/ayer constructed by Kempelen

in 1 769. Drawing from the late 18th century.

The back view of the same automaton tuith the el othes lijred
to revcal che zuooden back.

134

The door of the box could be

opened so that anybody could
verify for himself rhat nobody
was sitting inside. A late 18th
century drawing.

1809, the automaton was privileged to play

against Napoleon Bonaparte at the Schoenbrunn
Palace in Vienna. According to one account, the
game became quite a ceremony with many
guests invited. At one stage, Napoleon delibera
tely made an illegal move. The Turk corrected
it and made his reply. Again, Napoleon made
a wrong move. The automaton again corrected
him. When Napoleon did it again, however, the
Turk lost his temper and, with his hand, brushed
the pieces to the floor. Napoleon was dclighted,
in fact, quite pleased with himself for managing
to unnerve a machine. When he played another
game properly, he was badly beaten . No wonder,
for inside it was Johann Allaier, one of the
greatest Viennese chess players of all time whose
name is commemorated in one of the variations
of the King's Gambit.
In the period of almost seventy years during
which the automaton was publicly exhibited,
the "brain" of the automaton was supplied by
more than fifteen eminent chess players in succes-

sion. The success of the demonstrator's quest

for occupants for the apparatus - and the
attractiveness of the money the machine earned
is attested by the fact that, of three hundred
games played by the automaton, only six were
los t.
The mechanical Turk was shipped by Maelzel
to New York in 1826, where he made a lot of
money by widely publicised sessions. Mter his
death in 1 837, it passed from hand to hand
until, after reconstruction by Professor J. Mit
chell, it found its way to the Chinese Museum
in Philadelphia, where it was destroyed by fire in
June 1 854. So ended its astounding career.
It was thought for a long time that Kempelen's
construction was lost irretrievably. Yet, in Vienna,
in 1945, a French soldier of the Allied Forces of
Occupation found by chance, in the cellar of an
old house, a figure of the Turkish chess player
together with a box and machinery. The origin of
the figure was never strictly established but, in
all probability, it was one of the variants of
135

Kempelen's automatic chess player shovm in a drawing made after the secret of its operation had been discovered. Left: che ef
fect of empty depth obtained through appropriate use of partitions and mirrors. Next, the means of hiding a chess player in the box .

Kempelen's automaton. The finder brought the

construction to Pars and had it repaired and re
stored.
Let us return, however, to the past. Thc se
cret of the machine's working was not revealed
until 1834 by a French periodical. A better
-known exposure was effected by Edgar Allan
Poe in a long article "Maelzel's Chess Player"
(1834).
Poe, as a frequent visitor to Maelzel's exhibi
tions, could not have failed to observe that
certain routines were strictly observed and that
there were certain incongruities. This set him
on the trail to investigate the probability of
"a man in the box."
The routine of apparently disclosing the inter
ior of the box for inspection by the public was
therefore analysed with the exacting precision
of a detective-story teller.
"In the first place, the exhibitor opens door
No. l. Leaving this open, he goes round to the
136

rear of the box, and opens a door precisely at

the back of door No. l . To this back door he
holds a lighted candle. He then closes the back
door, locks it, and coming round to the front,
opens the drawer to its full extent. This done,
he opens doors No. 2 and No. 3 (the folding
doors), and displays the interior of the main
compartment. Leaving open the main compart
ment, the drawer, and the front door of cupboard
No. 1 , he now goes to the rear again, and throws
open the back do9r of the main compartment.
In shutting up the box no particular order is
observed, except that the folding-doors are al
ways closed before the drawer.
"Now, let us suppose that when the machine
is first rolled into the presence of the spectators,
a man is already within it. His body is situated
behind the dense machinery in cupboard No. 1,
and his legs lie at full length in the main compart
ment. When Maelzel opens the door No. 1,
the man within is not in any danger of discovery,

for the kcenest eye cannot penetrate more than

about two inches into the darkness within.
But the case is otherwise when the back door
of the cupboard No. 1 is opened. A bright light
then pervades the cupboard, and the body of
the man would be discovered if it were there.
But it is not. The putting of the key in the lock
of the back door was the signal. On hearing
this the person concealed brought his body
forward to an angle as acute as possible throwing it altogether, or nearly so, into the
main compartment. This, however, is a painful
position, and cannot be long maintained. Accord
ingly we find that Maelzel closes the back door.
This being done, there is no reason why the body
of the man may not resume its former situa
tion - for the cupboard is again so dark as to
defy scrutiny. The drawer is now opened, and
the legs of the person within drop down behind
it in the space it formerly occupied.
"There is, consequently, now no longer any
part of the man in the main compartment his body being behind the : machinery in cup
board No. 1, and his legs in the space occupied
by the drawer. The exhibitor, therefore, finds
himself at Iiberty to display the main compart
ment. This he does - opening its back and
front doors - and no person is discovered.
The spectators are now satisfied that the whole
of the box is exposed to view - and exposed
too, all portions of it at one and the same time.
But of course this is not the case."
". . . Maelzel, having now rolled the machine
around, lifted up the drapery of the Turk,
opened the doors in its back and thigh, and
shown his trunk to be full of machinery, brings
the whole back into its original position, and
eloses the doors." The man within, now at Iiberty
to move about, gets up into the body of the
Turk just so high as to see the chessboard through
the bosom of the Turk, which is of gauze. With
his right arm across his breast he now easily
reaches the little machinery beneath the Turk's
left shoulder to guide its arm and fingers.

Although the automatic chess player was

spooj, the me

chanism demanded extraordinary inventheness and precision.

A mid-eighteenth cemury drawing.

Certain details of the construction of the automatic player

as imagined by the artist of the mid-19th century: the knight
zvith a magnet inside; the "Turk's" hand and the chessboard
as seen from below with mera[ balls for indicating what
squares had bem played to and from.

137

The arguments collected by Poe to prove

his hypothesis that the machine was directly
controlled by human mind amounted to

17.

Sorne of the more interesting among these

said for instance, that a true automaton would
observe the regularity

of

moves, instead

of the rays, the difficulty of ascertaining the

specific property of the fabric.
"The Turk plays with bis left arm. A circum
stance
.

so remarkable cannot be accidental."

The automaton plays with his left arm,

of

because under no other circumstances could the

accommodating itself to the moves of the anta

man within play with his right - a desideratum

gonist player, as it did when, on the sudden

of course ... The right arm of the man within is

withdrawal of an opponent, it would stop of

brought across his breast, and his right fingers

itself and wait till the opponent reappeared.

act, without any constraint, upon the machinery

A true automatic player should invariably

win, which was not the case with Maelzel's

in the shoulder of the figure."

"We do not believe that any reasonable ob
jection can be urged against this solution of the

mechanism.
Also that the antagonist was not allowed to

automaton Chess Player."

play at the board of the automaton, but was

The mechanical Turk's long succession of

seated at sorne distance from the machine, since

triumphal performances gave rise to a fo

l od of

were it otherwise, he would be able, with the

legends and rumours. About 1801 the subjecr

aid of a quick ear, to detect the breathing of the

began to invade fiction and drama. In a Paris

man concealed inside the box.

play of that year "Le Joueur d'Echecs," by Mar

Six candles, cach different in height from the

seillier and Charet, an elderly chess enthusiast

other, were most obviously intended to give

who declined to give his daughter's hand to

a sufficiently strong light to enable the man within

a young off icer was fooled by the latter who enter

to se through the transparent material composing

ed bis house inside an automaton chess player

the breast.of the fg

i ure; this also greatly increased,

presented

by the dazzling effect of the complicated crossing

daughter apparently inherited her father's passion

by

sorne

anonymous

friend.

The

Two sunes from the Frmch film "The Chess Player" (1926) . LEFT: Kempelen's automatic chess player is being presented at the
court of the Polish King Stanislaw Porriatowski. RIGHT: In the night, Kempelen, mortal/y wounded, crawls out from inside the
"Turk's" body: the automaton has bun shot on the Empress Catherine's orders.

138

The actor Charles Dullin played

rhe

role

of Kempelen

in

rhe

French film "Th1 Chess Playtr"

directed by Raymond Bernard,
produced in 1926 after a novel
by H. Dupuy-Mazuel.

for the game, as she now started to spend many

functioning of the automaton, and it must be

hours at play with the automaton. Unfortunately,

supposed that they were as fascinated by the

the idyll did not last long, since the suspicious

question of who was hidden inside the machine,

father surprised the young couple at a game bear

ing

little

resemblance to chess. However, all

as how the machinery worked. The enigmatic

chess player inhabiting the automaton was rumour

ended well. Father agreed to the marriage, es

ed to be a real dwarf; an invalid who had lost

pecially as his future son-in-law proved to be

both his legs; a political rebel who had found

a fair chess player and promised to play with

a new way of hiding from authority.

him from

to time.

This facetious little comedy showed that at

One

persistent

rumour

identified

him

as

a Polish officer, Lieutenant Woronski who had

least sorne of Kempelen's contemporaries had

taken part in Kokiuszkos Uprising in 1794.

grave doubts about the exclusively mechanical

Though the story gained widespread credence

139

11

and persisted for decades, it seems to have been

Empress

pure fc
i tion.

should be exhibited at the Imperial Court in

Catherine

that

the

automaton

The Grande Encyclopdie Larousse gives this

St. Petersburg. A good chess player, the Empress

version: In 1776, four years after the fr

i st parti

wished to compare its skill with hers. The auto

tion of Poland, a Russian regiment in Riga con

maton played like a true sportsman and, ignoring

taining many Poles had revolted. The rebels had

the demands of diplomacy, won.

to f lee. The leader of the revolt, an off icer named

The offended Catherine, guessing that she had

Woroski, was injured in both legs. A doctor

been defeated by a live opponent, offered to

named Oslov carne to his aid but had to amputate

buy the automaton but Kempelen, pretending

them. Baron Kempelen was a friend of the doc

that he had always to accompany the machine,

tor and, knowing that Woronski had a price on

declined.

bis head, decided to take him out of the country.

Lieutenant Woronski's story was taken up into

For this purpose, he conceived the idea of con

a novel, "Le Joueur d'checs" by the French writer

structing an automaton for playing chess and hid

H. Dupuy-Mazuel. A f ilm based on this novel,

ing Woroski inside. The automaton. was ready

and using the same title, directed by Raymond

in three months' time. To avoid suspidon, Kem

Bernard, was made in France in 1926, though

pelen exhibited bis "chess player" on the way.

many scenes such

Soon they were near the Prussian frontier, at

a cavalry charge were f ilmed in Poland.

Vitebsk. Suddenly there carne an order from the

as wintry landscapes and

The fli m itself received much publicity as an

early example of co-operation in production
between France and Poland.
Both the novel and the film handled history
in carefree style.
The story now told that in Riga (Vilna, in the
f ilm) lived a constructor of automata known as
"Androids," whose name was Kempelen. He was
joined by Bronislaw Wnorowski (or Boleslaw
Worowski, in the film), a Polish revolutionary who
fell in love with his ward, a young lady called
Zofia. When the long-prepared insurrection broke
out, the Poles captured the city; but only to be
soon

defeated.

Wnorowski,

badly

wounded,

took shelter with Kempelen who decided to try

to save him by taking him away to Germany, bid
den inside a chess automaton. The fame of the
splendid Android reached the Polish king Sta
nislaw Poniatowski who ordered that it be pres
ented at bis Court. The invention was demonstrat
ed at the Warsaw Castle. The King appreciated
the excellent construction of the automaton and
symbolically awarded it with an order of merit,
Automatic chess playing "Turk" in the sound version of the
film "The Chess Player/' produced by film director Jean
Drville

140

in 1938.

expressing at the same time a wish that the arti

ficial Turk also perform before the Empres Ca
therine.

Against

Kempelen's

recommendation,

An
chess

electromagnetic
player

automatic

constructed

by

Gonzales Torrs y Quevedo and

demonstrated at the Cyberneti
cians' Congress in Paris in 1951.
The inventor's son is demonstrat
ing the automaton to the famous

scimrisr Norbe re lfliener RIGHT.

the highly-patriotic Wnorowski did not allow

Catherine to win, and when she had made a false
move on purpose he brushed the pieces away.
As a punishment for the lese-majest, the Empress
ordered the "chess player" to be shot. Kempelen,
to save bis friend, took him out of the automaton
and took bis place. The execution was arranged
during a carnival ball. The idea was really to
punish the proud Android only in jest, but the
volley of shots wounded Kempelen mortally.
A short summary can hardly, of course, bring
out all the "subtleties" of the drama or the spicy
"historie realities." The part of the heroic Polish
insurgent was played in the film by the actor
Pierre Blanchard, the figure of Kempelen by
Charles Dullin. The novel was not only filmed
but dramatized by the playwright Maree} Achard.
In 1938, the film director Jean Drville made
a sound version of the "Joueur d'checs" in which
Kempelen was played by the famous actor Con-

rad Veidt and Empress Catherine by Fr:mc:oise

Rosay.
One offshoot of the history of the chess auto
matan, is of fasc;inating interest: the more so for
being absolutely authentic. It was Kempelen's
"chess player" which inspired the English poet
and inventor Edmund Cartwright to construct
a power-loom. Cartwright felt he wanted to
match the ingenuity of a mere toy without prac
tica] value, with an automaton useful to man. He
was impressed by the precise action of the artificial
chess player, and probably he was not aware then
that it was a clever mysti.fication. Ambitious to
equal the mechanical efficiency of the "chess
player," he finally completed in 1803 a model
1oom, the prototype of the machine which has
become universal in the textile industry.
Returning to literature, it is impossible not to
mention a short story by a Polish writer of the
19th century, Ludwik Niemojowski, "Szach
141

"With my inseparable companion, 1 entered

a small square room, quite empty. In the middle
stood a chessboard. To the right of this was
a piano keyboard with each key inscribed with
a chess piece. The pawns were numbered. A mass
of fine wires issued from the keyboard, their ends
disappearing in the opposite wall.
"l could not conceive to what use this intricate
mechanism might be put, until the person whom
fate had offered me as a guardian said, 'Lie down
and look through the hole in the f loor.'

"1 did as 1 was asked.

"Putting my eye to the chink (which, being
cunningly co1.cealed in the stucco work of the
ceiling, was virtually invisible from below) 1 saw
a chessboard at which a player was sitting, engros
sed in the game.
" 'Just touch this blank note on the key
board, commanded the Englishman.
"As 1 did so, how marvellous!

The

chess

player, hitherto motionless, nodded and his hand

rose high as if he sought which pawn he should
move.
" 'Now touch any numbered key on the key
board.'
"With my index finger 1 pressed the key mark
An imQginatif.lt scienc. jich'on ide a of rh.e chess game of rh.e

ed 3. Obedient to my will, the imitation player

future.Illwsrrarionfrom th1 COf.Jirof a Grmanyouth maga11ine

slowly brought down his hand on the third pawn

"Die Schulposr" (1957).

and moved it.

"1 repeated the experiment severa! times, and

each time the youthful figure below me executed
the indicated
i mat, ("Checkmate,) which was largely con
cerned with an artificial player.

move

with

mathematical

pre

cision.
" 'Do you understand now what 1 expect of

The scene was set in ltaly, and later in Mar

you? cried the Englishman. 'Do you under

seilles, in 1855-56. Bartolomeo, a chess genius

stand why 1 have to cloak my actions with secrecy?

who lived in poverty as a result of his obsession

If you are the best chess player in the world,

for the game, was promised a big fee for a series

1 consider myself the best engineer. This automa

of exhibition games. On arrival at Marseilles, he

ton, the work of my hands, the result of many

found he had been duped by a clever impresario,

sleepless nights, and innumerable combinations,

a merchant from England, who restricted his

though it has wheels instead of a heart and springs

movements and tried to draw him into an illegal

instead of nerves; although it does not live -

adventure, taking advantage of his parlous finan

its a masterpiece. What am 1 saying? he added

cial situation.

with increasing enthusiasm, 'lt livesl It has no

142

soul but you will impart yours to it; it has no

feeling but you will warm it up with your
breath. Under your influence, it will move, act,
and almost think. . . . Tell me, isn't it the summit of
triumph and delight - to infuse an object with
life ?' "
Having no alternative, Bartolomeo accepted
the unusual proposition. An aggresively publicis
ed performance of the mechanical chess player
attracted many curious spectators. The automa
ton defeated every opponent. Money poured
into the impostor's pocket.
The automaton's fame grew. High class players
were worsted. Exhibitions were organised with
increasing frequency, every one a sell-out. Harto
lomeo, compelled to play day and night, became
physically and mentally exhausted. A slave to
the public and the complicated machinery. De
prived of his own personality, he began to go mad.
His play deteriorated.
" .. . Then carne the fatal day: 1 blundered and
lost. My opponent, delighted by this first victory
over the hitherto unconquered automaton, doub
led his stake. 1 lost again.

The era of automatic chess playing machines for home we:

to the rules he should win the game in 17 moves
at most." Cartoon by H. Parschau ("Eulenspiegel") .

According

"A dull murmur rose from the hall below. The

public shifted in their seats ; they dipped into
their pockets and a substantial sum of money
was pooled. The double winner challenged me
again, at tremendous stakes. 1 summoned up all
the skill 1 could, drew on all the poor reserves
of will-power left me - and lost again. Whistles
and cat-calls crescendoed. The Englishman burst
in on me, 'You treacherous villain, you're ruining
me. You traitor; you've been paid by the crowd . . . !'
"He did not finish. He saw me crying like
a child. Downstairs the uproar increased; stamp
ing, whistling, breaking of chairs and benches. . .
The crowd demanded another game.
"With di.fficulty, the Englishman asked for the
session to be adjourned until the morrow, giv
ing as an excuse that sorne interna} piece of ma
chinery had come loose. He could not with
draw altogether, nor could he decrease the stakes :
the posters had advertised uncond.itional and un
limited return matches. 1 was laid in bed, a doc
tor was secretly sent for, 1 was dosed with med
icine...
"Nothing helped. My temperature rose and rose."

Kempelen standing in front of a complete/y automatic factory:

Can it real/y be operated by one man hidden insic ? ( Ludizs
Matyi").
"

143

'Don't be so sure of yourselj!'

... 1 can always push a button...

The next day, long before the advertised hour,

the hall was full of spectators eager for fresh
sensations. The marvellous chess player's failure
attracted many more curious spectators than his
previous triumphs.
"1 was dragged out of bed and laid on the
ftoor; my head was put to the chink in the f loor
and 1 was told to play. I do not know how I man
aged it - I was almost unconscious. 1 heard
only an infernal din of mingled voices roaring
underneath me. To this day, I could not say
whether they were sounds of displeasure or
a morbid illusion caused by the racing rhythm
of my own pulse. I do not remember what hap
pened next.
"1 was ill for a long long time, finally regaining
consciousness to find myself in hospital. The
Englishman, I learned, had lost his entire fortune
through the automaton's collapse and had dis
appeared from Ma.J,"seilles."
A novel "The Collapse of Chess" by the Soviet
writer Abramov, published in 1926, ends very
d.ifferently. Here the automaton was always suc
cessful, defeating even the strongest masters. The
unusual machine caused a world sensation. Un
fortunately, the designer of the machine became
mad and died. A friend of the designer explained
in a letter to a newspaper the secret of the me
chanism but an essential key to the mathemati

144

.. . and you wil/ lose. (" Swiat") .

cal formula was not to be found. And so chess

was saved!
There is a lot of fantasy in the foregoing.
But recent times have brought us an even
more fantastic development based on the most
exact of sciences. Even before the First World
War, the Spanish scientist Leonardo Torres
y Quevedo, President of the Academy of Sciences
in Madrid, had constructed an electro-magnetic
automaton in which the white king and a rook
mated the black king from any position. This
end-game is, of course, a simple one, but the con
struction of an apparatus to effect it by classical
mechanics was a great achievement. From the
theoretical point of view, the construction of
a machine to mate by means, for instance, of two
bishops, would be only a slight further advance.
Even the simple end-games, however, demand
complex technical design. Even though the Torres
y Quevedo apparatus employed only two men
against one, it was exceedingly complex.
In a book "La pense artificielle, sur l'intro
duction au cyberntique" ("Artificial Thought,
an Introduction to Cybernetics"), Pierre de Latil
explained how it worked. "You move a piece.
The machine replies with a move as if made by
a ghost. How ?
"Each square on the board is built up of three
metal plates electrically isolated from each other

by rubber strips. The black king of the player

opposing the automaton has a metal base and
makes contact with the plates of the square on
which it is standing. This in turn causes two differ
ent currents to be sent to the automaton, inform
ing it of the square on which the black king
stands at the moment. The automaton's reply to
the move made by man is made by electro-mag
nets which move under the chessboard and pull
the white pieces, which have a metal hall hidden
in their hollowed bases, into place. If the live
player makes an illegal move, a sign 'First error'
lights up and the automaton interrupts play
until its opponent rectifies the error. If the man
makes a second illegal move, a sign 'Second er
ror' lights up. On a third illegal move, the auto
maton stops play. If the king is played on to
a checked square, a loudspeaker cres out 'Jaque
al Rey' ('Check to the king!'). When the machine
wins, it cres 'Mate'."
The machine does not actually assess any situa
tion. All possible play has been decided in ad
vance. In effect, the black king mates himself.
Wherever he goes, he automatically bdrtgs suicid
a! reactions into being. The entire play, in every
conceivable situation, has been determined in ad-

"Prodigy Child" operated by transistors wins a simultaneous

game against "valve" robots.
Cartoon by V. Kashchenko ("Tekhnika Molodiozhy").

vanee and there is no possibility of the black

king getting into a position from which he can
escape mate.
At the Congress ofCybernetics in Pars in 1951,
the inventor's son, Gonzales Torres y Quevedo,
presented his father's "electro-magnetic chess
player." A distinguished cybernetist, Professor
Norbert Wiener, was duly defeated. It was
jested at the time that this was the last triumph
of classical mechanics over modern cybernetics,
a victory of "determinism" over "organization."
We are now witnessing completely new at
tempts at harnessing machines to chess playing.
Scientists have designed complicated electronic
computers which carry out in a split second com
plex mathematical operations whose solution in
the ordinary way would require many exacting
calculations made by a team of skilled mathemat
icians. Within the limits decided by their de
signers, these machines, or rather teams of electron
ic apparatuses filling large rooms, are able to
select and carry out, as if by themelves, certain
operations, eliminating irrelevant ones, and to
reply to the mathematical question put to them,
by scanning the possibilities of many combina
tions at tremendous speed. This automatic

"Whenever 1 stop to think for a moment, he immediately

breaks the circuir."
Cartoon by V. Voyevodin (" Ogonyok").

145

search for mechanical selection of various combina

tions might seem to resemble actual thought, and
it is tempting to call computers "artificial brains,"
but wrong.
The arrival of the computer has turned scien
tists anew to the idea of a chess playing machine.
The "artificial brain" cannot think for itself. lt
can sean possibilities, and possible combinations
of moves, at amazing speed. In a Polish popular
scientific monthly "Problemy," l. K.roszczynski
has explained how computers work.
"Let us imagine how such a machine would play.
chess. At the same time, let us assume that chess
cannot, any more than life itself, be calculated
outright to the end. An ordinary chess automa
ton would be able to play one or more specimen

"Man lw.s won !'' Cartoon by D. Milty

146

( Szpi/ki").
"

games of the same standard as its designer could

play them; neither better nor worse. But a homeo
stat, or an 'artificial man,' is quite a different
thing. If properly prograrnmed, it would move
the pieces strictly according to the rules, and
would endeavour to mate its opponent. This
would demantl only comparatively straightforward
technique.
"The apparatus would make the first move
quite accidentally, depending on the arbitrary
choice of whoever prepared its prograrnme. lts
opponent would make a reply move; and then?
"lt could move any piece. Each move could
lead on to a number of different situations, sorne
to the machine's advantage, sorne not.
"It could delve into great numbers of these pos
sible situations. 'If 1 do this, he can do this. If
1 then do this, he can do this, or this or this.'
Weighing up the attractiveness of the resulting
end-situation from each train of moves, it could
f inally select and make the move which Ied to
the best. ..
"A single analysis which might take a man sev
era! months, could be carried out by a computer
in minutes, or even seconds, with Iess probability
of error and with no possibility of fatigue.
"You might almost say that every move by the
apparatus would be the calculated introduction
to a deep combination. Nobody could win a game
against it. On the other hand, a twenty-move
deep apparatus would always lose to one which
would 'think,' say, for fifty moves.
If we altered various controls, e.g. the anode
tension of the valves, we could have various
'temperaments'; one apparatus, for instance,
might tend to favour rapid violent operations,
another more 'ref lecting,' by collecting data and
proceeding with caution."
So a chess playing automaton can be made.
lts scope is more limited, but it does not need
a man to be hidden inside it.
The role of the secret player is in this case
performed by the designer who, instead of con
cealing a live man in the machine, has introduced

"You can announce mate z'n 24

moves." Cartoon by Z. Lengren

(" Swiat") .

into it the result of his chess-and-mathematical

speculations.
Here, however, we come immediately to the
point of the problem. A computer is incapable
by itself of devising a single independent move
but is only able to select its moves according
to a certain predetermined pattern of operation.
This pattern is the programmed contribution
by the designer who determines the tactics of
the machine in the game and imposes a certain
defined orientation. We know by now that chess
theory has not as yet found any mathematical
definition, also that nobody has so far been able,
with the aid of algebraic equations, to analyse
a complete chess game or to assess a definite
chessboard situation. Thus even the best electron
ic computer cannot possibly be programmed
with an objective unambiguous pattern of opera
tion as would guide it towards success in scan
ning the astronomical number of various individ
ual combinations. To simplify the problem,
let us assume that the machine is to decide on

a move to its material advantage, provided that

the opponent's strength is estimated by giving
to various pieces a certain number of points
and correcting the result, depending on, for
instance, how many squares the piece may attack
and on whether it will be isolated, in a combina
tion, etc. The machine has finally finished select
ing the variants and made its reply. The result
it has selected a move which will lead the opponent
to win easily.
Chess play recognizes, for instance, the idea
of "sacrificing" a piece when a material loss
brings a strategic supremacy or victory to a well
organized, but substantially weaker player in
the contest against the stronger, yet chaotically
positioncd set of his opponent. One could, of
course, in the future improve such a "pattern,"
introduce a range of refined corrections in asses
sing the strength of each of the opponents,
yet nothing whatever would make one achieve
a fair substitute for the brain of a live player
who skilfully will reject the disadvantageous
147

The "Omega" robot, a master

chess player in the science
jiction film "The Silent Star"
( 1960), a joint Polish-German
production.

variants and who, through the analysis of the

developments for severa! moves ahead, will select
not only the one appropriate move, but also
the train of further possible moves. A chess
playing machine is incapable of strategy, and
it also has to match millions of combinations,
with all the irrational variants included.
There is also another essential factor which
prevents machine from effcctive playing. This
is the spccd of calculation which, with the
present state of technology of the electronic
computers, is much too small for practica! pur
poses of chcss playing. The capacity of an "artifi
cial brain" was until recently not above a hund.red
thousand opcrations a second. This speed,
however, is not subject to limitations, and is
being constantly increased by constructional
improvements. Let us assume then that we
have at our disposal a computer capable of
a milliard counting operations per second a very remote possibility as yet. Mathematicians
have calculated that a five-move deep chess
148

automaton would have to analyse a single move

seven days and nights. At seven-move deep
playing, a single deliberation, or the selection
of one individual variant from all possible
situations, would take about ten thousand years
to accornplish!
We are thus left with only one single solution
in this situation - namely, to abandvn all
ambitions of constructing an ideal electronic
chess player, and to allow the computing machines
to play their best as they can. The rnachine
would then plan for two or three moves in
advance, availing itself of a simplified "memory"
and performing certain standardized replies
depending on the moves rnade by its live opponent.
In an opening play, such an automaton could
possibly defend itself against its opponent's
attacks as long as the game followed one of the
ordinary long-established variants. Confronting,
for instance, a poor player who fashions his
moves according to manual instructions, the
"electronic brain" would oppose hirn by playing

appropriate variants as outlined by sorne out of 6 x 6 squares, with a set of pieces diminished
standing chess authority, and imprinted, as it by the Bishops, and with the elimination of
were, in the automaton's "memory." However, castling and the Pawn's privilege, on its initial
to any odd, incorrect or simply irrational moves move, cf Ieaping over a piece. Here again, the
the machine would not react sensibly, since, machine Iost against a good player and won in
as lacking the qualifying criteria, it is not capable the contest against a bungler, but thc course
of actual strategic assessment. For the same of the game was at Ieast marked by sorne con
reasons it would equally be unable, even over spicuous logic which did not allow one to pass
a short distance of play, to conduct rationally over the problem of mechanical chess players
a game which it has entered in the middle of indifferently.
There is of course no vital necessity fm
playing.
Electronic computers were used to play chcss constructing chess playing automata, and thus
for the first time in 1956. It has almost become depriving people of the emotions thcy receive
a custom since to try out the chess playing from this noble pastime. The possibilities of
ability of every new, improved model of computer. chess playing automatons are actually rcgarded
Machines, however, have not so far mastered as the proof of thc perfection of their mcch
anisms - a perfccticn which dces not rcally
this art satisfactorily.
Such machines produced more interesting seem a desirable necessity.
In a science-fiction film directed by Kurt
results in simplified chess. Two American scien
tists, William and Stein, conducted experiments Maetzig, "Milczca Gwiazda" (The Silent Star)
with an automaton playing chess on a chessboard (1960), a joint Polish-German production, which

A chess game with an electric rob

ot; scene from the Polish puppet
film "The Ghost in the Palace."

149

is partly based on the Polish writer Lem's novel

sistent chess player, manipulated a few screws

"Astronauci" (The Astronauts), thcre are a few

inside the "Omega" and endowed it with more

scenes of a game of chess being played in a space

human-like characteristics which will allow it

rocket between an American nuclear physicist

to err in playing. The scientist now begins to

and the "Omega," a universal robot constructed

triumph over the machine, winning one game

by a Polish cybernetist-designer, Sohyk. The

after another.

automaton dictates the moves and wins repeated

Even earlier, a French writer, Pierre Boulle,

ly, which depresses the scientist who does not

ended his "absurd short story," as he himself

want to yield to the intellet of a machine. Under

called

such circumstances the game has lost all of its

Perfect Robot) with a witty and more ingenious

flavour. Fortunately, the designer, with a frolic

point of damaging the ideal chess playing robot.

of good humour, has, in secrecy from the per-

The hero of the story, a certain Professor

it,

entitled

"Le

robot

parfait"

(The

Modern technique serves man:

a paralyzed person can play
chess with the aid of a hydraulic
prosthesis enabling him to make
any move with the paralyzed
hand. The detJice was construcred
at the rehabilitation centre for
paralyzed persons in California.

150

Fontaine, is the outstanding designer of ever

improved computer models produced by an
Electronic Computer Company. The firm has
completely dominated the market, as the models
designed by Professor Fontaine have achieved
such perfection that the Company's advertising
brochmes now no longer speak of the calcula
tions of its products, but simply of the "thi nking
processes" inside these mechanisms. Professor
maintains that the electronic machine is a perfect
imitator of the human mind, and as it admits
of being equipped with an unlimited number
of electric circuits, it is thus capable of surpassing
the power of the human brain which operates
with but a restricted number of physical cells.
In order to confirm his hypothesis, he decides
to construct a chess playing automaton.
"'I maintain,' concluded the Professor, 'I main
tain after the most careful consideration that
an ideal chess player or a 'robot' which I intend
to design will in every instance be able to bring
the number of possible moves down to a single
one. This the machine wil! achicve by automatic
appraisal of all possible resulting combinations
from a particular position in the game, outright
to the end, and from the appropriate elimination
of all incorrect moves."
This theory had propelled the scientist towards
sensational achievements. He really succeeded
in constructing a chess automaton capable of
the most advantageous moves and unquestion
ably defeating every possible opponent. But
his success alarmed competitors, arousing them
to intensified efforts. One of them, following
the same theoretical assumption, constructed
an equally ideal 'robot' which, like its original
counterpart, made no errors in playing. It was
subsequently found out that all possible displays
had thus been reduced to a single ideal game,
constantly identical, which invariably ended in
a draw. In this way the matter had lost much
of its original attraction, and the universal
enthusiasm shown for the chess playing autom
aton had quickly subsided."

A ji1e-ton crane zvith electro-magnetic grab being demonstrat

ed at an exhibition of automatic equipment in London in 1956.
It made

m!rr:br of motcs vith great accuracy, going through

predetermined games with great precision.

Other automatons in this story are in no better

position. They function faultlessly, but they
exhibit none of the peculiar human character
istics. They therefore become objectionable on
account of exaggerated technicality. Their design
cr is gricved, because his aim was a pcrfect
machinc, capable of matching all human achieve
ments. Finally he strikes on a marvellously
simple idea. It is only sufficicnt to damage these
machines a little, and it will alter their abom
inable behaviour completely. This being done,
they really begin to err in their operations, make
blunders, and startle people with sorne unex
pected replies. The famous mechanical chess
players begin actually to lose. It is then unani
mously rgreed that Professor Fcntaine has really
151

succeded in constructing a perfectly human-likc

yet we shall never know the answer until we

begin working on such a machine. For we have

machine.
That was how thc French writer facetiously

had no need until now of learning about the

presented his deeply sensible view on the problem

way in which a chess player thinks. But once

of chess playing automaton. One could hardly

man starts designing 'electronic brains' anal

find a better appraisal of thc prospects of this

ogous to human chess players, the inadequacies

problem. Thc writer's opinion is morcover in

of 'chess thinking' will be revealed, and the

complete

and

checking of the various methods of program

views of prcscnt-day scientists and cutstanding

ming will tell us how the live players really

chess theoreticians.

think.

agreement

with

the

opinions

When Mikhail Botvinnik

dclivered his lecture on "Men and Machines

"The machine will also emerge superior to

belnd the Chessboard" at the Humboldt Uni

a charnpion in that it will have a perfect memory

1961, he thus concluded his

at its command and an enviable strength, and

"The designers of computers have so far

to the noise in the playing hall and to the future

versity of Berlin in

that it will show complete indifference both

consideraticns:
created highly accurate mechanisms, and havc
also

attempted

constructing

mechanical chess player.

player

could ever

top

journalistic reviews...

accW'ate

"lt should be added that the task of program

Unfortunately, it is

ming such machines, as well as the research

very unlikely that such a

mechanical super

be constructed.

However,

into the methods of a live chess player's spec

ulation, can be carried out only with the joint

should we rather not apply ourselves to an

co-operation of

entirely different task- narnely, to the construc

and other scientific workers."

mathematicians, psychologists

tion of a mechanism which would be equally

Despite

imperfect in thinking as the ordinary chess

difficulties

player, and which would err as easily as any of

electronic chess players, a considerable progress

the mortal top masters? The task would then

has already been made, due in particular

all

the

theoretical

involved

in

the

and

technical

programrning

of
to

be much easier and it would probably reduce

the achievements of present-day cybernetics. In

a million times the calculation of variants, bring

November

ing the realization of the project within the

trified with the news of a chess tournarnent

bounds of our present-day technology.

which

1966 the entire world became elec

was

arranged

between

the

electronic

In other words, we shall continue to fail as

computers of the Stanford University, U.S.A.,

longs as we attempt constructing a mechanical

and similar machines at the Institute of Theoret

champion. The task may become practicable,

ical and

I believe, if we try to construct a machine in

match, which was played on four chessboards,

our own image and after our likeness.

had lasted for over a year and had ended with

"Here, of course, great difficulties appear when

it comes to the programrning of such a machine.

two

Applied Physics

garnes won

by

the

in

Moscow. This

Soviet-programrned

machines and with the other two a draw.

How can we expect ever to reach a machine to

This undoubtedly was the first important step

analyse 'in a human manner' if we are ourselves

that was made towards mathematical analysis

actually ignorant of the precise way in which

and synthesis in chess playing.

a chess player's mind operates. What is the way

in which we actually do that ourselves? And

152

(The

English

Editor

does

not

necessarily

accept the views put forward in this chapter).

VII. LOVE AND WAR AT THE

CHESSBOARD

Death checkmating the king. An allegoric copperplate engraving of the 15th century, the work of an unknown artist
from Alsace who SJ"gned with the letters BR and an anchor. The picture follows favourite mediaeval morality books
depicting lije as a game of chess.

154

The bloodless combat on a chessboard was orig

".. . Y ou see, the other side, the prosecution,

inally conceived as an imitation of war. The an

has a lot of powerful pieces, and so far we

cient Indian name of chess (Chaturanga) meant

have only a few pawns. You have to do wonders

an army, and the arrangement of pieces imitated

with pawns to beat castles, bishops, and rooks.

the arms of the time (e.g. infantry, cavalry or ele

All the same, we shall do it. . . " ("The Sloane

phant-drawn chariots). It seems that before be

Square Mystery," by H. Adams).

coming a pastime, chess in ancient India was

During the French presidential campaign in

a military game used to train officers and lead

1965, the following statement appeared in a French

ers; it was this which occasioned the military

paper:

names of the pieces and the rules of the game. In

" ... The ele;tion's chessboard has been pre

the course of centuries sorne of the pieces assum

pared for the game. The king with due ceremony

ed civilian guise (e.g. jester, bishop, and queen

assumed his place. His adversaries are also all set.

or dame) but they always remained human.

They are expecting - with more determination

The chessboard- a battleground; the play

a struggle. This picture f ired the imagination so

than ever - that they will at least make him go

for another term.

strongly that chess idioms have affected everyday

Three pieces and a few pawns are to partici

speech and literary language, and provide many

pate in the game - one of these is likely to give

a handy metaphor in day to day

us a surprise.

conversa

The main piece is Charles de Gaulle. .. "

tion.
". . .A great game is waged incessantly by day

Quite an original turn of speech was used by

and night on the chessboard of history by Polish

a Polish poet, Andrzej Braun, in one of his

organs of security which foil the plans of enemy

poems:

intelligence services. .. " - "Cichy front" ("The

Quiet Front") by L. Wolanowski.
"The moves of the four men on the chessboard

We live at a time when choice is 'de rigeur'

and I was born as one of the pieces in chess ...
In a long poem "The Waste Land" by T. S.

of life were exhausted. The action of the novel. ..

Eliot, one part, which describes complicated per

carne to an end..." is a comment by E. Boy,

sonal relations between people, is entitled "A game

reviewing a novel "The Mist" by M. de Unamuno.

of chess ;" though chess is not presented at all, and

" . .. Carpentier .. . to whom Churchill used to

is mentioned only once as a means of passing

tell anecdotes, and who was backed by the Presi

dent of the Republic. .. was just a pawn in the

138 and
139):
And we shall play a game of chess,
Pressing Hdless eyes and waiting for a knock upon
the door.

hands of powerful coteries financing sporting life

in the West." - Z. Kaluzyski in the Polish
weekly Nowa Kultura.

a worrying time in its hero's life (verses

In an article published in another Polish weekly,

The Austrian writer Franz Kafka, who is often

(1954), entitled "Szachy i strachy pana

obsessed with man's loneliness in a cruel world,

Dullesa" ("The Chess and Stress of Mr Dulles"),

uses an unusual image in his "Letters to Milena":

Przyjazn

the political situation was almost wholly analysed

in chess metaphor:
"... the Washington strategists made a few
moves on the diplomatic chessboard.
"... Next, Mr Dulles wished to move the other,
more important pieces on bis board..."
We find chess metaphors in crime fiction:

"... The thing I am afraid of, with m y eyes

wide open and in an unconscious plunge into
fear. .., this is only an inner conspiracy against
me ... It consists in that I, who in the great game
of chess am not even a pawn of a pawn, and even
far from it, now wish to seize the place of the
queen, against the rules . . . I, pawn of a pawn
155

and thus a non-existent chessrnan which does not

he was back in his old place, finding to his despair

take part in the game at all. And next rnaybe 1

that every square of the chessboard had been

shall wish to seize the place of the king himself, or

fenced with German wire, and that nowhere in

even a whole chessboard, and if 1 really wanted

the srnall and bare area was there any nook to

this it would have to happen in another way,

hide in. A hare in a burrow was safer than he.

more inhuman ..."

The chessboard on which he wriggled stubbornly,

Ilya Ehrenburg, writing in his rnernoirs, "Peo

trying to escape bis doom, was as glaringly lit as

ple, Years and Life" referred to the Stalinist

a boxing ring . . . " - "Granatowy" ("The Dark

terror of

1937-38, when anybody could be arrest

cd without warning or reason at any time : "1 lived

Blue Uniforrn") by M. Szczepaska.

Two French playwrights, Feuillet and Bocage,

1846, a chess tide,

in a period in which a rnan's fate resernbled not

gave their play, produced in

a garne of chess but a lottery... "

''Echec et mat" ("Check and Mate"), although the

Harold Wilson, ex-Prime Minister of Great

game had no connection with the plot except in

Britain, once remarked: "Politics is like playing a

a metaphorical sense. The intrigues at the court

game of chess : in diff icult moments one does not

of King Philip IV held their particular heroes

make one's best moves."

in . . . check. Other characters were "mated" and

And here is an example of events of the last war

(referring to Gerrnan-occupied Poland) :

"He

lost . . .
Chess provided quite an important theme in

found hirnself once again in the little town from

William Faulkner's story, "Gam.bit." The intro

which the Germans had evicted him a year

duction of a chess term in the title symbolically

before. He felt bad and realized that he was a small,

emphasizes the risk of a gamble in a vital game

miserable and laughable piece on a chessboard.

by the heroes, and points to the analogy of situ

Events had shifted hirn here and there, and here

ations and events to chessboard positions :

An allegoric water-colour by the

Polish

artist

Jacek tulawski.

The earth, shown as a chess

board, with people of various
rae es,

classes and eras as chess

men. Hovering in space, the face

of Fate is seen behind a cloud.

156

showing

A symbolical illustracio11 from Melchior Wakozvicz's boa.

the organization of Western Europe's defence against the

" The Battle oj Mome Cassim," at the begimzing of a chap

Cartoon from the "cold

war" period

(1948),

emitled "The players set out their chessmen." The Polish

"threat from the East." The caption indicares the decisive

cer

chessmen on the European chessboard. Scandinavia is the

decachments pcrsonified by Sire11, the symbol of Warsaw,

bis hop, Great Britain the queen, the Pyrenees the roo!

prepare to attack the

("Leader Magazine").

"Then his unele said :

'A knight comes suddenly out of nowhere out of the west, if you like -and checks the queen
and the castle all in that same one move. What do
you do ?'
At least he knew thc answer to that by now.
'You save the queen nd let thc castle go. ' And he
answered the othcr one too : ' Out of western
Argentina.' He said : ' It was that girl. The Harris
girl. You bet him the girl. That he didn't want
to cross that and open that stable door. And he
lost. '
'Lost ?' his uncle said. 'A princcss .nd half a cas
tle, against sorne of his bones and maybe his
brains too ? Lost ?'

German positions ( Photo-montage

by 7.. and L. Haar) .

'He lost thc queen,' he said.

'The queen ?' his uncle said. 'What queen ? Oh,
you mean Mrs. Harris. Maybe he realized that
queen had been moved the same instant
he realized he would huve to call the bet.
lvlaybe he realized that quecn and the castle
both had been gone ever since the momcnt he
disarmed the prince with that hearth-broom. If
he ever wmted her.'
'Then \Vhat was he doing here ?' he said.
'Why was he waiting ?' his unele said.
'lVlaybe it was a pleasant square,' he said.
'For the pleasure of being able to move not
only two squares at once but in two directions
at once.'
157

"Or indecision, since he can/ his uncle said.

'And almost fatal for this one, because he must.
At least he'd certainly better. His threat and his
charro

are

in his

capacity

for

movement."

In Balzac's "La Comdie Humaine" the story

"Vautrin's Final Incarnation" refers to a situa
tion which develops between the opponents :
" 'My dear Sir, you have gained a complete
victory,' said James. '1 have been defeated,' he
added lightly, with the tone of a player who lost
all his cash, 'but you have left a few men on a
field. . . A costly victory . .. '
" 'Yes,' replied Corentin, taking up the joke,
'You have lost your queen and 1 am short of two
rooks .. . '
" 'Oh! Contenson was only a pawn,' replied
Collin derisively. . . "
"They won't let us play chess. . . " A Polish political cartoon
by J. Zaruba ( 1952), referring to the overthrowing of a pro
American government in Iran by the people ("Szpilki") .

Application of chess ideas and strategy helped

the Polish literary critic,
make an

original

Henryk Vogler, to

comparison of the manner

wlch contemporary heroes are presented in

modern and 19th century literature. He writes
about Lermontov's novel "A Hero of Our Time."
"... Sueh a typical hero is a young, rich and
solitary man, bored with life and enjoyment,
incapable of friendship, love or any other senti
ments which would absorb his emotional life
more intensively, treating people a little like
pieces in a game of chess moved here and there
so as to carry out certain combinations. Reading
this book today, we see that Pechorin (Lermon
tov's hero) is no Botvinnik nor even a Sliwa,*
that his chess combinations are only two or three
moves deep and are mainly limited to little erotic
intrigues. Thus it is rather a game of draughts
than chess . . . "
And later, this reflection:
"The end of the 1 9th century, a century of
scientific discoveries, development of industrial
civilization, urbanization and mechanization, har
nessed into the service of the new rich, gave
A Czech political cartoon by J. Pop ( 1 958) : "The White
(House) opens the game but is losing"; an allusion to shady
American oil deals in Arabian lands ( "Dikobraz").

158

new

Pechorins

new technical possibilities of

satisfying their passions, and substantially widen*

leading Polish master

ed for them the area of their chessboards without

altering their relation to the wooden men... "

" . . . David Stacton's embittered splendid histori

cal novels remind of a game of chess by some de

Finally, the modern period:

ceased masters of yore, reconstructed from faded

"... If the heroes' world, of whom Pechorin

notes. The author shifts both black and white

was one of the earliest, resembled a game of

pawns, anticipating the f inal result . . . " (Ameryka,

chess, then to the heroes of our time it rather

No. 5 1 ).

resembles football. The hero of today probably

Chess, with its infinite variety, offers itself for

suffers from everything but the lack of an enthusi

use in comparisons on a higher plane. It has lent

astic and unrestrained attitude to life's phenom

itself to philosophical discussion ; chess metaphors

ena. He likes quick thrills to which he surren

can be found even in sermons. In the Middle

ders with readiness and zeal. He likes jazz and

Ages it refiected social and state conditions, the

sport and rapid clear decisions. He despises cool,

rules governing the pieces on the chessboard mir

analytical strategy, even that which only looks

a couple of moves ahead. True modern football

roring morality, ethics and law.

is often a considered and precise combinative

("Miracles of the Virgin Mary"), by Gautier de

In one morality, "Miracles de la Sainte Vierge"

game, but even the Hungarian arch-masters do not

Coincy, published in France from a 13th century

pretend to be chess players. . . "

manuscript, there is an allegory in a game of

Other examples of chess cant in literature :

" In Blok's plays (he was still a symbolist at the

chess between Satan and God. Satan chases Man

to the corner of the board, trying to mate him

time), people - that is, main characters - are

(for committing original sin). Then God creates

chessmen, their parts drawn in broad outlines,

the piece, the Fers (i.e. the Virgin Mary or the

blurred, f lickering, resembling living creatures."

Queen) and defeats Satan . In the French original

(Victor Shklovski, 1 9 1 3).

there is a play upon two words : jierce, from the

" . .. A certain literary critic, an acquaintance of

mine, told me a f ew years ago that Hamlet is not

Persian-Arabian name of the piece, and

a neurotic, but a man who plays his part like

a game of chess."

vierge,

maid or virgin.
In an old German song, the King addresses
Death :

Another Czech satrica! cartoon

by B. Cepleha referring to the
American-Arabian poltica! con
fiict of 1958: "Try to understand,
Mr. Dulles, he who has lost
his king loses his rook as well"
("Dikobraz") .

159

" . . . You see how superb are the Kings, Lords

and Soldiers on the chessboard ; yet when thc
game ends they are only thrown into the box
as if into a tomb. Read ancient history . . . ! "
In Cervantes' work, " Don Quixote" the hero
deliberates on acting and the theatre, remarking
to Sancho :
" . . . 'when the comedy is ended and thc actors
take off their costumes, all the players become
equal.'
" 'The same, then,' said Don Quixote, 'happens
in the life of this world, where sorne play the
parts of Caesars, othcrs of Popes, and really all
those parts which can appear in a comedy : but
when we finally reach the end, that is when life
ends, death will dcprive everybody of those
garments which made them differ, and they will
become equal.'
" 'A prime comparison,' said Pancho, 'although
not so new, since I've heard it more than once or
twice. It is just as in chess: each pawn has its
particular task for the duration of the game, and
when it ends, everything is mixed up, made
equal, loses value and is commonly put in a bag,
almost like a corpse in a grave.'

"

Similarly, chess was used to illustrate how so

cial injustice only disappeared at death, by a Ger
man author, Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel ( 1 8th cen
tury). Comparing chess with life, he concluded :

'1A Game with Death." Allegorical fresco from a church in

TlUby, Sweden, the work of Albertus Pictor (15th cemury) .

The Lord's game begins: to all the pieces

He gives out the parts, directing their course,
Dispersing next and mixing, great and small
In one dark sack. Likewise looks our world.
In a philosophical sctting by Schopenhauer, the

Will hands of Death to all kings show tlzeir goal?

Thus rule resembles chess and Royal Game.
My sceptre stretches from the South to North,
Now Death has smitten and has mated me.
The distinguished Polish preacher and writer

chess metaphor too k this form:

"Life is like chess : we prepare sorne plan, but
this plan is determined by whatever the opponent
in a game, or fate in life wish to achicve. "
In a water-colour by a Polish painter, Jacek
Zulawski, a chessboard replaces the earth in the

of the 16th century, Piotr Skarga, praised the

solar system

study of history:

various periods, arranged as chess pieces, sym-

160

Human figures in costumes

of

bolize the comparison between life and chess. An

enormous face from behind a cloud on the far
horizon looms up - of a Player ? Fate ? or Death ?

Hither and thither moves, mates and s/ays

And one by one back in the Closet lays.
This inspired Walter E. Spradbery to paint
a picture showing the struggle of Day and Night.

The artist does not answer the question.

Albertus Pictor used a chess game to represent

The two sides were shown as Louis XIV, re

death and fate in a 15th century fresco that he

presenting the peak of absolutism, and Napoleon

painted in a church in Taeby, Sweden. From

Bonaparte, representing the French Revolution.

director,

In a short film produced in the U.S.S.R. in

Ingmar Bergman, produced the film "The Sev

1959, "It Will Soon Rain," based on a popular

enth Seal . "

Vietnamese fable, a Ruler of the World plays

this

theme,

the

eminent

Swedish

Chess has provided excellent analogies o f the

chess against the witch Drought. He loses rivers,

struggle between good and evil. Evidence of this

lakes and streams but Drought had forgotten the

is to be found in literature as far back as ancient

clouds which finally bring the saving rain.

Indian, Persian and Arabic times ; in Old Spanish

In the French-Swedish picture "Les Crea

tures" (1966) by Agnes Varda, a garne ofchess pro

and Old French.

The Persian poet Ornar Khayym, in his

vides a rather original dramatic and philosophi

suggestive

cal motif. The main character, Edgar, who is a

picture of human fate as seen in a game of chess

writer, carries out an observation of the inhabit

(English translation by Edward Fitzgerald, Stan

ants of a small island near the coast of Brittany in

za 49) :

order to collect material to work out the fates of

"Rubiyt,"

offered

an

especially

Tis al! a Chequer-board of Nights and Days

Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:

drarnatis personae in his novel. He becomes en

gaged in an extraordinary game played with the

The knight playing chess with

Death. A chess moti/ with an
important dramatic function in
the Swedish film "The Seventh
Seal," directed by lngmar Berg
ma11j the motlj taken from a mediaeval church fresco.

161

'' The embarrassed Spaniard." France and Spain competing

for injluence in Europe. A 1 7th century French political
cartoon.

A n a/legorical drawing - the chessmen persomfy the court

of Louis XIV and the Revolution. The cclttral column is
shaped like a chess king. By lfl. E. Spradbery ("Chess Pie") .

1 62

keeper of a lighthouse, inventor of a peculiar

playing machine combining elements of chess,
cards and dice, and provided with a radar-and-tele
vision screen projecting images from real life
which resemble the situations on the chessboard.
Animated tiny figures of people appear in place
of chessmen. Cards decide which is to be moved
on the board, and dice - by how many squares.
In the display appear appropriate episodes from
the lives of the small creatures, depending on
which of the players inf luences the course of events.
A further complication is that the creatures
endeavour to escape the inf luence of the players
and make their own "moves." At this game of
living chess, the man from the lighthouse repres
ents an "evil fate." The game is played on his
terms. To win the game, the writer has to save
from destruction on the chessboard (and at the same
time in actual life) at least a single couple - a man
and a wornan. The stake is the writer's wife. The
finale: the writer, who has had enough of playing
with human life. .. destroys the machine.
Attempts to philosophise from chess have often
been based on phoney pseudo science but there
have sometimes been quite interesting observa
tions. For example, the following excerpt from
Ernanuel Lasker's article, "Philosophy of the
Royal Garne":
" . . . Struggles of all kind di.ffer frorn each other
only outwardly. The rules governing them are
often identical. In this sense war is a cornpetition,
a pursuit of truth, beauty or happiness ; all of
these kinds of struggle resemble each other and
chcss. They are equally based on principies of
simplicity, economy and harmony. The same
principies are employed by a conscientious
rcsearcher in chemistry, physics, biology or art. ..
The game of chess is a puppet-show but one in
which the puppets perforrn with force and with
vital truth. Chess teaches us how our life should
shape, with equal chances and without accident.
To that degree it is a mirror of life. Chess is the
scene of a miniature drama of ternptation, guilt,
struggle, effort and the victory of justice... "

" U7hen is this game going to end ?" Louis Philippe against the Repub/ic. A Frmch cartoo11 by Desprez

("La Caricature") .

"In check ! Check-Mate !" The Republic checkmates King Louis Philippe. A French political cartoonfrom
the time of the February revolution ("La Caricature") .

163

Pilsudski and his government; a Polish po/itica/ cartoon

of 1931 by J. Zaruba ("Cyrulik Warszawski").

The reactio11ary govemment checkmated. S. Kobylinski's

il/ustration to a pre-war revo/utionary poem ("Swiat") .

The militarist goes on with the Kame a/though the king

{the Kaiser) was checkmated in 1918. German satirica/
cartoon of 1924 ( Lachen Links").

Soviet cartoon of 1959 rejern"ng to the agricultura/ com

petition between the Soviet Vnion and the United States
("Krokodil") .

"

1 64

Mexican satire: "U.S. Ambassador

L. Wilson alleviates the conflict." Wood
cut by Leopold Mendez.

An exhibition of amateur paintings by Polish

miners, presented in Cracow in 1946, contained
a picture called "A Garne of Chess," by a noted
self-taught, primitivist painter, Teofil Ociepka.
His fantastic works combine reality with the
products of a fine imagination. The game of chess
represents man's struggle against Evil. A woman
dressed in white symbolizes Goodness. A point
made by one of the reviewers is probably right,

namely that " ... this picture can also be treated

(as generically) without any symbolism."
Chess is particularly suitable material for use
in satire, especially political.
Piotr Royziusz, a lecturer in law at Cracow
in the middle of the 16th century, depicted in
a Latin epigrarn a chess kingdom in which the
king stood majestically motionless whilst the
queen hopped about in all directions, prying into
165

''In check! Check-Mate ! Hitler done for . . . " Scene from the Polish film "Others Will
Follow You" (1949) .

every comer of state affairs, an outspoken satire

A satirical drawing b y Desprez, in a period

ori the last years of the reign of Zygmunt I and

when revolutionary feeling was growing during

the government of his queen Bona Sforza.

the reign of K.ing Louis Philippe, was captioned

A Polish Jesuit, Franciszek Gosciecki, visited

"When

Will

This Game End ?"

The

king,

Turkey with a legation in 1 7 1 2-14. He described

playing chess with a woman in a Phrygian cap

in hurnorous verse the continua! intrigues and

(Republican France), has a very poor position and

jockeying for govern.ment positions at the Court

is unable to withstand the pressure directed from

of Sultan Ahmet IV :

his opponent who is sitting safely on a barricade.

Now if you saw chess being played,

Thus Turkish notables hold sway:
Knight checks king, bz'shop strikes knight,
Prison like rook has queen in sight,
Pawn defeats bishop . . .
One political cartoon from

the

early

1 7th

A later cartoon, captioned "Check and Mate!"

showed Louis Philippe as a chess king mated by
a white queen - the Republic. The white king
symbolizes freedom; the white rooks, towers
representing democratic associations; the bishops,
jesters personifying the satirical journals, "Le

century captioned "The Perplexed Spaniard,"

Charivari" and "La Caricature" ; the knights,

depicted France and Spain at the height of their

centaurs with copies of the political papers, "La

struggle for political influence in Europe as

Tribune" and "Le National"; the pawns, the arm

opponents at chess.

ed populace. The black pieces have suffered serious

166

casualties ; of those that remain, the rooks repres

ent prisons, with judges in robes looking out;
the knights - ministers on children's hobby
horses ; the bishop - a snooper with a jester's
cap, the pawn - a guardsman.
In 1 924, a German progressive satirical joumal,
"Lachen Links," published a cartoon showing
death playing chess against a militarist. The chess
board contained armies and cannons; the fallen
pieces were stacked in coffins on the floor.
"Though the king was checkmated in 1 9 1 4-18, he
still plays on . . . What is going to happen ?" asks

the caption. The answer was not supplied until

1 945.
A fine cartoon by Jerzy Zaruba, a Polish
cartoonist, appeared in 193 1 in the humorous
weekly, "Cyrulik Warszawski," captioned "Szachy
na Lachy" (Chess-fright). The chess pieces re
presented the Sanacja coup-government of the
time, moved by the dictatorial hand of
Pilsudski.
An anthology of Polish revolutionary satire of
the inter-war period includes a quatrain directed
against the ruling class :

A Game of Chess. Picture by the Polish painter Teofil Ociepka, a primitivist (1946) .

167

In Wickhmann's treatise on chess (1664), human figures were drawn alongsids

chessmen to illustrate their functions.

"Napoleonic" chessmen shown at the wor/d exhibition in Paris in 1900.

Personified figures of the king, queen and bishops from a set of chessmen belonging
to the Polish Hetman A . Sieniawski (18th century).

168

The chessmen of this Austrian set

( 1848) are carved in wood and
personify historical characters. From
the Hammond collection.

Not only those who know play chess,

Willy-nilly, you'll play it yet,
lt's worst for those who never guess,
Quite often they will just hear: 'Mate!'

guard-house one of the partisans moved a piece

and said, "Check, mate - Hider kaputt ... "
In the Soviet film, "October" ( 1 927), directed by
Sergei Eisenstein, the lonely Kerensky, bent 'over

The films have also furnished examples.

an empty chessboard, picks up the broken bits

In a Polish film, "Others Will Follow," 1949,

of a chess piece, puts them together and places

directed by Antoni Bohdziewicz, there is an

a crown on top - a beautifully simple piece of

assault by partisans on a guard-house of the

political imagery.

German military police, in which they surprise

Lenin jokingly compared Kerensky, the Prime

successfully

Minister of the Russian Temporary Government

completing their operation, before they left the

of 1 9 1 7, to a pawn moved about by the imperial-

two

Nazis

playing

chess.

Mter

169

Kings i11 Chinese sets made for

export to Britain were oftm
carved in the likeness of British
kings. Here are four which por
tray George 1, 11, 111 and IV.
From the Hammond collection.

ists. The Soviet satirical journal "Krokodil" in

mir Stpowski, published in 1 9 1 3 in the Polish

1 960 based a cartoon by its noted team of car

periodical "Szachista Polski."

toonists, The "Kukriniksy," on this remark.

The Czechoslovak artist Kopriva in a Prague
literary

journal

showed

white

doves

(peace)

"A game of chess resembles war in various

respects : ( 1 ) the tcrrain; (2) the material forces;
(3) the moral forces;

(4) the time factor. In a game

checking and mating a black king (who looked

of chess, just as in war, not only the leader's

like an atomic bomb) trapped in a corner of the

talent and knowledge but also his character may

chessboard. This climaxed a long picture-story

infiuence the outcome. A player who is careful,

and the final caption read :

persevering, who refiects coolly on the fiuctuating

Atomic diplomat stuck in a groove;

White checkmates him on che thz'rd move.

chances of the game, and who calculates dispassion

The idea of treating the chessboard as a battle

will always have a bigger prospect of success

ground became, from the earliest times, an incen

than a player who is impatient, nervous and

tive for craftsmen, sculptors and engravers to

temperamental... the cooler player will be ablc

fashion the pieces after human and animal models.

to concentrate the better." Few people go to the

The world 's museums contain thousands of

extent of drawing important conclusions from

chess pieces shaped as soldiers of various periods,

ately the consequences of each move of the army,

these analogies, diverting as they are.

personified

Humour has its place in this field but a certain

symbols, warring men and the animals taking part

German writer of the inter-war period who spe

in the combat.

cialized in military problems, was unfortunately

nationalities

and

formations,

and

It is interesting to try to fathom why chess is

lacking

in

it. He publicly protested against

so interminably linked with war. To quote only

comparisons between war and chess, arguing that

one example, an excerpt from an article by Ludo-

they disparagcd the army! One French chess

1 70

periodical published articles by a senior army

William and his sons invaded France, conquered

officer, refuting meticulously any ideas of similar

Normandy and almost reached Pars.

Quite a similar event, although this time it can

ity between chess and war.

been the cause of conflict, in consequence of the

be safely supposed not a historie one, was describ

ed by a Polish writer, Wojciech Zukrowski, in

contestants' characters. A player, upset by failure

at chess, would use the chessboard or a piece

"Porwanie w Tiutiurlistanie" ("An Abduction in

(and these were sometimes very large) to bash

Tuturlistan"). In a chapter entitled "Fatalna gra"

his opponent on the head. A breach of the rules

(A Fatal Game) there is a story of a game of chess

which often led to a resumption of the battle

played by two kings, Cinnamon and Barrel. The

Chess, instead of being an image, has often

elsewhere with other weapons.

This seemed particularly the fashion towards
the end of the eleventh century.
Robert and Henry, sons of William the Con

charming

book

for

children

and

adults,

dramatic game, in the course of which the almond

Pawns were vanishing mysteriously from the
chessboard, caused an outbreak of war between
the peoples of Tuturlistan and Blabant. To be

queror, King of England and Duke of Normandy,

exact, one should point out that the notorious

during a ceremonial visit to Philip 1, King of

game rather resembled draughts but the fabulous

France, sat down to a game of chess with Louis,

kings played it with gusto, shifting the Pawns

their host's son. A quarrel developed. Louis

and using a fine call of "Chess, mess!" The text is

offended Henry who struck the French prince

supplemented with pleasant drawings by Adam

on his head with the chessboard and would have

Marczyrski, very chess-like in its theme and

probably killed him had bis brother not inter

details.

vened. The quarrel led to war. A squabble over

Still in the world of fiction. . . Un ele Benjamn,

chess became the pretext for an armed invasion!

the hero of a novel of that name by Claude Tillier,

Battle on a chessboard de
picted in grotesque style by
an anonymous ltalian artist.

171

was challenged to a duel by a notorious brawler,

Monsieur de Pont-Cass who asks :
" 'You have not forgotten, sir, why you carne?'

" '1 have not forgotten and here is the proof,'

replies Uncle Benjamin, pointing to a box on the
table, '1 have made all arrangements to receive
you.'
" 'And what do we need these toys for, since
we are to fight with swords?'

" '1 do not intend to fight with swords,'

Uncle replied.

" 'Sir!' said Monsieur de Pont-Cass, 1 was

'

insulted. 1 am the one to choose the weapons,

and 1 choose swords.'
" 'Oh no! 1 was offended first and I'm not
giving way ; 1 have chosen chess!'
"He opened the box and, having set out the
chessmen, gestured his opponent to take his place
behind the table.
"Monsieur de Pont-Cass became livid with
anger.
" 'What's this ? Are you sneering at me?'

A Czech set carved in wood depicts the battle fought in 1442 between tlze Hussites led by Jan Zizka ( White} and the
army of the Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg ( Black) .

1 72

Personalities from old German peasant wars in chess guise. The piece on the extreme right personifies
Thomas Manzer, the leader of a peasant revolt.

" 'Nothing of the sort,' replicd Uncle, 'Every

duel is a game in which two meo fight for the

Galienne fallen violently in love with him. One

day she asked him to her chamber under sorne

stake of their lives : this can be achieved with

pretext and... it is uncertain how matters would

pawns as well as with a sword. If you're not

have progressed if the worthy knight had not

strong in chess, 1 am prepared to play you at

fied, to her great annoyance of course. Her cries

brought the king and when he asked for an

cart or faro'..."
The situation was solved in a very unusual way.
The

enraged Monsieur

de

Pont-Cass

tried

explanation she, rather surprisingly, confessed

that Garin had dared to spurn her love. The king

to come to blows. Forced to defend himself,

agreed that this was a grcat insult and decided

Uncle fetched his sword; unexpectedly proved

to punish the insolent man. Garin was summoned

a good swordsman and thrice knockcd the sword

and, guessing what was happening, arrived with

out of the brawler's hand, taunting him that he

a sizeable body-guard. Asked why he had visited

could hardly have fared worse at chess.

the queen's chambers, he replied that he had

From fiction to legend.

played chess with her. Charlemagne suggested

Going back a thousand years, we find a chess

playing a game with him also, stipulating tremen

duel between Charlemagne and Sir Gario de

dous stakes: lf Gario won he would gain the

Montglane,

crown and the queen! If he lost, he would lose

recorded

in

lay

of

mediaeval

his head. There was no arguing with the king,

minstrels.
Gario carne to Charlemagne's court and was
quickly

promoted

to

an

important

whose forces

were superior anyway. Having

position.

sworn a solemn oath to abide by the conditions,

Everything would have been well, had not Queen

the two sat down at the chessboard, a fine gift

173

A hussar

A standard bearer

Su/tan Mohammed IV

A kmght

Camel

Peasant

These Polish historical chessmen made by the sculptress Helena Skirmunt in the second half of the last century depict the victory
oj Jan lll Sobieski over the Turks at Vienna in 1683. On the "Polish" side are King Jan /JI, Hetman Jablonowski, a bishop
and standard bearer, a hussar and a knight, a lion and a bear (the rooks) . The Turkish pieces represent Sultan Mohammed IV,
the Vizier Kara-Mustapha, Janissaries, camels etc. The chessmm, cast in silver, were exhibited in Vienna on the occasion of the
200th anniversary of the relief oj the city; these photos were taken at that time.

1 74

from Harun-al-Rashid. The tense atmosphere

Sadko, a legendary hero of the old Russian

caused little misunderstandings to develop into

epic poems, the "byliny," engaged in a different

brawls. Repeatedly the barons and courtiers had

wager over chess during a visit to the court of

to intervene to persuade them to confine the

a maharajah in the course of a journey round the

fight to the chessboard. A new quarrel flared up

world. The maharajah coveted Sadko's bewitched

into a general mele and bloodshed. Eventually

horse, whereas Sadko wanted the phoenix bird

the game was resumcd. Garin gained an advan

in exchange. The maharajah suggested a game

tage and finally mated the king. However, he

of chess to decide which should gain his wish.

proved a sportsman. The victory won at chess

Vainly the maharajah tried to distract Sadko's

satisfying him, he generously waived the stakes

attention with dancing girls and enchanting music.

(in any case he probably realized it would be

Sadko played calmly and on the advice of Trifon,

di.fficult to enforce them!) and became the king's

a wise old companion, laid a trap by allowing bis.

life-long friend. Legend does not reveal whether

knight to be captured. The maharajah fell into

there was any reconciliation with the queen.

the trap and lost the game, and Sadko gained the

A set of symbolical chessmm from Russia in the 1920's. Red (revolution) versus White (Bourgeoisie) . The kings are a worker and
a capitalist.

175

enchanted bird with a woman's head. This scene

The squares were unusually large and the quaint,

A. Ptushko in a film called "Sadko" which brought

carved pieces were more or less of the height of

in a beautiful damsel as an additional stake.

A woman was not only the cause of confiict,

a child. The pasha asked me to wait a little while

he changed.

. . 1 rose to look closely at the

Then 1 noticed that all

chessboard.

even on a chessboard, in the clmax of a short

unusual

story "Chess" by L.H. Lowe. lt is poor literature

the pieces were there except the white queen. -

and thoroughly unrealistic in its treatment of

When he returned 1 asked him about this and

Arabian themes but certainly strikes an unusual

he said, 'The white queen will be here soon.'

note.

prised t o see the floor laid out a s a chessboard.

was screened in full by the U.S.S.R. director

"He clapped three times.

A curtain in front of

An orientalist, Mr. K., meets an Arab pasha

me was drawn aside and (my heart missed a beat

on a voyage from Genoa to Alexandria. The men

in awe) a Negro led a chained naked woman into

become rivals for the favours of a beautiful

the room - it was Evelyn. With a cry, 1 started

Englishwoman, Evelyn, travelling on the same

towards her but a row of Arabs with pointed

ship. Shc first flirts with the pasha but eventually

daggers barred my steps.

falls for Mr. K. After arriving in Alexandria, the

" 'Didn't you want to see the white queen ?'

young couple, not yet officially engaged, stayed

asked the Pasha. He spoke calmly as if he were

at different hotels so as not to attract attention.

talking about the weather. 'Here she is, and now

Mr. K. is leaving bis hotel to meet Evelyn for

we can start the game. If you win, Sir, she is

lunch when he unexpectedly encounters the pasha

yours, if 1 win, then .. . '

who seems pleased to see him and invites him

to his house. Mr. K. accepts, having time to

" . . . 1 realized that only 1 could save her.

Swaying like a drunken man, 1 went to the chess

spare. Here the tale is taken up by the hero:

board by which stood low Arabian tabourets.

"In the room to which 1 was led, 1 was sur-

" 'Please, play White,' said the Pasha and sat

Caroed ivory chessmen made by a Chinese arrisan for

export to Europe.

176

Bandirs and hill-men. Chessmen carved by folk artists from

Zakopane in the Tarra Mountains.

Ancient German warriors at chess.

Porcelain statUttes by C. A. Luplau,
1 772. There is artisric licence here,
as chess was not knovm among the
German tribes.

opposite me. The game started and 1 soon realized

that the Pasha was a better player than myself,

Moral : never neglect your chess, you never

know when it may be useful!

and that he had prepared this subtle revenge in

More imaginative still is the similar situation

cold blood. 1 tried in vain to protect Evelyn.

which arose in a story by the Polish author,

1 moved her naked and shivering body here and

there. - 1 don't know how long we played...

Anna Zahorska, "Check to the queen" ( 1 932).

" 'Now you've lost!' cried the Pasha. Then he

lampshade. The electric light streams down on

Ramski is sitting at a desk shaded by a green

made some move. 'I've won,' he said quietly

typewritten sheets bearing the initials of clerks

and politely and 1 saw that the queen was lost... "

and managers as well as the stamp of the records

And so Evelyn became the Pasha's prisoner.

department. His task is to abstract a pile of doc

The unfortunate fianc tried to rescue her but

uments. - His work is going badly . . . At the

was struck unconscious... a few hours later he

foot of the page he has doodled a rook. A sub

woke up in his hotel room. A search by the police

conscious urge to play chess, like the lure of alco

produced nothing.

hol, is distracting him.

177

Contradictory versions of one report are set out

like a chess game. The white and black squares
are a scene of strife. The Board adjudicates : white
should

win.

A few steps and he will be in a world of ob

livion. A world of battling chessmen.
A caf grins at him with two wide windows in

The provincial branches favour

which are chessboards of chocolate cake, with

black. He is swept by a scorching wind of con

green icing or red jelly. Tall dough cakes tempt

fl.ict.

him with their resemblance to rooks.

Will he go on ? Something draws him compel
lingly inside. lt's hot. Damn it! "Everytime 1

The report is ready. He goes out into the

street. lt is a quiet summer evening.

The

stars are set out like pawns and bishops. Silver

reach for my handkerchief to wipe my brow

figures on a sapphire-black chessboard. A stif

there's always this medicine!"

ling desire blows like a desert wind, drying up

the freshness of the night.

Emma . . . She has no right to be ill. She has

He reaches for a handkerchief in his pocket.

no right to intrude. In the queen's gambit the

queen does not occupy the whole of the chess

His hand feels a packet. Medicine for Emma,

board. Not she, she is lying on their couch, having

bought on his way to the office. Emma is waiting.

laid an old rug on it; by a wall near the stairs.

The maid has already left . . . .

She is listening for steps. Maybe his ? . . .

In check 1 Checkmate 1 A n amus

ing illustration by A. Marczy

ski to W. :lukrowski's book

Abduction in Tuturlistan."
ce

1 78

Sadko,

hao of old Russimz jo/k /cgends, beacs che Maharajah at chess. Scene from the Soviet film "Sadko"

He sets up

the pieces on the chessboard

absent-mindedly.

"We

drew

yesterday,"

his

( 1953).

Yesterday, he cleared everybody out so quickly

that they had to agree a draw.
"Why is he pushing his queen at me ?" . . .

opponent remar ks.

Ramski nibbles his moustache.

"Why the

Well, he must remember the rwe of the lndian

deuce does he use so mu eh scent ? Lily of the

Defence :

valley. . . He has been with a woman. There are

for

lilies of the valley in a small topaz flower pot on

defeat."

a wickerwork table by Emma's side . . . This man's

sharp features repel me." He holds out the pawns

the king's side. He is on the defensive."

"The struggle is

mere

initiative

but

not
for

being

waged

out-and-out

"Now 1 can attack. 1 have the advantage on

in a clenched, hairy fist. "l've got White." lf

Ramski promotes a pawn to a second queen.

only he could think of a good opening to mate in

White gains control of the KR-QRS diagonal.

two or three moves!

There is a black-haired queen with Emma's face.

Then . . . KN-KB3. Billiard balls are clicking

"Check!"

"He will move P-QN3."

"lt's a long way to mate, though. " His opponent

Let it be, then. Queen's lndian Defence. The wind

smiles bleakly. Eliminate the queens! Then it will

is howling outside . . . The waiter brings coffee . . .

be easier. The idea is to destroy your opponent . . .

in

the ne:xt room.

179

And it all began so innocently. Miniature from a French 15th century manuscripr, describing the adfJentures of Renaud
de Montauban.

to chase from the board this queen on whose

round head keeps appearing Emma's face.
"Watch your queen!"
Black is doomed. But the black rook captures
the queen. "No danger, my pawn on KB7 be
comes another queen. 1 can anack yet."
He has captured and cast the helpless queen
to one side. She must be silent. Now she can
never interfere.

180

Black resigns. H e departs with a perfunctory

"good evening."
Ramski feels victorious. The fallen queen will
never rise.
He reaches a gate, black, with bent metal
flowers . . .
H e unlocks the door carefully. Let her sleep.
Her soft, sad voice need not call him.
His foot stumbles on something lying

in the

corridor... He tums the switch, his hand tremb

in the course of a game of chess makes it clear

ling and missing the familiar spot on the wall.

to his unfaithful wife and her lover that their

Emma is here on the floor!. .. Her hands thrown

affair has been discovered. Your nerves would

wide. Fright in her eyes. She has had a heart

indeed have to be strong to play well in such

attack. He reaches for the little box with medi

circurnstances. Wben a player is in love, his

cine. ... Yes, yes... This was to have helped ...

standard of play (at chess of course) can woefully

He lifts the cold hand and lets it go. It thuds

dully on the ftoor and lies stretched out on a darker

decline.
In a Czech picture entitled "Eroticon" (1929)

square of the floor. As if on a chessboard. K-Q4.

directed byGustav Machaty, is a scene with a hus

Ramski whispers to himself:

band

and his wifes lover playing a garne of

"Guard your queen!"

chess. The wife who wants her lover to win the

In a French film directed by Louis Daquin,

game, while unobserved by the husband, secretly

"La patrie," after a play by Vctor Sardou, there

advises the lover what rnoves to rnake nodding in

is a subtly-drawn picture of the eterna} triangle

consent or gesturing in disapproval.

which a game of chess resolves. The film is set in

The lover checks his opponent's king who

16th century Flanders during the despotic rule

never suspected the plot, but in a counter-attack -

of a governor on behalf of the King of Spain.

he was check-mated hirnself to the annoyance

Count Rysoor, a leader of the Resistance, played

of the kibitzing woman.

by Pierre Blanchard, neglects bis young wife

In Pushkins magni:ficent poem "Eugene One

(Marie Mauban) who commits adultery with his

gin" there is a fine scene in which the sweethearts,

friend and fellow-conspirator (Jean Desailly). The

Lensky and Oiga, linger in the park full of emo

husband leams of this and by ambiguous remarks

tion:

Zbigniew Lengren: Professor Filutek plays chess.

181

The rivals. Scene from the

French film
Motherland"
(1945) .
cr

At whiles, upon their elbows leaning,

ticing Sharr K.han, she challenges him to a match,

In grave seclusion as is fit,

and with extraordinary skill, defeats him three

Above the chessboard they will sit,

times, revealing meanwhile that she knew he was

And ponder each move's secret meaning,

the leader of the invaders. However, despite

Till Lensky, too absorbed to look,

this she is prepared to hide him in the palace.

With his own pawn takes his own rook.

At supper, she makes hirn drunk and arouses his

Pushkin once wrote to his wife saying how glad

he was that she was learning chess, saying no well
conducted family should be ignorant of this garne.
Of Sharr Khan, son of the Grand Sultan Omar
Ibn-An-Numan, a story is recounted in the "Ara
bian Nights."
He is sent by his father on an expedition into
a foreign country. One day he falls asleep on his

passion. The slave-girls bring musical instru

ments and begin to sing. The young lovers recite
love poetry to each other. Two days pass in this
way. On the third day the girl asks him, "Are you,
oh, son of the Sultan Omar-Ibn-An-Numan,
versed in the garne of chess ?" And Sharr Khan
replies, "Yes, but you should not be like the one
of whom the Poet has said:

horse. When he awakes he is alone on the bank

My desire now rises and now ebbs,

of a woodland river, in which a beautiful girl is

Love's sweet foretaste quenching my thirst;

bathing, wrestling playfully with slave-girls. No-

To my beloved I' ve brought a set of chess,

182

Was given a mirthless game by foes,

now white,
nOfiJ black.
1 felt that the king who just displaced the rook
Does meditate upon a battle against the Hetmans1
1/ ever 1 surmise the message in her eyes

The pOf/Jer of her sight, my friends, will work my

rum.

They start playing but, whenever it is his turn

to move, he keeps gazing at her and moving the
wrong pieces. The girl laughs at him, "Y ou must
play better than this!" Sharr Khan replies, "This
is only the first game and it does not count!"

Hetman (commander-in-chief) is in Polish

chess queen.
1

the

Eventually he loses and sets the men out again

to resume the contest. He loses again and again.

Cornelis de Man (17th century):

Man and woman playing chess.
From the Budapest Art Gallery.

183

A. Jolumnet: A Game of Chess. French lithograph, early 19th century,

184

Finally she says to hirn, "You have been complete

! y conquered!" "My lady," he replies, "whoever
plays against you, how can he escape from being
conquered ?" ...
In an old 13th century French poem by Huon
de Bordeaux, the author depicts hirnself as the
hero of a double game and describes !ove and chess
in beautiful language.
The poet, dressed as a minstrel, goes to the
court of Admira! Yvarius and recounts his many
virtues, which include skill at chess. The Admiral,
to test whether the young man is boasting, asks
him to play his daughter. The stake: her hand,
or his head. The game starts. Huon gazes more
into the girl's eyes than at the board and plays
very badly. She warns him that he will lose but he
replies: "The game is not over yet, and one thing
is certain, that you will be in my arms!"
These words visibly affect her and, her con
centration ruined, he wins easily. The Admira!
offers to give him money instead of the girl but
she turns down the suggestion saying she has been
well mated!
Another amorous game of chess which involves
Lancelot, mentioned in various French and Ger

D. Chodowiecki: Education. An engraving from the 1790's.

man tales of the days of chivalry, was described

by the Polish author Berent in his novel "Living
stones."
Lancelot arrived at the court of King Arthur
and went into the queen's chambers ... "Soon he

In their corner of the room, the ladies-in-waiting

was sitting beside her whilst a page hurried to the

tut-tutted severely... "

other end of the room, brought out a chess set

The Italian playwright Guiseppe Giacosa wrote

and placed it on the carpet between Guinevere

a one-act play "Una partita a scacchi"- do we

and her guest. Lancelot was bidden by the queen

need to translate the title? - based on Huon's

to kneel and set up the pieces so that the situation

bailad. The play was immensely successful in

might look less suspicious to her ladies-in-wait

Italy in the second half of the 19th century and

ing. She slowly unfastened her veil so as to free

was translated into many languages and staged

her lips for kissing. Then, as soon as her ladies

in many lands. The story was set, for a change,

looked elsewhere, she clasped his head, drew him

in a 14th century ducal castle in the Aosta

over the chessboard and clung to his lips in a long,

valley. The Duke had taught his daughter Paula

breathless kiss ... he jerked himself forward to

to become an accomplished chess player. Her

embrace her and scattered the chessmen. Soft

opponent, with the same stakes as in the old story,

footed pages ran up to them and started to pick

was the page Fernando. He too kept gazing at

up the pieces like birds pecking at millet seed.

her and was similarly in danger of losing both the

185

game and his head. Luckily, the game slackened

Of little Mary deli'ghtful

in pace and quickened in romance. The Duke

Who, musing over the chessboard,

tried to supervise the game so as to ensure that

Propped with one hand her lovely face

it was played strictly according to rule, but to no

And addressed her worthy partner:

avail. Paula forgot all he had taught her, allowed

'Here is my chf!ckmate, Sir, with queen!

her thoughts to stray and lost - which did not

A knight should rather better watch;

trouble her in the least. The page demanded

Easier than knights, the kings are found.'

that the stake be paid and the Duke, after sorne

To this po/itely Jan replied:

hesitation, acquiesced to the marriage.

'Against a queen it's a hard task,

Judging by the out come, he must have been

She strikes from near and far alike,

a better father than teacher, in fact equally a failure

And in her stroke she never fails;

as a coach and an umpire.

Although the distance is so great,

Chess as a theme for a love game is far from

She's sure to strike the target true.

uncommon in the literature of Poland. Lenartowicz

A king, much as a knight, will fall,

in a long poem "Mate by the Queen" described

Before this lady's skilljul blow.'

a jurney by young Jan Sobieski, the future king

'And every day, then,' she would ask,

of Poland, about the middle of the 17th century,

' Will !tfe allow us the same rights ?'

to the Court of France, to learn worldly ways

And on the knight's hand placed her own.

and courtly. manners. His chivalry made a great

He felt a clasping fair hand,

impression on bis hosts. He himself was attracted

And was forever lost in gaze

by the carefree life at the court, the amusements,

women and entertairunent.

lt then happened

that...
... in a queen's ladies' gilded room,
Where a chess table has been set,
And crystal fountains were humming,
A Polish knight sat by a maid.
-:A breeze, as t/ blowing on leaves,
Rustled through lace-work of her gown,
At which Jan gazed and listened,
While the young lady checked his king.
'
He gazed, so spell-bound, at the charms
_

his delightful conqueror.

This game led to marriage, and the girl who

mated with a queen become a queen herself when
Sobieski ascended the Polish throne as Jan 111.
A highly romantic contribution to our collection
of links between Mars, Cupid and chess.
We may fittingly conclude with a quotation
from a play by Aleksander Fredro, the great
Polish comedy-playwright:
The art of /ove is like a game of chess;
Al/ in it strive for secrets of success.

Jan Sobieski, the future king of Poland, as a guest to the royal court in Paris, becomes acquainted with Mademoiselle Maria
Casimira d'Arquien, whom he married a year or two later. A Polish illustration (1871) to T. Lenartowicz's poem
"Queen in Check."

187

VID. LIVING CHESS

Sceru from a living chess game in the Helsinki sport stadium i11 1955. In the foreground is a white pawn; in the back
ground a white knight.

190

Chess as a struggle between opposing individ

uals or armies inevitably invites personification.
The idea carne very early of enlarging the board

"When supper was over, a ball in the form of

a tournament - which was not only worth seeing
but eternally memorable - was held in the lady's

to the size of a court-yard and replacing wooden

presence. Before this could begin, the floor of the

pieces by living actors - and we had "living

hall was covered with a large piece of pile tapestry,

chess." The scope for the spectacular is obvious.

designed in the form of a chessboard - that is

Staged games of chess, offered to an audience

to say in squares, alternately white and yellow,

in a decorative setting, are as attractive today as

each one foot across and all perfectly regular.

centuries ago.

Then thirty-two yellow personages entered the

The oldest written account of living chess

room, sixteen of whom were dressed in cloth of

dates back five hundred years. An ltalian Domi

gold. These were young nymphs such as the

nican Friar, Francesco Colonna, wrote a mystic

ancients painted in the company of Diana, one

sort of book in 1467 which purported to tell how

Queen, two Wardens of the Castles, two Knights,

a certain Poliphilus dreamt that he watched a game

and two Archers. In similar order carne sixteen

of chess played with living pieces on a monster

more, dressed in cloth of silver.

board. This work, published in Latin in Venice

"Each party had musicians, d.ressed in similar

in 1499 under the title of "Hypnerotomachia

livery, one band in orange damask and the other

Poliphili,"

in

in white. There were eight on each side with

English as "The Strife of Love in a Dream"

various fantastic instruments, all different yet

later appeared in French and

perfectly tuned to one another and marvellously

in 1592.
Poliphilus's dream provided a pattern for living

tuneful. These changed the tone, mood, and time

chess displays which the ducal and royal courts

of their music as the progress of the ball required;

of France and ltaly followed for centuries. The

and this surprised me, when 1 considered the

game was staged as a masquerade or as a tourna

number and variety of the steps, back-steps,

ment; it was often made a great social occasion.

hops, leaps, returns, flights, ambuscades, retreats,

Everything followed a set routine. The actors'

and surprises. lt was even more transcendently

hats and costumes, and their behaviour, follow

incredible, as it seemed to me, that the dancers

ed a standard pattern.
These spectacles impressed the people of those

should so quickly retreat. For no sooner had the

days. Rabelais devoted two chapters to them in

intended square, even though their moves were

the fifth volume of his "Gargantua and Panta

all different.

music given the note than they alighted on the

gruel." Or did he ? 1 t has be en denied that the

"When the two companies had thus assumed

colourful description of live chess at Dame

their places, the musicians began to sound in

Quintessence's Court is his work at all. lt was

unison a martial strain, as alarming as the signal

not to be found in his own manuscript and the

for a charge. We saw the two parties quiver and

first time the fifth volume describing the game

brace themselves to fight manfully when the

appeared was in 1562, nine years after his death.

hour for combat carne and when they were sum

Nobody knows what chess enthusiast inserted

moned from their camp. Suddenly the musicians

these two chapters. Anyway, here is the story:

of the Silver band ceased and only the instruments

At the palace of Dame Quintessence, who highly

of the Golden band played on. By this we under

chess as an occupation demanding

stood that the Golden party was going to attack;

"a purely abstract effort of intellectual ability,"

which soon happened. For, as the music changed,

the game was staged in the presence of Pantag

the nymph placed in front of the Queen made

ruel.

a complete turn towards the King on her left,

esteemed

191

Live chess at the French court; a copper engraving, 1640.

as if begging his leave to enter the battle and at

forward and graciously saluted her King and all

the sarne time saluting the rest of the company.

his company: a salute which they returned as the

Then, in all modesty, she advanced two squares

Golden party had done, except that they turned

forward and made a half-curtsey to the opposite

to the right and their Queen to the left. Then she

party, whom she was attacking.

alighted on the second square

forward and,

"Then the Golden musicians ceased, and the

after curtseying to the enemy, stood in front of the

Silver ones struck up. 1 must not fail to mention

Golden nymph with no distance between them,

at this point that after the nymph had saluted her

as if intending to fight, although these nymphs

King and her party in order that they should

can only strike sideways. Their companions, both

not remain inactive, they returned her salute by

Golden and Silver, followed them in a broken line,

making a complete turn to the left, except the

and gave the appearance of skirmishing until the

Queen who turned to the right, towards her King.

Golden nymph who had first entered the field struck

This salutation was performed by all movers,

the Silver nymph to the left with her hand, sent

and was the convention observed throughout the

her off the field and occupied her place. But soon,

whole conduct of the ball, by both sides alike.

on a new note from the musicians, she was struck

"To the music of the Silver musicians the Silver

in the sarne way by the Silver K.night. A Golden

nymph who stood in front of her Queen stepped

nymph made him move off; the Silver Knight

192

emerged from the camp, and the Golden Queen

was captured by a Silver nymph. The battle was

placed herself before her King. Thcn, fearing the

sharp. The Wardens carne out of their posts

Golden King's anger, the Silver K..ing changed bis

to rescue. Everyth..ing was in perilous confusion .

position and retired beh..ind bis right-hand War

The goddess of battles had not yet declared

den, to a place which seemed well-protected

herself. Sometimes all the Silver forces penet

and defensible.

rated to the

"The two Knights on the left, the Golden one

Golden

quickly repulsed.

King's

tent, but were

Among others, the Golden

and the Silver, advanced and made large captures

Queen performed rnighty deeds. In one sally she

of the opposing nymphs, who could not retreat,

too k that Archer and, darting to the side, captur

especially the Golden Knight who devoted bis

ed the Silver Warden. At the sight of this, the

whole attention to the capture of nymphs. But

Silver Queen advanced and struck with similar

the Silver Knight had greater plans in bis mind.

boldness, taking the remaining Golden Warden

He disguised h..is intentions and sometime, when

and sorne nymphs at the same time.

he could have taken a Golden nymph, let her go

"The two Queens fought a long battle, sorne

and advanced further, to such effect that he carne

times trying to surprise one another, sometimes

close to bis enemies, into a position from which

to escape and protect their own Kings. Finally

he bowed to the Golden K..ing and said: 'God save

the Golden Queen took the Silver one but was

you, sire. ' Upon this warning to protect their

irnmediately

King, the Golden party trembled; not that they

Archer. Her King had then only three nymphs,

afterwards

taken

by

the

Silver

could not quickly bring him aid, but because in

saving their king, they could not avoid

losing

their right-hand Warden. Then the Golden K..ing

retired to the left, and the Silver Knight took the
Golden Warden; which was a great loss to the
Golden Party. They, however, resolved to work
their revenge and surrounded hirn on all sides,
so that he could not retreat or escape from their
hands. He made countless attempts to get away,
and h..is party tried innumerable tricks to rescue

h.im, but finally he was taken by the Golden

Queen.
"Deprived of one of their bastions, the Golden
party tried desperatcly, by hook or by crook, to
find a way of retaliating. Casting caution aside,
they did great damage among the hosts of the
enemy. The Silver party assumed indifference
and awaited the hour of their revenge. They
offered one of their nymphs to the Golden Queen,
after laying her a secret ambush, which almost
allowed the Golden Archer to surprise the Silver
Queen. The Golden Knight then attempted to
capture the Silver K..ing and Queen, and greeted
them with 'Good day!' The Silver Archer saved
them, but was taken by a Golden nymph, who

The title page of Thomas Middleton's play "A Game at

Chess," staged in 1624 at the G/obe Theatre, London.

193

an Archer and a Warden, and the Silvcr King no

guarding the outskirts of the field; and so a new

more than three nyrnphs and his right-hand

Silver Queen was rnade, who also wished to show

Knight; for which reasons they fought more

her valour upon her accession.

cautiously and slowly for the rest of the garne.

"The battle has rencwed more fiercely than

''The two Kings scerned grieved at the loss of

befare. Countless ruses, countless assaults, and

their beloved royal ladies, and gave all their

advances were rnade by each party, to such

thoughts to the winning of new ones. They strenu

effect that the Silver Queen secretly entered the

ously tried, therefore, to raise one of tleir three

Golden King's tent, and said 'God save you, sire.'

nyrnphs to the dignity of a bride, prornising to

There was no way of relieving hirn except by his

!ove her joyfully, and swearing to receive her as

new Queen, who, without more ado, stepped

the new Queen if shc could advance as far as

in the way and saved hirn. Then the Silver Knight,

thc enerny King's last line. The Golden nyrnphs

leaping in all directions, carne up to his Queen,

succeedcd first, and one of their nurnber was

and together they so confused thc Golden King

made Queen. Whcreupon a crown was placed

that he had to sacrifice his Queen in order to

on her head and she was givcn new robes. The

extricate hirnself. Notwithstanding this, the Gold

Silver nyrnphs followed the same tactics. But

en

only one file remained open for the advance

defended the King with all their rnight. But in

Archer

and

the two rernaining nymphs

towards a coronation, and this was guarded by the

the end they were captured and sent off the field,

Golden Warden. The advancing nyrnphs there

and the Golden King was left alone. Then the

fore, stayed still.

whole Silver cornpany rnade hirn a low bow and

"The new Golden Queen wanted to show

said 'Good day, sire,' which signified that the

herself brave, valiant, and warlike, upon her

Silver King had conquered. At these words the

accession, and performed great feats of arms in

two bands of rnusicians began to strike up, in

the field.
Knight

But during this

took

the

Golden

by-play the Silvcr

Warden, who

was

A game of living chess in the square of J..,Iarostica, tlu: old

towmhip

194

in Ita/y. The chessmeu in 16th cemury costumes.

unison, to proclaim victory, and the first ball

was brought so joyfully to a dose that we were

Two rivals fo r che hand of che beaullful Eleonora sic down

at the chcssboard, che course of the game beiug cuacted by
Iive pieces in tlu mar!ut place.

In a game of chess acrd i11 Vimna , 1928, Wa/lewtein's army, fighting the Tur!ts,

was

distinguished by clzaractcristic hats and

colowful costumes.

all beside ourselvcs with delight, like people in

of his officcrs. Afterwards, whcn she saw that her

an ecstasy. Such mighty fcasts, such dignity of be

plan was discovered, she skirmished among the

haviour, and sueh rare graces made us imagine

Silver troop, and so discomfited the nymphs and

and not wrongly - that wc had been transported

other officers that it was a sad sight to see. You

to the sovereign bliss and supreme felicity of the

would havc compared her to another Pcnthesilea

Olympian hcaven.

the Amazon, raging through thc Grecian camp.

"When the first tournamcnt was ovcr both

But the havoc was short-livcd. For, exasperatcd

parties returncd to their original places, and began

at their losses, but disguising their grief, the

to fight again in thc same way as they had fought

Silver party secretly planted an ambuscade. They

before, cxcept that the music was half a beat

posted an Archer in a distant corner, and with

faster than in thc first battle. The moves also were

him a Knight-errant, and by these two the Queen

totally different from before. This time 1 saw the

was taken and sent off the field. The rest werc

Golden Quecn, as though grieved by the pre

soon defeated. On the next occasion she will be

vious rout of her army, called out by the music

better advised to stay near her K.ing and not

and taking the field among the first, together

venture so fou off. Or, if she must go, she will take

with an Archer and a Knight. lndeed, she almost

a more powerful escort with her. So the Silver

surprised the Silver King in his tent, in the midst

party were victors once again.

195

LEFT: 011e

of

the live chfSSIIU'Il,

RIGHT: the triumphal cmriage drawn by a pair of"dragons'' ir1 which

S..:anca

for

K. Libelt's sWt)'

knight.

a magirian arrived to
"A Game of Chcss."

play the game. Sketclte.,

by J.

\l.

"For the third and last dance the two partics

alike. Never w:J.s Cato so severc, Crassus the

stood up as before; and to me thcy sccmcd to

grandfather so unsmiling, Timon of Athens so

havc a gaycr and more determined look than in the

misanthropic, or Hcraclitus such as enemy to

two previous ones. The time of the music was

laughter - which is peculiar to man - that he

faster by more than a fifth, and was in the war

would not have relaxed his frown at the sight of

like Phrygian mode invented by Marsyas in

these young men with their queens and thcir

ancient days. Then they began to whcel about

nymphs, moving, advancing, leaping, vaulting,

and engage in a marvellous battle, with such agil

capering and wheeling in five hundred diffcrent

that they made four moves to one beat of

ways to the swift changes of the music; and so

the music, all with the customary turnings and

nimbly did they move that one never got in the

ity

bows that have already been described. It was

way of another. The smaller the number of those

in fact just a series of hops, leaps and curvettings

remaining on the ficld the greatcr was our pleasure

upon the tight-rope, one after another. When

in watching . . . "

we saw thcm revolving on one leg after making

There is no finer dcscription of living chess

their bow, they looked for all the world like small

extant. This was just a tale, of coursc. It would be

children's spinning-tops, which are whipped so

interesting to know if there are any documents

hard that they seem to be II'l.otionless. For they

describing real live chcss exhibitions, earlier than

spin at such a speed that their motion looks like

the 15th century. Source materials are almost

repose and they appear to be quite still or, as the

entirely lacking.

children say, to be sleeping. If we paint a point

chronicles that Charles Martel (7th-8th centuries

There are notes

in

various

of sorne colour on them, it seems to be not a point

A.D.) took up chess from the Arabs and made it

but a continuous line . . .

popular in Spain,

"Then w e hearct hand-clapping and acclama

tions repeated at each move by both parties

196

crediting him with the intro

duction of living chess to Europe.

The fifteenth century produccd sorne gruesome

A IJrussels street becomes a giam

chessboard for a few hours ( 1930).

Sultan Mohammed I developed the

the Terrible, notorious for bis cruelty, was also

engaging habit of sending captured men straight

said to have played living chess for the lives of

variants.

to the executioner. In Spain, a Dominican member

bis subjects. "Dying Chess" might be a better

of the Inquisition, Pedro Arbues, ordered unfor

name.

tunate victirns of persecutions to stand in as

In China, living chess was practised earlier still

figures in a game of living chess played by two

and has survived unchanged up to the present day.

blind monks. Each time they captured a piece,

When Alekhine visited China in 1933 he witnessed

they condemned someone to death. Tsar Ivan

a spectacle of this kind in a city square.

Two bishops (jesters) on donkeys

waiting for the order to move.
In the background, the b/ack king
on horseback.

197

The ballet "Chechmate" was perfomzed by the Sadler' Wells Company in 1947. LEFT: The B/ack Queen tempts
the Red King. RIGHT: The Red Knight auacks tlze Black Queen.

The ballet tells of ilfe, /ove and death, of the triumph of good over e<IJil. RIGHT: The Red Knight finds he cannot
strike the B/ack Queen; he succumbs to her words of [ove.

198

CHESS "MYSTERIES"

'The actors waited dancing in a magnificent

room on a floor laid out as a chessboard. Then

From Spain and France, chess "mysteries,"

a hcrald announced that two famous wizards from

where,

Egypt and India had arrived and begged thc

frequently tinted with legend, they continue in

permission of the Emperor as a connoisseur of the

sorne towns as annual events to this day.

ancient game, to play the game in bis presence,

living

chess

pageants,

went

to

Italy

The Italian town of Marostica witnessed in

and later to judge which had won. The Emperor

1554 a chess duel between rivals for the hand of

nodded approval, and a team entered the room

the local governor's daughter. An attempt to

among the sounds of trumpets. First the Bishops

settle their problem by the sword had led to the

dressed as

Harlequins, with

caps of various

arrest of both the admirers. The father of Eleo

colours, frolicking oddly. Then the Knights under

nora - the lady concerned - suggested that the

the guise of Centaurs; their horses made of paper,

rivals, instead of duelling, should enter the lists

two greys and two blacks. Ncxt, thc two royal

of a chessboard. So that the townspeople could

couples : Ermina and Alexander, wearing the

watch, the game was played in the

colours of Venice and their opponents the colours

open

air

with appropriately dresscd and made-up living

of Milan. Four Elephants (rooks) wound up the

people. The winner, one Rinaldo de Angarano,

procession.

gained the hand of Eleonora and a fine dowry.

"They all paraded three times round the room

The two were very happy, and thc father, satis

past the Emperor, and halted at their appointed

fied with the outcome, ruled that the "duel"

place. As soon as they took up their positions,

should be restaged in the main square of rhe

the wizards entered, driven through two opposite

to\vn each hundred years afterwards.

double-doors on high triumphal chariots, one

Another living chess exhibition, in 16th-cen

drawn by crocodiles and the other by dragons.

tury Italy, was described by the Polish writer

Having hailed the Emperor with their magic

Karol Libelt (1807-75), in a fantastic short story

wands, each one stood behind their 'men'."

"Gra w szachy" ("A Game of Chess"). Here is

A fanfare of trumpets announced the start of

how he imagined the courtly game to be staged

the game. Anastasio, the hero of the tale, soon

at Rome:

found bis opponent Bernardino a rnuch better

[ the American ballet .<pectaclc

"This

Crazy

Game,"

mad

game of chess is danced by a team

of charmin girls wearing chess
emb/ems.

199

The Renaissance courtyard of che Royal Castle

011

Wawel Hill, Cracow, has more than once been the venue for spectacular

contests of living chss. Here is a

1932 game acted by artists of the Cracow theatre.

player than he had made out during rehearsals.

a trap. He struggled against the inevitable but

The fortunes of the game swayed to and fro. The

soon a second fanfare of trumpets announced his

pawns strode forward, the harlequins and centaurs

downfall. Anastasio knelt before the Emperor and

weaved here and there, directed by the magic

was given a golden jewel set with a chessboard.

wands. Many departed, captured. The struggle

During the reign of Catherine 11 of Russia,

became ever keener. The heavy artillery went into

K.ing Gustav IV of Sweden visited St. Petersburg

action. Suddenly Anastasio noticed that his own

in 1796. Count Strogonov held a reception in bis

king had furtively moved to an inferior square.

honour which was marked by the spectacle of

The "King" was a man named Alexander and hap

a game of chess. In a park, on a lawn covered by

pened to be Bernardino's nephew. So one of his

yellow and green squares, the figures of a chess

own pieces was a traitor! Anastasio rose angrily

drama moved in mediaeval costurnes.

from his seat and commanded Alexander to stay

In a play, "A Game of Chess," staged at the

in his proper place. There was uproar for a while.

Globe Theatre in 1624, Thomas Middleton pre

Bernardino had been rattled by the discovery of

sented eminent political persons in the guise of

his perfidy, however, and soon afterwards fell into

chessmen.

200

One of the politicians lampooned

Young people of Strobeck walk onto the board for the tradi

tional game of living chess.

Helsinki, 1955: chessmen that have been captured are car

ried away on stretchers.

Strobeck: The Black Rook checkmates the ll'lu"te King,

who takes off his hat as a sign of surrender.

Capablanca playing a game of living chess in a Berlin

park in 1930, tells the herald his move.

At Frankfurt-on-Main in 1936 street traffic was held up

to permit the spectators to fo/low the game.

201

was the

Spanish Ambassador, an unfortunate

go-between in the matrimonial negotiations on

behalf of Prince Charles, heir to the Spanish
throne. The authorities prosecuted and fined the
actors, and Middlcton went to prison.
Living chcss became a frequent subject for
ballet on the stage either as a spectacle in itself
or as a part of an opera or play.
1,700 witnessed the opening in Pars of a grand
ballet-pantomime, "Jeu d'checs,"

with music

composed by Philidor L'Ain. This chess mas

querade was recorded in an eight-page pamphlet
containing the scort: of the music. A chess ballet
was the central scenc in a five-act opera, "Magi
cienne," by Halvy, staged successfully in Pars
bzi!am Richter's experimwtalfli m "8x8" (1957) the ac
tion took place in a world of live chessmen.

in 1858.
Later Antonio Lozzi, the composer of an Italian
musical comedy "The King, Rooks and Jesters"
(Jester - the name for a chess Bishop in Italy),
combined live chess with thc development of the
plot in subtler style. He used a story by a comic
writer Luccio D'Ambra, describing the adven
tures of a young Prince Rolando, symbolised by
a chess king. The courtly !ove affair was presented
in a live chess ballet scene which endcd with the
King being checkmated.
In 1916, D'Ambra made a silent film. When
Ernst Lubitch made in 1934 his famous film
"The Merry Widow"
with Mauricc Che
valier, he not only borrowed D'Ambra's atmos
phere, style, costumes, situations, but transposed
the live chess scquencc to a new ballet which,
although not directly connected with chess, was
based on black and white visual effects.
In the same year, 1916, a R ussian director
A. Uralskii made a film, "Chess of Life," a melo
drama

starring

Vera

Kholodnaya.

The

final

scenc was a masquerade with dancers on a large

chessboard. The ballet was given an additional
ambiguous meaning for the main characters,
In the final scene of the Czechoslovak film comedy "The
Proud Princess" ( 1952), the king rumzing about the black
and

white

chequered

courtyard of the castle gave the

impressio1z of being a chess king

202

trying to escape mate.

entangled in a matrimonial "triangle."

But the greatest artistic success in living chcss
was achieved by the Sadier's Wells ballet com
pany who, at thc Pars World Fair of 1937, pres-

bz the film "h:a1z rhe Terri

ble"

( 1945)

S. Eisenstein,

direcred
rhc

scenc

by

i11

rhe court of rhc Polish King

Sigisnnmd JI1 is clcarly

a11

echo of chess.

ented

"Checkmate,"

with

music by Arthur

and an clectric current passed through thc arms

Bliss and choreography by Ninette de Valois.

of the seats shaking the horrified audiencc in

The theme was the struggle of Lovc (Red) with

their seats. Soon afterwards, a large chcssboard

Death (Black). The ballet was revived in London

appeared on thc stage with two ghastly chess

players murdering each other. The chessmen,

with new costumes in 1947.

Later on, in 1953, and also in London, at the

freed from their masters' control came out of

ballet-pantomime,

the box and . . . a splendid ballet started: eighteen

"Sindbad the Sailor on Ice," was presented, the

half-nude girls with chess emblcms on their

first chess ballet on ice.

Empress

Hall,

an

effective

Miss

hcads, danced to a furious Dixieland rhythm.

Eve Bradfield, advised on chcss themcs by Mr.

Produced

by

Suddenly the girls lifted their legs which grew

R. C. Noel-Johnson, it featured in living chess

longer and longer, extending over thc hcads of

the famous game played in 1858 in Paris between

the spectators sitting in the first rows, and sud

Paul Morphy and the Duke of Brunswick and

denly flew up with a drcadful hiss, while the pret

Count Isouard.

ty ballerinas dropped below the stage, amid

In American choreography, living chess has

been presented in the form of a "Ghost Revue. ''

flames and pungent smoke. . . "

One of the most popular spectacles of live chess

A press account reads: "One of the latest shows

was for a long time the staging of historie battles,

'The Crazy Game' began with the lights suddenly

or mock skirmishes presented in the open air

going out. An infernal chill wind blew through the

to mass audiences.

auditorium with a diabolical whizzing sound. Phos

phorescent tentacles

appeared on the ceiling,

The Agricultura! Exhibition in Vienna in 1898

featured a living chess presentation of the Battle

203

of Zenta (1697) where the Turkish forces were

He sent expendable pawn Francis to his doom

defeated by Prince Eugene. Each chess piece

This sacrzfice could be a heroic clmax

was represented by a whole group of performers.

lf earlier 'twere not called a

Altogether, three hundred and forty men and

sixteen horses took part, to music from a f ifty
piece orchestra. Thc chessboard was

laid out

on a common marked with black and yellow

squares.
The battle of the Polish knights commanded
by King Jan Sobieski with the Turkish forces led
by Kara Mustapha, at the time of the relief of
Vienna in 1683, was the theme of a game of living
chess presented on the courtyard of the Wawel
Castle in Cracow in 1927 during celebrations in
honour of a Polish poet Juliusz Slowacki whose
body had bcen brought to Poland from Paris.
This pageant was recorded by Janusz Stpowski.
Here is an excerpt from his "Tournament of
Livc Chess" :
The King wondered in Council whether to follow

gambit in chess.'

Strobeck in Germany kceps up a living chess

tradition. For the last three centuries, the young
people there have becn acting living games. In
feudal times the village was obliged by an edict
to stage such a show at all royal coronations.
In the finale of a Czechoslovak fairy-comcdy
film, "The Proud Princess," directed by Borivoj
Zeman, a grotesque King .M.iroslav is seen running
in small steps around a floor laid with white and
black squares, as if fleeing from a mate. But
a scene in part two of "!van the Terrible," a fine
film directed by Sergei Eisenstein, comes even
closer to chess. Static figures of monks, knights,
pages and ladies at the court of King Zygmunt III
create a vivid chess image which is still further
heightened by a sharply-defined chequered floor.
By making Zygmunt III rather unflatteringly

The spearhead, or rather to open up the ranks.

like a lifeless chess king, the producer adds a sa

Choosing the second course, amid the battle's run

tirical touch.

IX. WHO AND WHEN?

King Louis
206

Xl

at

ch&ss in the Chateau de Plessis-les-Tours. F1mch miniature of the eud of the 15th century.

If you had asked "What is chess ?" in a ques

pended on Wisdom; he brought chess with him;

tionnaire circulated 1,000 years ago, you would

the second said that Luck decidcd everything

have learnt that the game was a hobby of people

and brought dice; the third claimed that both

in every walk of life, of every sort of occupation

Wisdom and Luck were important and brought

and social standing.

board games. Today we might expect the third

For sorne it was a passion, for others a pleasant

to like bridge.

pastime. lt became an object of mathematical,

Tamerlanc, thc Mongol ruler and conqueror

sociological or moral investigation. Many artists

of the 14th century, was a great chess enthusiast.

and creative workers took chcss as a motif in

He considered two pastimes worthy of a warrior:

their works. Chess also had a few opponents who

hunting and chess. Once he had just won a game

regarded it as completely valueless.

with a fine rook move when two messengers arriv

Library archives tell us a lot about chess players.

ed, each carrying news: one, that a son had been

Chess has been reputed to have been in great

born to him and another that the town he had

favour
the

with

famous

Charlemagne and his court.

"Chanson

de

Rolland,"

In

Charle

ordered to be built on the River Sichonc was

finishcd. To mark this happy

coincidence of

magne is described as sitting in an orchard with

three events, he gave the name of Shahrukh to

Roland and Oliver at his side while the oldest

his newborn infant and that of Shahrukhie to

<md wisest of his knights are amusing themselves

the town ( derived from the words "royal rook").

at chess or draughts (not then invented yet! -

Tamerlane invited many chess teachers to his cap

B.H. Wood).

ital to instruct young people in the game. All

A beautiful set of chessmen said to have belong

wcre surpassed by Galaldin, who often gave

ed to Charlemagne has been preserved to this

his opponents the odds of a queen. Tamerlane

day. He is presented as an enthusiastic chess

used to tell him: "You are first on thc chessboard,

player in many literary anecdotes but a thorough

as I am first in the country. We are both invincible

historical investigation has left no grounds to

in our own domain."

supposc that he ever took any interest in the

The French kings Charles V and Charles VI

prohibited chess, but Charles VII was so fond

game at all.
In the Cluny museum in Paris there is a fine

of it that he spent long hours over the board

set of chessmen carved in gold, silver and crystal

with his mistress Agnes Sorcl in his castlc in

that once belonged to King Louis IX, the Saint.

Touraine. Henry IV of France was also a keen

This did not, however prevent the same King

chess player, of whom a rather low anecdote is

from outlawing chess in an cdict of 1254.

told. He was playing with a nobleman called

John Lackland, King of England (1199-1216),

was a keen chess player.

Bassompierre. Picking up the knight to make

a move, Bassompierrc madc a loud rude noise.

Wisc, was

True, his opponent was the good King Hcnry,

not only an excellent player, but the author

but he was a monarch all thc samc. Bassompierre

The Spanish

King

Alfonso

the

of a treatise about chess, an historian, Maecenas

blushed but hurriedly explained: "Sire, my knight

and untiring popularizer of the game. He invited

will not move if he does not hear the trumpet

Arabian masters to his court. In the preface to

call." The king smiled.

a book dealing with chess, dice and other board

After being defeated by the Emperor Charles V,

games, he suggested a legendary origin. There

the Saxon Elector John Frederick found himself

were once three wise men, each with a different

in a dramatic situation. We take the description

view on life and, conseqently, on entertain

from the novel "The !ron Crown" by a Polish

ments. The first declared that everything de-

writcr, Hanna Malewska:

207

Chessmen (rooks and a king) from a ser

said ro belong to Charlemagne; in fact,
Charlemagne did uor ply cMss and the
set dates from a later period.

Chessmen of gold and crystal presmted to

che French king Lorti1 IX, the Saint.
From the Cluny Museum, Pan"s.

Miniature from the treatise on chess by

Alfonso the Wise of Spain.

208

Margrave Otto IV of Brandenburg

playing chess. Part of a 13th century
German miniature from Maness's
manuscript, "Grosse Heidelberger
Liederhandschrift."

"The former Elector was taken prisoner by

the Spaniards, together with Ernest of Bruns

your game, because l'm about to checkmate

you'.''

wick. He had already completely regained the

Legend has it that lvan the Terrible died play

self-possession which had temporarily deserted

ing chess. Among many accounts of the last

him when he had learnt that his eldest son had

hours of the Tsar's life, that of the English envoy

been killed.

who was in Moscow at that time is perhaps

"He was playing chess with Duke Ernest when

the most reliable. He

describes how, feeling

his captor's verdict was brought to him. The

very ill, the Tsar ordered a table to be brought

messenger looked at the unfinished game, then

for a game of chess. He began to put the pieces

at the prisoner, and read :

on the chessboard himself. Just before he set

'The former Elector is condemned to death

by beheading with an axe for rebellion and
lese majest. '

the last king in its place, he died of a stroke.

Chess was a popular game at the court of Tsar
Ivan I V, the Tsar himself inviting leading polit

"Standing erect, the Elector, after listening to

ical personalities in Russia to play him. Among

the sentence, said : '1 did not expect the emperor

his opponents were Boris Godunov and Duke

to treat me so severely. ' He took the document

Bielski. Once, in a particularly good humour, he

from the hands of the messenger, put it on the

explained the game to a confidant, Maluta Sku

table and turned back to the game. 'Cousin,' he

ratoff, of low origin. This was to a certain ex

s aid to the dismayed Ernest, 'pay anention to

tent an infringement of court etiquette because

209

Krfurst ]oha11n Friedrich der Altere of Saxony p/ayi11g chess with a Spanish captain.

210

chess was played only by people from the ruler's

Charles 1 of England (17th century) had carved

closest circle ; people who were not nobles were

in Latin on his chess board : "With these subjects

not allowed to approach the chessboard.

In S. Eisenstein's film "Ivan the Terrible,"

and this ruler, the battle is waged without blood

shed. "

the Tsar is presented in one of the scenes as an

Louis XIII, who did not like games, made an

expert on chess - and diplomacy. He wanted

exception with chess. He often played it during

to conclude a military alliance with the English

his numerous travels ; he had a chessboard made

Queen Elizabeth. In order to acquaint the queen

in the form of a cushion and chessmen with pins

with the complicated political and military situa

protruding beneath them so that they could be

tion in the Baltic region, he sent the boyar Nepeya

stuck into this board.

as his messenger. He said to the boyar, a grave

Peter the Great played chess from early child

and wise looking man, standing at a respectful

hood till his death. He not only cancelled a ban

distance : "You know, Nepeya, how much I need

on the game, but seized every chance to popular

this military alliance . . . " Then he passed him

ize it, introducing, for instance, a tradition of

a set of beautifully carved chessmen : "You will

"chess-playing corners" at court balls. In the

take this as gift to our dear sister Elizabeth and

State archives, numerous documents have been

explain to her all about these beautiful pieces."

preserved of his personal orders to craftsmen for

Among the Polish kings, Stefan Batory and Jan

various sets of chessmen, with instructions how

III Sobieski, victor of Vicnna, used to amuse

they were to be carved and adorned, and what

themselves contesting on the black-and-white

material was to be employed. The Arsenal col

battlefield.

lections in the Kremlin include a beautiful set

Dearh of the Czech king Vaclav

IV in the Czech film "Hussire
Trilogy" ( 1 956) .

211

probably made in Germany, cast in metal and

e d mate in three moves when a Turkish bullet

later silver-plated and coloured. The pieces are

carne through the window and shattered his

soldiers of the infantry and cavalry. The chess

knight. He was about to put another knight in

board is of silver, the "black" squares being

its place but he observed this was unnecessary

to

because he could still checkmate his opponent

Ro

in four moves. He had just announced this when

manov. In the Tsar's diary is an entry saying

another bullet knocked off a pawn. He thought

gilded
Peter's

and

engraved.

This

set

belonged

grandfather, Mikhail Fedorovich

how he himself once carved chessmen out of

calmly for a while then announced mate in five.

wood. About chess play there are many notes.

Moreover, ignoring more bullets, he kept his

The Tsar's constant sparring partners were the

opponent in the room until he had demonstrated

court priest who accompanied him on all official

all the variations.

journeys and a confidential servant Stepan Vitash

In letters exchanged with Voltaire, the Emperor

chy who perfomed a wide range of functions from

Frederick II discussed not only philosophical

jester to executioner; both fine, brave men.

subjects, but chess positions, in fact they played

According to Voltaire, when Charles XII, King

chess by correspondence. "Chess," he declared,

of Sweden, fled to Turkey, he played chess every

"is something more than a game, and less than

day to keep his mind alert, with the Polish gener

an occupation, and there is no better picture of

al Poniatowski often his adversary. It is said about

strategy than that given by chess. "

him that, during his expedition to Turkey, when

Catherine II o f Russia enters into a number of

his army was besieged in a fortress, he passed

literary and film versions of the history of Kem

away the time playing chess with his minister

pelen's famous Chess Automaton. She was quite

Grouthausen. In one game he had just announc-

a good player. Four-handed chess was her favour-

Cardinal Richelieu playing King

Louis XIII. A scene from the
American film "The Three Musketeers" ( 1921 ) .

212

Cardinal Richelieu playing chess

with Athos in the 1952 French
film " Th e Three Musketeers."

ite game ; it advanced in popularity and was wide

ical moves on the battlefield on the moves of the

ly cultivated in Russia during her

chessmen. In bis final exile at St. Helena he often

reign. In

educating her son Paul she laid great emphasis on

played chess. He played, but never suspected

instructing him in both ordinary and four-handed

what was hidden inside the chessmen, a secret

chess. Mter her death, Tsar Paul issued an order

that was revealed only years after bis death.

that street doors, windows and lamp-posts should

In 1933 an exhibition of Napoleonic relics organ

be painted in black-and-white squares as a sign

ized in Austerlitz included a chess set in ivory

of mourning.

and mother-of-pearl. They had been made by

Napoleon, contrary to general opinion, was

his friends, and inside sorne of the pieces were

a poor chess player. As a young lieutenant of

plans for his escape. The set was to have been

the artillery he often visited the Caf de la R

handed to him by an officer who knew the secret,

gence in Paris to play. The table he played on

but who died during the voyage on the ship, the

has been preserved up to our times. He played

gift being finally delivered by somebody ignorant

boldly, seeking unusual situations and becoming

of all this. Napoleon acceptcd the set and kept

very excited. When losing, he often lost bis tem

it until his death. He bequeathed it to his son in

per, pushing away the board and scattering the

his will, and it changed owners many more times

men. It made him angry to find that he could

before reaching the exhibition.

not master the game. This is probably why he

Chess players have been numbered not only

said : "I t is too difficult for a game and not serious

among kings but among those who ovcrthrew

enough to be a science or an art. " At the height

them. Marat and Robespierre, the tribunes of

of bis career he had to give chess up ; it was taking

the French Revolution, liked chess. It was sug

too much ofhis time. He preferred draughts which

gested at that time that the names of the pieces

did not last so long. He is said to have based tact-

should be changed, and above all that the "king"

2 13

The Tsar at chess in a picturesque scene from the film "[van the Terrible" (Part 1, 1944) directed by S. M. Eisenstein. Note
his shadow.

214

on one side should be called "freedom." The story

is told that a young woman carne to the Caf

Paris) ; Suvorov. The Russian statesman and pol

itician prince Potemkin, a favourite of Cathe

de la Rgence dressed as a man and challenged

rine 11, was an intelligent player, liable to forget

Robespierre to a game. After being checkmated

his duties when deep in a prolonged game. He

twice, he mentioned that they had not yet agreed

suffered from insomnia, and requested opponents

the stakes. "Human life is at stake," answered

in the middle of the night. The victims were

"You have lost, so

awakened by his guards and brought to him in

please sign this," and she handed him an order

spite of their pro tests. The famous French diplo

to release the imprisoned aristocrat, Marquis de

mat, Talleyrand, always beat Napoleon. Cardinal

his mysterious opponent.

Meruy. "Who are you, young man ?" asked the

Richelieu was a great chess enthusiast and, going

tribune, astonished at the demand which was

even farther back, so was the 1talian politician

a dangerous one for his opponent to make.

and historian Machiavelli. In his novel "Goya"

"1 am bis fiance," was the answer. Which just

Lion Feuchtwanger wrote that Machiavelli, after

goes to show what true love can do!

being banished by the Medicis, lived in a small

Among military comrnanders and strategists,

landed estate near San Caciano and used to go

we find many keen players : Tadeusz Kosciuszko

after dinner to the "inn to play chess with the

(in the Warsaw National Museum there is a small

innkeeper, the butcher and the miller and two

chessboard with the chessmen he made himself) ;

brickmakers."

La Fayette (a box containing a chessboard and

The two Poles who led the workers' battalions

a few pieces carved in ivory are to be found in

during the Pars Commune, General Jaroslaw

the Army Museum in the HOtel des Invalides,

D:browski

and General Walery Wrblewski,

The king of England John

Lackland receives a delegation
of French envoys while at chess.
Drawing by Moreau le Jeune
(1 782) .

2 15

were also ardent chess players. Stanislaw Strumph

jority of popes and bishops have condemned chess

Wojtkiewicz in his historical novels "The General

classing it with gambling games. Pope Leo XIII

of the Paris Commune" and "The Battle of Paris"

was an exception, he loved the game. He had a reg

describes, among other things, how after the fail

ular opponent, a rather excitable monk. lt is

ure of the Commune, General Wrblewski, who

said that on one occasion when the monk was

survived the defeat, sought to forget his losses

quite enraged about his position, the Pope halted

in chess.

play and delivered a short sermon about virtue,

'He is surely courting death,' said Robert in

Christian resignation and self-control.

despair, when the General, deaf to all persuasion

The Church authorities in Spain - and few

and requests, used to go off to the Caf de la

people know this - proclaimed in 1944 the 16th

Rgence to play chess with anybody who happen

century Saint Teresa patron of chess players.

ed to be there. The Poles who used to come to

St. Teresa used to play chess with her father,

the caf watched him in dismay ; this man who

relatives and brothers. In her religious writings

had been one of the leaders of the Commune,

she often uses chess to illustrate her meditations

and now seemed heedless of the raging terror. '

about ethics and faith.

Martin Luther, the religious reformer, had

The orthodox clergy, apart from a few excep

a strange desire ; all through his life he dreamed

tional cases, have taken a negative stand toward

of being able to acquire a fine set of chessmen

chess, but one Moscow patriarch of the 1 8th cen

carved and moulded in gold and silver. His pre

tury ordered the old bells from a nearby church

decessor, the Bohem.ian reformer John Huss play

tower to be taken away and sold because they

ed chess in his youth, but later proscribed it.

disturbed him when playing chess

Speaking of the clergy, let us mention that a ma-

whole night.

Empress Catherine II with Kempelen's automatic chess p/ayer

in the French film "The Chess Player" (1938) .

"I make so bold as ro point out ro Your Highness that the King

216

through the

refuses ro be captured." Drawing by z. Lengren.

Napoleon Bonaparte at chess

i11 his youth. Scene from the
French film
"Napoleon"
(1926) , directed by A. Gance.

The great scientist Isaac Newton liked a game

of chess. The German philosopher Leibnitz valu

of tournaments,

but

liked

a quiet game

at

home.

ed chess, being intrigued by its irnmense mathem

Among historians, the Pole Joachim Lelewel

atical possibilities of various combinations in the

(1786-1861) and the English writer H. T. Buckle,

game. On one occasion when asked what was the

were both fine chess players. Buckle's short-lived

use of chess, he replied : .. lt helps to improve

chess career deserves particular mention. In 1847

one's ability to reason and one's inventiveness . . .

as an amateur, he defeated a group of strong pro

fessional players in a local tournament ; he won

People's ingenuity is best revealed

in

chess

playing."

first place and thus qualified as a candidate for

Benjamn Franklin, American scientist and pol

a match with Staunton but he refused the attract

itician, recommended chess as an excellent meth

ive proposal to play against the then World Cham

od of teaching young people self-possession, in

pion, pleading lack of time. He was working on

tellectual concentration, and a tactical approach

his "History of Civilization" which was to earn

to life. He emphasized that chess was not just

him immortal fame. Later his studies caused him

an entertainrnent, but also a factor stimulating

to give up chess altogether.

the development of many useful mental abilities

The famous Russian physicist Lomonosov, the

invaluable in one's daily work and life in gener

Polish historian Askenazy and the French math

al. Franklin was the author of the first book on

ematician Poincar, all liked a game of chess.

chess published in America, a valuable work con

The Rumanian mathematician and astronomer

taining many keen observations about its infiu

W. Pauly became one of the world's most famous

ence on society. Not a very good player himself,

composers of chess problems. The house of the

he did not hanker after the emotional thrill

Russian chemist Mendeleyev, discoverer of the

217

"The King's Downfall. " Napoleon at chess on St. Helena.

]ean-Jacques Rousseau at chess in the Caf de la Rgence

Drawiug by an anonymous French artist of the last celltury.

in Paris. A contemporary aquatint by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin

periodicity of the elements, used to be a Mecca

and won again. All through the day the match

for chess enthusiasts. He was a fine player hirn

went on with fluctuating fortunes.

self. He was fascinated by the theory of the

carne again. When, at Iast Liebknecht won two

game, studying text-books and making notes

successive games and rose considering the duel

Midnight

about his games. Though he used to play until

over, Marx tried to detain him by force and it

far into the night, he was never tired ; on the

was only thanks to his wife that he was finally

contrary, refreshed by his intellectual efforts at

persuaded to bring the marathon to a elose."

the chessboard, he returned with gusto to his

scientific work.

About Lenin, the Soviet historian l. Linder

wrote :

"Vladimir Ilich

Lenin

liked

to play

Marx and Lenin played chess. The former in

chess in his hours of Ieisure. He learned to play

his memoirs refers to the frequent games with

as a child from his father, Ilya Nikolayevitch

a close friend Helen Demuth. He played a lot of

Ulyanov. As a young man, Lenin competed suc

chess when he lived as an emigr in Lon

cessfully with the best players of the town of

don.

S amara, playing in matches."

Wilhelm Liebknecht, one of the leaders of the

German

working

class

movement,

"He always took his game seriously, disliking

describes

what he called 'light games,' wrote Lenin's broth

Marx's chess amusingly. "Marx took his chess

er D. Ulyanov. What gave hirn the most satis

much to heart and when he lost was eager for

faction was the stubborn struggle to find the

a return game. He once claimed to have invented

best move, the effort of finding a way out of

a new sensational opening. He beat Liebknecht

a difficult, often desperate situation. The final

a few times but then lost. He insisted that they

result, whether he won or lost, was of secondary

should resume the contest early next day, then

importance to him. He was pleased if his oppon

spent the whole night analysing. Next morning

ent played

he was ready for battle again. A victory exhilarated

If his opponent made it too easy for him, he

hirn greatly ; but then he lost again. He too k the

would say with a smile :

next game very

won the game, but you who have lost it.' "

2 18

seriously,

concentrated

hard

well,

displeased if he blundered.
'lt is not 1 who have

A Soviet chess player of the older generation,

of sorne piece and when the other refused he said,

P. Dolgov, casting his mind back to the years be

"So much the worse for you, 1 shall gobble up

fore the revolution, describes the following scene :

your knight," and when this prediction carne

"As a child 1 often watched the chess matches

true, he added, "Are you satisfied now ?"

that took place in our house in the evenings.

M. Gorki writes about Lenin's all-round inter

Mostly there were si.x or eight players, and if

ests and the passion with which he devoted him

Khardin was among them, simultaneous games

self to everything he did : "lt was with equal

were organized, or perhaps one or two consulta

enthusiasm that he played chess, read the 'His

tive games. V. l. Lenin was often present at

tory of Costumes' or discussed sorne problem

these chess evenings."

N adezhda Krupskaya, in her "Reminiscences

with a friend for many hours at a time, or went

About Lenin" described how he played Lepeshin

fishing, or walking among the stony lanes of

Capri."

sky by correspondence. He was so preoccupied

Mter the revolution, the pressure of state duties

with the game that he sometimes cried out sorne

caused Lenin to give up chess almost completely.

remark like "lf his knight moves here, then my

Chess, he confessed, absorbed him too much,

rook should go there" in his sleep.

hindering his work. When the doctors ordered

When an emigr in Paris, Lenin used to go to

complete rest during his illness towards the end

a caf in the Avenue d'Orlans, at the corner of

of his life, he occasionally returned to the game

Place Montrouge. lt was a very quiet caf and

but was no longer the ardent player of the past.

Lenin liked playing chess there with his close

His chauffeur, S. Gil, writes in his memoirs :

acquaintances. Once he offered to one of his

"Even during his long illness he continued his

French friends that he should give him the odds

walks, boat trips, croquet playing and skittles.

Pope Leo XIII at chm.

A painting by Fritz Dietrich.
From a prvate collection.

219

If a good opponent were available he also enjoyed

box, the king

a game of chess. He, a good player as a young

the pawns on top ... "

(shah) rnight be at the bottom and

man, had been extremely fond of the garne but

The Polish poet, Jan Kochanowski, author of

later he preferred hunting. He considered that

the poem "Chess," not only played well, but

only physical

exercise in

the open air could

bring relaxation after intellectual work."

Georgi Dirnitrov, the great Bulgarian revolu
tionary, liked playing chess.
Among

contemporary political

showed that he was decply interested in chess.

In his novel about Jan Kochanowski entitled
"Poet and Courtier" Mieczyslaw Jastrun devoted
a whole chapter to a chess match between the

leaders and

Polish poet and the ltalian Vetello, bis rival for

statesmen, Josip Broz Tito, President of Yugoslavia

the hand of Catherine. Here chess is a sort of

(who even opened the Chess Olympiad in Dubrov

syrnbolic duel offering scope for many allusions :

nik in 1 950 by playing a garne hors concours), Ga

mal Abd el Nasser, late President of the United

"The black-and-white

boards

divided into

sixty-four squares, were alive with the movements

Arab Republic, and Fidel Castro of Cuba are all

of the ivory soldiers. The courtiers who were

keen chess players.

playing sat opposite each other, not yet complete

Arnong writers and poets have been found many

devotees of the garne.

ly alienated from their companions, as the garne

had only just begun and they had only made the

The 1 1th century Uzbek poet and sage, Alisher

first moves. Jan Kochanowski was sitting opposite

Navoi described chess in a poem entitled "The

Eneas Vetello and attentively watching his oppon

Language of Birds," comparing "the noble duel

ent's over-hasty moves . . .

after which no trace of destruction can be found"

"Now w e see the poet in a role that should not

to war. He also mentioned that "the rulers of the

surprise us. There is no doubt he was a fervent

world should not be too proud for when the game

chess player and the whole plot of his poem

is over and the pieces are thrown back into the

'Chess' published about that time was based

on that garne. . .
"He was s o completely absorbed i n the garne
that he was not thinking about the Italian as
his rival at the moment and did not fully realize
that, like the Ruthenian dukes Fiodor and Borzhuy
in the poem, they were playing for something
more. . . namely, Catherine.
' 'They were extremely polite to each other,
not only because they were cultured men of
wide experience; the world had given them pol
ished

manners and feeling for others ; but also

because each underestirnated the other.

The

handsome Vetello underestirnated Jan's poetical

gifts, superior to him in matters of women and
love-making ; Kochanowski underestirnated the
ltalian's good looks regarding him as a frivolous
fop. Were it not for this mutual lack of under
standing, who kn.ows but that their words might
The Russian physicist M. Lomonosov liked chess. Scene from
the Soviet film "Mikhail Lomonosov" (1955) .

220

have suddenly turned into knives. But no, there

is no fcar of that, it is not a princess who is at

stake in the game of chess. ls is only one of many,

many contests at the Jagiellonian court.

" '1 have heard,' says Vetello, repeating a thing

he had once been told, but repeating it now only
to conceal his satisfaction at the triumph he was
soon to have : '1 have heard that in Moscow they
play this game very seldom but very well in
deed. '
"Kochanowski did not answer, but his anger
against his opponent was rising. Then carne a feel
ing of discouragement and fatigue. The 1 talian
made one more move, quick as lightning, and he
was checkmated.
" 'Don't worry,' said Vetello, 'he who is un
lucky at games is lucky in !ove.'
"He could not have made a less tactful remark
just then; "
One o f the characters i n Lukasz Grnicki's

The eminent Russiar chemist Dmitri Mendele_vev spent a lot

of his leisure hours playing chess. A contemporary drawing.

"The Courtier,'' the Polish version of a work

by the ltalian Castigliano, proclaims singular
views about chess.

"Mr. Kostka asked : 'And what do you think

about chess, sir ?'
"Mr. Myszkowski answered : 'lndeed, it is

scribes, in his book "Voltaire" how "Father

a fine entertainment for a quick mind. Chess is

Adam, who was very good at chess, played Vol

not for me, though, it needs too much skill.

taire every day. 'Father Adam is not a man of the

If you want to get anywhere with chess you must

world,' Voltaire used to say, 'but he plays an ex

study diligently, wasting a lot of time on it, just

cellent game of chess.' When the priest won, Vol

as though you were mastering sorne noble science.

taire would sweep the chessboard off the table and

And when at last you've learnt a lot about it, what

cry, 'I've wasted two hours moving these bits of

do you know ? You know how to play a game,

wood about. 1 could have written a scene of sorne

and not even how to play it well. As 1 see it, it's

play in that time'.''

better not to know too much about it than to be

Voltaire often met Philidor at the Caf de la

Rgence and played more than one friendly game

a great champion'."
Montaigne

with him. Rousseau, too, liked to visit the Caf

wrote = " 1 detest and avoid chess, because it is

de la Rgence, to try his hand at the chessboard

The French writer and thinker

not a real game and is too serious as an entertain

but was no match for Philidor at all, even at the

ment. lt seems a shame to give it attention that

odds of a rook.

could be devoted to sorne better purpose."

What a contrast are Cervantes's words : "Life

During one period of special interest in chess

he worked out an elaborate strategic method of

is a game of chess. " Nor had the French rationalist

play which he considered sure to win. In practice,

writers, for instance, Voltaire, Diderot and Rous

however, his sensational method did not pass

seau any prejudice against chess, although they

the test. He was defeated by a third-rate player.

were not very skillful at it. Andr Maurois de-

This damped his enthusiasm. Later he had consol-

221

Lenin playing chess with

N. K.

Krupskaya

Maxim

watdzing

Gorki,

the game.

A paiming by tlze Saviet artist P. Vasilyev.

ation. Chamfort tells how after playing and beating

sible for a man to be a great intellectual and a great

Prince de Conti severa! times, he was told that

chess player like Lgal, it is also possible to be

he should allow a prince to win sometimes.

a great chess player and as dull as Foubert and

"1 don't see why," he replied, "l'm giving him

Mayot.

a rook start!"
Diderot gave up chess because he carne to the

"One afternoon 1 was sitting there watching

a lot, saying little and hearing as little as 1 could,

conclusion that he would never master the theory

when 1 was approached by one of the strangest

ofit. In his "Neveu de Rameau" he wrote : "When

persons 1 know, Rameau, the foster son of

it is cold or rainy, 1 take refuge in the Caf de la

Rameau the famous.

Rgence and amuse myself watching the chess.

Paris is a centre of world thought and this Caf

"He carne up to me. 'Ah, the philosopher,

1 believe ? What are you doing here among these

is the centre of its chess. lt is here that the pro

loafers ? Are you too wasting time moving bits

found thinker Lgal, the subtle Philidor and the

of wood ?'

sober Mayot wage their battles of wits ; you can

"1:

'No, but a s 1 have nothing better t o do,

see the most unexpected moves yet listen to the

1 am amusing myself looking at those

poorest conversation ; because, although it is pos-

who do it well.'

222

"He : 'Oh, then you are not often amused ;

"1:

Musing in your lonely chamber

apart from Lgal and Philidor nobody

Hand to harp unwittingly straying

else there has any idea of the game. '

At this hour, will you remember :

'And Monsieur d e Bissy ?'

The same song to him 1 was playing.

"He : 'Oh, he's as good a chess player as M'lle

Clairon is an actress ; both of them know

"1 :

And at chess when the Jirst strands

all there is to know about their play.'

OJ che web round your king come closing

'1 see you are hard to please ; only the

Do you think : as then so he now stands

best will satisfy you.'

Like that last game of ours when ending . . .

"He : 'Yes, in chess, draughts, poetry, rhetoric,

music and other such trifl.es. Who can
stand

"1

poor

performance

in

Maryla Wereszczakwna, the poet's stay in Tu

these

things ?'

hanowicze, the landed estate of her parents, love

and chess, all this is reflected in Wlodzi inierz

'1 agree with you almost entirely. But

Slobodnik's poem about Mickiewicz, entitled

many must devote themselves to these

"The Shadow of Love.'' Here is an excerpt from

arts so that one genius can emerge; and

this poem :

then only he is the one among many'. ' '

The encyclopaedists gave evidence o f their

Though fine was the night that is gane,

liking for chess by inserting an extensive article

Know you a storm will rage on this ev'ning

about the history, rules and practice of the game

And though the game of chess is srill on

in their famous Encyclopaedia.

Know you the queen must take the king

Gothe's words "Chess is the touchstone of the

intellect" have become world-famous. When writ
ing about the cultural achievements owed to
India by the West, he said : "Zugleich hatte
man aus derselben Quelle das Schachspiel er
halten, welches, in bezug mit jener Weltklugheit,
allem Dichtersinn den Garaus zu machen vollig
geeignet ist."
The great Polish writer

Adam Mickiewicz

( 1 798-1 855), like every exuberant nature, eager

to know the world and life, and trying to pene
trate into all kinds of phenomena, was greatly
absorbed by various games including chess. He
even planned to write a treatise about the theory
of the games.
One of the beautiful lyrics about his great love,
Maryla, recalls the following picture of the mo
ments they spent at chess :
In every place, come time, come tide,
Where 1 'lvept with you, where 1 played with you
Everywhere and always 1'll be by your side
For a part of soul has remained there true.

The presidenr of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tiro is a grear chess

emhusiasr. He personally parronized che Chess 0/ympiad ar
Dubrovnik.

223

The 16th cenrury Po/ish poet

Jan Kochanowski p/aying chess
with the ltalian Eneas Vetello .
Illustration to a novel by M. Ja
strull, "Poeta i Dworzanin"
( Tlze Poet and rhe Courtier) .

Por !ove blurs reason, upsets the array,

When Adam Mickiewicz was i n St. Petersburg

Of al! your figures, my Kovno man

in 1 828 he became the frequent guest of a French

The mt of unreason, the /lame you can't allay

lady, Mme Roudoleur :

Your defeat in chess must bring and can.

"Mter dinner we played whist or cart, but

Mickiewicz did not take part in the game. He

Your tricks one and all are vf no avail

only played chess, and if he did play cards, only

Each move forestalled, your king must fall

'druzbart'."

Like Solomon, he lies dead, this weapon cannot fail:

The ardent eyes that are a lover's cal!.

224

An episode from the same period, during a visit

by Mickiewicz to Moscow, has been recorded

Mickiewicz playing chess with Maryla.

Drawing by Tadeusz Popiel ir1 the
Ltov edition of "Ballads and Romances"
by Adam Mickiewicz, 189 1 .

Adam Mickiewicz and Prince Golitsyn

playing chess in Rome in 1830. A con
temporary water-colour by an unknown
artist in Celina Szymanowska's album.

225

by Wladyslaw Mickiewicz, bis son. The episode

covite was caught unawares and his defence col

illustrates the mood of the Poles in those years

lapsed. Mickiewicz, wondering himself why he

of national slavery.

had not seen his chance earlier, played more and

"Mickiewicz, together with his friend and com

more boldly and checkmated the Muscovite in

panion in exile Daszkiewicz, attended a soire in

about a dozen moves. His victory was loudly

a Russian house. He started playing chess with

acclaimed by the Poles. Only Daszkiewicz kept

a Muscovite. For sorne time the contest was

silent. When they left and were walking borne,

evenly balanced . . .

Adam was very excited and pleased. But Dasz

"Gradually the other guests gathered round, the

kiewicz still kept silent. At last Adam asked,

Muscovites round their countryman, the Poles

'Why don't you congratulate me for defending

round Adam who realized when he heard such

our colours so bravely ?' 'You have nothing to

remarks as 'Victory for Poland,' 'No, Russia will

be proud about,' answered Daszkiewicz, 'Without

win' that he had become a representative of the

my help you could hardly have won. When 1 saw

Polish cause, and that a heavy responsibility rest

this was no mere game but that our national hon

ed on his shoulders. '1 was getting hot under the

our was at stake, and realized that the Musco

collar,' he said with a srnile, recalling this scene,

vite was a strong player, 1 stealthily took a knight

'My opponent was going all out for victory and

of his off the board. That was what suddenly im

defeat would have been a calarnity.' The stern

proved your position. All of you were so absorbed

looks directed at him by Daszkiewicz, standing

with the game that you did not notice anything.'

close by, repeatedly emphasised that the honour

And seeing his friend's astonishment and indigna

of their nation was at stake, completing his con

tion, he added : 'For the love of one's motherland

fusion. But suddenly he discovered a weakness

one can even steal a knight from the chessboard!' "

. in his adversary's game. He attacked it. The Mus-

(That

Mickiewicz (right) by the chessboard in A. Maliszewski's

play "Ballads and Romances" staged iu 1955 Qt the Poi
ski Theatre, Poznan.

226

knight

could

be

removed

without

A set of chessmen used by Mickiewicz during his stay in

Russia. From the collection of the Adam Mickiewicz
Museum, tl7arsaw.

Leo Tolstoy at chess with his son

in-law M. Sukhotin. His family is
watching the game. A photograph
taken at Tolstoy's home in 1908.

a "strong, player or any spectator noticing seems

lishers and booksellers used to send new books

a tall story

on chess to him for review. His contemporaries re

B. H. Wood) .

In the Mickiewicz Museum in Paris is a repro

late in their memoirs how Pushkin played chess

duction of a water-colour painted from nature in

on the eve of his fatal duel : how, when he saw

the album of Celina Szymanowska showing the

his enemy D'Anthes crossing the room, he said :

poet playing chess in Rome in 1830 with Alex

"This officer is threatening me with a checkmate,

ander Golitsyn, then the Russian envoy to the

I shall have to kill him." So saying, he too k

Vatican.

a knight off the chessboard as if implying that

Of the galaxy of nineteenth century Russian

novelists, Pushkin, Lermontov, Chernyshevsky,

he was alluding to the game. Fate reversed mat

ters.

Herzen, Turgenev and Tolstoy all played chess.

D' Anthes, cunning and experienced, realizing at

In a letter to his wife, Alexander Pushkin wrote :

the very beginning that there would be no merey

"Thank you, darling, for learning to play chess.

in this duel, chose tactics that gave him the ad

It is an absolute necessity in any well organized

vantage and gained him time in the shooting.

family. 1'11 show you what I mean later . "

D'Anthes played the game with amazing caution

In the collection of Pushkin souvenirs is a copy

and with a few excellent and faultless moves won

of Philidor's book once owned by thc poet. Pub-

the fatal gan1e and the life that was at stake. This

227

comparison with chess i s i n the description of the

duel given by the Russian writer Leonid Gross
man in his novel "D'Archiac Notes," which tells
of Pushkin's tragic end.
!van Turgenev was a first-class chess player
and participant in the championships. When in
Pars, he was a regular habitu of the Caf de la
Rgence. In 1862, he finished second to the ex
cellent player Riviere in a tournament organized
by the owner of the Caf de la Rgence for over
sixty of the best chess players who were his regul
ar

guests. He was also a popular figure arnong

chess players in Germany being elected vice

chairman of the chess tournarnent in Baden
Baden, 1870.
Turgenev wrote : "I was very keen on chess,
cven as a child. " He used to get very excited when
playing. The garne aroused his fighting spirit.
A witness of his exciting games recalls :
"Once he was in danger of losing the game.
He becarne very excited. His eyes flashed, his
moves were full of tension. But he concentrated
all his attention on the game and, of

course

won in the end, though not without considerable

effort. When the game was over, he breathed
The famous Polish writer Karo/ lrzykowski (d. 1944) was
a lije-long chess enrhusiast.

a sigh of relief. "

O n the contrary, Leo Tolstoy's passion in
youth was card play and a very expensive pas
sion it proved. It was only when he married that
he gave up games of chance and went over to
chess, which he played till the end of his days.
He liked the game to be keen, played with
imagination ; he went in for complex combina
tions and often defeated his partner with an in
genious mate. He yet had a very modest opinion
of his abilities. He considered himself a weak
player, was irritated by his own rnistakes and
really grieved when he lost. He greatly appreciat
ed the beauty of the game and held chess masters
in high esteem.
Here are a few of his opinions :
"I like chess because it is a good way of relax

The contemporary Polish writer Jerzy Putrament, a keen

student of chess literature.

228

ing : true, it makes you use your brain, but in

a specific and original way."

"ne's main concern should not be to win

at all costs but to go in for interesting combina
tions. Chess is a fine entertainment : when playing
you feel fatigue falling away from you and you
forget your troubles. "
"When playing chess one should remember
that the essence of the game is not in making
sharp, unexpected and risky moves, but in calcul
ating so as to make thc whole set of chessman
move forward harmoniously."
Among Polish classic novelists, Boleslaw Prus
and Henryk Sienkiewicz were both chess players.
Prus also liked watching chess and would sit pa
tiently watching others play for hours. He used
to drop into a Warsaw caf where chess enthus
iasts

gathered.

The author of "The Puppet"

A set of chessmm owmd by the Polish paillter Jan Ma

tejko,

111

his

jormer study in Cracoo,

11ow

housing

thc

Mateiko Museum.

was a clase friend of chcss champion Szymon Wi

nawer and played with him at the Semadeni
caf near the Warsaw 'Teatr Wielki . ' Sicnkiewicz,
author of "Quo Vadis," when in San Francisco,
invited Captain Rudolf Korwin-Piotrowski to
play him every evcning. Piotrowski was well
known among the Polish emigrarlts as a swash
buckling, original character. He became the pro
totype of Pan Zagloba, one of the main characters
in Sienkiewicz's "Trilogy." Perhaps this was the
reason why Sienkiewicz endowed his hero with
a coat of arms originating from chess ?
Karol Irzykowski, an outstanding Polish writcr
and critic, participated in tournaments at Cra
cow Chess Club and did well. Flamberg, thc
champion of Warsaw, was in one tournament in
which Irzykowski did not intend to participate
at first, only joining in the second round, yet
winning the fourth place in the end. Here is an
excerpt from a report on this tournament :
"This romantic of the chessboard who, above
all, looked for the strange beauty enchained in
the 64 squares that called up a splendid series of
images in his dreaming head, was over-burdened
with professional duties and did not feel equal
to taking on this hard challenge, so he declined
to take part in the tournament. After the first
round, when Mr. Ameisen withdrew , Irzykowski,

James ]o11es, a conremporary A merica11 writer, strtdies the

rheory of rhe game i11 lzis spare time.

229

The British film actress, Be/inda Lee, played chess not only on the screen but also for pleasure, after
work (A 1958 photograph).

230

d runk with the battle going on around him, too k

Interested in chess matters from bis early

Mr. Ameisen's place and proved that modesty

youth, he was on the Supreme Council of the

always goes hand in hand with skill. In the three

Polish Chess Federation up till the war.

games he played with particular finesse, he was

Franciszek Fiszer, the actors' friend, the most

not defeated once, not even by the powerful guest

Bohemian of Warsaw Bohemians before and after

player Flamberg, with whom he drew, this was

the First World War, was a big chess player

the only game the latter did not win. I look on

("big" because of both bis play and bis extra

Irzykowski as moral winner of the tournament. "

ordinary corpulence). He linked brilliant, almost

Irzykowski's drama "The Victory"

will

be

dealt with extensively in the next chapter. In

her biography of that writer, H. M. Dobrowolska

Napoleonic attacks with a marked lack of pa

tience and deliberation.
The English writer Lewis Carroll, author of the

recalls the last years of bis life in occupied

famous

Warsaw.

and its sequel with chess themes "Through the

" . . . another passion of Irzykowski's was music,

and next carne chess. Recently he took part in

"Alice's

Adventures

in

Wonderland"

Looking-glass" solved chess problems and end

games as a relief from chronic insomnia.

a chess tournament organized in Warsaw (kept

Of contemporary Polish writers, let us mention

secret from the Germans - J. G.). He lamented

Adam Wazyk, Melchior Wakowicz, Stanislaw

the death of their best chess player, a Jew who was

Strumph-Wojtkiewicz,

murdered by the Nazis in Warsaw, most probably

Jerzy Putrament ; the latter was twice elected

in the Gheno (this was the famous master Prze

chairman of the Polish Chess Federation. He

Marian Promiski and

piorka - J. G.). Towards the end of bis life

once remarked during an interview : "I like chess

I sometimes found him sadly sining over a chess

and find it a great pleasure to beat my colleagues

board without an opponent . . . "

at the game." "Those he could beat!" one or two

American film actors Cesar Romero and Walter Pidgeon

having a game (1948) .

Chessmen on a drum . . . Hollywood actor Fritz Feld (right}

plays against the well known drummer Gene Krupa (1945) .

231

of the more malicious of those colleagues were

himself with various little jobs, for instance,

heard to remark.

correcting copper plates for engravings. He was

Among French writers, Andr Stil, Tristan

Tzara, Charles Dobzynsky, Andr Kdros and
Eugene

Guillevic

are

associated

with

shortsighted ; working at his painting since early

childhood had strained his eyes.

chess.

"So it was a relief to him to stop his work and

American chess-playing writers include James

we used to sit in Saskia's room playing dice.

Jones who is as keen at analysis as at play.

But even the noise of the dice rattling in the cup

Turning from literature to the fine arts, wc

find Rembrandt,

Matej ko and Repin among

painters who relaxed in chess.

H. W. van Loon in his fictional

was irksome to her, so 1 mentioned to Rembrandt

that 1 had been initiated into a most interesting
game called 'chess' by Jean Louis and that this

biography

game, said to be the oldest of all, had been in

tells of Rembrandt succumbing to chess quite

vented as an exercise for military commanders

unexpectedly. The book is written as reminis

in Persia.

cences of a doctor friend of Rembrandt's.

"Rembrandt's meeting with my friends took
place earlier than 1 expected.
"Saskia was confined to her bed. Rembrandt
used to sit at her bedside and read the Bible. She
knew she was going to die . . . she soon tired and
fell

asleep,

lulled by

"Rembrandt was very interested in this game

and asked me to arrange for Jean Louis to teach
him it.

"1 invited both of them to my home and they

immediately became good friends . . .
"The rest of the evening was spent playing

her husband's voice . . .

chess. Jean Louis brought a book he had obtained

Rembrandt did not leave the room but occupied

from Seville, written by a chess genius, Ruy

Soviet film artists: film director Alexander Stolper (left)

and actor Alexey Dikiy at a friendly game (1949) .

232

The German film director Kurt Hoffman enjoys a game of

chess in the family circle (1960) .

Franciszek Fisclzer and the poet Boles/aw Lesmian in

Warsaw caf. Cartoon by Jerzy Zaruba.

Lpez. Foll owing the indications contained in the

book, he wa s checkmated by Bernard who had
only started playing chess a month before. I was
keen to see what Rembrandt's attitude towards
chcss would be. The prcvious evening, I had
taught him the way the various pieces moved.
He appro ached this completely new problem in
the same way as he did his painting. A few days
later I succceded in getting his opinions.
'I like this new game, and I like your friend
Jcan Louis even more, doctor, and that is be
cause when you play chess with a man you get
to know his style... I don't know whcther I

The Soviet film actor Nikolai Cherkasov playing with his son.

have made myself clear. Every man has a 'stylc'

of his own, a 'line.' Your Frenchman does every
thing he does in his own style. Even when he
fries eggs. Even when he plays chess.'
"R.!mbrandt was soon to experience more pain
and sorrow. Saskia's life was ebbing. I got two
more doctors to come... We talked to her about
painting and when she fell asleep we held a con
sultation. When the doctors went she was still
asleep.
"Rembrandt and I sat clown at the chessboard.
His moves were planned and intelligent, but he
was so absorbed with a combination in one corner
of the board that he did not notice the danger
threatening his pieccs in another sector.
" 'Pay attention, or you'll lose your queen,'

Two French film srars: Simone Signoret and Yves Montand.

I warned him.
" 'Please, just a moment, I've got such a fine
move here with the rook and the bishop, if you'd
only be patient!'
" 'But you should play so as to win.'
" 'Of course, of course, but I can win this
way too.'
" 'Are you sure ?' And in one move, planned
long before, 1 took the queen. The game was
won.
" Let's have one more game, then you'll see.'
"He rose to look at the sleeping Saskia. She
was dead."
There have been many chess players among
musicians. The famous French chess champion

American film acrors: Anrhony Quinn and Shirley Booth.

233

Philidor was a composer. Beethoven and Chopin

played

chess.

Ferenc

Erkel,

founder

of

the

Hungarian national opera, liked it. The virtuoso

Yehudi Menuhin plays chess almost as well as the
violn. He could conccntratc cvcn in difficult
conditions. It is said that at the agc of twelve,
after a recital at the Paris Opera House, he went
to a caf where he played chess and answered
questions at the same time. The world famous
Soviet composer and pianist Prokofiev
keen

was

vcry

on chess. When in Paris giving guest

concerts in 1933, he could not refrain from thc

pleasurc of joining Lasker's opponents in

session

of simultaneous play that had been organized in

the Caf de la Rgence. Prokofiev did not win,
but this game was one of the most interesting
played. In Warsaw before the war, he droppcd
in at the Chess Club as an obscrver after his con
ccrt in the Philharmonic Hall and met the famous
Polish master Przepiorka, who gave him a book
about chess with an inscription to mark their
meeting. The Soviet violinist David Oistrakh is an
excellent player. The well-known Warsaw com
poser and violinist Tadeusz Wronski invents chess
problems, this being his all-absorbing hobby.
Grigor Piatigorsky the cellist and his wife have
financed a series of international chess tourna
ments of the highest calibre.
Film directors and actors supply us with a few
anecdotes.
Recently

the film town of Cinecitta,

near

Rome, was the scene of a fierce battle which !asted

four hours; it took

place on

the

chessboard

and was between Vadim, who was shooting a new

picture there, and the Soviet film director Bon
darchuk, who was working on a new film with
the Italian film director Rossellini. Vadirn won;
then Rossellini took up the cudgels for Bondar
chuk and challenged Vadirn to a return game.
This was fought out in time stolen in between
Robeson and his son analysitg a game of chess between
SmyslO'V and Botvinnik. An illustration to the story "Joe
Hill's Sunday" by the SO'Viet writer Boris Polevoy. Drawing
by O. Vereysky ("Ogonyok").
Paul

234

shots and lasted for a fortnight, ending with

another victory for the Frenchman.
Fritz Feld, a comedy actor from Hollywood
of German origin (from Berln), has become

Charles Coburn playing chess with Fritz Feld in Hol

lywood srudio (1943).

Chess in strange garb: actors waiting to go onto che set for

a Polish film.

known for his persistent etforts to popularize

banks, junior, and many other stars. "Chess is not

chess among the artists in the American film

popular in Hollywood," he once said rather sadly

capital. He keeps a chessboard in his dressing

(1948), "but there are always sorne stars eager

room, and entices sorne unsuspecting victims

to try their hand

there, to suggest a quick game until the set is

added: "As long as there are film stars ready to

ready. Feld has played Charles Boyer, Lionel

spend an hour or two at chess, one can still

Barrymore, Humphrey Bogart, Douglas Fair-

hope for something good from this place!"

at

it." And he philosophically

X. CHESS IN POETRY AND PROSE

A lithograph by Andrzej Jurkiewicz (1938).

238

From the earliest times, artists and writers have

fallen under the spell of chess, so that it has

Two hosts were carved of teak and ivory

And two proud hings with crowns and grace divine.

bccomc the subject, in fact the inspiration, of

Both horse and foot were represented there

a grcat diversity of works of art and literature.

And drawn up in two ranhs in war array,

The famous Persian poet Firdausi when asked,

The steeds, che elephams, tlze ministers

a thousand years ago, why chess carne into his

And warriors charging at the enemy

poems, replied: "lts poetry inspires me."

Al! combating as is done in war,

Poems devoted partly or wholly to chess appear

in English, Indian, Arabian, Persian, Chinese,

One in

offence,

anothe1 in defence.

The king was posted at the array's centre

Spanish, Italian, French, Scandinavian and other

With at one hand his loyal minister.

literature. Scholars have based valuable research

Next to these twain zvere placed two elephants

on literary references to chess throughout the

Supporting thrones, the hue of indigo;

world;

Next to the elephants two camels stood

by

examining

the evolution of

chess

terms, they have often found it easier to estab

Whereon two men of holy counsel sat.

lish the time whcn a given work was written,

Next to the camels there were placed two steeds

to

establish

foreign

influences, manners

and

With riders valiant on the battle day

customs, cthnical indications, etc. The British

And each wing ended in a warrior-rukh,

orientalist H.J.R. Murray, in his fundamental

His liver's blood afoam upon his lips.

work, ''A History of Chess," makes extensive use

The footman's move was always to advance

of old literary works: reproductions of poems and

That he might be of aidance in the fray

excerpts from prose writings occupy quite a lot

Tz"ll, havz'ng passed across the battlefield,

of its 900 pages.

He s at- a minister- beside the king.

Firdausi, who lived from 940 to 1020, finished his

monumenta l work "Shah Nameh" ("The Book

The minister might quit not too in battle

Hz's king by more than by a single square,

of Kings") nine hundred and sixty years ago.

But on three squares the noble elephant

lt tells the story of the Persian rulers up to the

Could move arzd for two miles survey the field.

ycar 632. lt describes the legendary birth of

The camel likewise moved three squares and raged

chess, according to which the game was invented

And snorted on the field of fight. The horse

by wise men who used it to convey to the mother

Made too a three-square leap but in the move

of Prince Thalhand the news of how, uncen

Alighted on a square of diverse hue.

quered in battle, he had fallen at the height of the

The warrior-rukh mzght traverse every way

fighting against the army of his twin brother Gen.

And charge across the battle at his will.

Th e legend, which is entitled "Gen and Thal

They al/ contended in their proper lists

hand," contains a song known as "Preparing the

And each observed the limits of his move.

Chessmen for Thalhand's Mother":

When one of them beheld the kz'ng in flzght

Then would he shout and say

Those men of wisdom called for ebony

'Avaunt, oh king!'

Whereat the kz'ng would change his square till he

And two of them, ingenious counse/lors

Was s traitened where he stood. When rukh and horse

Constructed of that wood a board foursquare

And minister and elephant and troops

To represent the trench and battlefie/d

Had blocked the way for him on every side

And with both armies drawn up face to face

The king would look forth o' er that field foursquare

A hundred squares were traced upon the board

And see hz's

So that the kings and soldr'ers mzght manoeuvre.

Escape cut off by water and by trench

men

o'erthrown, their faces drawn,

239

With foes to right and left and front and rear

The fight reaches a climax.

And being moveless and foredone would die

In the commotion, a knight of Borzuj's that

Por so the process of the heaven decreed.

had previously been captured somehow reappears

in play. Borzuj is in disgrace but the struggle

Polish poetry has sorne matchless works on

chess. Jan Kochanowski was a pioneer of poetry
in his native language rather than in the previously

goes on and both try hard to avoid any further

infringements of the rules.
Borzuj

gets a

new queen

which

naturally

universal Latin. One of his earliest poems, written

improves his prospects. Fiedor is in a bad way.

four centuries ago, was entitled "Chess." The

Checkmate threatens. Night falls and the game

story soon unfolds. Tarses, K.ing of Denmark,

is adjourned. The chessboard, with the pieces

had a beautiful daughter, whom two suitors,

as they stand, is locked up in the chambcr with

Fiedor and Borzuj, both from Slav lands, were

guards on duty outside. Fiedor is depresscd,

trying to win. They wanted to settle the matter

thinking he has not the slightest chance of win

by fighting a duel.

ning; his friends try to console him in vain. The

Tarses pointed to the chessboard and said:

princess, however, who had watched the gamc

Your

attentively

tournament

will

take

place

in

these

lists.

throughout,

had

no

intention

of

submitting meekly to her fate. Thc rival suitors

The contest was set for two weeks ahead. Each

were by no means equal in her eyes. With the

competitor was given a copy of the rules of the

help of her maid, she managed to steal in and

game. The placing of the pieces on the board,

examine the position. She saw a chance of victory

their moves and all the other rules of the game

for Fiedor. She reflected a moment, turned round

are discussed down to the minutest detail.

a rook as to point its tusks in a particular direc

The rivals carne to the contest with hope in

tion as a sign, and stole from the chamber.

their hearts, but fear as well. The king gave

The rivals sat down at the chessboard again.

a magnificent banquet and, after it was over,

The guards explained why the rook had been

ordered a chessboard to be brought in.

turned

He

round.

Very sure of

himself,

Borzuj

appealed to the two contestants to play fairly and

awaited his turn to move. Fiedor thought long

forbade the courtiers who had crowded round to

and profoundly. Suddenly his face lit up. Of

interfere with the game in any way or make

course! The beautiful Anna

audible comment. Borzuj began to set out the

and he mated his opponent in three moves.

white pieces, Fiedor the black ones. Lots were

drawn, and Borzuj won the right to move first.
That

White

should invariably

move

first

is

a comparatively modero convention.

The game that was to decide the fair maid's

had

been

right,

Borzuj left the castle. He could not bear to wait

to see the wedding.
This brief rsum of a poem which numbers
602 lines in all gives only a general idea of the
scope of this original work; for original it was,

fate began. The rivals were not always able to

in the fullest sense of the word. For long it was

control their nerves and soon carne the first

regarded as a translation of a poem in Latn by

dispute: had a certain piece been touched or not?

the Italian Marco Girolamo Vida. Even stranger,

Next Fiedor got into trouble for making an

such Polish writers as Krasicki and Mickiewicz,

illegal move with his bishop. Players, onlookers,

not to mention a number of literary historians,

the poet himself all succumb to the tension.

when they did not call it a translation, called

The fortunes of ba.ttle fluctuate to and fro.

it "an imitation." lt is enough to take Vida's

Attack, defence, counter-attack, strategy, losses

work and compare it with Kochanowski's "Chess"

and gains - all are described in detail.

to see that they were two separate works. Vida,

240

Frithiof playing chess. An illustration by M. Jurgielewicz to a chapter of "Frithiof's Saga'' by

Esaias Tegner.

Title page oj the first editm oj the Polish poem "Chess"

by Jan Kochanofoski; an authmtic wood mgraving by an un
known artist in the first edition, printed in Cracow about 1564.

Bishop of Alba in the Duchy of Montferrat, had

Not surprisingly, the gods took a liking to the

written his "Scacchia ludus" about 1525. After

game, and at Jupiter's orders, Apollo with the

it came out in print in 1527 (it has not been

black pieces and Mercury with white sat down to

possible to ascertain whether there were earlier

a game surrounded by the Immortals, who had

editions), it was translated repeatedly into Italian,

been comrnitted to neutrality.

French and English. Here is a summary of the

plot:
Jupiter and all the Gods of Olympus were

The game is a lively one. Mercury, seemingly

inattentive, moves a pawn, and Apollo makes
a sudden movement as though to take it, but Venus

invited to the wedding feast of Ocean and Earth.

gives him a sign with her eyes. He withdraws

After the feast, the God of the Sea ordered a chess

from the intended move. This brings forth a heated

board to be brought in with beautiful chessmen

protest from Mercury who then, by a wrong

made of boxwood and gave a pithy and delightful

move with his bishop, worsens his situation, to

explanation of the game to the interested guests.

the joy of all. Mars secretly replaces a bishop that

241

had already

chessboard.

met the Bishop of Alba personally. The Polish

Vulcan tells Apollo, Mars goes pale, and Jupiter

been

taken

off the

poet probably borrowed his romantic theme from

orders the unfortunate onlooker - and the

a work of Olaf Magnus, Archbishop of Uppsala,

bishop - to be removed.

that was very well known at that time and which

Both players lose their queens. Mercury pro

refers to the testing of rival suitors for a young

motes a pawn to another, which plays havoc

lady's hand through a game of chess as an old

among the black army; but through his eagerness

Swedish custom.

to take one more pawn, he loses her through

Massmann (1839), the German chess historian,

a double check by the knight. Apollo takes a rook,

in a list of literary works on the game, quotes

queens a pawn and starts the battle all over

Kochanowski's poem as an original work; and

again, but loses the new queen too, by a double

Alliy, a collector and lover of chess, Mayor

check. Then Mercury finally checkmates the

of the department of Ardeche in France, publish

black king ...

ed, in a small volume in 1851 his translations

This sumrnary was given by M. Dzieduszycki

in a treatise on the history of chess

in Poland

in 1856. He warmly maintained that Kocha

of four poems about chess by Vida, Kochanowski,

Jones and Fischer respectively, which he ob
viously regarded as separate works.

nowski's work was original. He conceded that

Kochanowski's poem was finally accepted as

Kochanowski had probably read Vida's poem

an original work. Chlebowski, a historian of

when in Florence about 1550 and that he also

Polish literature of the last century, expressed

Russian ivory chessmen from the time of !van the Terrible (16th century). From Platt's collections.

242

the general opinion of today, that the young poet's

artistic feeling infused the whole with such
vitality, wit, courtliness and grace, as to turn
a dry lecture on the rules of chess into a tale full
of charm.
In an edition brought out in 1918, Henryk
Galle derides an often repeated theory that the
poem had a hidden poltica} allusion, that Tarses,
K.ing of Denmark, was really King Zygmunt
August, the Princess Anna his sister Anna
Jagiellonka; and Fiedor and Borzuj (the suitors
for Anna's hand in marriage) the Danish Prince
Magnus and the Tsar !van the Terrible.
A historian of Polish literature, Julian Krzyza
nowski, pointed out among the poet's merits,
the independent spirit, originality and good
literary taste, revealed in the way he removes
the scene from the heights of Olympus to the
court of the Danish King, replacing mythical
personalities by human beings in the persons of
two young rivals for a beautiful princess and,
moreover, making his rhymed story radiant with
flashes of real humour, which the reader of
the original Polish still finds irresistible today.
Though many attempts have been made to
reconstruct the game the poem describes, the
problem has proved intractable. Something can
be made of the last few moves only. In 1912, the
Polish chess magazine "Szachista Polski" an
nounced a competition for the best etfort on these
lines. Only one entry was received; it carne from
an Aleksander Wagner and went to 77 moves.
Professor S. Gorawski devoted long hours of
arduous work to the problem, his solution,
delayed by the First World War, appearing in
the same magazine twenty years later.
For another poem on chess we have to go back
sorne centuries. Rabbi Abraham Aben-Ezra,
doctor, astrologist and poet, who lived in Spain
in the 12th century, wrote a poem about chess in
Hebrew which was translated into Latn by
Thomas Hyde in 1689. Another well known
poem, "Caissa," was written in 1763 by a British
poet William Jones, a student of Sanskrit engaged

in research on ancient Indian literature (he was

the first to publish the Indian source material
on chaturanga). The story is taken from mythol
ogy: Mars, the God of war, succeeds in winning
the favours of the dryad Caissa only when he
invents the game of chess. "Caissa" as the name
of the mythical goddess of chess has become more
famous since than the poem itself.
Now swell th'embattl'd troops with hostile rage,
And clang their shields,impatient to engage;
When Daphnis thus: a vary'd plain behold.
Where Fairy Kings their mimic tents unfold,
As Oberon and Mab,his wayward Queen,
Lead forth their armies on the daisy'd green:
No mortal hand the wond'rous sport contriv'd,By gods invented,and from gods deriv'd.
From them the British nymphs receiv'd the game,
And play each morn beneath the crystal Thame.
Hear then the tale 'llJhich they to Colin sung,
As idling o'er the lucid wave he hung:

A /ove/y Dryad rang'd the Thracian wild,

Her air enchanting and her aspect mild:
To chace the bounding hart was all her joy,
Averse from Hymen and the Cyprian boy;
O'er hills and vallies was her beauty fam'd,
And fa ir Caissa was the damsel nam'd.
Mars saw the maid; with deep surprise he gaz'd,
Admir'd her shape,and ev'ry gesture prais'd:
His golden bow the child of Venus bent,
And through his breast a piercing arrow sent.
The reed was Hope,the feathers keen Desire,
The point her eyes,the barbs ethereal Jire.
Soon to the nymph he pour'd his tender strain:
The haughty Dryad scorn'd his am'rous pain.
He told his wou where'er the maid he found,
And still he press'd,yet still Caissa frown'd:
But e'en her frowns (ah! what might smiles have
done!)
Fir'd all his soul,and all his senses won!( . . . )
A Naiad heard him from her mossy bed,
And through the crystal rais'd her placid head,
Then mildly spake: "O thou fJJhom /ove inspires,
"Thy tears will nourish,not allay the fires!
243

"The smiling blossoms drink the pearly defD,

And stood be/ore her on the jl()'ltJ'ry lafJJn;

"And rip'ning fruit the feather'd race pursue;

Thm shew'd his tablet: pleas'd, the nymph survey'd

"The sea/y shoals devour the silken weeds,

The ltfeless troops,in glitt'n'ng ranks display'd;

"LO'lJe on our sighs and on our sorrorofeeds." ( .. . )

She ask'd the wily sylvan to explain

"Camt thou no play, no soothing game devise,

The various motions of the splendid train;

'' To make thee [ove/y in the damsel's eyes (" (

. .

"Kind Nymph/' said Mars, "thy counsel 1 apprO'lJe;

With eager heart she caught the winning [ore,

And thought e'en Mars less hateful than before: -

"Art, only art, her ruthless breast can mOfJe; -

"What spell," said she, "d'eceiv'd nry careless mind?

"But when? or how? thy dark discourse explain:

"The god was fair, and 1 was most unkind."

"So may thy stream ne'er swell with guishing rain!

She spoke and saw the changing jafJJn assume

"So may thy waves in one pure currentflow,

A milder aspect, and a fairer bloom;

"And flow'rs eterna/ on thy border blow!"

His wreathing horns, that from his temples grew,

To whom the maid reply'd, with smiling men:

Flow'd dO'ion in curls of bn"ght celestial hue;

"Above the palace of the Paphian queen

The dappled hairs that veil'd his IO'lJeless fa:ce,

"LO'lJ's brother dwells, - a hoy of graceful ort,

Blaz'd into beams, and shew'd a heavenly grace;

"By gods nam'd Euphron, and by mortals, Sport;

The shaggy hid'e that mantled o'er his breast,

"Seek him; to faithful ears unfold thy griej,

Was soften'd to a smooth transparent vest,

"And hope,ere morn return,a sweet rel'ef:

That through its folds his vig'rous bosom shew'd,

"His temple hangs below the azure ski'es -

And nervous limbs, where youthful ardour glow'd

"Seest thou yon argent cloud? Tis there it les."

(Had Venus view'd him in those blooming charms,

This said, she sunk beneath the liquid plain,

Not Vulcan's net had forc'd her from his arms);

And sought the mansion of her blue-hair'd train.

With goat-like feet no more he mark'd the ground,

Meantime the god, elate with heartfelt joy,

But braled flow'rs h silken sandals bound. -

Had reach'd the temple of the sportful hoy:

The dryad blush'd; and, as he press'd her, smil'd,

He told Caissa's charms, his kindled fire,

Whilst all his cares one tender glance beguil'd.

The naiads counsel, and his warm d'esire. "Be swtft," he added, "give my passion aid;
"A god requests." - He spake, and Sport obey'd:

He ends: "To arms!" the maids and striplings cry;

"To arms!" the grO'lJes and sounding vales reply.
Sirena led to tcar the swarthy crew,

He fram'd a tablet, of celestial mold,

And Delia those that bore the lily's hue.

1nlaid with squares of si/ver and of gold;

Who first, O Muse! began the bold attack;

Then of two metals form'd the warlike band,

The white refulgent, or the mournful black?

That here compact in show of battle stand:

Fair Delia first, as fav'n'ng lots ordain,

He taught the rules that guide the pemive game,

MO'lJes her pale legions tow'rd the sable train:

And call'd it Caissa,from the dryad's name

From thought to thought her lively fancy flies,

(Whence Albion's sons,who most its praise confess,

Whilst o'er the board she darts her sparkling eyes.

Approv'd the play, and nam'd it thoughtful Chess).

The god, delighted, thank'd indulgent Sport;
Then grasp'd the board, and left his airy court.

At length the warrior moves,with haughty strides,

Who from the plain the snowy King divides:

With radiant feet he pierc'd the clouds; nor staid,

With equal haste his swarthy n'val bounds;

Till in the woods he saw the beauteous maid:

His quiver rattles, and his buckler sounds. -

Tir'd with chace, the damsel sat reclin'd,

Ah, hapless youth! with fatal warmth you burn;

Her girdle loose, her bosom unconfin'd.

Laws, ever fix'd,forbid you to return!

He took the figure of a wanton fawn,

Then from the wing a short-liv'd Spearman jlies

244

"Chess composition." A photograph by rhe American photographer Ben Rose for the Magazine "Town
and Country" (1954).

245

"... but a few minutes later Anastasia checkmated him again... "
A drawing by Jan Marcin Szancer for Karol Libelts's story
"A Game of Chess."

Unsafely bold - and, see! - He dies - he dies!

The dark-brow'd hero, with one vengeful blow,

Long time the war in equa/ balance hung,

Till, unforeseen, an iv'ry courser sprung;

Of lzfe and place deprives his iv'ry foe.

And, wildly prancing, in an evil hour

Now rush both armies o'er the burnish'd field,

Attack'd at once the Monarch and the tow'r.

Hurl the swift dart, and rend the bursting shield.

Sirena blush'd; for, as the rules requir'd,

Here furious Knights on fiery coursers prance;

Her injur'd Sov'reign to his tent retir'd;

Here Archers spring, and lofty tow'rs advance.

Whilst her lost Castle leaves his threat'ning height,

But, see! the white-rob'd Amazon beholds

And adds new glory to th'exulting Knight.

Where the dark host its op'ning van unfolds:

At this, pale fear oppress'd the drooping maid,

Soon as her eyes discerns the hostile maid,

And on her cheek the rose began to jade;

By ebon shield and ebon he/m betray'd,

A crystal tear, that stood prepar'd to fall,

Seven squares she passes, with majestic men,

She wip'd in silence, and conceal'd from all;

And stands, triumphant, o'er the fallen Queen.

- From all but Daphnis: he remark'd her pain,

Perplex'd and sorrowing at his Consort's fate,

And saw the weakness of her ebon train;

The Monarch burn'd with rage, despair, and !tate:

Then gently spoke: "Let me your loss supply,

Swzft from his zone th'avenging blade he drew;

"And either nobly win, or nobly die;

And, mad with tre, the proud virago slew:

"Me oft has fortune crown'd with fair success,

- Meanwhile, sweet smiling Delia's wary King

"And led to triumph in the fields of Chess."

Retir'd from fight, behind the circling wing.

He said: the willing nymph her place resign'd;

246

And sat at distance, on the bank reclin'd:

With pearls and rubies sows the verdant lawn:

Thus when Minerva call' d her chief to arms,

Whilst each pale star from Heav'n's blue vault retires,

And Troy's high turrets shook with dire alarms,

Still Venus gleams, and last of all expires:

The Cyprian goddess, wounded, left the plain,

He hears, where'er he moves, the dreadful sound -

And Mars engag'd mightier force in vain.

Check! the deep vales, and Check! the woods rebound.

No place remains: he sees the certain fate,

Straight Daphnis leads his squadron to the fz"e/d

And yields his throne to ruin and Checkmate.

(To Delia's arms' tis e'en a joy to yz"eld);

Each guileful snare and subt/e art he tries,

A brighter blush o'erspreads the damsel's cheeks,

But finds his art less powerful than her eyes:

And milder, thus the conquer'd stripling speaks: -

Wisdom and strength superior charms obey;

"A double triumph, Delia, hast thou won,

And beauty, beauty wins the long fought day.

"By Mars protected, and by Venus' son;

By this a hoary Chief, on slaughter bent,

"The first with conquest crowns by matchless art,

Approach'd the g/oomy King's unguarded tent

"The second points those eyes at Daphnis' heart."

Where late his Consort spread dismay around,

She smil'd; the nymphs and am'rous youths arise,

Now her dark corpse lies bleeding on the ground.

And own that beauty gain'd the nobler prize.

Hail, happy youth! thy glories not unsung,

Shall live eterna/ on the poet's tongue;

Low in their chest the mimic troops zvere laid,

And peaceful slept the sable Hero's shade.

For thou shalt soon receive a splendid change,

And o'er the plain with nobler fury range.
The swarthy leaders saw the storm impend,
And strove, in vain, their Sov'reign to defend:
Th' invader wav'd his silver lance in air,
And flew, /ike lightning, to the fatal square;
His limbs dilated, in a moment grew
To stately height, and zm"den'd to the view;
More fierce his look, more lion-like his mien,
Sublime he mov'd, and seem'd a warrior Queen.
As when the sage, on sorne unfolding p/ant,
Has caught a wand'ring fly, or frugal ant,
His hand the microscopic frame applies,
And, lo! a bright-hair'd monster meets his eyes;
He sees new p/umes in slender cases roll'd,
Here stain'd with azure, there bedropp'd with gold:
Thus on the alter'd Chief both armies gaze,
And both the Kings are fix'd with deep amaze.
The sword which arm'd the snow-white Maid befare,
He now assumes, and hurls the spear no more;
Then springs, indignant, on the dark-rob'd band,
And Knights and Archers feel his deadly hand.
Now flies the Monarch of the sable shield,
Bis legions vanquish'd, o'er the lonely field:
So when the morn, by rosy courses drawn,

"Frithiof 's Saga," a beautiful poem by the

Swedish writer Esaias Tegner, who began to
publish his works in the first half of the 19th
century, has also become world famous.
Tegner gave literary form to sagas that had
been passed down for generations by word of
mouth, the oldest dating back to the 7th century
though most are from the 12th or 13th - the
golden age of the sagas. The sixth song "Frithiof
Plays Chess" describes a game between Frithiof
and his friend Bjorn. Old Hilding comes in.
There is a conversation about the situation in the
country, about political matters and personal
affairs. Frithiof is in lovc with the royal princess
Ingeborg. The whole conversation echoes with
allusions to chess, for instance, "The king is in
danger, only the peasants (pawns) can save him."
There are deliberate anachronisms. In Frit
hiof's days, the 7th and 8th centuries, chess
was not known in Scandinavia. Nor was the name
"queen" introduced until many centuries later,
this piece being for a long time - when chess
did come - the vizier or its equivalent, and not
by any means the strongest piece.
247

Here is, substantially, the entire "song":

"What! Frt'thioj, wilt thou not reply?

And shall thy foster-father hie
Unheeded from thy hearth away

Frithiof plays chess

Because thy game is long to end ?"

By the chessboard, fair to view,
Frithiof sat with Bjlirn the trueJ

Then stood Frithiof up, and laid

Squares of si/ver decked the frame,

His hand in Hilding's hand and said

1nterchanged with squares of gold.

''Already hast thou heard me say

What answers to their prayers 1 send.

Hilding entering, thus he greeted

"On the upper bench be seated,

Drain the horn until nry game
1 finish, foster-father bold."
Hilding quoth: "Here come 1 speeding,
For King Bele's sons entreatingJ
Danger daily sounds more near,
And the people's hope art thou."
"Bjlirn," quoth Frithioj, "Now beware
111 thy king dath seem to fare.
A paflm may free him from this fear
So scruple not to let it go."
"Court not, Frithioj, king's displeasure
Though with Ring they ill may measure.
Eagle's young hace wings of power
And their strength thy strength outvies.,

"Go, let the sons of Bele learn

That, since nry suit they dared to spurn
No bond between us shall be tied;
Their ser/ 1 never shall become. "
"Well! follow on thy proper pathJ

nz fits it me to chide thy wrath!

Al/ to some good may Odin guide"
Said Hilding, and he hied him home.
Two of Jan Staudinger's epigrams touched on
chess.
Execute kings! 1t is their lot.
Only one is immortal: the king in chess.
They say that chess, as cards, has kings and
queens.
What of the aces? They play too!
lt is i.mpossible to do justice in translation to

"1/, Bjiirn, thou wilt nry tower beset,

Thus easily thy wiles 1 meet.
No longer canst thou gain nry tower
Which back to place of safety hies."
"1ngeborg, in Baldur's keeping,
Passeth all her days in weeping.
Thine aid in strife may she not claim,
Tearful maiden, azure-eyed? "
"What wouldst thou, Bjlirn? Assail nry queen

the word-music and neatness of phrase of these

poems. Boris Pastemak, Nobel-prize winner, in
his poem "Marburg," achieved a delicacy of i.mag
ery which sets even harder problems. No trans
lation

could do justice to this lovely

poem.

Marburg was the German university town

which he studied. The last two

verses

at
de

scribe, in the form of a chess metaphor, the

poet's sleepless nights in the town of Grimm and

Luther.
The nights are playing chess with me

Which dear from childhood's days hath been

On the parquet moonlit jloor.

The noblest piece in al/ the game?

There is the scent of acacia blossom through

Her 1'll dejend, whate'er betide."

248

windows open wide

And emotion /ike a witness, grows grey in the

Note by B. H. Wood:

comer.

That aristocratic litterateur Lord Dunsany,

The poplar is the king. 1 play with s/eeplessness.

a magnificent patron of chess in Ireland in his

The queen is a nightingale. 1 reach out to it

day, more than once touched on chess in his

But night wins the game, the pieces step aside

stories; he was no mean player. Here are two of

And l recognize the face of the white morning.

his poems contributed to my magazine in 1942-3:

"Barto/omeofe// mmlly in IOfJe with her." 11/wtration by M. Berezowskafor L. Niemojowski's sUJry "Check and Chkmate."

249

A cloistral room !'ve seen

Where hangs a hush sublimej
And men sit calm and keen
And almost free from Time
Though forty clocks are there
And twenty of them tick,
Till al/ the smoky air
Forgets their rhetoric
And round that room the cares
o troubled days and o'er
The long street, set their snaresj
But none come through the door.

The
indeed
The
with a

reference in verse two to chess-clocks is

neat.
second was an epitaph on Capablanca,
reference back to war days:
Now rests a mind as keen,
A vision bright and clear.
As any that has been.
'And who is it lies here ?'
One that, erstwhile, no less
Than Hindenburg could plan
But played his game of chess
And did no harm to man.

Among the many German poems devoted to

chess (Alfred Kiefer compiled a noteworthy
anthology) "The Chess Knight" by Ferdinand
Freiligrath, a revolutionary poet of the last
century, is important.
In 1913 a poetic description of a duel at chess
by a Polish author, Aleksander Zdanowicz, en
titled "A Game of Chess with Mr. Rembach" had
a chess diagram incorporated into the text, to
illustrate the final position. The author added
a problem of his own composition. The story is
uncomplicated. The author visits a Mr. Rembach
at Wieliczka and is persuaded to play chess with
250

He gets badly beaten but eagerly starts

a return game which he also loses. In a third,
Mr. Rembach again gets a distinct advantage.
The game is described in detail. The struggle is
a stubborn one. Finally ...
"There was silence. Two kings, two black
pawns and one white knight only were left ...
"Mr. Rembach was sure of victory ... but he
allowed his concentration to desert him. Instead
of advancing his king, he threw forward the pawn.
I saw I could trap his king. On carne his pawn
in threatening style ... but with my knight I check
mated him."
A poem "Death" by the outstanding Polish poet
Julian Tuwim, which builds up an atmosphere
of hopeless boredom in a small town, is composed
against a background of games of chess between
two old adversaries, the doctor and the priest.
"Two friends are playing chess, muttering to
themselves things like 'If I take your pawn, I can
defend myself with the knight' and so on. Whilst
they play, Death appears at the window. The
players hear him but are too engrossed to open
the door for him. The doctor takes a pawn ...
'There is somebody at the door now.' 'Let hirn
knock,' says the priest: 'I am going to take
your rook.' The doctor: 'l've lost again. This
is tedious. More wine, Mary!'"
Bezyminsky's poem 'Chess" (Moscow 1927)
passes from an exposition of the rules of the game
through analogies with life, to deliberations on
the fate of the world and the prospects of the
Russian revolution.
Anatol Stern's "Pilsudski" strays further into
politics than chess. It has one particularly weird
feature, the use of the word "Capablanca" as
a metaphor for "hunger.''
Ho Chi Minh, leader of the Viet Cong in the
Vietnam war, was a gifted poet and whilst in pris
on for his political activities in 1942-3, composed
a poem about chess:
hirn.

We play chess just to pass the time

But knights and infantry perish in thousands.

"He was playing the last game with

himself." Illustration by M. Bere
zowska to L. Niemojewski's story
"Check and Checkmatc."

Stomzing attacks, control/ed retreat;

Are deciding what we shall play ...

Skill, impetuosity- these assure victory.

A hand is stretched out. The armies elash.

Botvinnik has well assessed the mental jlights

Understand the whole, weigh up the chances;

Once you've decided, strike without pause.

That Alekhine - Alexander the Great - has

created.

Hold back your rooks - you might miscalculate.

At time a pawn leads all to victory.

A hand stretches out. Their eyes stray to the clock.

Oh mighty thoughts! About this game

At the start the two sides' powers are equal

But in the end only one can win.

Mickiewicz* wrote 'The throne of kings is cast

downIn a world of inspiration and harmony!

Attack, defend with stubbornness

And the leader's banner will be honoured by the
people.

In 1957, the Polish poet Dworak paid a rare

compliment to Botvinnik in the form of a sonnet
addressed to the World Champion:
Two pairs of eyes are riveted on the board

Tlze grand master has woven a net of m()'{)es;

A piece of wood is moved fi've centimetres
Yet irz that moment, the womb of continents is
corrvulsed.

Mentions of chess in prose are overwhelmingly

numerous. Chess stories and excerpts from novels

On which there will be military engagements.

Here all the centuries from Homer, from Diogenes

poet and political writer.

Adam Mickiewicz (1798-1855), an outstanding Romantic

251

could fill a library. We must confine ourselves to

work of real literary merit.
To the interesting short stories of Karol Libelt
and Ludwik Niemojowski, Polish writers of the
last century, we have already referred.
Libelt's story, entitled "The Game of
Chess," is modelled on the Italian novels of the
16th century. The hero of the story is a young
man Anastasio. As a child he was saved after
shipwreck by a mysterious doctor-alchemist,
who taught him mathematics, and on dying be
queathed him one hundred sequins. The young
man set out on a journey to Syracuse, Naples and
Rome. But his fortune was short-lived; the mon
ey flowed like water, for Anastasio indulged

all his fancies, and one day he found he had not

enough money left to pay his hotel bill. He had
come to his senses too late. So he decided to sell
something of the personal possessions inherited
from his mysterious guardian, pay his debts and
go to Palermo to earn his living by teaching mathe
matics.
" ... The first question was, what could he spare?
His mathematical instruments? No, they would
be needed for teaching. Clothes? He had given
away his old ones and he could not sell the new
ones. Suddenly he cried: 'The chessmen! 1 can
manage without them. 1'11 find somebody who is
interested enough to give me a little money, for
them ...
'

lllustration by D. Mr6z to Stefan

Zwei'g's story "The Royal Game."

252

"Before parting with them, he decided to have

one more look at the chessmen and took them

"'You're checkmated again, Signor Pescatini!'

eried the spectators.

out of their case. Then he noticed, wrapped round

" 'Arn 1 getting stupid? Am 1 drunk?' cried

the edges of the chessboard, a paper on which

the hotel proprietor angrily, to the general amuse

closer scrutiny revealed drawings of over a dozen

ment. '1'11 raise the stake and play for six times

chessboards marked with different combinations.

as much, young man!'

There was an almost illegible sentence in the

" 'All right,' said Anastasio, who was beginning

doctor's handwriting which he finally decipher

to have more and more confi.dence in the doctor's

ed to read: 'An infallible way of winning every

method.

game of chess.'

"So the battle began again. There were pauses

"Then Anastasio remembered that he had

tense with strained attention; the game was bal

often played chess with the doctor and had lost

anced for long on a knife edge. Signor Pescatini

every time. He became so absorbed that he spent

was no mean opponent; but at length Anastasia,

severa! hours in study, completely lost to the

by a brilliant triple sacrifice, was able to deal

passage of time. Suddenly he remembered he

a deadly blow. 'Your king and queen are both

A few more moves and

must go and pay his debts. With a sigh, he took

under attack!' he cried.

his purse, put the case of chessmen under his

Signor Pescatini was again checkmated.

arm and went downstairs. Sorne old friends were

"'This is unbelievable!' cried the hotel pro

there. Embarrassed to confess his plight before

prietor banging bis fist on the table in a rage.

them, he cried out with feigned surprise: 'The

'Do you mind if 1 raise the stake again? We'll

deuce! I've forgotten to bring one more sequin;

play for the rest of these twenty four sequins.

1'11 bring it later. But now, look at this lovely

Do you agree signor?'

set of chessmen. Would anybody like to play

me a game?'

" 'Why not, indeed?' replied Anastasia. The

hotel proprietor put the gold in the centre of the

" 'Chess?' said Pescatini, the hotel keeper:

table and they began to play again. The game took

'lndeed 1 will: we'll play for the sequin so you

longer than any of its predecessors. Pescatini had

may not have to trouble yourself going up for it

obviously learnt to deal with the combinations

again.'

already employed, yet only a few minutes passed

" 'He'll have to go up for two sequins,' said

before Anastasia again delivered cbeckmate. The

somebody. 'You are an excellent chess player,

onlookers laughed heartily, and Pescatini walked

Signor Pescatini.'

up and down the room in silence. Then another

"Anastasio thought: 'In my situation, what is

man, one of those present, sat down to play with

there between one sequin and two?' He accept

Anastasia, who won every time. Upstairs in his

ed

room, Anastasia counted his winnings; his purse

the challenge. He lost severa! pawns, all

according to the doctor's precepts, but then

checkmated and won.

now contained 90 sequins... "

The next day, the hotel proprietor carne to him

"'Per Baccho!' cried the hotel proprietor, slap

with a proposition. He was to pass himself off

ping his bald head, while those present laughed

as a foreigner, a champion of the roya). game, and

heartily. 'Fancy me letting myself get caught so

could earn a nice tempting income.

easily, but we'll play again, 1 double the stake.'

player is lauded more today than a virtuoso or

"Anastasia planned his moves carefully, the

an artist. The whole world wants to know him,

game took a little longer, both players brisk and

to see him," said Pescatini persuasively, offering

"A fine chess

alert, one taking a piece then the other, until

his services as manager and partner. "You wil1

finally ...

play with everybody for a stake not less than ten

253

sequins, and we shall charge half a sequin each

to spectators."

" 'Just one game,' he said softly to the colleague

working with him.

There followed a series of triumphs for Anas

"His colleague allowed himself to be persuaded.

tasio. He won fame, pupularity and a fortune,

Bartolomeo played like a champion - after

but was also the object of hate and intrigue. He

a dozen or so moves, he gained the advantage.

tried to win the hand of his beloved Erminia,

'Check!' he cried in triumph.

but her uncle, the powerful Doge of Venice, had

"'And checkmate!' said the banker, entering

him imprisoned on the charge of being a cheat.

at that moment, seeing the important papers scat

The price of his release was disclosure of bis

tered about on the desk.

secret of winning. But Errninia organized his

"The incorrigible chess player was not only

escape. They eloped together and, far from the

dismissed himself, but caused his colleague to lose

noise of the great world, were very happy.

his job too.

Anastasio started teaching mathematics and

"The story of this incident got around. From

never played chess again. Pointing to Erminia,

that time on, no business

he used to declare his last move to have been the

a young man so forgetful of bis duties. Bartolo

most fortunate in his life.

meo's father would not take him into his own

Niemojowski's story "Check and Checkmate"

is in a different style, weirdly grotesque. The ad

wanted to employ

counting house either but got the idea that a wife

rnight reform him.

ventures of a chess genius Bartolomeo arise from

"'That's the only way,' he thought to himself,

bis pathological passion for the game. The defeat

'to rid him of this ruinous passion. The beautiful

of the chess "automaton," which climaxes the

form of the queen of his heart'- he said jokingly

story, we have already quoted. Earlier he writes:

to bis friends, 'will make him forget about the

" ... The story of his (Bartolomeo's) life was

simple and short. His only passion, chess, brought
about his downfall."
"The son of a rich merchant, who brought him

bony form of the chess queen.'

"He chose a wife for his son himself. She was
the daughter of a rich factory owner with whom
the old merchant had traded for many years.

up in keeping with his rank, he was sent to work

What is more, the young man not only did not

by his father in the counting house of one of the

object to the planned marriage, as is usually the

most eminent bankers .. . but the banker demanded

case when parents take the matter into their own

great accuracy from his young assistants, and

hands, but on seeing the bride his father had

the would-be financier, who had already acquired

chosen for him, fell madiy in love with her.

a passion for chess at school, often forgot bis du

"Everything seemed to favour the plans. Un

ties. However often he prornised to reform, at the

fortunately, the bride's father was a keen chess

sight of a chessboard he would succu.mb again.

player, who spent all his spare time at the game.

"One day, he was given a very important finan

Unlike bis f11ture son-in-law, who was a cham

cia} operation to handle, whose success or failure

pion, he played very badly. Moreover, being very

depended on quick completion of the work. The

conceited, he would not admit his rnistakes and

young man, remembering bis prornises, got down

blamed his opponent for them, never forgiving

to work at once. Unfortunately, however, he had

anybody who beat him.

hardly sat down at his desk, when he saw a chess

"As he was rich and influential, his friends,

board in the comer, left behind and forgotten by

knowing his weakness, deliberately lost to him.

a visiting clerk.

A good dinner, a bottle of excellent Lacrima Chris

"The sight of the chessboard aroused the pas

sion latent in bis soul.

254

ti, or even sorne financia! service, were sufficient

reward for their docility.

Illustration by D. Mrz to Stefan Zweig's story "The Royal

Game"

(Przekrj).

"But Bartolomeo could not bring himself to

play like this. His passion for chess blinded him
to the promptings of reason. Despite the warnings
of his father, who, overjoyed at the com.ing mar
riage which had already been settled, trembled
to think what would happen if the factory owner
were to be offended, the young man beat him
every time.

"On the day set for the announcement of the

young people's engagement. before the ceremony
of exchanging rings began, the host, father of the
bride-to-be, said to the guests that had gathered
for the occasion:
" 'First of all, I must convince every man pres
ent that my future son-in-law is just a beginner
at chess, compared to me.'
255

"The injustice of this remark cut the young

" 'And now we shall see who knows how to

play and who is a beginner,' Bartolomeo cried in

man to the quick.

"They sat down at the table, and each set
out bis chessmen. Bartolomeo, flaming with in

triumph, moving a pawn.

"'Checkmate!' The game ended.

dignation at bis opponent's conceit, was blind to

"'Checkmate !' shouted the bride's father in

bis father's imploring glances and warning ges

a rage, jumping up from the table and throwing

tures.

the chessmen to the floor. 'Checkmate, but you,

"After eight or nine moves, the superiority of

bis position was evident. 'There is still

time!

bis father wbispered to him, 'Lose the game, for

God's sake lose the game!'

you scoundrel, for beating such an excellent chess

player as I am by a trick, you will never marry
my daughter .'

"All the dforts the distressed merchant made

"But Bartolomeo heard nothing. His pawns

to save the situation were of no avail. Mter this

penetrated into the very centre of the enemy's

affront, the intended father-in-law refused even

ranks like black devils...

.. 'Steady now !' Bartolomeo laughed mockingly,
as he took the knight.
"The factory owner's eyes became bloodshot,

to look at the man who had beaten him. After

a year had passed he gave the hand of bis daugh
ter in marriage to a painter. The artist was poor,
he had no talent at all, but he had one invalua

a shudder ran down bis spine, and a suppressed

ble quality: he lost every game of chess to bis

groan escaped him.

father-in-law... ,

to Stefan Zweig's
story "Thl RDJal Ganw."

lllustrtllion by D. Mr6s

256

Compositton on the theme of chess. Drawing by Jerzy Skriynski.

This story, numbering more than fifty pages

Mrz which we reproduce. In spite of this great

of print, not only brings sorne striking, fantastic

literary success, a f ilm based on the story (1960)

action based on the chess therne, but also a pro

failed.

found drarnatic effect through the rhythrnic repe

The great chess champion Mirko Centovic is

tition of the cry "Checkrnatc," at the decisive

on board a liner, going to Argentine for a chess

rnornents in the life of the unfortunate hero. The

tournament. The author is told of his fantastic

final scene falls into the pattern almost uncan

career by a fellow passenger. Centovic was born

nily:

in a small village on the Danube. Left an orphan,

". . . Yes, it was he - Bartolomeo; but the

he was taken into the home of the local priest

change that severa! rnonths of illness had wrought

who brought him up. Mirko was not a bright

was even more terrible than that which had made

hoy; on the contrary, he was intellectually dull.

such an unpleasant impression on me previously.

In the evenings, he liked to watch the men play

"When we entered the little room, he was sit

ing chess. One day, he happened to beat the vil

ting on the bed and moving pawns on the chess

lage bailiff and his guardian, causing quite a sen

board in front of him. Looking at his emaciated

sation in the village. He was taken to town and

body, nobody would believe that not so long be

placed under the care of Count Simczic, a chess

fare he had been a picture of health and physical

enthusiast. Mirko went frorn success to success,

strength... He did not see us coming in, did not

studied the theory of chess and made it his career.

hear me when I spoke to him, did not realize

He won many prizes and titles, f inally becoming

what wa;; happening around him.

an international charnpion... He was an original

"He just went on moving the chessmen from

character. Not very intelligent, what intellect he

squll!e to square: his moves were violent, quick

had was underdeveloped; he had no idea of math

and feverish; mechanical, involuntary moves, ter

ematics and very little imagination, but at the

rible to see.

chessboard he became another person, one who

"He was playing his last game of chess with

himself!

thought logically and shrewdly.

The author became interested and tried to get

"A moment or two latcr, his eyes becarne fixed,

in touch with Centovic who, however, avoided

he put out his hand and made one more rnove;

people, keeping to hirnself. All he did was study

his head fell back heavily on the pillow and from

chess. This only increased the author's curiosity.

his open mouth carne a cry of triumph: 'In check,

One of the passengers, a Mr. Mclver, challenged

checkrnate!'

Centovic to a game. Centovic said that he would

"Those were his last words. When we reached

his side, the poor fellow was dead ... "

play only for a stake. Conditions were agreed; the

stake was to be pretty high. Mr. Mclver sat down,

A description of a mania for chess that took

lost and asked for a return match in which five oth

hold of a man because of unusual circumstances

er chess players were to consult with him. He

is described in masterly fashion, taking the reader

lost this garne too. Mclver's blood was up. He

to the borderlinc of psychological weirdness, by

asked for another game, and suggested doubling

the Austrian writer Stefan Zweig in his story

the stake. The champion agreed. And this time

"The Royal Game."

too, it looked like defeat for Mclver when a cer

This story was found arnong Zweig's papers

tain Doctor B. who had kept silent so far, carne

after his death in 1940. It was first published in

up and suggested an unexpected move to the con

Stockholrn in 1943, thcn translated into many lan

sultants, obviously seeing several rnoves ahead.

guages. In Poland, it was printed in the weekly

This time, the champion had rnet his match, and

"Przekrj,"

had a hard job to draw.

with

fine

illustrations by Daniel

257

The charnpion was shaken. He had risked his

ly alone

with table, bed, window and basin.

prestige on the eve of a tournament. Now it was

1 lived like a diver in his bell in the black ocean

he who demanded a game, with the Doctor, but

of this silence - like a diver, too, who is dimly

the latter who seemed unknown to the rest of the

aware that the cable to safety has already snapped

passengers, did not want to play, explaining that

and that may never be raised from the sound

he had not sat down at a chessboard for twenty

less depths. There was nothing to do, nothing

-five years. Nobody believed him. To the author,

to hear, nothing to see; about me everywhere and

he then disclosed the story of his life.

without

interruption,

there

was

nothingness,

He was an Austrian, who had been a barris

emptiness without space or time. 1 walked to

ter in Vienna, one of his duties being that of

and fro, and with me went my thoughts, to and

legal adviser to the management of severa) large

fro, to and fro, ever again. But even thoughts,

estates. After Hitler's annexation of Austria, the

insubstantial as they seem, require an anchorage if

fascists arrested him, thinking that he would have

they are not to revolve and circle around them

confidential knowledge of certain political and

selves; they too weigh down under nothingness.

financia! affairs. He was imprisoned and subjected

One waited for something from morn to eve and

to a peculiar torture: he was kept in solitary con

nothing happened. Nothing happened. One wait

finement, completely isolated in a room with no

ed, waited, waited; one thought, one thought,

furniture, equipment or in fact any object what

one thought until one's temples smarted. Noth

ever.

ing

The

complete loneliness and emptiness

of his cell became almost unbearable. Without

happened.

One

remained

alone. Alone.

Alone. .. "

books, pen or paper, solitary, deprived of the least

Dr B. was soon at the end of his tether. The

possibility of occupying his mind, on top of

Gestapo had nearly gained its end. At last he

all this, he was from time to time taken suddenly

broke down and decided to tell what he knew.

out of his cell for interrogation, where he was

Bu t. .. whilst waiting in the hall for interrogation,

cross-questioned from all sides without respite in

he succeeded at great risk in stealing a book from

efforts to catch him out if he was lying, and wring

the pocket of a police off icial's coat that was hang

a statement out of him.

ing there. A book! What j oy ! To be able to con

"There was a door, a table, a bed, a chair,

centrare one's mind on words, sentences, to see

a wash-basin, a barred window. The door, how

printed letters - what an occupation for his

ever, remained closed night and day; the table

mind ! But he was in for a bitter disappointment:

remained bare of book, newspaper, pencil, paper;

this little book, the object of his dreams, secured

the window gave on a brick wall; my ego and my

at the risk of his life, turned out to be a chess

physical self were contained in a structure of

textbook with a collection of a hundred and fifty

nothingness. They had taken every object from

examples of games played by charnpions. His

me: my watch, that 1 might not know the time;

first impulse was to throw the book out of the

m y pencil, that 1 might not make a note; my pock

window. He was not a chess player. But as he had

et-knife, that 1 might not sever a vein; even

nothing to do he began to study the garnes, learnt

the slight narcotic of a cigarette was forbidden

how to keep the score and recalled now that he

me. Except for the warder, who was not permitted

had tried the game when a schoolboy.

to address me or to answer a question, 1 saw no

The blanket in his room had a check pattern.

human face, 1 heard no human voice. From dawn

He made chessmen from bread, used them to

to night there was no sustenance for eye or ear

play through the games described in the book

or any sense; 1 was alone with myself, with m y

and after a week or two was able to go through

body and four or five inanimate things, rescueless-

the games without using the chess "board"

258

Scene from rhe film based on

Stefan Zweig's story "The
Royal Game," direcred by
Gert Oswald ( West Ger
many, 1960) LEFT: Mario
Adorf as Mirko Ceruovi.:; in
che background: Curd Jrgens
as Wemer von Basil.

and men, picturing all the play in his mind. He

exhausted. What purpose did it serve to repeat

became prof icient in playing the whole game from

again games whose every move I had memorized

memory. He began to take a delight in beautiful

long before? No sooner did I make an opening

combinations, to u nderstand the subtle differ

move than the whole thing unravelled of itself ;

ences among champions in style and method.

there was no surprise, no tension, no problem.

This was food for his mind at last. His mental

At this point I would have needed another book

equilibrium returned. He could think once more.

with more games to keep me busy, to engage the

When interrogated, he began to give logical an

mental effort that had become indispensable to

swers instead of parrying his persecutors' catch

divert me. This being impossible, my madness

questions as of old.

could take but one course: instead of the old

'' ... This happy time, in which I played through

the one hundred and fifty games in that book
systematically, day by day, continued for about

games I had to devise new ones myself. I had to

try to play the game with myself or, rather, against
myself.

two and a half months. Then I arrived unexpect

"l have no idea to what extent you have given

edly at a dead end. Suddenly I found myself once

thought to the intellectual status of this game of

more facing nothingness. For by the time I had

gamcs. But one doesn't have to reflect deeply to

played through each one of these games innumer

sec that if pure chance can determine a game of

able times, the charm of novelty and surprise

calculation, it is an absurdity in logic to play a

was lost, the exciting and stimulating power was

gainst oneself. The fundamental attraction of chess

259

les, after all, in the fact that its strategy develops

o f thc brain function a t pleasure as with a switch;

in different wise in two different brains, that in

in short, to want to play against oneself at chess

this mental battle Black, ignorant of White's im

is about as paradoxical as to want to jump over

mediate manoeuvres, seeks constantly to guess and

one's own shadow.

thwart them, while White, for his part, strives to

"Well, brief ly, in my desperation 1 tried this

penetrate Black's secret purposes and to discern

impossibility, this absurdity, for months. There

and parry them. lf one person tried to be both

was no choice but this nonsense if 1 was not to

Black and White you have the preposterous situa

become quite insane or slowly to disintegrate

tion that one and the same brain at once knows

mentally. The fearful state that 1 was in compel

something and yet does not know it; that, func

led me at least to attempt this split between

tioning

partner, it can instantly

Black ego and White ego so as not to be crushed

obey a command to forget what, a moment earlier

as

White's

by the horrible nothingness that bore in on me.

as Black's partner, it desired and plotted. Such

"Before a real chessboard with real chessmen

cerebral duality really implies a complete cleav

you can stop to think things over, and you can

age of the conscious, a lighting up or dimming

place yourself physically first on this side of the

The dramatic game of chess

'
played by Werner von Basil
(Curd Jrgens}, chief char
acter of the film version of
Stefan Zweig's story, and the
Champion i'vlirko Centovic
(Mario Adorf).

260

table, then on the other, to fix in your eyes how

nerves forbade all respite. No sooner had Ego

the scene looks to Black and how it looks to

White made a move than Ego Black feverishly

White. Obliged as 1 was to conduct these contests

plunged a piece forward; scarcely had a game end

against myself- or with myself, as you please -

ed but 1 challenged myself to another, for each

on an imaginary field, so 1 was obliged to keep

time, of course, one of my chess-egos was beaten

fixed in mind the current set-up on the sixty-four

by the other and demanded satisfaction.

squares, and besides, to made advance calcula

"I shall never be able to tell, even approxi

tions as to the possible further moves open to

mately, how many games I played against myself

each player, which meant - 1 know how mad

during those months in my cell as a result of

this must sound to you - imagirung doubly,

this crazy insatiability ; a thousand perhaps, per

triply, no, imagining sextuply, duodecimally for

haps more. It was an obsession against which

each one of my egos, always four or five moves

I could not arm myself; from dawn to night

in advance.

1 thought of nothing but knights and pawns,

From the moment at which 1 tried to play

rooks and kings, and a and b ande, and 'Mate!'

against myself 1 began, unconsciously, to chal

and 'Castle' ; my entire being and every sense em

'

. ..

lenge myself. Each of my egos, my Black ego and

braced the chequered board. The joy of play

my White ego, had to contest against the other and

became a lust for play ; the lust for play became

become the centre, each on its own, of an ambi

a compulsion to play, a frenetic rage, a mana

tion, an impatience to win, to conquer. Mter

which saturated not only my waking hours but

each move that 1 made as Ego Black, 1 was in

eventually my sleep, too. 1 could think only in

a fever of curiosity as to what Ego White would

terms of chess, only in chess moves, chess prob

do. Each of my egos felt triumphant when the

lems ; sometimes

other made a bad move and likewise sutfered

brow and become aware that a game had uncon

chagrn at similar clumsiness of its own.

sciously continued in my sleep, and

"All that sounds senseless, and in fact such

a

self-produced

schizophrenia,

such

split

consciousness with its fund of dangerous excite

ment would be unthinkable in a person under
normal conditions. Don't forget, though,

1 would wake with a damp

if 1 dreamt

of persons it was exclusively in the moves of the

bishop, the rook, in the advance and retreat of
the kn.ight's move.
"Even when 1 was brought before the examin

that

ing Board I was no longer able to keep my

I had been violently torn from all normality, in

nocently charged and behind bars, for months

ties ; I'm inclined to think that I must have ex

martyred by the refined

pressed myself confusedly at the last sessions, for

employment of soli

thoughts within the bounds of my responsibili

tude - a man seeking an object against which to

my judges would glance at one another strange

discharge his long accumulated rage. And as

ly. Actually 1 was merely waiting, while they

I had nothing else than this insane match with

questioned and deliberated, in my cursed eager

myself, that rage, that lust for revenge, canalized

ness to be led back to my cell so that 1 could

itself fanatically into the game. Something in me

resume my mad round, to start a fresh game,

wanted to justify itself, but there was only this

and another and another. Every interruption

other self with which I could wrestle; so while

disturbed me ; even the quarter-hour in which the

the game was on, an almost maniaca! excitement

warder cleaned up the room, the two minutes

waxed in me. In the beginning my deliberations

in which he served my meals, tortured my fever

were still quiet and composed ; I would pause

ish impatience ; sometimes the midday meal stood

between one game and the next so as to recover

untouched on the tray at evening because the

from the effort, but little by little my frayed

game made me forgetful of food. The only physi-

261

cal sensation that 1 experienced was a terrible

seemed quite alien to him. He regarded the two

thirst. The fever of this constant thinking and

living players as the two embodied selves of his

playing must already have manifested itself then.

schizophrenia.. .

1 emptied the bottle in two gulps and begged the

And this brought us to the end of Dr. B's

warder for more, and nevertheless felt my tongue

reminiscences. Against his will, he was persuaded

dry in my mouth in the next minute.

to play Ccntovic. He treated the game as a test

the games

to see whether he could play a normal game with

rose- by that time 1 did nothing else from morn

a real opponent instead of an abstract one. The

ing till night - to such a height that 1 was no

duel began, with a big audience standing round.

"Finally

my

excitement during

longer able to sit still for a minute; uninterrup

It was a stubborn fight from the start. After a dra

tedly, while cogitating on a move, 1 would walk

matic game, the arch-champion was beaten by

to

fantasy.

Cen

to and fro, quicker and quicker; to and fro, to

the dilettante. Routine lost

and f ro, and the nearer the approach to the deci

tovic asked for a return game. Dr. B. agreed. lt

sive moment of the game the hastier my steps;

was obvious that the game was exciting him,

the lust to win, to victory, to victory over myself

as he began to betray signs of nervousness and

increased to a sort of rage; 1 trembled with im

impatience. Quite unnoticed by him, the symp

patience, for the one chess-ego in me was always

toms of schizophrenia began to appear. He walk

too slow for the other. One would whip the other

ed about as though in his cell, not seeing his

forward and, absurd as this may seem to you,

opponent, and what was worse, blind to the

1 would call angrily, 'Quicker, quicker!' or 'Go

position on the board. He was playing against

on, go on!' when the one self in me failed to ri

himself, paying no attention to Centovic, having

poste to the other's thrust quickly enough.

"The time came when this monomana, this

in his mind quite a different situation on the

chessboard. When he began to rave and get mix

obsession, attacked my body as well as my brain.

ed up in his moves, we had to stop the game for

1 lost weight, my sleep was restless and disturb

fear that he would have sorne sort of seizure.

ed, upon waking I had to make great efforts

Dr. B. composed himself, apologized and declar

to compel my leaded lids to open; sometimes I was

ed himself beaten. Not knowing his opponent's

so weak that when I grasped a glass 1 could scarce

history,

Centovic

ly raise it to my lips, my hands trembled so;

opinion,

in

but no sooner did the game begin than a mad

would always turn out to be - just a dilet

power seized me: 1 rushed up and down, up and

tante.

was

decisive

triumphant.

In

game,

amateur

the

his

down with fists clenched, and 1 would sometimes

Another story, in lighter vein, was "Chess,"

hear my own voice as through a reddish fog,

by the Hungarian novelist of the last century

shouting hoarsely and angrily at myself 'Check!'

M. Jokai, based on Arabian motifs. Here the

or 'Mate!'"
Suddenly Dr. B. found himself in hospital -

man who plays chess against himself certainly

does not suffer.

after an attack of chess madness. When he was

"From time to time, Don Hurtado travelled

convalescent, the Gestapo released him, having

round Spain, visiting the most important towns,

lost all hope of getting any secret information

and he always returned with an abundant har

from him. He had to leave Austria within a fort

vest. One day, jogging along slowly on his mule,

night. It was a very strange experience for him,

by the River Guadalquivir, he saw an Arab sit

when free, to see people pla:ying chess. He had

ting in the middle of the road, playing a game of

been used to seeing the symbols and play in his

chess by himself. Surprised, Don Hurtado could

imagination. This concrete, materialized game

not refrain from asking:

262

He saw an Arab sitting in the middle of the road playing chess with himself." Illustration to M. ]iJlw.i's story "Chess." Drawing
by A. Marczynski.

263

"He took a black pawn off the board. . . "

Ill!lltration to a feature story by Boleslaw
Prus, "Players and Bunglers." Drawing by
A. Uniechowski.

" 'What are you doing here?'

" 'It looks as though I shall lose. Do you see

for me? One more move, and I'm

" 'l'm playing chess, as you can see.'

any hope

" 'All by yourself?'

mated. I can't play any more today. '

"'I am not alone.'

" 'Who is with you?'
" 'He who is everywhere, the only lord, the
great Allah.'
" 'Quite a powerful opponent?'

"'Why not ?'

"'I've lost all my money.'

"'So you play with Allah for money?'

" 'Yes, always. I've just lost fifty pieces of gold
in that game.'
" 'And how will you pay Allah?'

" 'Well, he is a just one.'

"'Oh, the usual way. When 1 lose, Allah sends

" 'And who is winning?'

me sorne worthy, pious man who takes the sum

264

1 have lost from me and distributes it among the

Meanwhile he plays chess. And the other man,

poor. That is j ust the same as giving it to Hirn.

the one that says nothing, he is called Szulc.

Today 1 believe that you are the man sent by

They quarrel a lot, but are good friends.'

Allah ; so please take these fifty pieces of gold and

"Szulc moves a pawn.

distribute them among the poor .'

"'Got him !' shouts Chatterbox. 'Your knight

"'How happy an idea !' Don Hurtado thought

to himself: 'it must be a great experience to play
"So when, after travelling around Spain for
sorne time, he returned by the same road to Cor
dova, he kept a look-out for the pious Arab to
him

how

"He takes the black knight off the board. His

opponent does not seem worried, however.

chess like that.'

ask

goes west !'

his

subsequent

games

had

" 'Now watch and see what's going to happen

in a minute,' whispers the Jew.
" 'The Bungler !' roars Chatterbox. 'He's after
my queen, but doesn't see that I'm going to take
his roo k as well as the knight. Got him again !'

gone.
"Yes, there he was, sitting in the middle of the
road as before, absorbed in a game. 1 stopped and

And off goes the rook.

"But his opponent remained

unconcerned .

"Sorne of those looking on began to smile.

waited until he had finished.

" 'Did you lose today too, Abu Rizlan ?'
"'No, not today, fortune has smiled upon me
today. One more move, and 1 shall mate Allah.'
"'Oh, that's good. So you won today ?'
"'Yes. I've won five hundred pieces of gold
from Allah'.

Szulc moved the bishop. My friend nudged me.

'
' 'That is the Polish game !' he said under his
breath.
"'Right you are, it's the Polish game all
right ! ' shouted Chatterbox. 'We rush in, like
a hurricane, smashing everything upside down.

"'And how will he pay you ?'

Got hirn again ! That pawn's mine.'

"'Oh, as usual. When Allah loses, he sends me

"Now he takes a pawn.

a worthy pious man who pays me the sum 1 have

"'What a bungler !' - whispers an onlooker.

won. Today he has sent you to pay me.'

" '1 called him a bungler first,' thunders Chatter-

"Saying

which, the worthy

Arab

pointed

a pisto! at the terrified Don Hurtado who hand

ed over his bag of money with a very sour
look ... "

box.
"'But 1 am calling you a bungler,' replied the
onlooker.
"'Me ?' Chatterbox is offended.

One of the Polish author Boleslaw Prus's chess

"'1 mate you in two moves,' says Szulc quietly.

columns in "The lllustrated Weekly" in 19 1 1

"'What ? ... what ? .. .' shouts Chatterbox. 'Do

was titled "Players and Bunglers" and was full

of allegories based on chess ; it was a time when
there were growing conflicts between the imperial

you mind if 1 take back my last move ?'

"'No, I'm not taking moves back, I'm mating
you.'

ist states ( a detail connected with the subject).

"'What sort of bungling is this ?' protests Chat

One of the author's friends, a Jew, was supposed

terbox, not so loudly this time. '1'11 give you

to have pointed out two men playing chess in

back your knight and rook and move my king

a coffee-house and used their contrasting temper

and everything will be all right.'

aments and styles to illustrate the "Polish ques

tion" of the day.
" 'That

"'Next game ! Next game !' replies Szulc start

ing to set up the pieces for the next game.

one is Gadulski,' ('Chatterbox'), he

"'Well ! If that's the way we're going to play,'

whispers. 'He was once a village landowner but

says Chatterbox indignantly. My Jewish friend

now he's looking for a job, if only as a bank clerk.

takes my arm and leads me from the room .

265

"We sat down by the window, far from the

they want to win? They

want to win physical

noise. My friend ordered black coffee and said:

and spiritual perfection, that is, they want to in

" 'You saw that game of chess between Chatter

crease their ability to work, their knowledge, to

box and Szulc ? That is no game of chess, but the

improve their health, their skill, to win the

whole Polish question. Although Szulc is a Pole

friendship of other people or nations, to win

too, a cruel Pole, his father was a German and...

riches, honesty, dignity and these are the main

he inherited something from him; not only a fac

necessities if we want to win the game of life... "

tory, but sorne brains.'

Prus reverted to chess in his novel "The Eman

"He sipped his coffee and went on: 'I've watch

cipated Women." Among a gallery of small-town

ed them playing here in this coffee-house for

characters, he paints a humorous picture of an old

a year or more. At the start, Chatterbox was play

major and the parish priest who played innumer

ing just as he plays today. Szulc hardly knew

able garnes against each other. It was a daily

which piece was which or how to move them.

ritual and usually ended in a quarrel.

Chatterbox is a quick thinker, full of good

"Shouts were heard coming from the summer

ideas. Szulc is slow and phlegmatic but he is

house: the majar had been mated and was telling

willing to work, whereas Chatterbox wants every

the priest he had no idea how to play. The game

thing to drop into his lap for nothing. Szulc

had actually ended a move befare the end, for the

took my advice and bought a book on chess. He

major absolutely refused to be mated. It would

learnt a lot about combinations, how to play

never have happened, he protested, had not his

the openings. He learnt even a dozen or so out

queen been quite accidentally on that file, his

standing games by heart, in fact he is still swot

knight on this square, his rook on that!

ting up new games. We carne here every day.

" 'Yes,' replied the priest, 'And

if

your king

Every day they played and every day Szulc did

had gone off into the garden he might not have

a little better. Chatterbox never improves ... '

been mated on this board.' "

"'And now you tell me. If there are two players

In another episode, the two were called away

of wham one always knows what he wants to do

from the chessboard to a man who was dying

and the other never knows; one knows a little

after having shot himself. The priest granted ab

but the other knows nothing; one concentrates all

solution. As they were leaving his home, 'You

the time, the other never; one always calculates,

might have behaved a little better at a time like

the other goes on impulse; one takes care not to

this, Major,' says the priest.

be mated, the other bothers only when he is

mated... just tell me who is going to win and

"'Yes, but muttering about chess as well and

who to lose ?'

"Here, my friend took my hand, shook it feel
ingly and asked: 'Now do you see now what the
Polish question really is? ...'
"This chat about

"'I was saying prayers, wasn't I ?' grunted the

majar.

chess,"

puffing away at your pipe till the smoke nearly

choked us.'
"'And you granted poor Cynadrowski absolu

concluded Prus,

tion with a knight in your hand.'

"carne to my mind when I thought about the sit

"'By the Passion of Christ!' cried the priest.

uation of Poland today. I found myself reflecting

'I really have a knight in my hand. I'll never

that life is very like chess, only our forces are,

play chess again after this!' "

instead of rooks and knights, work, endurance,

attention, f irmness and skill.

Another Polish novel is really interwoven with

chess. It is Wadaw Sieroszewski's historical novel

"In a game of chess, each player wants to win.

"Beniowski." A Polish off icer Maurycy Beniow

In life, peoples and nations want to win. What do

ski, arrested by the Tsarist authorities in 1769

266

"

Beniowski, oblivious of the onlookers gathere round him, cautiously laid his plans ..." IlluStration to Waclaw Sieroszewski's
novel "Beniowski." Draroing by A . Uniechowski.

267

and sentenced to exile in Kamchatka, was an

trouble with the local authorities. He offered back

excellent chess player; the famous "smothered

the money he had won. But here he was in for

mate" by a knight is called a "Beniowski mate"

a surprise. The commandant suggested that they

in Poland. While in exile, Beniowski watched

should go into partnership to play for high stakes

a game between two Russian generals and remark

against rich merchants coming to the island to

ed after the game that the loser could at one stage

trade in furs. The commandant was to supply

have won in a few moves by sacrificing a piece.

the capital, Beniowski the skill.

The off icer, too proud to admit it, bet a large

Beniowski agreed, thinking this might help his

sum that it was not so. Beniowski showed he was

cause. Every game brought victory for him and

right and won the bet. The novel varies this

the partners filled their pockets with money won

authentic chess episode a little. Beniowski starts

from merchants keen on chess. A third person,

to play the commandant of the local police and

another local authority joined them; the chess

wins three games and so a stake as well but ex

"company" began to expand. Beniowski's fame

asperating the commandant

quickly grew - but also the number of bis ene

into fury at being

beaten by a political outcast.

As Beniowski and bis comrades were planning
an organized escape, he did not want the least

mies, he having worsted a great number of people.

Meanwhile, under the cover of this diversion
he was able to carry on with bis secret plans.
The defeated merchants sent for an excellent chess
player Koleskov from the mainland to play against
Beniowski. So an exciting duel was thus arranged
duting a festive hall. Most of those present were
backing Koleskov. Big bets were placed. The
music and dancing began, but most of the dancers
found themselves drawn away to watch the
match...
"People were standing on benches and looking
over the heads of others to where, in the centre
of the room, the elders were sitting on stools in
a semi-circle and, in the centre of all, Beniowski
and Koleskov. Next to them were piles of gold
and silver roubles and other coins, as well as gob
lets of vodka, which nobody was drinking, by
the way. Koleskov was red in the face, ran bis
fingers nervously through his hair and, whilst
waiting for bis opponent to move, tapped on the
table with a pawn he had taken; Beniowski was
pale, but apart from this, betrayed no emotion.
"'It's check - checkmate!... A certainty!'
cries Koleskov joyfully.
There is a stir in the crowd, many people jumped to their feet. Excited voices argue.

The champion sacrificed pawns, and other pieces too... 1/lus

tration to the novel "Twelve Chairs" by /lf and Petrov.
Drawing by H. Chmielewski.

268

"'He's won! ... He's won!'

"'Just a fluke! ... Pure luck!'
"'We win!'

"The second game starts. Oblivious to the

quieter crowd for the first time. Suddenly among

spectators around him, Beniowski cautiously de

the rows of hostile faces he saw the loyal and

velops his pieces: Koleskov attacks amid mingled

tender eyes of a girl, dirnmed with fear. It

joy, apprehension and excitement from the two

seemed to him as though a ray of sunshine had

opposing camps of spectators.

broken through the clouds. She stood behind her

"Beniowski seems to see nothing

but

the

father's chair, alone, pure, virginal and appeal

pieces. He weighs every move with care and plays

ing, among all those brutal men.

delicately, coming down to pick up the piece

at her ...

lightly. Koleskov mutters to himself.

" 'Come on, play!' he heard Koleskov saying

"Beniowski loses a second game. There is

a great burst of noise. The merchants shout and
stamp with joy.
" 'That Beniowski of yours is no good at all.
All that fuss about him! ...'
"'What do you think you're doing, you damn
ed

outcast?

I'll

have you bastinadoed,

you

swine ... what are you up to? Haven't you got

eyes? Are you so stuck up that you don't bother
to think out the moves?.. . Anybody could see
that your knight couldn't move when he put his
queen there,' shouted Chernykh, frothing at the
mouth, jerking Beniowski's arm.
"'Let me go! We haven't finished yet!' said
Beniowski.
"His lips were trembling, his moustache was
bristling, but he mastered his anger and looked
boldly round at the wall of inflamed faces, flashing
eyes, teeth bared in wolf-like grins, bristling
beards and tousled hair that surrounded him.
Chernykh put his hands to his head and blunder
ed into the crowd.
" 'Ten thousand roubles ... ten thousand! And
all the furs,' he muttered over and over again,
pushing towards thc exit ...
" 'We've lost everything. Skin the rasca! alive!
Who knows, perhaps he's in league with Kaza
rin? He'll lose and share the money with him
afterwards!

He smiled

1'11 demand an investigation! To

impatiently.
"But Koleskov had not won his last game. Be
niowski beat him. Then he beat him a second time,
then a third and the fourth. The spectators began
to get bored and move away. The music had
stopped, the ballroom was emptying. The girl
had gone home and the first light of the dawn
was stealing in through the windows when the
players at last rose from the table. With trem
bling

hands,

Czernykh

counted

their

win

nings.
"'Twenty five thousand roubles ... and all the
furs ...'"
This time, however, the infuriated merchants
and Koleskov hcld up Beniowski in thc forest
and said he must "throw" the next match to
them. He refused. Thcy assaulted him. In defcnd
ing himself he struck Koleskov who died from
the blow next
were

to

day.

eclipse

The

subsequcnt

seriousncss

any

evcnts
gamc

of chess.
"Twelve Chairs,'' a satirical novel by thc Soviet
writers Ilya Ilf and Eugene Petrov, describes the
adventures of the grcat rogue and trickster Bender
who roamed the Soviet Union in the twenties.
Bender used to lecture about "A guaranteed win
in the opening at chess,'' thcn arrange a simul
taneous chess exhibition.

the torture chamber with him! When they brand

" ... From early morning a tall thin man, ad

him, stick burning splinters under his nails,

vanced in years, wearing gold pince-nez and

he'll confess it all. I'll see he doesn't get away

very soiled shoes splashed with paint, could be

with it!'

seen walking about the streets of the town of

"When Beniowski was setting out the chessmen

for the third time, he looked around the now

Vashuki. He was sticking hand-written posters

on the walls .

269

]une 22nd, 1927

In the rooms of the Cardboard Workers'
Club

international tournament here. Just think, how

wonderful that will sound: International Tourna

A Lecture
THE VICTORIOUS
CHESS OPENING
and

" '1t is easy! With my personal contacts and

your energy you have all you need to organize an

a demonstration of simultaneous

games of chess by the great champion

ment at Vashuki in 1928. Participants: Jos Raul

Capablanca, Emanuel Lasker, Alexander Alekh
ine, Aron Nimzowitsch, Richard Rti, Anton
Rubinstein, Siegbert Tarrasch,

Milan Vidmar

and Mikhail Botvinnik. 1 am also prepared to

participare myself.'

O. Bender
Everybody should bring his own

" 'But what about the money!'- groaned the

chessboard

worthy men of Vashuki. 'All this must be paid

Fee for playing chess - 50 kopecks

for. lt will cost an enormous sum. Where is it all

Admission - 20 kopecks
Commencing at 6 p.m. sharp

to come from ?'

" 'All has been thought of. We shall get money
by selling tickets.'

"The great champion himself soon went into

" 'But who in our town could pay thc prices

action. Having hired the club rooms for three

we shall have to charge? The people of Vashuki ... '

roubles, he went straight to the chess club,

"'No, not the people of Vashuki. They will not

which for sorne unknown reason was in the cor

be paying out money, they will be raking it in.

ridor of the administrative otfice of the race

lt's all so simple, people will want to come from

all over the world to see a tournament with such

horse stables.
"He found a one-eyed man sitting there reading
a novel by Spielhagen, edited by Pantelayev.

" '1 am the arch-champion Ostap Bender' he introduced himself sining down on the ta

world-famous experts. There will be hundreds

of thousands of visitors, rich and well-to-do peo
ple

coming to Vashuki. Now, first and fore

most, with such a crowd wanting to come, our

ble. '1 am organizing a session of simultaneous

prescnt transport will be totally inadequate. The

games of chess in your club.'

People's Railway Comrnissariat must build a new

" 'Chess !'

enthusiastically,

railway line, Moscow to Vashuki. That is point

'A game that spells progress in culture. Do you

one. Point two - hotels and skyscrapers for the

continued

Ostap

know that your 'Four Knights' chess club could

guests to live in. Point three - improvement of

completely transform the town of Vashuki if

farming methods for thousands of kilometres

things were properly arranged?'

around the town. Our guests must be fed! We

"He had eaten nothing all day. This always

made

him

exceptionally eloquent.

must boost vegetables, fruit, caviar, chocolate

production five hundred per cent. Then, the

" 'Yes!' he thundered, 'Chess increases the

palace in which the tournament will be held.

prosperity of the country! If you approve my

That is point four. And now point five- garages

idea, you will be walking down marble steps from

for our guests' cars. To be able to tell the whole

the town to the quay! Vashuki will become the

world how this sensational tournament is going,

capital of ten countries.. . 1 tell you, it is abso

we shall have to build a gigantic radio station.

lutely essential to arrange an international chess

That is point si.x. Now, regarding the construc

tournament in Vashuki.'

tion of the Moscow-Vashuki railway line. There

"'How?' cried those present; the noise had

attracted a crowd.

270

is no doubt that it will not be enough to bring

all the people who want to come to Vashuki. So

" ...He rook a handful of chessmen and rhrew rhem ar rhe head
of his one-eyed adversary." Illusrration ro the novel "Twelve
Chairs" by llf and Petrov. Drawing by H. Chmielewski.

the logical conclusion is to build an airport "Great

rows of marble hotels. In a sudden hush, the

links with all

champion Jos Raul Capablanca is seen going for

parts of the world, not excluding Los Angeles

a stroll. He is surrounded by exotic foreign ladies.

and Melbourne.'

A policeman salutes: he is dressed in a special

er

Vashuki"

with

direct

air

"Dazzling visions of the future appeared be

chess-chequered uniform embroidered with golden

fore the eyes of the Vashukian chess lovers. The

knights. The one-eyed chairman of Vashuki's

very room they were in seemed to have grown

'Four Knights' chess club goes up to the cham

into a vast hall. The mouldy walls of the racing

pion with dignified step. Their conversation is

stables receded and disappeared and were re

interrupted by the arrival of Dr. M. Botvinnik and

placed by a thirty-storey chess castle in the air,

the world champion Dr. A. Alekhine. Shouts of

throughout which, in every marbled recess, even

welcome are heard all over the town. A wave of

in the high speed-lifts as they flashed up and down,

the hand by our one-eyed chairman, and marble

people were playing on chessboards inlaid with

steps are pushed up to the plane. Doctor Bot

malachite.

vinnik descends them, waving bis new hat in

"Marble steps lead down to the blue waters

all directions and discussing the errors that Ca

of the Volga. Ocean-going vessels are anchored

pablanca might make

in the river. A long line of cars moves between

against Alekhine...

in

the

coming

match

271

the first move P-K4 would not present any

difficulties. He was rather vague about the rest
of the moves, but the Great Trickster was not
a man to worry about such things. He had thought
up an unexpected way of gctting out of even
the most hopeless of situations.
"He was greeted with applause ...
"He bowed, and with a gesture that was meant
to convey that he did not consider himself worthy
of such acclaim, walked on to the platform.
" 'Comrades,' he began in his resounding, im
pressive voice, 'Comrades and fellow chess play
ers, the subject of my Iecture, as I said a week ago,
and I must admit not without reason, in Nizhni
Novgorod, the subject of my lecture - is the
11/ustratiou to JIX . J. Kasinski's story "The Knight." Drawing
by G. Rechowicz ( "Kierunki").

victorious idea of debut. Comrades, what is a de

but and what is an idea? A debut, Comrades, is
'quasi una fantasa.' And what, Comrades, atten
tion picase, is an idea? An idea, Comrades, is
human thought taking the Iogical shape of chess.
One can be master of the whole che:Jsboard with
practically no effort at all. It all depends on the

"Ostap Bender continues to depict the mirage

person we are playing against. Let us take, for

of the magnificent and flourishing development

instance, that fair man in the third row. Let us

awaiting Vashuki as a metropolis of chess. Soon

assume that he plays well.. .'

this Iittle town will grow so important that to the cnvy of the other Soviet towns - it will
become the capital of the country. And then
would come the time to establish contacts with
chess players from other planets, for even an

"The fair man in the third row blushed.

" 'And another man, Iet us say, that dark fel
low over there, is not such a good player.'
"Everybody turned round to stare at the dark
man.

i nter-planetary congress of chess players suddcnly

"'So, Comrades, we have a fair man who plays

seems quite a possibility. But to inaugurate these

well and a dark man who plays badly. And no

plans, capital would be needed; money and more

lectures can change this relation of forces if each

money. Where was it to come from? To begin

individual does not systematically practise the

with, it was necessary to collcct a small working

art of wielding the sword . . . I beg your pardon,

fund. The small sum collected by Bender was

I meant, the chessmen... And now comrades,

to be augmented by profits from further simulta

I will give you a few instructive accounts taken

neous chess exhibitions ...

from the practica! experience of our honoured

"The night of the display carne at last. Those

who wanted to try their hand at playing with the
'champion' and their impaticnt fans gathered in
the club.
"The great champion cntered the room. He
fdt ver y surc of himself and knew very well that

272

hyper-modernists

- Capablanca, Lasker and

Dr. Grigoriev .'

"Ostap entertained his audience with a few
antediluvian anecdotes that he had read as a boy
in the 'Children's Fricnd.' That concluded his
introductory Iecture.

''The curious form of the lecture rather surprised

terror. The champion's great personality was only

those present. The chairman did not take bis

too evident. With the most unconcerned air in

one eye off the great champion's boots for a mo

the world he sacrificed pawns and other less and

ment.

more important men. He even sacrificed a queen

"But the start of the simultaneous chess session

diverted all suspicions for the moment. He helped

to the dark man he had been so hard on during

the lecture.

the others to arrange the tables in the form of

"The dark man was so worried about this that

a horseshoe. Thirty chess enthusiasts had come

he was on the point of giving in and declaring

to play the champion. Sorne of them seemed wor

himself beaten. lt too k a tremendous effort on his

ried and kept looking into chess textbooks to re

part to go on with the game.

fresh their memories about little stratagems that

"Five minutes later, like a thunderbolt from

might help them to keep going for, at any rate,

a blue sky, carne a hoarse cry 'Checkmate!' It was

twenty moves or so before they could resign

the dark man, trembling with excitement.

with honour.

"Ostap a11alysed the situation and condescend

"Ostap first took a look at the ranks of the

ingly congratulated the dark man on bis vic

'blacks,' which surrounded him on all sides, then

tory. There was a stir among the chess enthusiasts.

looked at the closed doors, and . .. got down to

the game. He went up to the one-eyed man who
was sitting at the first chessboard and moved
bis pawn from K2 to K4.
"The one-eyed man at once clasped bis head
with his hands and began to think very profound
ly. A whisper ran round the tables:
" 'The champion has moved bis pawn from
K2 to K4.'
"Ostap did not spoil his opponents by varying
bis moves. He made exactly the same move on
the other twenty nine chessboards - P-K4. One
after another, the chess enthusiasts clasped their
heads in their hands and did sorne really hard
thinking. Those who were not participating in
the games gazed at the champion ...
"At the third move, the word went round that
the champion was playing a Ruy Lpez on eight
een boards. On the remaining boards bis oppo
nents had resorted to the rather obsolete but
well tried and tested Philidor Defence. Ostap
would have been very surprised if he had known
what difficult games he was playing and what
tried and tested defences he was up against.
The fact was that he was playing chess for the
second time in his life.
"In the beginning his opponents, especially the
one-eyed chairman, were almost paralysed with

Illusrration by G. Rechowicz to W. J. Kasiski's story

"The Knight."

273

" 'Time to be off,' thought Ostap, walking calm

ly round the table and negligently moving.
" 'You can't move the knight like that,' gasped
out the one-eyed man. 'You1ve made an illegal
move !'
" 'Oh, 1 beg your pardon, forgive me,' said

"'lt isn't there now, so it couldn't have been

there before,' replied Ostap.
"'What do you mean, it wasn't there ? 1 remember perfectly well that it was ! '

" 'Of course i t wasn't there.'

"'Then where is it ? Did you take it ?'

the champion, 'l'm a little tired after that lec

" 'Yes.'

ture.'

"'When ? On what move ?'

" In the next ten minutes the great champion

lost ten more games.
"Shouts of amazement could be heard coming
from the Cardboard Workers' Oub. Ostap lost
fifteen more games, one after the other, and then
three more. At last the only player left was the
one-eyed man. At the beginning he had made so
many mistakes from fright that he was now
having diff iculty in ending the game to his ad

" ' Why are you making such a fuss about that
rook, why don't you say outright you want to
throw up the sponge !'
" 'But, Comrade, I've got all the moves written
down.'
"'They write things down in off ices !' was
Ostap's riposte.
" 'This is scandalous,' howled the secretary.
'Give me back my rook !'

vantage. Ostap took a black rook off the chess

"'Admit you're beaten and stop this fuss !'

board when nobody was looking and put it in

" 'Give me back my rook!'

his pocket.

"At these words, the champion realized that

"A crowd was gathering round.

delay would be disastrous. He took up a handful

" ' Where's my rook ? It was here a minute

of chessmen and threw them at the one-eyed

ago,' shouted the one-eyed man, 'and now it's

gone.'

man's head.
" 'Comrades !' screamed the one-eyed man,

lllustrations by John Tenniel to the English edition of Lewis Carroll's book "Through the Looking-glass." LEFT: it was in this
chess garden that the strange story of Alice began. RIGHT: Atice was changed from a pawn into a queen and sat down next to the
real chess queens.

274

'1'11 call you as witnesses. You saw him attack

me !'
"Vashuki's chess players looked blank and non
plussed.
"Ostap lost no time. Throwing a chessboard
at the lamp and tumbling over people in the
dark, he ran out into the street. The chess en
thusiasts of Vashuki, pushing and shoving each
other in their hurry, rushed after him . . . "
A dramatic chase after Bender followed but
the "chess" was at an end, in this story
anyway.
Let us turn to something less boisterous.
In the novel "Schach of Wuthenow" by the
19th century German writer Theodor Fontane,
the main character, Schach, has to suffer a lot
of unkind puns on bis name.
Owing to an irresponsible love affair with Mad
am von Carayon whilst he was officially a suitor
for her daughter Victoire's hand, he finds him
self the victim of malicious gossip. Numerous
caricatures and jokes circulate around the town
concerning tbis relationsbip of bis, one of them
being a drawing with a French caption "Le choix
du Schach" ("Schach's Choice"), showing a Per
sian shah who could not make up his mind which
of two slaves (whose faces had a distinct likeness
to certain persons) to choose.
"But Schach found the third drawing the hard
est to bear. The scene was Madam von Cara
yon's salon. On a table was a chessboard on wbich
all the pieces had been scattered as though swept
aside by the loser. Sitting next to the table was
Victoire - a very good likeness - and at her
feet, Schach kneeling, again with a Persian cap
on bis head as in the first drawing. But this time
the cap was torn and crumpled. The drawing was
captioned 'Checkmate.' The aim of the repeated
attacks had been attained. . . "
Arnold Zweig, in bis novel against war and
imperialism "When the Guns Went Silent," de
picting the situation in 1917 on the Russian
Germatt front, began and ended bis story with
a chess scene.

Two keen chess players at the front are Greu

lich, an N.C.O. of progressive views, and Ser
geant Pont. From the first chapter, entitled "The
Game", we quote . . .
"On the encrusted black and white chequered
chessboard, the pieces indicate an unfinished
game . . . Amid clouds of pipe-smoke the two sol
diers had pondered over the chessmen - beau
tifully carved out of ivory, once the property of
the former owner of the house . . . Yes, it looks like
being a long game. The players are educated
sons of the German bourgeois class, one a teacher,
the other an architect. Both are patient men,
shrewd and fond of the noble game, a game that
has united chess players in coffee-houses all over
the globe into a mysterious lan with its own lan
guage and way of thinking. What unfortunate
man, who has not been initiated into the secrets
of this clan, could hope to guess what a 'gambit'
is or a 'knight's move' or the real meaning of
'check ?' Yesterday evening Greulich, the teacher,
had had a passing idea whilst thinking about how
to repel Pont's new attack . . .
" 'lf the war were to end now, Pont/ Greulich
had packed the tobacco down in his pipe with
the hardened fingertip of the confirmed smoker,
'let us assume that every fallen soldier is given
a square metre of ground. About two million Rus
sians have been buried, about one-and-a-half mil
lion of our men, a similar number of Frenchmen
and Austrians, and about half-a-million each Ita
Hans, Serbians, Englislunen and Turks. Now how
many will that be altogether . . . ?'
" 'Let's have those figures again, Greulich,' Pont
had quickly totted them up on a piece of paper,
'Eight-and-a-half million killed.'
" 'Hm! eight-and-a-half million square metres,'
said Greulich, staring at bis king, almost com
pletely surrounded, the queen ready to spring
and the one remaining rook supporting the knight,
'How big a chessboard would be needed to get
an idea of that great cemetery of fallen heroes ?'
"Laurenz Pont gave a start, 'You pedagogues get
the funniest ideas,' he muttered, 'But let's get
275

More ofJohn Tenniel's drawingsfor Lewis Carroll's book "Through rhe Looking-glass." LEFT: The chessmen's world. RIGHT:
The King z Alice's hand.

back to our garne. If this bloody business doesn't

end we'll have to wait days and days for the next
move.'
" 'Oh, we shan't have to wait as long as that,'
answered Greulich and with a cunning expression
on his thin wrinkled face, puffing out smoke from
under his yellowed moustache, he moved a small
red pawn forward, one of the few men still on
its original square.
" 'Oh, ho ! So you want to get your roo k back ?'
said Pont, 'But we see everything my friend. We
clerks keep an eye on everything that goes on. '
He moved.
"Greulich, threatened, feigned surprise and
pushed forward a bishop to the rescue : 'Check !'
" 'Oh dear, oh dear,' said Pont to himself. He
must have overlooked something. That's what
happens when you watch a little pawn too closely
for fear it will be promoted; somewhere else,
a pawn almost grows into a rook.
" 'Which of our men,' asked Greulich, 'Could,
do you think, turn from an ordinary foot-soldier
back into a duke overnight, if the war were to
end ?'
276

" 'Hm,' replied Pont, '1 must think that one

over.' He moved his king away. 'Our landstur
mer Bertin has been passing himself off as a clerk
of Judge Poznanski for a long time. He had just
got his chance of promotion when they mobilized
him in 19 15 and at Verdun he married that pretty
girl whose photograph stands in the place of hon
our on bis desk in the military court office.'
" 'And he's learnt a lot meanwhile,' said Greu
lich, agreeing with his friend's words : 'He's
gone through a lot and tucked away a lot of know
ledge in that brain of his. So Bertin is one of the
pawns to me . . 1 suggest we finish playing for to
day. This is beginning to get interesting. 'He
knows all there is to know about life, he will tell
us what we want to know,' as old Faust said. But
it's a quarter to nine and, if 1 arn not mistaken,
they will be ringing up from Kovno any minute
now and l'd rather be downstairs.'
" 'To be continued,' smiled Pont and went to
move the table into the corner of the room.
" 'Not by yourself!' cried Greulich, worried :
'With one pair of hands you can't carry that pro
perly, any insurance company would tell you
.

that.' So he took the table from onc side and

The two mcn are in no hurry to finish the

Pont from the other, keeping watchful eyes on the

game, although curious in their hearts how it

pieces, which quivered despite their care. It would

would end. It really was snowing there in Mcre

not take much to overturn them and spoil an in

vinsk, the north-west wind blowing thick swirling

teresting game.
" ' If you look on us all as pawns,' said Pont,

flakes across the window. Meanwhile, the two

soldiers lit up their cigars and puffed away, the

' For Bertin is only an example as far as you're

office becomi..."lg pleasantly homelike with the

concerned, then who are the officers in thc end

fragrant smoke, and became absorbed in the po

game of the war ?'

"Greulich, as a liaison soldier, a discriminating
reader of the newspapers, glanced musingly at
the board.
" 'They are not people at all. They are the big

sitian on the board . . . In spite of all the cvents

of the last week, these chessmen always kcpt a lit
tle place in their minds. The only sound that broke
the profound silence was the ticking of their
watches.

firms, sorne of them mysterious abbreviations that

would not have meant a thing to our fathers. May
be Krupp would have meant something to them
but Albin Schiller as the queen, AEG and IG
Farben as the rooks would certainly not mean
anything, nor would Kloeckner, Voegler, Hu
genberg . .. '
" 'Our grandchildren will find them in any
lexicon,' said Pont, 'And what about the other
side ?'
"'Vickers-Armstrong, Rothschild, Schneider
Creuzot, I.C. I. - those are the great rival Brit
ish abbreviations - and colonial ministries that
haven't yet got a name.'
" 'And the junker Lenin, how do you assess
him ?'
" 'He' cried Greulich turning round at the
door, 'isn't in the game at all yet, and that's just
what gives him his chance.' "
The novel ends with a chapter symbolically
called "A Draw ?" After many adventures we
find the same two players sitting over another
game.
"'It's snowing, it's snowing - a white carpet
growing,' muttered Greulich under his mous
tache, cautiously bearing the table with the still
unfinished game into the light under the green
shade of the office lamp.
" 'So the Somrne didn't cure you of your child
ish rhymes ?' remarks Pont."

Atice and the White Queen. Another illustration by John

Tenniel to Lewis Carroll's book "Through the Looking-glass."

277

Illwtration to C. D. Si1'1UU's story

"Once on Mercury." Drawing by
A. Orlov ("Znanie-sila'').

"Pont, bent over bis wbite pawns, summed up

" He moved his queen cunningly just two little

the situation fairly quickly. He knew what he

squares forward, forking his opponent's king and

was going to do. It was bis move ; his king had

rook.

already evaded the danger Greulich had threaten

ed by moving up bis red pawns from the open
ing position to activate his bishops and queen.

" 'Check !' he said softly, as though rather sur

prised himself and not too convinced.
"'Pont,' he remarked, 'You have created a new

'Red pawns,' thought Pont, 'There are no such

situation, just like General Allenby, when he

things. All over the world, they are either wbite or

broke through our front in Sinai three weeks ago

black, clerical or free-thinkers - never red. That

and took Jerusalem. Looking at things today,

would be the end of the world as we know it.'

1 see that Bertin was right in suggesting that

278

a German Palestine corps of Jewish volunteers

should be sent there.'

He decided to leave the rook where it was. He

"Pont, concentrating h.is attention on his oppo

nent's thrust, asked : 'Why are you worrying your
head about

due course, when our field hospital is transferred.'

Jerusalem, you child-tamer ? Hic

Rhodos, Hic salta !' and he pointed to the square

brought up bis knight near the red king.

"Greulich stroked his moustache and moved
a pawn to attack the knight.
" 'Are we playing chess ?' asked Pont, 'Or war ?'
" 'Chess and war,' replied Greulich, giving

he was threatening.
" 'The mountain fortress of Jerusalem is just

Pont a keen look, for he had moved his queen so

such a key position for the whole of the Middle

that the pawn could not take the knight without

East,' said Greulich.

leaving his own king unprotected. He sat looking

' ' 'And how do you know that ?' mocked Pont,
blowing cigar smoke at Greulich.

at his friend in surprise when suddenly the tele

phone rang . . . "

" 'From studying geography,' was the reply,

There was fresh news from the front. There

'You catholics don't know your Bible. We prot

were new positions to be marked on the staff

estants get, in every copy of the Bible, coloured

maps ; forecasts carne through of the future course

maps of the Holy Land in the times of Moses,

of events. The war game had entered a critica!

Solomon and Jesus. In each of them the main

stage. Greulich looked at the table with the maps,

communication routes of the whole area intersect

but felt himself irresistibly drawn back to the

at the fortress of Jerusalem, the north-south route

chessboard.

from Damascus to Heliopolis or On in Egypt,

" 'Downstairs,' he thought, 'Our red and white

and the east-west route from Ur in Chaldea

pieces are waiting in the light of the one electric

to Jaffa or Joppa on the Mediterranean. Today,

bulb for the end of the game. 1'11 have him mated

the northern route goes further up, to Turkey

in three moves. If something new keeps coming

and if the Balkan front were to weaken, Turkish

up then we shall have to abandon the game as

and

Bulgarian

there since

divisions

1912 . . .

have been stationed

The Jewish legion so enthu

siastically urged on us by Bertin would have been

a draw. But I know that the game is already

decided. White has lost! ' "
In Kazimierz Brandys's novel "The Wooden
Horse" published in Poland just after the war,

very useful to us then.'

"Pont was put out. 'Do you want to sap our

the main character is a keen player. During the

will to win ? You'd do better to beat me here and

years

leave it at that!'

a life of enforced loneliness, he often played chess

"Obviously Greulich had got under his skin

of the

Nazi

occupation,

when living

with a neighbour, the Doctor :

that day. He abruptly interposed a pawn hoping

" . . . The Doctor was no champion. He was

that his opponent would fall into the trap, grab

impetuous, played unevenly, changed his plans

the rook and leave himself open to attack.

half-way ; his ideas ran away from him. Sometimes

"But Pont just nodded his massive head, deep

I let him win ; he never suspected. Once he made

in thought. His glance rested for a moment on the

a wrong move ; I smiled, for this gave me the

two iron crosses on his friend's breast then re

game .
" 'Chess is strategy, Doctor. I'm afraid you

turned to the board.

" 'Have you told Bertin that he is to go to the
Press Department ?'

" 'Don't you think so ?' he replied, with his keen

" 'Don't bother me, you - schoolmaster! '

said P ont, parrying what

wouldn't be a very good commander.'

he considered an

attempt to distract his attention. 'He'll know in

eyes upon me. His mouth was a thin line of anger.

'So you don't think I would be a good command
er ?' he repeated quietly.

279

Cover of Gerard Klein's book "Le Gambit des Etoiles"

( Editions Hachette) .

"1 was rather alarmed at the tone of his voice.

The hidden meaning of this scene bccomes

" 'Surely you are not taking me seriously,'

evident as the plot unfolds and it is found that

1 faltered, ready to concede him the talents of

the Doctor was a commander, the chief of the

Caesar if he preferred it.'

Regional Revenge Command, a Polish fascist

" 'Just my little joke, Doctor, nothing but a

joke . . . '

underground organization. Chess themes perme

ate the

whole final chapter . The hero of the

" 'Oh, well,'he muttered grudgingly, shrugging

book, now a convalescent, is playing a cer

his shoulders in the way he did when offended.

tain pharmacist, who has just been freed from

"lt occurred to me that either loneliness had

a prison camp. They plan an escape, interrupt

made me bmtal or 1 was playing with a madman.

ing the conversation from time to time to makc

1 let him win the game. And he disarmed me in

a move :

the end, when I put up my hands in a gesture

" 'So 1 shall go this way,' I said, with my mind

of helplessness after the last move ; he burst into

only half on what 1 was saying as I listened to the

a peal of loud childish laughter and held out his

last echo of the dock striking the hour. 'We'll go

hand to me over the table.

" 'Ha ! ha !' he laughed, 'Now tell me who is
a good commander.'

280

"

together until we are beyond that forest. But let's

leave things as they were. . . We won't discuss it
now.'

" 'Of course,' agreed the pharmacist, 'Your

move now. '
"

1 moved a knight.

" 'A rather

was to burden the hero all through life. But life

is strategy too - and here the horse of the novel

thoughtless move!'

takes on chess shape. Another little detail, but

smiled

the

eloquent : there is a picture of a toy wooden horse

pharmacist. 'You've got ideas but you lack prac

on the cover of the book, but the back of the book

tice. That move will cost you dear. It's not so

is decorated with chess knights.

easy as yo u think to control a wooden horse.'

" ' lt's not easy to control a wooden horse,'

1 muttered to myself. "

With these words the story ends. That tbe

In a story by another Polish author, Jerzy

Wladyslaw Kasirski, entitled "The Knight,'' this
piece was the subject of macabre treatment.
The story was written in

1942

when the recent

title "The Wooden Horse" was meant to symbol

outbreak of war was vivid in the author's mind,

ize a knight in chess seems obvious. At the

but was not published until

beginning we had been told about a wooden

a mental hospital on the eve of Hitler's invasion

horse - a toy on which the hero of our story went

of Poland. One of the patients is suffering from

galloping as a little hoy. This symbolized his

a specific type of persecution mania.

personality : the pampered son of a bourgeois

1957.

The scene is

"The light and dark chequered pattern of the

family, he had sat motionless on his wooden

parquet floor served as a chessboard. A man with

horse for hours, as he was not allowed to play

a large bald head was moving about it in careful

with other children. So the wooden horse symbol

j umps, with an expression of deep concentration

ized

on his face. The unreal-looking creature imagined

social isolation as well, something which

Scene from the sketch "Check and

Checkmate" from a variety pro
gramme " We're off to the Olympic
Games" at Cracow's Satirical
Theatre (1956) .

281

An illustration by Jerzy Skariy,iski

to Karol lrzykowski's play The
Victory."

himself as a knight of the chessboard. So it is not

surprising that he was known as "The Knight."
" ' Ha, ha! Our knight's off again,' said the
tall t1iin man known as 'Assistant Pieta,' bending
over the thickset figure of Doctor Punicki, while
the man-knight, having managed to get into the
'chequered' recreation room, began bis compli
cated expedition. Hardly had he crossed the
threshold when he bent his bald head over the
alternate coloured squares of the parquet and then
went forward in precise knight moves ; a sudden
jerk forward and sideways, always eventually
from white square to black, or from black to white
muttering the while 'Queen's knight's square queen's bishop three - queen five - king
six . . '
"Here and there he darted, skirting round
people met on the way, always keeping strictly to
the rules of the game.
"Doctor Punicki, a keen chess player, had
a special liking for tbis unfortunate man. As he
.

282

stood in the doorway, watching the patients under

bis care, people misunderstood by the world and
unable to understand it, bis glance always rested
a little longer on the bent back of 'The Knight,'
checking on the correctness of bis move and
guessing the next.
' 'The Doctor imagined sometimes that he was
at a real chessboard, that the patients and attend
ants were cl1essmen on a board delimited by the
knight, who tried not to go beyond bis chosen
sixty four squares.
" The others were only pawns, the only piece
on the imaginary chessboard being the knight,
always on the move, throwing bimself about
now here, now there. He decided how the game
was to be played, settling its course with lightning
decisions, eluding the player's hand, a living
thing moving automatically. He doubled and
trebled in the eyes of the onlooker, approached,
receded, played havoc among the sluggish
pawns . . .

"And sometimes it seemed to the doctor that

' ' . . . Where had he come from ? From the chess

instead of a bald human head, with long pointed

board of the empty recreation room. He had got

outstanding ears, he saw the stylized carved head

out by an adroit j urnp from the last eight-man

of a wooden knight."

group when it was going towards the death field

To see if it would help the knight to rid him

and played bis great game on the two-coloured

self of his obsession, the doctor ordered the fioor

squares. Nobody got in bis way, there was nothing

to be covered with unpatterned linoleum. When

the patient next carne in, he was greatly upset
to find bis squares gone :
" . . . Despair and helplessness were written on
bis face . . . He looked long and hard at the empty
fioor, at this smooth expanse that only yesterday
had squares of alternating colours to guide bis
eyes. He knelt on the fioor, his fingers feeling
the smooth linoleum, as if he were looking for
something in the dark. Finally he stood up,
straightened his back and, staring wild-eyed at
the ftoor, began to move forward. Uncertainly,
falteringly, he followed the well-beaten path of
the Knight, forward and sideways. lt was as
though he wanted to pierce through the pitiless
desert of linoleum with bis eyes, to see the squares
hidden beneath.
"And on and on he went, in the same old way,
but sad and silent. He even stopped murmuring
the names of the squares.
' 'Doctor Puniclci felt bis experiment had failed,
and ordered the linoleum to be changed back
again.
"Back in bis own world once more, the knight
went mad with joy. . . he danced a zig-zagged
dance of delight on the chequered ftoor that had
been charmed back into existence. Tbis was no
longer just chess, it was the dance of a knight
come to life. From that day on, he was happy
again . . . "
The writer goes on to deal with other characters

to hamper him in making the moves he had

worked out, so he zig-zagged happily and freely
across the fioor.
"Waves of melodious sound carne from the
radio on the table. Suddenly, the music stop
ped, a voice said : '" 'Attention! Attention! He
is on the way, P

27.'

"The knight stopped, lis

tened, and pondered, Here was something alien,

something invading the old
QB5,

Q7,

order of things :

KB6 he knew. This was something

new. He looked for a square P

not

find

it.

His

chess mind

27
was

but could
working

hard, going over the 64 squares. An idea occur

red to him. It was just a mistake.
board with a square marked

27

A chess

would have to

have several hundreds of squares. The knight

smiled. He returned to bis customary prog
ress.
" 'They have got through!' cried the radio.
' ' And again carne the whining waves of sound.
The knight moved rhythmically forward to the
beat of the music, he had resigned himself to
searching for square P 27, going beyond the bound
aries of the chessboard. Crosswise there were
now squares from A to

and beyond, even

beyond the mere alphabet; and the row

of

figures defining the squares lengthwise - they,

starting at one, went on to infinity.
"In the pursuit ofthat last number wbich would
mark the

boundaries

of the

chessboard, he

plunged on into infinity . . . the way led through

the door, down into the courtyard.

and confticts, but returns to the knight in the end.

"He stopped on the last step. Before him he

War broke out. German planes scattered death

saw a shell crater. He had to go round that.

and devastation. The mental hospital did not

"He had already covered the courtyard in bis

escape. The knight survived the bombing, emerg

imagination with a network of squares that now

ing from the building into the courtyard, which

extended into the distance without end. As he

was pitted with bomb craters.

moved on again, making the knight's moves

283

back,

about the adventures of sorne astronauts on that

terrified. There were sorne pieces lying about

without a

mistake,

he

suddenly drew

distant planet and here too enters an original chess

in his way.

theme. The conquerors of the Cosmos set up an

"Here was somebody lying in front of

him

observatory on Mercury. On the planet live

With a sudden shock, he saw a new sort of piece

strange creatures, the mysterious Bubbles who

it was a human body lifeless and inert . From

are able to change themselves into any shape that

it ran blood in a dark red stain into a pool from

human beings think of. So the astronauts are in

the battered head.

terrible danger as it is soon difficult to tell who

' 'He seemed rooted to the spot. He looked at

is really a member of the research expedition and

the pool of blood, at the battered human head,

who a double created by the Bubbles. At the end,

and then at the crater torn in the earth . He looked

when the chief of the expedition is writing his

round

him

and he saw more dead men.

' 'He moved towards the centre of the courtyard.

report to the Solar Energy Council, he looks

through the window and sees Bubbles changing

He was walking straight. It seemed to him that

into chessmen and jumping about around the

he had always walked that way. He didn't know

observatory. There are more and more chess

where he was... it seemed an unknown world.

pieces every minute. The members of the team

A terrible dead land... "

had been playing chess and, of course, thinking

From the world of cruel reality and pathological

delusions let us turn to the land of fairy tales and
then the realm of science fiction.

about the pieces.

In a story by the Frenchman Gerard Klein,
"Le Gambit des Etoiles," published in

1958,

In "Alice in Wonderland," which is known the

the action takes place in the distant future, after

world over, many of the characters were taken

man has conquered the Cosmos. Space ships

f rom a pack of cards. In the sequel, "Through the

manned by human beings are travelling at the

Looking-glass"

speed of light among the stars near the Milky

the

same

author

makes his

characters chessmen. For instance, among the

Way. The hero Jerg Algan undertakes a pioneer

white ranks we have Tweedledum and Tweed

expedition outside our galaxy to find whether

ledee as rooks, the Knight and the Unicorn as

there are living creatures in arcas hitherto un

knights, the Sheep and the Old Man as the

known to man. The key to these unknown arcas

bishops. The black men include Humpty Dumpty

is a strange chessboard, picked up in an antique

and the Lion as rooks, the Carpenter and the

shop on one planet, with symbolical drawings

Knight as knights and the Crow and the Walrus

on its squares. As the complicated story unfolds,

as bishops. Among the pawns we meet flowers,

higher beings living outside the Milky Way play

the Daisy, Rose and Tiger-lily, and animals, the

a game in which planets, stars, human begs

Frog, Oystcr and Fawn. At the beginning, Alice

and history are elements of a cosmic version of

does not belong to any side but, tempted by the

chess. The hero is treated as a gambit pawn in

possibility of winning a queen's crown, she agrees

a game between rival societies living in various

to be the white queen's pawn, starting from the

parts of the Milky

second square with the promise that she will be

reveals that chess was invented by beings with

Way.

Algan's expedition

come a queen when she reaches the eighth. Her

a culture superior to that of the human race,

journey up to the eighth square, the adventures

dating back a million years before man first

she has with the strange pieces she mects on her

inhabited the earth.

way in the land of chcss, make up the story.

In a fantastic story "Once on Mercury" by
thc British writer Clifford D. Simac, we read

284

Now we come to drama. Hcre we begin with

sorne excerpts from

Wolfgang Goethe's play

"Goetz von Berlichingen." The second act opens

in a room where the Bishop and Adelheid are

playing chess. Liebetraut plays idly on the zither.
(we quote Act. I, Scene 6 in John Arden's
adaptation).
' ' Bishop : Engaged to be married . . . I can hardly
believe it.
"Adelheid : You are not paying attention to the
game. Check!
"Bishop : Oh, yes, I am. I am feeling my way
into the moves, that is all.
"Adelheid : Unless you are more careful, there
will be no way left for you to feel. Check!
"Liebetraut : If I were your Eminence, instead
of merely the blower of your Eminence's majestic
nose, I should not only decline to play this game
myself, but I should forbid it altogether through
out my dominions.
"Adelheid : Why ?
"Liebetraut : It doesn't suit me, that's why.
"Adelheid : You are quite right : it does need
a keen brain.
"Liebetraut : That is not my reason. How
can a great Prince, who is given power and com
mand over his fellow men, endure to sit at a little
table and listen without rage to this continua!
nagging cry 'Check, check, check!' For who is
being checked ? His majesty himself. And who
is it who checks him ? K.nights, squires, fortified
castles, inferior clergy - it is the most subversive
game under Heaven!
"Adelheid : I have checkmated you!"
The author introduces two contrasting views
here, but Adelheid's belief that chess is a test
of mental abilities has been taken as Goethe's
personal opinion.
Plays have fairly often touched on a chess
theme. In sorne it has been prominent. In 1 876,
the Palais Royal put on a one-act play "A Game
of Chess" by Paul Ferrier. The play begins and
ends with a game of chess with which the events
have a direct metaphorical association. The
comedy carne out as a book the same year. The
principie was similar in a one-act vaudeville
show "The Game that was Won" by George

E. Vail, which was a great success (over 100 per

formances) when staged at the Paris Gymnase
Dramatique in 1892. The pseudonym "Vail" was
adopted by an American writer George Frost who
published another version of the play under his
real name. This version, entitled "Double Check,"
was published in 1909 as a supplement to the
French chess magazine "La Stratgie."
A most original tem was introduced into
a comic opera "Beat Philidor!" with music by
Amde Dutacq to the libretto by Abraham
Dreyfus. The first night was at the Opra Comique
in 1882. The story is not complicated, the
interesting idea is to create situations in which

11/ustration to Karol lrzykowski's play "The

Drawing by J. Skarzyski.

Victory."

285

the great Philidor tries his hardest to lose. But

do not let us spoil things by saying too much.
It is the year 1777. The scene is the famous
Caf de la Rgence in Paris. Philidor has just
won a game and is in an excellent humour.
A young musician Richard enters the caf.
He is depressed because of an unhappy love affair.
He wants to marry the beautiful Doris, daughter
of the caf proprietor Boudignot. The trouble is,
that Boudignot only agrees to let Richard marry
his daughter if he beats Philidor at chess. Of
course, this is a good as a straight "No!" Hearing
this, Philidor as a fellow-musician decides to
help him and lose to him He does not tell Doris,
pretending that he is going to play seriously.
The game starts in front of a crowd of on
lookers. Richard, nervous, blunders terribly and
Philidor has to be very careful not to win by
accident. In the next room Doris is singing.
Philidor recognizes the song as one of his own
compositions, listens, forgets his plans in a mood
of emotion - and wins.
What bad luck! All seems to be lost, but Phili
dor speaks bluntly to Boudignot, telling him that
if he does not let the young lovers marry he will
stop playing in his caf and go to Boudignot's
rival. Papa gives in and Doris finds happiness
with Richard, who proves a better musician than
chess player.
A little-known Polish play with a chess theme
is one written by Karol Irzykowski in his youth
and completely forgotten today, entitled "The
Victory." He began it in 1897, but only finished it
seven years later. It appeared in print in 1907
in a volume of collected poems and plays which
is a rarity today. It abounds in irony, wit and
humour, and for this reason a lot of it remains
topical, although to the modern reader it is too
overloaded with symbolism and too pretentious
in its psychology and philosophy.
The first act starts in the tent of the great
chief Sol who is discussing with the commanders
of his army plans for a decisive battle next day.
His most trusted commanders are called Blask
.

286

(Glare) and Plomie (Flame), and he, as "Sol,"

represents the sun and the day. Blask and Plo
mlen cannot agree about tactics. Sol reacts to
their quarrelling rather strangely : he disarms
them and packs them away into a box. His
strange behaviour is explained later.
Late that night, Queen Nox, "Patron of the
Dark," appears in Sol's tent via an underground
passage. She is the ruler of the town besieged
by Sol's army. Nox tries to charm him with her
beauty and persuades him to betray his comrades
and his cause, promising him love and the
sharing of her power. Sol refuses at first but his
resistance begins to weaken under the infiuence
of her charms. Passion turns him from a chief,
master of his thoughts and desires, into a submis
sive slave of this despotic dark-eyed woman.
Nox gains complete mastery over him and Sol
becomes an obedient lamb who does everything
the cunning queen of the dar k asks him to. And
now, the strangest chess themes begin to creep
m:

"SOL : I will betray our plans to you. Or even

better, 1'11 tell you how to win the battle. Here
is the battlefield. Sit down. (He brings a chess
board and sets out the men.)
"NOX : Wait, it's a little too dark here. (She
goes to the entrance of the tent, takes a few stars
from the sky and hangs them on the candela
brum.)
"Sol gazes thoughtfully at the board.
"Nox sits down besides him, then sits on his
knee, puts her arms round his neck and kisses
him.
"SOL : Now look, my queen. The moves so far
have been 1 P-K4 P-K4 2 N-KB3 N-QB3 3 B-N5
P-QR3 4 B-R4 N-B3 5 N-B3 P-Q3 6 P-Q4
B-Q2 7 BxN BxB B Q-K2 PxP 9 NxP B-Q2
10 Castles, B-K2 1 1 P-QN3 Castles 12 B-N2
P-QN4. Black' moves are not bad, he threatens
13 . . . P-N5 or 13 . . . P-B4.
"I now gave the order to make the thirteenth
move, P-QR4, but over-hastily, for 13 P-K5
would certainly have been better.

Sofonisba Anguisdola: "A Game of Che.ss" ( 1555). The picrure shows the painrer's three sisters and rheir o/d seroant. From
rhe collection of the Poznari Nati01Uil Museum.

2 87

"NOX : So things aren't so bad for me as

1 thought ?
"SOL : No, you are better off than 1 am for the
moment. The battle has only just begun (he
smiles). 1 like to give my enemy a little ground
so as to work up my own fury.
"NOX : And what next ?
"SOL : You play with my men and 1'11 play with
yours. 1 move 13 . . . P-N5, for instance.
"NOX : Then 1 could move the knight to Q1,
for example.
"SOL : Excellent! There will be retreat all
along the line now; see! 14 . . . P-B4.
"NOX : Very well, 15 N-KB3.
"SOL : Now we place the bishop on B3.
A further retreat is then essential, 6 N-Q2, after
which, by advancing the queen's pawn, you'll
eventually shut out my (white's) only bishop.
"NOX : Wait a minute, show me again, 1 was
too busy kissing you to attend properly.

"SOL : . . . You see, we can play against each

other tomorrow more or less like this : 1 make
this move, you make that, then 1'11 move this
way - are you listening ? Suppose we both
advance our king's bishops' pawns to the fourth ?
1 daren't make my moves too stupid . . .
"SOL : Your plan could be, for instance . . .
K-KR1, R-KN1, your other rook to QR2, so
that in due course, when you've advanced your
pawn from KN2, you could bring your rook
right across the board from QR2 to KR2. Can
you remember all that ?
"NOX : Yes, l've made dozens of attacks of
that kind against a castled king. Leave the tactics
to me ; I'll play with you like a cat plays with
a mouse and then smash you. My only request to
you is, leave me an open file or two, 1 love open
lines.
"SOL : Suppose White goes P-KR3 ? Then by . . .
P-KN5 and . . . PxP you can get your open line ?

"The Chess Players." Canvas by

an unknown Venetian painter of
1590 (Berlin-Dahlem, Staatliches Museum) .

288

Paris Bordoru's "Chess Play

ers," 16th century. (Berlin-Dah
lem, Staatliches Museum) .

"NOX : Yes, yes, 1'11 manage, it wi11 be quite

a stake to be whittled for Sol, in revenge for the

enough. 1'11 provide you with a shattering mate"

concessions she had made during the game of

(She nestles up to him.).

love. The battle begins, Sol conducting it in such

The first act then strays completely from chess

a way that his subordinates begin to suspect him

to love. The second act scene is "the battlefield,

of wanting to lose. Could this be betrayal ? Sol

a chessboard. On one side Sol's camp, on the

delivers orders with his eyes constantly straying

other the camp of Night, behind which can be

towards the queen. From the 1 3th to the 28th

seen the town, built apparently of blocks of

move, the game swings steadily in Nox's favour.

crystallized darkness. lt is a rainy morning. "

Preparations for battle begin in Sol's camp

His KN2 square is being bombarded with

bombs and grapeshot.

at dawn. To his comrades' surprise he demands

"SOL : Look at that now : what an interesting

not his sword but a mirror ; calls for his hair

way to be ruined! 1 seem to have seen those moves

d.resser, has himself sprayed with scent. His

somewhere before. l'm afraid nothing can save

disinclination for fight is further demonstrated

us.

by his saying a rusty sword will do and ordering

a soldier to hold an umbrella over him during
the battle. Meanwhile, in Queen Nox's camp,

"PLOMIE : How can you be so calm! (He

begins to weep.)
"SOL (With sympathy) : What is this, tears in

preparations are being made in grim earnest.

the eyes of a soldier ? Keep calm, general. Have

The four commanders, bearing the names of

another cigarette. We'll manage somehow.

NA, PO, LE, ON, are told the plan of attack in

"Enters a herald.

chess phraseology. The black queen orders ten

"HERALD : My queen and mistress, Nox, the

thousand pairs of manacles to be prepared and

most glorious, most generous of all, calls upon

289

An engraving by Da11iel Chodo

wiecki from the second half of
the 18th cenrury.

290

you, chief of the white spirits, to surrender, for

"NA: Sol is unable to reconcile himself to this

your situation is hopeless, as you must see your

unusual situation, he is putting up a despairing

self if you know anything about the play of

defence.

Lpez and Philidor.

"NOX : All the better - nobody can blame

"SOL: Tell your queen that 1 have surrendered

me for what 1 am going to do.

everything to her including myself but, for my

29 . . . PxP.

pride to be completely broken, 1 am hurnbly

"NA: But, your Majesty, wouldn't it have

awaiting a magnificent

instructive checkmate,

for in such a situation no true chess player

surrend.ers.
"PLOMIEN : What an answer!

been better to play 29 . . . P-N5 so as not to open

up the king's bishop's file for him ?
"ON: Or, for instance 29 . . . B-Rl and 29 ...
Q-QB3 . . . ?

"The herald takes the answer to the queen.

"NOX: Cowards! With your modernist day

"NOX: ls he joking, or does he really mean

dreams! 1 am keeping to the classical traditions

it . . . But it doesn't matter anyway, 1 have him

of the noble game and am playing for an open

in my hands. If he's pretending, all the worse

file myself. Do you realize what a noble sacrifice

for him. Give the order to fire! (lt gets darker

we might make on KN6 ? We must work out

and darker from the smoke of the cannonades.)

the combination later; it will be the crowning

"SOL (shouts): You forget, my sweet queen,

touch to the game we have played so well till now

that I have been given the power to rend your

that it may one day be quoted as a text-book

night apart with lightning. (Flashes of lightning

example in military academies.

light up the battlefield.)

The position reached is as in the diagram.

"On the white side:

"SO L: That's interesting - give me a chair!
The queen obviously hasn't realized what the
situation will be when 1 take this pawn. Rook bishop - the king in the corner. Ha! Now you
can rest, gentlemen. Give me that chair. (He sits
down.)
30 RxP R(N2)-N4
"SOL: Of course, we shall lose, gentlemen;
that is inescapable. 1 told you it would be my
wedding day today, there will be a great hall.
But we might as well make a fight of this game.
For instance, 31 BxP, PxB; 32 Rx Q P - ah!
we threaten two bishops. But Black could reply
32 - BxN.
"For the moment, we'll just move 3 1 R (K2)
KB2 if you have nothing against it, gentlemen ?

" 1 see a lot between the lines.

"For instance,

if we were to be able to follow

up with N-Q6, after exchanges on our Q6 and

KBS, we might well begin to advance ourselves
"SOL: Do not doubt, my queen, that 1 am
yours, whether conquered or conqueror, but l'm
not giving in yet. 29. P-KN3!

with P-KN4!
"NA: The lion has freed one paw from the
trap. What will happen now ?

291

"SOL

(still thinking hard) : But if 1 play

N-Q6 1 should leave my pawn on K5 unsup

ported - but Oh, that diagonal on to bis king!!

1 must think this over carefully. 32 Kt-Q6,

Q x P ; 33 N (Q2)-B4 . . . No! 33 N x P, N-R4
34 N X P, N x P and my knight on Q4 moves -

3 1 . . . N-N2

where ? She could reply - Q x B. If only my bish

"NOX : Look, how obvious it all is, how logi

op on QN2 were protected! (Shouts) What is

cal, simple and powerful. For the time being the

knight protects the pawn, and is going to KR4
either to gain the exchange or sacrifice on KN6.
Do you see my plan, gentlemen ?"

my bishop doing ?
"COMMANDERS (peering) : He's asleep.
"SOL : Wake him up, in case 1 want him
No . . . that's no good. . . but maybe B x QP .

by N-Q6 1 could

or ah! - Rx QP - 1 may have a terrible double

attack the pawn on my KB5 for the fourth time.

check at my disposal. True, that bishop remains

"SOL

(thinking) :

now,

But she could then capture my king's pawn ; or

unprotected. . . but double check! Where would

she could go 32 . . . N-R4 . . . But by sorne strange

my rook go ? To Q3 ? No good! 1 thought 1 was

chance 1 have a better defence than 1 expected.

beginning to see something, but now it has gone.

Fran;ois Boucher: "A Game of Chess '' (18th century) .

M. Duboy: "The Chess Player" (19th century) .

292

Ernest Meissonier: "A Game of

Chess," 1836. (Landesmuseum,
Hanover).

"NOX : Our enemy is thinking a long time.

He's obviously wondering whether to surrender

"HERALD (returning) : He told me to go to

the devil.

to at least avoid a shameful defeat. Let the herald

"NOX : . . . I wanted to makc peace, but now,

go to him once more. Herald, go and tcll the Chief

I wash my hands of it all. I'll have him on his

of the Whites that death awaits him if he does

knees in a few moves.

not surrender! We won't stand on ccremony

32 . . . Q X p

with him. Only immediate capitulation can save

"He's like a wolf. He secms to be tame as lamb,

him."

but becomes fierce at the sight of blood . . .

The Herald calls upon Sol to surrender, but

Sol, absorbed in the game, tells him "Go to the
devil!"

He suddenly gets an idea for a master

"SOL : Oh, oh! I forgot about. . . N-K3, I only

thought of the knight going to KR4.
"Well, it can't be helped, I'll play 33 N x P.

stroke. Perhaps move the knight to Q6 yet. He

If she now plays 33 . . . N-KJ I could lose, for in

analyses different versions of the move from all

stance

sides, muttering to himself. Finally :

34 R-R4, R x Pch! 35 P x R, B x R . . .

"SOL : . . . Victory! What a triumphal march . . .

what a miraculous vision ! . . . Cross-fire! . . . Several
positions won in one go . . . On that poor black
Queen - so free but so powerless. What are the

(To his commanders) :

Make that move for me but hesitandy, conveying the impression that we are terrified.
33 N x P N-R4

delights of love in comparison with the profound

"BLACK QUEEN'S STAFF : Bravo!

beauty of this combination! From what depths

"NA : I should have preferred 33 . . . N-K3.

of my soul has this idea arisen ? 32 N-Q6 !

"NOX (to the other generals, looking con-

293

Honor Daumier's rrchess Players"

(19th century),

temptuously at NA) : He was a good chess player

once, but he's getting old now. He's lost his
youthful drive.
"SOL : 1 thought she'd do that. Blinded by the
pretty picture of sacrificing on KN6, she doesn't
see anything else.
34 R x P
"NOX (surprised) : There is a flash of light
ning. What . . . how dare he ?
"NA : That is why you should have moved . . .
N-K3, your Majesty.
"NOX (furious, slaps his face) : No insolence!
Why are you all staring ? Wbat's the matter ?
you surely don't believe in his genius, do you ?
Block-heads! Don't you see it is mere despera
tion ? We shall go through with our plan.
34 . . . N x P. 35 N x N.
2 94

"NOX (contemptuously) : Of course! What else

could he do ? He is playing into our hands!
35 . . . R x Nch. 36 P x R R x Pch.
"SOL :

Yes,

all

according

to

programme.

1 shall lose - but only because of beauty :

I shall

fail as a conqueror whilst gazing at a vision.

"NOX'S STAFF : Bravo, bravo! Our queen
on K5 is serving us well.
"NOX : Telephone mother, tell her I 've won!
Put up posters announcing that Sol will be expect
ed tomorrow! 37 K-B I . He's going on! lt is
time to put an end to this nonsense. We capture
his helpless queen. Ho, there! I'm taking your
queen, White Chief!
37 . . .R x Q
"SOL :

l'm beginning to wonder whether

I ever really liked queens!

' 'NOX'S ARMY : Hooray!

Johann
Erdmann
Hummel:
"A Game of Chess'' at the
Berlin Palais Voss, 1818.

H. Bielski: "A Game of Chess"

(19th century) .

295

" NOX : And now we'll add sorne strong words

to that strong blow! ...

Sol is triumphant. The walls of the town crum

ble. His men go in pursuit and reach Nox's

Nox tries to ensnare Sol with incantations. He

retinue. Nox pleads for merey, but Sol is relent

seems to be falling under the spell of her hypnot

less and strikes her down with his sword. The

again but suddenly pulls hirnself

city of darkness is blown up. . . the blocks of

together and with a great effort, tearing hirnself

darkness dissolve and the whole town is enveloped

free f rom her ruinous fascination. " Here is my

in the ftame of sunbeams, and Sol drives off into

answer. Look at this, beast!"

the sun, followed by all those belonging to him.

ic charm

38 R-KN4! !!
There is confusion in the black camp. Nox is
so horrified that she cannot say a word, her army
is dumbfounded. Black's pieces flee in all direc
tions.
"NOX (finding her voice at last) : You traitor!

The triumphal comedy comes to an end.

Irzykowski added a long postscript :
" . . . In Act

1,

the hero sacrifices everything for

love; in Act 11, this passion is countered by an

intellectual passion which surges up in him to
bis own surprise, the zest for crystal-clear pres

That game will be declared invalid at an inter

entation of an artistic idea. Now Sol sacrifices

national congress! He suggested those moves to

everything to this.

me himself - he got me entangled in bis net -

"In spite of the play's whimsical framework,

what cunning, what treachery, how vile! Even

the basic idea is followed logically and in Act 1 1

history may take his side! Oh, what despair!

i t i s taken t o its lirnit. 1 wove a game o f chess

Oh, my mother! (she flees.)."

into the play because 1 could not be satisfied

Artur MarkOfJJicz: "A Game of

Chesr (19th century) . From the
Cracow Nati01Ud Museum.

296

Wolff: "A GamtJ ojCluss," a 19th

century lithograph.

with sorne cheap allegory to convey the intellec

the game as somehow kind.red to my idea. But

tual passion I wanted to depict . . . I wanted to

almost all the explanations of the game are my

convey this passion with its speci.fic atmosphere,

own, particularly where it is not a question of

to show the birth of the idea as a stroke of genius,

pragmatic evaluation of the moves, but of the

coming like a flash of lightning from the blackness

psychology of creative thinking in chess ; for it

of the clouds . . . the material originally collected

meant going to the root of a chess genius's ideas,

for this purpose was not suitable because I had

reducing to words the equivalent of complicated

practically no idea of war technique ; so I substi

and subtle processes of thought. Of course, only

tuted a gam.e of chess, which can convey much

a true chess player can enter tls magic circle in

of the atmosphere of warfare and of which I had

which sparks of fantasy by the thousand flash

a good theoretical and practical knowledge having

up and disappear unused before the right idea

played it for years. The game played is not my

is born in a flash of genius. But 1 think that even

own invention, but one from the tournament at

he who is ignorant of chess will feel what I want

Hastings

1 895

between Tarrasch and Waldbrodt,

to convey if only he does not throw aside 'The

two of the most famous players of the day.

Victory' impatiently saying 'What's tls ? A chess

That game seemed so strange and eloquent an

textbook ?' ... "

awakening of the lion, that I could never have

lt is because we agree with the author that we

written 'The Victory' without it. Today, I cannot

took the liberty of quoting such large excerpts

remember whether the idea for the play carne to

from the play.

me through the infiuence of that game or whether

the idea carne first and then 1 associated it with

Other fields of art than literature have featured

chess.

297

Stanislaw Maslowski: "An Arab Coffee-House" (1912) .

Marcin Samlicki: "A Game of Chess" ( 1934) .

One very original composition is "The Chess

Players" by the Dutch painter Lucas van Leyden,
dated 1 508. A woman is moving a black knight.
The artist has depicted very finely the characteris
tically poised hand over the board. The faces
of the players and spectators bear interestingly
varied expressions ; sorne absorbed, sorne allow
ing their attention to wander.
An unknown Venetian painter of 1 590 depicted
two players bent over the board, engrossed in the
final moves of a game. The rich ornamentation of
the walls, sumptuous splendour of their clothes,
particularly the headwear, not to mention the
presence of a small dog, made a lively contrast
with the restraint and immobile calm of the
players.
Paris Bordone (16th century) gave his picture
a more stately character. Here the chessboard is

only a pretext for posing two persons for a portrait.

In the background there is a park, buildings,
and a group of card players.
All three of these pictures are in the former
Royal Gallery in Berln.
Chess paintings are rare in galleries of Poland
but in the National Museum at Poznal is a valu
able one in oils by the well known ltalian woman
painter Sofonisba Anguisciola (1527-1623). lt
shows a group of women, the three sisters of the
artist and their old maidservant, bent over a board.
On the left is Lucia (another painter), on the
right, Minerva, and behind the table, the young
est sister Eugenia. This picture, entitled "A Game
of Chess" was purchased in Paris by Count
A. Raczynski in 1824 from the collection left by
L. Bonaparte. lt is perhaps one of the most beau
tiful canvasses with a chess theme ever painted.

298

The annual national exhibitions constantly offer

new d.rawings and paintings about chess ; but

clowns. The whole picture radiates an atmosphere

of serenity and contentment.

those illustrating the game in really fresh and

The outstanding French painter Ernest Meisso

original ways either in subject or form, are rare.

nier exhibited his picture "A Game of Chess"

1836 where it aroused general

We usually find scenes in club-rooms or portrait

in a Pars salon in

studies of players and onlookers. Pictures from

interest in the hitherto unknown artist and was

past centuries seem much more varied and inven

eventually sold for two thousand francs. Seven

tive.

years later, his picture "Three Friends" brought

One painting in oils by the contemporary

Polish artist Eugenia Rza.ska "Playing Chess,"
however, does have an unusual approach ; the

the artist thirty thousand. So chess started him

on a profitable path.
Finally, the cinema. Pride of place goes to

intellectual character of the game is contrasted

a film made in

with the clothing of the players, who are circus

tion with

Zygmunt Kowalewski: "Young Chess Players'' (1954) .

1925 by V. Pudovkin, in collabora

N. Shpikovsky, called "Chess Fever."

Danuta Rewkiewicz: "A Chess Problem" pen drawing (1940) .

299

Eugenia Rzaska: "A Game of Chcss" (1957) .

300

This was the first film-directing effort of Pudov

This "Chess Fever" Pudovkin put on the screen

kin's career. All Moscow was agog at the time

was made at lightning speed. Shots were taken

over an international chess tournament there. The

in the streets of Moscow, the roving camera

hero of the day was Capablanca, an immensely

popular personality among the Muscovites. The

catching the mood of the tournament fans as

they analysed the games on pocket chess sets,

tournament aroused wider interest than could

discussing positions that had arisen. The camera

have been expected, the games being followed

penetrated to the very threshold of the tourna

attentively by chess players and laymen alike.

ment hall ; its roving eye swept round the new

People everywhere were talking about the games,

Hotel Metropol, where the tournament was held.

in the streets, in the trams and in their homes.

Capablanca took part in one of the episodes.

"Chess." A composirion by Juan Gris.

301

Scerus from a rwo-act Soviet film comedy "Chess Fever" produced in 1 925 by Vsetolod Rudovkin and N. Shpilwvsky, a satire
mania for chess linked up with an internacional cluss tournament taking pklu in Moscow at that tim.

302

on

Scene from the German film "11/usion".

Scene from the French film Beauty and the Bewt".

Skillful montage nngled authentic shots with

staged ones.
This short two-act film, to which Pudovkin did
not anach any importance at first, treating it as
a great joke, made him as a producer. lt proved
a very successful effort in a realistic comedy.
Kempelen's famous Chess Automaton became
the subject of two feature films, as we have
mentioned.
In a Czechoslovakian comedy film "Wedding
with Obstacles" made in 1950 by Miroslaw Cikan,
the main character is a young mechanical engi
neer played by Wladimir Raz, whose hobby is
solving chess problems.
An unusual game of chess is the motif on which
the Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman based
his dramatic film "The Seventh Seal" in which
a mediaeval "morality" touches on the philosophy
of life.
A Swedish knight Antonius returns from the
Crusades. A plague has swept over Europe
spreading fear and uncertainty everywhere. An
tonius, tortured by doubts about the very existence
of God, and seeing all around him destruction

and the injustices of fate, challenges Death to

a game of chess. The stake is his life. lf he wins,
perhaps Death will reveal to him the secret of
existence. . . By distracting Death's anention,
he manages to save the family of a wandering
actor from ruin. . . He perishes, without finding
the answer to his question "ls sorne superhurnan
power directing the chaos of destruction and
scourging mankind with the plague ?" He saves
others by sacrificing himself. He beats Death
but loses hirnself.
The game is the film's main theme. Death
appears as a mysterious wanderer clothed in
a black cloak. The idea of the film carne to Berg
man from sorne old frescoes in a linle rural church
near Stockholrn. An unknown mediaeval painter
had depicted Death at a chessboard, in
several scenes, culminating in the garne with
a Knight.
A beautiful, ingenious film about chess, the
only one of its kind ever made, showing the garne
in progress without the players, was produced
by a German amateur film-maker, Richard
Groschop in 1936 "The King's Little Tragedy."

303

Scene from the Polish film "The Deserter."

Scene from the French-ltalian film "The Valga Boatmen.'

The chessmen moved about by themselves. The

There is a flash on the horizon. The battle

film won prizes and d.istinctions at international

begins. The infantry moves forward, the opposing

competitions (among others, at Lww in 1 938)

sides clash with stubborn hand-to-hand fighting.

and was subsequently shown throughout Europe.

The black knight jumps towards the king and

It opens with a picture of an empty board. Out

queen. He attacks the queen who is killed in

of the darkness, a white standard-bearer emerges.

trying to shield her consort. The knight carries

In the background we see the white army. . .

the queen from the battlefield.

Then comes the black standard-bearer. We

The black queen joins in the fray. She puts

glimpse the black king. War has been declared.

the king in check. The white king retreats. The

The white chessmen are standing ready to go

lights go dim. The black bishop goes into attack.

into battle . An offi.cer (a knight) inspects the

The white king dodges him, but another aggressor

ranks. Then the stone figures of the chess army

appears - the black knight.

. .

begin to move forward over the vast chequered

expanse.

304

lt gets darker and darker. The white king is

surrounded. He surrenders. The black men form

Two scenes from the Polish anirnated cal"toon film "The Tournament,"
directed by Nehrebecki with dcol" and costumes by Jerzy Zitzman, 1959.

a lane along which the conquered king slowly

walks off the battlefield. The white flag is lowered
from its mast...
Then the lights go up. The little tragedy of the
little king has been acted to the end. This film
poem was brought to life by stone chessmen.
We have seen a game of real "living chess,"
such as could never be acted by people dressed
up for a masquerade ; the entire spectacle was
acted by the chessmen "in person," in a way
that could be achieved only on film.
Hans Richter, the well known German pro
ducer of experimental films, in
called

"8 x 8",

1957

made a film

in which he transposed c))ess

elements by means of different associations of

ideas and visual effects, linking a game of chess
with eight episodes of a strange story. He gave
sound a special artistic function in this film ; for
instance, in the scene where a pawn (Jean Coc

Scwe jrom the American film cccasablanca" (1943) .

teau) advances across the chequered battlefield to

be promoted to a queen, instead of a musical
background we hear a voice telling us how a pawn
moves. The voice hurries or relaxes accordingly as
the pawn speeds along or slows down. In another
episode the director himself appears on the board
playing against himself. He makes a mistake and
finds himself in an awkward situation.

The

trumpet accompaniment to the action suddenly

stills and begins to repeat itself like a cracked
gramophone record. Finally he finds a way out
of his troubles and the trumpet resumes its
interrupted melody.

" . . . A huge chessboard hangs over the lawn,

swinging on a massive tree. The only pieces on
it are the white queen and J ulien ; they are painted
on it.

"AH the shots are taken through the leaves of

the tree. Julien offers the queen a bow and arrows,
but she does not want to take them and flinches
away. He raises the bow and shoots.

"A close up : The arrow hits the white q ueen on

the chessboard. The live queen shudders, for an
identical arrow pierces her breast . . . "
The film continues with numerous associations

Scene from the French jilm "The Condemned" (1948).

305

Scene from the Polish film "Signals" (1959) .

In the SO'IJietfilm "The New Adventures of Puss-in-Boots" the

decor and costumes are based on chess and playing card motlfs.

A shot from Hans Richter's experimenta/film ''8

3 06

8" (1957) .

of a surrealist character and the chess motif typi

fies predestinations ; man is moved about in space
against his own will.
Carroll's story "Through the Looking-glass, "
is echoed in a Soviet fairy tale-film (1958)
directed by A. Rou, "The New Adventures of
Puss-in-Boots." A little girl Luba is to play the
part of the Princess in the school play "Puss-in
Boots," but suddenly runs a temperature and
falls ill. After taking her medicine she drops off
to sleep. On her bed, near her, is a kitten, and,
on the table, a dusty chessboard with chessmen
scattered over it. The strangest things happen.
We hear music in the distance and the chessmen
come to life, turning into human figures. Luba
becomes queen, her unele the king. A lot of action
takes place in the kingdom of chess. The castle
and its rooms are decorated with chess motifs.
lts courtyard is an enormous chessboard on
which tournaments are held.
A Polish animated cartoon film "Tournament,"
produced by W. Nehrebecki after a project by
J. Zitzman, had many original points.
The characters personify chessmen; grotesque
happenings take place during a tournament be
tween the armies of the white and black kings on
the chequered courtyard of the castle. The battle
is waged in violent tempo but strictly according
to the laws of chess. The kings are constantly
quarrelling over their rivalry for the hand of
a certain lady, who prefers to lavish her favours on
a little squire-pawn. After a stubborn battle,
the kings make up their quarrel, but during the
feast that follows it breaks out anew and the two
hostile armies face each other once again on the
black and white chequered courtyard.
We have come back to our starting point.
The film puts amusing emphasis on the essence
of chess : the repeated battles between the same
two chess armies, repeatedly re-forming for a fresh
conflkt no matter how the last one has ended.
As chess goes on daily throughout the world,
one thing is sure, that it will inspire many a writer,
painter and producer yet.

In a Polish animated cartoon film "The Tournament" by Wladyslaw Nehrebecki, the scene is a world of animated chessmen. The
decor and costumes were designed by Jerzy Zitzman (1960) .

Two scenes jrom "The Tournament": LEFT, the White Pawn, happy admirer of the beautiful Queen,jor whosefavours two suirors,
the White and Black Kings, are cumpering (RIGHT) .

307

XI. CHESS CURIOSITY BOX

A bas-relief showing a jox and wolj with a chessboard. An ornamental stove tile of Czech manufacture from the early 15th century.

310

BLINDFOLD CHESS
A strong chess player's powers of calculation
and concentration have often been admired.
Blindfold play has been regarded as quite phenom
enal.
In "blindfold" chess the playcr docs not sec the
board and the men but must rcly on his memory
of the various positions that arisc. He is told his
opponent's move in a recognized systcm of nota
tion and, in reply, works out and announces his
own. The moves of the game are made on a "con
trol'' chessboard. If both players are playing
"blindfold" the referee or the two players'
representatives sit at the board.
Anybody who knows the concentration callcd
for in ordinary chess will realize what extraordi
nary demands are made by a game played in the
memory. A good memory is, of course, an essen
tial.
A good imagination is needed, also the ability
to register the various chess positions in the rnind
as though they were being filmed. Great players
have taken on not merely one, but dozens of
opponents, blindfold at the same time. They
must register the situation in each game sepa
rately in the mind and also envisage the possible
further developments from each position in
every game.
Leading chess players have often possessed
excellent memories. Alekhine, for instance, after
having played twenty-five or thirty simultaneous
games, could re-enact the course of each game
a few days la ter. Rubinstein could recall from
memory thousands of the games he had played
from the moment he started participating in such
meetings. Botvinnik, former world champion,
remembers severa! thousand games and a very
large number of opening moves.
An expert's specialized memory may be much
superior to his everyday memory.
In prvate life, apart from chess, Alekhine's
memory was not remarkable ; he was absent
minded, he was often to be seen searching in all

his pockets for the spectacles he was always

losing. Absorbed in solving the chess problems,
he was reluctant to come down to everyday
life.
During onc of his simultaneous blindfold
displays Alekhine, a big smoker, felt for and
took out a cigarctte but could not find a match
box in Jny of his pockets.
"Could you lend me your matches," he asked
a spectator, "I've left mine at home. Isn't it
strange what a bad memory l've got ?"
An anecdote is one thing, facts are another.
\'\Tith his "bad" memory Alekhine once played
32 opponents blindfold at once, establishing a new
world record. The session !asted twelve hours,
the then world champion winning 19 games,
losing four, and drawing nine. This was at the
Chicago world exhibition in 1933. One newspaper
commentator wrote : "This record of his is surely
the limit of the possibilities of the human mind
and human memory in this field. Beyond this
limit there can be nothing but chaos and madness
begins."
This was certainly an extraordinary, and almost
disturbing event. Simultaneous blindfold chess
had been known for centuries, but never so many
games at a time. The Saracen Buzecca played two
blindfold games simultaneously in Florence in
1266 with a good result.
Blindfold chess in Ruthenia was mentioned by
Lukasz Grnicki, a Polish writer of the 16th
century, in his book "The Courtier." "Obviously
in Moscow they do not pracise it much and yet
they play chess very well, sorne of them even play
from memory, during a journey."
Philidor's blindfold feats caused great astonish
ment. A description of the three blindfold games
he played in London in 1788 has survived to our
times. He gave odds of a move ; his weakest
opponent was given a pawn as well. He won the
first game in 51 moves, the second in 47 and the
third in 59.
Morphy once played eight games blindfold,
winning seven. A detailed description has sur311

Paul Morphy in simultaneous

blindfold play against eight
opponents at the Caf de la
Rtgence in Paris; a contemporary engraving.

vived, supplemented by a drawing showing him

in play against the eight best chess players of
Paris. This was in the famous Paris Caf de la
Rgence in 1858, the engagement lasting over
ten hours. He sat in an armchair with his back
to the room and did not stop playing for a mo
ment, gazing at a blank wall all the time. After
seven hours or so he took up the offensive on
every board. One after another his adversaries
resigned, only two managing to draw. An enrap
tured journalist wrote : "Morphy has proved
himself superior to Caesar, in that, he carne, he
did not see, he conquered." But, as a result of
overstrain, Morphy had to give up blindfold
chess, which is detrimental to health, as we shall
mention later. He died at the age of 47, the victim
of delusions.
The Russian chess champion Tchigorin de
monstrated simultaneous blindfold play more
than once. In 1884 and 1885 he gave two sessions
in St. Petersburg, the first time against eight
312

adversaries (winning 7 games, drawing one),

and the next against nine players (seven wins,
one draw, and one lost). There is sorne interesting
data showing how rapidly a chcss player tires
during such a display. Playing eight members
of the St. Petersburg chess club blindfold in 1892,
Tchigorin announced 58 moves in the first hour
of play, 38 in the second hour, but only twenty
to twenty five moves per hour after that ; never
theless his powers of concentration were demon
strated by the fact that after twenty moves he
told one of his adversaries he would checkmate
him in another five.
Emanuel Lasker, 26 years World Champion,
also tried blindfold chess, taking on six opponents
simultaneously about 1899 but he gave it up
because of the nervous exhaustion it entailed.
The American Harry Nelson Pillsbury encount
ered sixteen opponents, among them a blind
man and a good player named Montalvo, at
Havana in 1900. Two years later in Hanover, he

played

21

games, the demonstration lasting from

p.m. to two o'clock in the morning. Later in

America he reached his maximum of

making bis

1 7th

25.

Once,

move, he announced a forced

mate in eleven.

1898,

1 have worked out a mncmonic system of my own

which helps me to remember each garne sepa
rately. When 1 begin, 1 try to link whole groups
of boards with the sarne opening moves; for in

Janowsky, on bis way to make a tour of America

in

in memory and make the next move mentally.

played friendly games on board ship.

stance, the first five of each ten chessboards. Ac

cording to my opponents' replies, different open

Thc ship's logbook records that he playcd whist

ing

and blindfold chess simultaneously, winning at

of departure helps me to trace back the course

both.

of the game."

variations

arise,

but the common point

Another kind of "blindfold" chess was demon

In this way the various games played become

strated by two Berln players Bordeleben and

imprinted in the memory like different varia

Cohn in

1 909.

They played, consulting with

each other, against

21

tions of the same musical theme, so to speak.

opponents. To make their

The player does not have to remember the situa

they

meanwhile,

tion on the board in a given moment, but he

A now forgotten Polish chess player of the

Every infringement or deviation from the actual

second half of the Iast century, Maczuski, was

course of the game will "sound" as a false note .

a master of blindfold chess. Against a certain

Stefan Zweig in his farnous "Chess Story" com-

task

more

difficult

played,

a blindfold game with each other.

Mazzo1ani in Ferrara in

1876,

on the

must be able to reproduce the "melodic line."

18th

move

he announced mate in eleven moves . He also won

a match in Amiens without sight of board and
men, against a group of players consulting to
gether.
Another chess player of Polish origin, George
Koltanowski, claimed to have established the
world record in blindfold simultaneous chess in

1 937.

34 op
24 games, drew
almost 14 hours with

When in Edinburgh, he took on

ponents blindfold at once. He won

ten, the event lasting for

three short breaks. He drank a lot of hot milk

during the exhibition and smoked innumerable
cigars. For beating Alekhine's record, which had
been thought impossible, Koltanowski received
f

1,000

from a prvate patron . He admitted that

only financia} considerations had induced him

to undergo such a mental and nervous strain .
After the exhibition he was asked by journal

34
2176

ists how he could remember the course of

games, involving

1088

men moving on

squares.
He answered : "1 haven't got a good sight mem
ory, but I can remember moves well. Before
each move 1 reconstruct the course of the game

"And Daddy makes out that it's quite hard to play chess
blindjold !" ( L'Echiquier de Paris").
"

313

Najdorf, a Pole b y birth, Argentine by naturaliza

tion, broke the record of blindfold simultaneous
play, which had remained unchallenged for many

1 947, he gave a demonstration in

45 opponents which !asted
nearly 24 hours. He won 39 games, drew four

years when, in

Sao Paulo against

and lost two. It must be added, however, that the

adversaries in this unique session were not on
the same standard as, for instance, Alekhine's or
Rti's in their greatest displays.
Najdorf's record was only beaten in

1961 when
52

a young Hungarian, Janos Flesch, took on

first-class players in Budapest. He dictated the

moves through a microphone, sitting with his
back to the hall. After twelve hours of strained
effort he won

31 games, drew 18 and lost 3.

1 9 1 8 a monograph on

J. Mieses published in

the history and psychology of blindfold chess.

On the basis of bis own observations, he maintain
ed

that

this

kind of play is detrimental to

health, a mere show, and no true contribution to

the art of chess at all.
Another interesting statement is that by the
uA difficult end-game." French gravure of rhe mid-19th

century after Paul Gavarni's drawing.

Russian master A. Petrov, who, as early as

1858,

wrote : "It's easier to dive for pearls than to play

chess like this. Chess thought gains nothing from
it. If somebody can play well without seeing the
board, he can certainly play better seeing it. So
blindfold chess is more like a trick, for public

pares the skill of "blindfold play" to the virtu

entertainment. Chess is a noble art in itself; it

osity of a composer or conductor who inwardly

does not need such tricks which, amazing as they

"hears" the music without an orchestra and can

may be, are not of any real value."

The French psychiatrist Alfred Binet conducted

conduct without a score. An article was published

1894,

in a French chess magazine whcre the author med

large-scale research into blindfold chess in

itated on certain analogies between a piece of

collecting scientific data about it for the first

music and a game of chess, seeing a similarity in

time in chess history, based on measurements of

the fact that both develop in time. Only a person

the nervous reactions of players and answers to

who has the gift of reproducing very short-lived

particular situations can memorize melodies and

a doubt that the mental strain involved in severa!

chess games.

hours of concentrating of the mind and attention

J. Mieses and Richard Rti werc good blind

questionnaire.

The results proved

without

was almost pathological.

fold players. The latter vied in this respect with

In the Soviet Union, the problem of "blindfold"

Pillsbury, Alekhine and Najdorf, the acknow

chess playing was examined from the scientific

ledged masters of it in their day. Mieczyslaw

point of view in the inter-war years. Players were

314

S:..

- - )
_-:;-

(__ - - cC'

"1 1zow move my bishop from KB5 to KR 7 and you are mated.,

Cartoon by Z. Lengren.

subjected to examination by psychiatrists. The

chess,

however,

the

concentration

is

of

researchers stated that master's blindfold chess

excessively long duration and this is detrimental

memory would be explained by their special train

to health.

ing as a kind of professional memory, based on

Blindfold chess was consequently officially for

1 930. Alekhinc

a thorough knowledge of the subject, similar to that

bidden in the Soviet Union in

of musicians, philologists and even post office

himself expressed the opinion that it "had an

officials. The ability for exceptional concentration

adverse effect on one's play, distorted the line

of attention, so greatly admired by the uniniti

of thought and style of play considerably."

ated, is no greater than the ability shown by

Leading Soviet chess champions never indulged in

many brain workers in other fields. In blindfold

it ; they did not believe it had any training value,

3 15

Paris plays Vienna by telegraph, 1894: the scene at the Paris end (Caf de la Rgence) . Engraving after an on-the-spot drawing
by Motty. In the lower right-hand corner is Rosenthal with Tchigorin facing him.

316

acknowledging only its specific and spectacular

without. Seeing the position not only was no help

character.

bt:t only disturbed him.

So much for blindfold chess, our first chess

The so-called "chess blindness" often talked

about among players is another thing altogether .

"curiosity."
Contrary to common belief, really blind chcss

It is a symptom of overstrain. Exhausted by nerv

players do not play "blind" in the way described

ous effort and concentration a player is blind

above but finger chessmen to get the situation

to a threatened danger, does not see a chessman

on the board. Their chessmen are pegged into

or takes it for anothcr. Or chess blindness may

a special slotted board, as in sets used for play

makc him analysc complicated lines of play, when

whilst travelling, the white men differing from

the move he should make is obvious.

the black, e.g., by having little spikes which are

easily discernible to the touch.
Blind chess players, howcver, have sometimes

Or after thinking for a long time the victim

hands his opponent a piece for nothing. Beware
of overstrain yourself at chess, for the best opti

played from memory alone.

cian in the world cannot cure you of chess blind

An interesting thing happened in France in

1865. A blind old man, who lived in the village

ness.

of Ariege, was an excellent player, and never

CHESS BY POST

used any sort of men or board.

60, his sight was restored. Now

Playing at a distance, that is sending movcs

he could look at the board but he played better

by post or telegraph, first developed towards

At the age of

bz

the Spanish film "Calabuig"

(1956) the parson plays the light
house keeper by telephone.

317

the end of the last century. The increased speed

the USA, also Britain, France, Australia, Spain

of the mails and the invention in turn of the

and the Argentine by wireless.

telegraph, telephone and wireless, gradually made

Sorne people regard correspondence chess as the

it possible to play individual and collective chess

ideal form of the game, eliminating as it does the

garnes between more and more distant localities.

distraction of the dock, which may ruin a good

As early as the 1 830's, chess clubs in Berlin and

garne; eliminating too the influence of nerves,

Magdeburg

indisposition, etc. Another advantage of playing

conducted

chess

tournarnents

by

correspondence. (Even earlier, Edinburgh and

by correspondence is the possibility of trying one's

London had played a famous match by post -

hand against strong adversaries one would perhaps

B. H. Wood.) Krupski, author of the first Polish

never otherwise meet. Anybody can play with

textbook on chess wrote in the second edition of

anybody ! Distance ceases to be an obstacle.

his "Chess Strategy," dated 1844, about a match

Correspondence chess players form one big

played by correspondence between Berln and

world-wide farnily. They are associated in an

Pozna. The first tournament contested by tele

international federation. Periodicals have been

phone was that between London and Liverpool

devoted to correspondence play ; e.g.

in 189 1 . In the early years of this century, a series

schach," originally a supplement to "Kagans Neu

"Fern

of cable matches between Britain and America

este Schachnachrichten" but for many years

aroused wide interest. Mter the second world

since known as a publication in its own right,

war there were matches between the USSR and

and "Mail Chess," published awhile in various

languages from Yugoslavia, as the official organ
of the International Federation of Mail Chess
Players. One of the most enthusiastic propa
gators of mail chess was Dr. Eduard Dyckhoff, Ger
man chess club activist and an excellent player
who died in 1 949.
A giant Dyckhoff Memorial Tournament was
organized, from 1 954 to 1 956 with 1,860 chess
players from 33 countries.

As many as 8,856

games were played in this one event.

An amusing episode based on playing chess at
a distance occurs in the Spanish film "Calabuig''
directed by Luis G. Berlanga. A lighthouse keeper
is playing a curate by telephone. The clergyman
uses a textbook to help him. The hero of the
film, Professor Harnilton, suggests a better queen
move to the lighthouse keeper. The keeper sends
the bener move and wins. The priest, very indig
nant, accuses his adversary of trickery and sub
sequently remarks that people who cheat at chess
will not go to heaven.
In the Polish film "Gangsters and Philantrop
In rhe English film "Mandy" (1952) , rhe grandfather of the
little girl Mandy plays a lot of chess by post, getting moves
every day.

318

ists" by Jerzy Hoffman and Edward Skrzewski,

the first in a series of short stories - comical
parodies of criminal and gangster films - presents

Prisoners in a Nazi concentration

camp playing with chessmen made
of white and brown bread; a scene
from the Yugoslavian film "Campo
Mamula" (1959) .

the boss o f a gang (starring Gustaw Holoubek),

and with them the rcsponsibility of pocketing

nicknamed "Professor" for his "scientific" meth

or paying up the stakes, often no trifte.

ods in planning bank robberies. The gangster

B ut why look as far back as the Middle Ages ?

enjoys a frequent game of chess played through the

In the last century two Americans took no less

phone with his regular opponent. . . an examining

than 25 years over one gamc! They began corres

magistrate, who is not aware of the real identity

ponding in 1 850 and did not finish the game until

of his opponent. When the "Professor" is away

1875. We don't know how many letters were ex

on managing a bank-car robbery a tape recorder

ch:mged but the postage. must have cost a lot.

ingeniously attached to his telephone answers the

Players have tried to save money by getting

anticipated single move of the magistrate, thus

round thc postal regulations. The simplest way

providing for the

was to write the move under the stamp. The card

champion-gangster an easy

alib which, as the future course of events shows,

itself could then be sent as printed matter, the

proves pointless.

text being of no importance. A most involved sys

References to matches played by correspond

tem cntailcd sending the movc in a code embodied

ence by Venetians occur in old Italian books. Their

in the name and address of the sender. Fictitious

opponents were in neighbouring towns but occa

house, flat and telephone numbers were added

sionally as far away as Dalmatia. The mails were

to indicate the move in accordance with the code.

so slow that games often went on for many years.

Cryptograms virtually impossible to decipher

In their last wills and testaments, fathers were

consisted in slightly lowering or raising letters in

known to instruct their sons to take over games

the recipient's name and address.

319

The telegraph, in which each word has to be

Before this happens, the traditional telegraph

paid for, set harder problems. But the ingenuity

cum-telephone device will continue advantage

of a dedicated chess player is amazing. At the

ously to serve in playing this game at a distance.

end of the last century a London player named

To such a combination of telephone and teletype

Anthony published a code in the form of a unique

resorted the American champion Robert Fischer

dictionary in which each word stood for a dif

in order to be able to participate in the Capablanca

ferent move, 848 in all. Television opens up new

Memorial Chess Tournament at Havana in the

prospects. A radio telephone, supplemented by

summer of 1 965. Having been refused by his au

a TV set, would allow two players hundreds of

thorities a permission to go to revolutionary Cuba,

miles apart to play each other, almost as though

Fischer resolved ostentatiously to take part in the

they were sitting at the same board.

contest by applying to the lnternational Chess

Federation with the request for their consent to
bis playing a correspondence game from a distance
with the observance of

all the specific rules

prescribed for normal competitions. Thus he was

Cotrad of Swabia and Frederick of Austria hear the death
sentence wlrilsr playing chess in prison. A late 18th century
engraving by Daniel Chod(}fl)iecki.

prevented from consulting handbooks, obtaining

advice, or taking bis time at will.
He was seated in a small room at the Marshall
Chess Club in New York where under the control
of a referee he played a game with an opponent at
Havana. As the players' moves were known at the
other end of the line in about

10 seconds, the game

proceeded at almost normal pace. His success in

securing fourth place in a strong international
tournament at a great distance from the playing
venue aroused tremendous interest throughout
the world.
It was the first time in the history of chess
tournaments that a player situated outside the
official scene of play directly took part.

IN PRISON AND PRISON CAMP

People deprived of freedorn, those in exile, in
prison or prisoners of war, have in every age
found chess not only an entertainment and a way
of taking their minds off painful reality, but a test
of character and mental abilities, a way of helping
them to bear and stand up to the stresses of life.
lt is said that the inhabitants of the village
of Stroebeck in Germany owe their passion for
chess to the Slav duke Guncelin who was taken

320

Heinn'ch Wilhelm Tischbein:

Conrad of Swabia and Frederick
of Austria Juar tlu death sen
tence while playing a game of
chess in prison. Oil painting
( 1 784) from tlu Gotha Schloss
Museum.

prisoner by the Germans in 1 068, and who was

the vcrdict was communicated to him, and he

so passionately fond of chess that he persuaded

went on with the game as though nothing had

his guards to play with

him.

happened. Another version has it that the story

The situation of the Inca ruler of Peru, Prince

concerns Conrad of Swabia and Frederick of

Atahualpa, who was imprisoned by the Spanish

Austria. These scenes have been described in num

conquistadors during the conquest of South Amer

erous

ica in the 16th century, was curiously ditferent.

subject for severa! paintings. Whilst a prisoner

literary

works

and

have

provided the

Atahualpa learned chess by watching his guards

of the Turks, Charles XII, King of Sweden,

play, and before long was beating them all . lt is

spent almost the whole time playing chess. In

said that a certain Spanish captain hated him for

exile on the Island of S t. Helena, Napoleon would

this and had him murdered. Until chess was in

never sit down to d.inner until he had played

ttoduced to America by the Spanish conquerors,

a game of chess. The memoirs of deportees and

neither this game nor any game like it had been

political prisoners of the Russian Tsars contain

known to the Incas.

numerous references to the game.

The Elector Johann Frederic, Duke of Saxony,

Prisoners often had a problem to obtain boards

a prisoner of the German Emperor Charles V,

and men. Their ingenuity has been unlirnited.

won fa.me for his ca1m acceptance of the death

Sets have been made of bread, paper, straw,

sentence, for he was playing a game of chess with

wood, and clay, the chessboard has been re

his cell companion, Ernest of Brunswick, when

placed by a blanket, a handkerchief, a chequer-

321

Scene in a prison cellfrom the German film "Die Schachnooelle" after Stefan Zweig's story "The Royal Game," directed by Gert
Osv.:ald.

322

ed fioor, a sheet of paper, a table etc. In the

did find an opponent in the flesh, Lenin would play

Pawiak prison in Warsaw, for instance, chess was

game after game. Whilst in exile he was known

played during the Nazi occupation with men

to engage against three opponents consulting and

made of bread on a board marked out with ashes.

accomplished the rare feat for an amateur of

If the guards carne unexpectedly, the men could

conducting three games simultaneously blindfold.

be eaten, the chessboard blown away.

The Polish revolutionary Feliks Kon recalls that

After the failure of the Polish insurrection of

when in prison at Kara in Siberia, he participated

1 863, the Polish patriot, artist and sculpturess

in chess tournaments contested between various

Helena Skirmunt was deported to Tambov. Par

cells.

ties of Polish deportees going to various parts of

for the prisoners, absorbing their whole attention.

These tournaments were a great event

Siberia were continuously passing through Tam

Each participant contributed several lumps of

bov, stopping there for several days on their way.

sugar to the prize fund.

The deportees, in chains, sitting in the squares

One of thc Russian chess champions of the

and streets, passed the long hours of waiting

playing chess with men either made of bread
or pri.mitively carved out of wood. Although not
a chess player herself, Helena Skirmunt saw what
chess meant to these unfortunate exiles and wa
persuaded by friends to design a set of chessmen
that could be produced in large numbers by
means of electrotyping and distributed among the
deportees and wbich could even be sent to large
concentrations of prisoners. Unfortunately the
attempts to mass-produce the men failed, but she
was still taken with the idea of designing a set
and subsequently carved a set representing the
relief of Vienna in 1 683, the army of the Polish
King Jan 1 1 1 Sobieski facing the Turks.
The well-known Russian writer Ivan Turge
nev, banished by the Tsar for years under strict
police supervision, spent most of this time play
ing chess. Pained by the limited abilities of bis
chance opponents, he spent a lot of time study
ing games in books and solving chess problems.
Chess was a favourite occupation among the
Polish

and Russian revolutionaries

exiled

to

various distant parts of the Tsarist empire. Ac

customed to an active life with little time for
pleasure, they found chess an ideal outlet for
their desire for action and struggle. When in
1898 Vladimir Lenin was exiled to the village of
Shushenskoye, having nobody to play with there
he played by correspondence with bis friend
Lepeshynsky in another part of Siberia. When he

Cartoon by Larry (" Munclmer Illrmrierte") .

323

The Leningrad collector Vyacheslav Dombrovsky with sorne of

his chessmen from various epochs.

older generation, Duz-Khotimirsky, writes in his

memoirs about an event in the year 1905 : " 1
was arrested during a meeting outside the munic
ipal Duma and became acquainted with the pris
on in Kiev. The small room for the reception
of arrested persons was so full that there was no
place to sit or lie down. We were kept without
fresh air and with no possibility of getting a little
sleep. Finally we were put into different cells.
There were twelve of us in cell number one. To
take the prisoners' minds off their plight 1 be
gan to teach them chess. We made chessmen from
bread and organized a chess tournament for the
title of champion of cell number one."
324

The possibilities of playing chess were much

more limited in special prisons, citadels and
fortresses, where the prisoners were kept in soli
tary confinement and strict rules forbade con
tacts between them. Yet all such obstacles have
been overcome. In the memoirs of the Decem
brists, imprisoned after the attempted assassina
tion of the Tsar in 1825, chess is mentioned again
and again. N. Basargin, for instance, who was
imprisoned in the Petropavlovsk Fortress, de
scribes how he played chess with his neighbour
by tapping on the wall, using a previously estab
lished code to convey the moves. Another De
cembrist, M. Ashenbrenner, imprisoned in the
Shlisselburg Fortress, tells how chess tournaments
were played between dozens of prisoners by
tapping on cell walls in this way.
At first, only a few neighbouring prisoners
played, but before long others were initiated and
chess became the craze of the whole fortress. At
first the chessmen were made of bread, but later,
when the prisoners began to be employed in work
shops, men turned in wood appeared. When the
author left the fortress, two enthusiasts there had
already played over ten thousand games.
In the novel "Un homme Langdon" by the
French writer Georges Langelanne, the scene of
which is set in modern times, two prisoners play
chess, communicating with each other by an
acoustic code. One of them plays with chessmen
made of straw pulled out of his straw mattress and
uses the chequered floor as a board. The other
player keeps the position by writing on a piece
of paper. Asked during an inspection what he
was doing, he answered truthfully that he was
playing chess with a prisoner on the floor below.
His explanation was received sceptically. He sug
gested that the guards go downstairs to his op
ponent's cell and con.firm that the position on his
floor was the same as in his own diagram. Before
the guards could reach the cell below, he had
warned his opponent of their approach. So when
they reached the cell, the other chess player told
them he had been awaiting them and had already

learnt the "authorities" were interested in the

out

game. He moved his pieces to the same positions

and even two, and still he won. The investigation

as upstairs, to his visitors' complete astonish

officer told me later that he had never before seen

ment.

anyone so absorbed in a game. I myself could not

There is a dramatic scene in a short story

"The Price of Cognac" by the Polish writer Ro
man Kogucki, telling of a man sentenced to

seeing it. He gave the odds of a piece,

imagine how anyone could play like that whilst

waiting to go to the gallows.
"At four o'clock in the morning 1 went to the

death for collaboration with the Nazi occupying

cell. The prisoner stood to attention : 'Only the

forces, whose last wish was to play chess the

end game to be played, Sir, it shouldn't take longer

whole of the night preceding his execution. The

than five minutes.'

"What was I to do ? I broke all the rules and

story is told by one of the prosecutors.

" . . . As I said, he was a good player. He played

walked out of the cell into the corridor. Scarcely

him in solitary

three minutes had passed when there was a knock

chess in his cell. But I had to put

confinement before the sentence was

carried

on the door of the cell. We went in again. ' We've

out. He couldn't play with a prisoner and there

finished, I've been checkmated,' said the investi

were no chess players among the prison guards.

gation officer. Twenty minutes later it was all

Finally I found a good chess player, an investiga

over. "

tion officer, who agreed to play with

him

(A member o f my Postal Chess Club died of

The first game ended in a draw, the second

cancer. After his death his sister wrote me : 'His

too. Then, Ziolowski won one game after another.

postal games were a great solace to him to the

He played with his back to the chessboard with-

very end. ' - B. H. Wood).

Dombrovsky's flat was a ver

itable museum, filled with
chess sets, paintings, drawings,
sculptures, books and mag
azines, diplomas and documents on chess.

325

An extensive account of chess playing in the

was to demonstrate to everybody that persecu

Nazi death camp of Buchenwald has been given

tions, hard labour and hunger could not break

by one of its inmates, the Soviet chess player

the prisoners' spirit. The organization called for

J. Kheyfets. In March 1943, on the initiative of

a terrific effort. Working in the workshops, prison

the Soviet underground movement operating in

ers secretly made chess sets under the very eyes of

the camp, a simultaneous chess display by an

the S.S. men, then smuggled them into the bar

expert player Bogdanov was organized. The airn

racks. Special observers were put on guard to give

The French collector Jean

Maunoury collected original
sets of chessmen, in a variety
of materials, from nearly 60
countries.

326

Jean Maunoury's collection from

al/ over the world represents over
600 years of chess history.

the warning
the

if S.S. men were seen approaching

barracks where the display

was

taking

place. There were plenty of prisoners who wanted

men and Germans all wanted to try their hand

at beating the winner of the simultaneous dis
play. But Bogdanov could not be beaten.

to play and even more who wanted to look on.

lt was not long before making chessmen became

Bogdanov scored a big success and news of the

a general occupation among the prisoners. Sorne

event and his prowess went round the camp like

were fine craftsmen who could make beautiful

lightning. In the days that followed prisoners

chessmen in the folk style of various nationalities,

from other barracks carne to Bogdanov bringing

using primitive knives as their tools. The sets

their own sets with them ; Poles, Czechs, French-

often went outside the camp to the town, where

327

chess players disappeared for a couple of days.

When he returned he sat down to play chess as
usual b11t played like a madman. The next day
the cabaret singer disappeared. This attracted no
attention ; nobody associated it with the failure of
the French offensive, which, it was rumoured, had
been due to the fact that staff plans had been
stolen by spies. Only years afterwards did it be
come known that the woman spy had deciphered
the strange moves of the chessmen on the chess
board into the plans for the offensive. She had
then passed on information about the positions
of the French troops and details of the offensive
to the Germans' intelligence service.
During the First World War an admirer of the
well-known American collector John G. White
sent him a rare and valuable book on chess from
England to the United States. Unfortunately
the book never reached its destination ; it was
The famous English collector and dealer A/exander Hammond
who had a fat1Wus shop in the Bur/ington Arcade in London
and later in Chelsea.

confiscated by the military censors who suspected

that this innocent book contained a message in
code. There was nobody in the censors' office
prepared to go to the trouble of confirming that
it was all ordinary chess.

they were exchanged with the German popula

Chess had fallen under suspicion as a possible

tion so that it all became not only an entertain

means of conveying secret information long before

ment but also a means of bringing in extra food

that. In the autumn of 1878, the Tsarist pollee in

for the hungry prisoners.

St. Petersburg, alarmed at the growth of revolu

tionary feeling in the country, stepped up the

STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL

control of letters and parcels sent through the post.

A postcard addressed to Tchigorin bearing a com

There is no knowing who first had the idea of

using a chess score as a code for secret messages.
A piece . of paper with the written score of a game
of chess is strange enough to qualify it for a place
in any book on cryptography.

bination of figures and letters fell into the hands

of a police informer. Worse, the laconic card said

if St. Petersburg did this, Moscow would to

that, and if it did something different, then Mos
that

cow would act differently too. This postcard con

In thc 1930's the Swiss press was full for awhile

veying chess moves and possible altematives in

of the story of Adrienne Risa of the German in

a correspondence game between clubs in the two

telligence service, who passed herself off as a cab

cities caused a veritable panic in the Third De-

aret singer in Zurich during the First World

partment of the Pollee. Could this be a coded or

War. She sang in the evenings and in the daytime

der to start an uprising ? Another postcard with

she llked to watch the chess players in a certain

the words : "! am surprised at the inefficiency of

caf ; especially her favourite pair. When the

our posts. 1 posted letters to you and Mr. Schmidt

French were preparing for an offensive, one of the

myself immediately after conferring with him,"

328

completed the effect. The postcards were sent to

The most famous chess collection was John

the chairman of the Council of Ministers, who

G. White's, the American chess expert and col

recognized the symbols for what they were, la

lector . He lived in Cleveland, Ohio. He died in

83.

conically wrote the word "chess" on it and sent

1 928 at the age of

it back to the police. The postcards were never

of which periodicals alonc exceeded twelve thou

His im.m.ense collection,

delivered, all the same. They were kept in the

sand items, was left to the Public Library in Cle

secret archives of the Third Department and were

veland . A lawyer by profession, he spent all his

only recendy discovered when the documents

money on his collection, travelling all over the

were being sorted at the history archives in Mos

world for specimens.

He grouped his collection under poetry, orien

cow.

tal chess, history manuscripts, chess in the theatre,

CHESS COLLECTIONS

chess congresses, correspondence chess, tourna

ments, monographs on chess players, games, pro

In 1856, a certain enthusiastic collector of chess

blems,

end-games,

anecdotes,

essays,

articles

books died in France, bequeathing his library, an

from periodicals, mathematical chess, miscella

impressive one for those times, numbering nearly

neous, living chess, chess automatons, drawings,

four hundred volumes, to the municipal library

documents, bibliography, periodicals, chess col

of the town of Grenoble.

An

accompanying col

lection of drawings was not properly looked after ;

umns,

pen portraits of chess playerf>, chess in

ancient times, etc.

they became dispersed and disappeared altogeth

White was an unselfish man. He readily gave

er. A pity, for it was said that Frdric Alliey, for

access to his collections for research purposes and

that was the collector's name, had amassed sorne

interesting material. His collection was divided
into the following sections : theory of the game,
manuscripts, knights' tours, automatons, unusual
types of chess, various other games, translations
from other languages, quotations about chess.
Note that there were no sections for problems
and tournaments, two branches of chess which
have provided many thousands of titles since.
Alliey was working on an exhausting bibliography
of books on chess, which was impatiendy awaited
by enthusiasts.
M. Dzieduszycki, Polish chess historian, wrote
in 1 856 : "The mayor of Ardeche (Alliey) plans
a new bibliography of works on chess, in which
he deals extensively with 412 authors and quotes

326 more who refer to chess in other works but

1 do not know whether this immense and useful
work has been completed."
lt was not completed. When the above appeared
in print, Alliey was no longer alive and his un
finished catalogue lay alongside his collection in
the Grenoble library.

Buckskin chessboard, chessmen carued in wood. Of modem

Nigerian make.

329

A half set of Indian chessmen from Hammond's collection, probably made in the Central Provi7_1Ces in the
late eighteenth century.

Another Hammond collection set: French, probably from the days of Louis XIV, Hannibal versus Scipio
Africanus, wirh Roman chariots as knights (the Roman side only is given in rhis picture) .

330

helped personally on primary source material,

ceived so many Chinese sets with pieces on open

bibliographic lists and information of every kind.

work globes made simply and rather mechani

He had a big mailbag every day from all parts of

cally for export, that he sent out photographs of

the world from people seeking information.

An example of his passion for collecting litera

this type of piece with a statement that he never

ture on chess is the story ofhow he obtained a copy

wanted to see any more. Apart from European

and Asian sets, he collected many of extraordinary

of a chess manuscript in the prvate library of the

interest from Oceana and South America. His

Sultan in Istanbul. It took him twenty years to

oldest exhibit was a set dating back to the 1 4th

get at this manuscript of which he dreamed, but

century, from Cambodia. Then there was bis jew

knw very little about. The Sultan's library was

elled Louis XIV set, of exquisite workmanship,

only opened to the public once a year and it was

in silver and crystal.

probibited under the threat of death to make

An English collector, Alex Hammond, present

any kind of notes. All attempts to get a copy,

ed photographs of many beautiful sets in bis

made year after year, were of no avail. The lack

"Book of Chessmen."

of this item in his collection was more than White

An interesting and valuable collection of spec

could stand. He hired a special agent, who suc

imens and books on chess was made by a great

ceeded in bribing a member of the library staff

lover of chess V. Dombrovsky of Leningrad. He

to let him take the manuscript away from the

spent nearly forty years of his life collecting books

library for a few hours . A photocopy was made

and sets, etc., including many very rare ones. His

at lightning speed. When this was examined, it

home became a veritable chess museum, freely

was found that the manuscript was of no great

visited by enthusiasts of chess from his own

value. But John White could now sleep in peace.

country and abroad. In his collection of books,

The collection of Dr. M. Niemeijer, Dutch

numbering over one-and-a-half thousand volu

chess problem compcser and collector, comprised

mes, there were rare items of world literature

books, prints, press cuttings, autographs, por

and almost every book on chess ever issued in

traits, caricatures, drawings, chessmen and other

Russia. On the walls hung drawings and pictures

exhibits. Niemeijer presented his books to the

with a chess theme, and in a number of show

Royal Library at the Hague, which thus increased

cases were Russian chessmen dating back to the

its own collection to 6,500 titles, and deposited

16th century, Indian chessmen over a century

his other items at a chess club in The Hague.

old; German, Dutch, English, Czech, Rumanian,

The American collector M. Pfeiffer specialized

Polish and Soviet sets, etc. There were historical

in original sets of chessmen wbich he housed

sets and modern ones, men carved in ivory, wood

in beautiful

show-cases matching their style.

and stone, sorne cast in metal, others of the most

He presented bis collection to the Metropolitan

diverse materials. There were also chess curiosities :

Museum in New York.

porcelain statuettes, sculptures, medals, souve

In France, the Parisian collector Jean Mau

nirs decorated with chess motifs, drawings and

noury got together over 200 sets of chessmen of

caricatures. V. Dombrovsky was not only a col

various lands and epochs. It took him many years

lector with a mania for getting hold of as many

to collect

them, rummaging through antique

items as possible, but also a scholar engaged in

shops all over France and employing agents in

the study of chess history. His collection fed bis

fifty-four countries. He bought many without

research, and he was always willing to supply

seeing them, counting on finding among them

information and primary source materials to any

enough rare specimens lying unnoticed in junk

who approached him with the request for help

shops to justify the overall expenditure. He re-

or advice.

331

Ivory pieces from Central Europe with catafalquss for bishops, ahout 200 years old (Hammond collection).

Etchings, drawings, reproductions of paintings,

Apart from numerous manuscripts, original prints

press cuttings, and advertisements with a chess

and rare publications, there were documents,

motif have been collected by Julien Guisle, own

correspondence and notes on games and tourna

er of a little chess bookshop in the Latin quarter

ments of the last century. These were presented

of Paris. He has kindly supplied many illustrations

to the Library of the Polish Academy of Sciences

in Pozna.D.. (1 have collected over 6,000 books on

for this book.

In Poland, at least two fine collections, those of

chess myself. I get the impression that produc

the great player Przepiorka and Professor Ku

tion of chess books advances by about 50% each

kulski's in Cracow (over two thousand volumes)

year - B. H. Wood).

were destroyed during the war.

Mter the war, the remains of a valuable chess
collection were discovered in the castle at Osie
czna, near Leszno. They were all that had sur

ART, IN THE LARGE AND THE

MINIATURE

vived of a large library compiled by the German

Whereas many paintings, drawings and works

chess historian and theoretician Tessilo von

of graphic art are connected in sorne way with

Heydebrand und der Lasa who died in 1899.

chess, there are few sculptures.

332

There is a column at Winchester Cathedral, the

A pillar in the 13th century cathedral at Naum

capital of which is adorned with a figure of a man

burg, shows two monkeys playing chess with

holding a chessboard. The cathedral was built

each other. lt is difficult to guess what induced

in 1369. lnformation is lacking whether the board

the sculptor to choose this subject for a church

was supposed to be for chess, or for sorne other

ornament. Was it meant to remind the faithful that

game (or for counting money ?).

But in the palace at Bourges, France, there is

the Church often placed chess on the list of pro

hibited entertainments ?

a sculpture showing a man and woman completely

In the French town of Villefranche-en-Beau

absorbed in a game of chess. They are dressed in

jolais, near Lyon, the town hall has an interesting

the fashion of the reign of King Charles VII, the

stained glass window dating back to the 1 5th

beginning of the 1 5th century. The woman hs

century and showing, so it is said, Edward 11 de

a chessman in her hand and is just making

Beaujolais playing chess with Mlle de la Besse.

a move.

That a stained glass window presenting a lay

Half of a fine ivory set made in Dieppe soon after Napoleon's defeat. The opposing King is the Duke of Wellington. The bishops
' are the Dukes of Berthier and Massena, two of Napoleon's marshals (Hammond collection).

333

one of the most spectacular cascades in the fa

mous park surrounding the palace, was called
"Shakhmatnaya Gora" (The Chess Mount). The
water falls over three panels composed of black
and white marble squares. Unfortunately the sculp
tures of the fountain are of mythological figures
unconnected with chess, and the black and white
squares are not like a chessboard, being arranged
diagonally.
Since we are on the subject of parks, let us in
cidentally mention the Hover Gardens, in Kent,
with a hedgerow shaped in imitation of chess
pieces, according to the old English pattern from
Czech chessmen from about 1 790.

the Tudor period.

Sorne interesting artists' designs are to be found
among the book-plates of chess book collectors.
There is even an association of collectors of "ex
libris" crests in France. These people collect
private library book plates as

others collect

stamps. Dr. M. Niemeijer has adopted a beauti

ful book plate design derived from a 14th century

miniature showing the Margrave Otto IV of
Brandenburg at chess.

CHESS IN POSTAGE STAMPS

Philatelists at one time had little d.ifficulty in
collecting a complete set of postage stamps with
a chess motif, because there were only a few spec
An Oriental set in vory, of jairly recem date.

imens prior to the Second World War. Since

then the post offices of various countries have is
sued more and more such chess stamps on the
occasions of international chess events.
BULGARIA : one stamp (9 levs) issued on
the occasion of the Balkan Games in 1947 and
another, (80 stotinki) green, issued in 1958 to
mark the Fifth Students' World Chess Team

subject was a very rare thing at that time, makes

Championships contested in Varna. It shows

it all the more pleasant for us to find chess as

a terrestrial globe presented in the form of a chess

its subject.

board with a rook and a knight on it.

In Peterhof, the splendid residence of Tsar

The Bulgarian Post Office issued a beautiful

Peter I on the Gulf of Finland near Leningrad,

set of fi.ve stamps to mark the 1 5th Olympic

334

Chess Tournament contested at a seaside resort,

a golden medal of world champion, laurels and

Golden Sands, near Varna in the autumn of

two chess pieces : pawn and king ; an inscription

1962. The issue comprised five stamps of differ

along one side : Moskva 1 966. Moreover,

ent values ( 1 , 2, 3, 1 3 and 20 stotinki) and colours,

memoration of Petrosian's triumph, a 1 0-kopeck

each

stamp (white-silver-black) was included in the

stamp

being

distinguished

by

the fine

in

com

modern design of the chessmen. There was

"World Championships

a green stamp with a qucen, an olive-green one

stamps : five chess pieces - pawn, queen, king,

1 966" block of four

with a rook, a crimson one with a king, a carmine

bishop and knight placed on a chessboard viewed

one with a knight and a blue one with a bishop.

The set appeared in two versions, perforated and
imperforate. Apart from this, an ornamental can
cellation was issued for the 20-stotinki stamp, with
a special inscription to mark the occasion.
THE SOVIET UNION issued two stamps in
1 948 (three values, 30, 40 and 50 kopecks) to mark
the

World

Championship

Match-tournament

contested by Botvinnik, Keres, Smyslov, Euwe

and Reshevsky. The stamp bearing a picture
of a chessboard and a rook is more connected
with chess than the stamp (issued in two values)
with the picture of the Trade Unions Building in
which Botvinnik won the game which brought
him the World Championship in 1963. The
U.S. S.R. issued tltree stamps to commemorate the
match in Moscow for the world championship
between Botvinnik and Petrosian. Again they
are

perforated

and

imperforate.

The

green,

Typical men o/ Chinese make, carvedfor the European markn.

yellow and black stamp (4 kopecks) shows a king,

a pawn and the world championship gold medal ;
thc blue and crimson stamp (6 kopecks) shows
a qucen and a bishop, a chessboard and a terres
trial globe ; the red-and-black stamp ( 1 6 kopecks)
shows a rook, a knight and the building where
the tournament was held.
In 1 958, a stamp of 49 kopecks nominal value
was issued with the portrait of Tchigorin, to
commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death
of this great Russian chess player. Under the por
trait there is a ribbon bearing the dates 1 8501 908 and two chessmen : a knight and a roo k.
In 1 966, a 6-kopeck stamp (brown-golden
black) was issued during the match between
Petrosian and Spassky for the title of world cham
pion. Against a background of the chessboard is

Stylised Polish chessmen from about 1850.

335

sideways, with a world champion emblem as the

two (2 centavos and 8 centavos) show him bent

background.

over a chessboard meditating on a move. Another

HUNGARY issued the first set of three stamps

two starnps (blue, 5 centavos and red-and-brown,

with the chess motif (60 fillr, one forint, 1,60

10 centavos) show the chess club narned after

forints) in 1950 on the occasion of the World

Capablanca in Havana, with two knights to the

Championship Candidates Toumament in Buda

right. The last starnp (5 centavos), shows the

pest.

position on the board in which his opponent

The

stamp showing two chess players

deserves special mention.

resigned to make Capablanca World Champion.

YUGOSLAVIA issued in 1950 a set of five

In 1962 a set of 36 starnps with sport motifs was

stamps, each of them with a different design

issued, one of which ( 1 3 centavos, crearn, red

(2, 3, 5, 1 0 and 20 dinars), to mark the Olympic

Chess Tournament contested in Dubrovnik.

board.

and black) showed a chess player bent over the

The starnps are of fine artistic value ; they were

In 1 966, a series of six starnps (value : 1, 2, 3, 9

the most beautiful specimens of graphic art with

and 13 centavos) was issued to honour the XVII

chess motifs in philately for many years.

Chess Olympiad held at Havana. The first four

CUBA issued in 195 1 a set of stamps of seven

ofthese, vertical ones, feature, in turn, the follow

values and four designs, to mark the 30th anni

ing chess pieces : pawn (green background), rook

versary of Capablanca's becoming world cham

(steel-grey), knight (coral-red), and bishop (olive

pion. Two starnps (orange, one centavo and

green), positioned on the stylised terrestrial globe

brown, 25 centavos) show his portrait with a chess

with the chessboard-like ornarnentation.

king in the upper left-hand corner. The next

other two stamps, longitudinal in form, feature -

The

Chnsmen of blue and white Meis

sen china in the shapes of variow
sea fauna on a board represent
ing the bottom of the sea.

336

Postage stamps with chess motijJ issued by Bulgaria, FinlafUi, Yugoslavia, Cuba, German Democratic
Republic, Poland, Hungary and the Soviet Union.

Modernistic chessmen shown at

an exhibition of handicrafts at
Weimar in 1924.

one of them, the chess queen and, next to it, dia

GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC is

giant game"

sued a set of three stamps in 1 960 during the 14th

(amaranthine), and the other - the king (blue

Olympic Chess Games in Leipzig. The stamps

background) and the Olympic emblem and in

show chessmen against the background of the

scription "Gens una sumus." The series is fur

Olympic emblem. All three chessmen that served

gram showing

"simultaneous

ther complemented with a block containing a 30-

the artist as models were displayed at the exhibi

centavos stamp (orange-white-azure blue) featur

tion "Chess Through the Centuries" during the

ing the Olympic emblem and the concluding

tournament. The 1 0-pfennig stamp (plus 5 pfennig

position in a 1 9 1 4 game in Berln in which Lasker

surcharge) light green in colour, shows an ivory

had resigned to Capablanca.

rook from an 1 8th century set now owned by a pr

FINLAND issued in 1952 one stamp (25

vate collector. The 20-pfennig stamp (plus 5 pfen

markkas) to comrnemorate the tenth Chess Olym

nig surcharge), of a light carmine colour, shows

piad contested in Helsinki.

a knight beautifully carved in wood from the

POLAND issued two interesting stamps in 1 956

Leipzig Museum of Artistic Handicrafts.

to mark the First Individual World Champion

The third stamp, 25 pfennig (plus 1 O pfennig

ships of the Deaf, held in Zakopane in February

surcharge), a most valuable philatelic specimen,

that year. The stamps (red, 40 grosze and blue,

was printed in blue. It reproduces a knight

60 grosze) show two hands saying "chess" in the

carved in walrus bone, dating back to the end of

deaf-and-dumb language. A special postmark wa

the 1 4th century. This specimen, now in the

used on this occasion showing the rook and bear

possession of the

ing an inscription comrnemorating the event.

saved, together with other collections, by the Soviet

Apart from this, envelopes with a chess inscrip

Army during the siege of Berlin and later returned

tion were sold during the cham.pionships.

to the German people.

State Museum, Berlin, was

337

A set of metal chessmen which,

even when set out on the chessboard, can

be held in a closed hand. The kings are 1 cm. high, the pawns no more than
2.5 millimetres. Made by an unknown German enthusiast, a fitter by
projession.

The biggest chess piece and the smallest set in A. Hammond's collection.
A machine-made lace napkin with chess motifs from Plauen, German

Democratic Republic, designed by S. Melnyk.

338

In 1 968, the issue of a 1 5-pfennig commemora

RUMANIA - In 1 966, the issue of a series of

tive stamp featured Emanuel Lasker's portrait

six stamps (multicoloured) publicising the Olympic

to mark the centenary of the birth of this great

Games Chess at Havana (Cuba) : a 20-bani and

player,

world chess champion from 1884 to

1 92 1 .

a 1 .60-lei stamps, identical in design, featuring

a pawn shown against the chessboard and a

DUTCH WEST INDIES published a set of

stylised terrestrial globe with five Olympic cir

stamps in 1 962 (three values 1 0 + 5, 20+ 10, and

cles ; 40-bani and 3.25-lei val ues featuring the

25 + 1 O cents) each showing the terrestrial globe

bishop and a facetious figure of a jester ; and

with a knight on the right side, the colours being

55-bani and 1-lei stamps presenting the castle

green, red and blue. lt was issued on the occasion

and a picture of a mounted knight in attack.

of the Fifth lnternational Tournament of Candi

dates contested on the island of Curaao in May
and }une 1 962.
PHILIPPINES - In 1963, the issue of a 6 + 4
centavos stamp (green-red) with a design of two
men aboard playing chess. One of the men is Rizal,
a known culturl worker of the Philippines, and
his portrayal in medallion is in addition placed in
the upper left corner.
ISRAEL - In 1964, the issue of two stamps of
0 . 12-pound (brown, featuring the knight) and O. 70-pound value (green, with the rook) to mark the
XVI Chess Olympics held at Tel-Aviv. On both
the stamps, against the background of the chess
board, five interwoven squares, a counterpart of
the known Olympic emblem, are featured ; on the
plaques attached below, an emblem ofthe Olym
piad and the inscription "Gens una sumus" (the
Intemational Chess Federation's motto) .
SAN MARINO- In 1 965, the issue of a 200-lire
stamp (multicoloured) of a unique design, with
chess not the principal theme but a symbol.
Ten castles are seen arranged on the chessboard,
each of different colour and, in consequence,
unable to attack one another, which is sym
bolic of the peaceful coexistence of European
states.
FRANCE - In 1966, the Internationa1 Chess
Tournament at le Havre was marked by the issue
of a 60-centime stamp (azur e blue-steel grey-sepia)
featuring the knight, shown against the chessboard
background, and emblems of two pieces : king and
bishop, with an inscription above : "Jeu d'checs"
(game of chess).

Jean Maunoury by showcases containing his exotic co//ection

of chessmen.

339

B URMA

AFRICA

GREECE

ENGLAND

SWEDEN

PERSIA

TURKEY

ECUADOR

MEXICO

GERMANY

FLANDERS

SWITZERLAND

FRANCE

CHINA

DENMARK

JAPAN

I TALY

ALAS KA

AUSTRIA

Some museums hav fine chess collectiom, donaud or inherited from privare collectors. The Calerbach Gallery, U.S.A. has many
chess curios. O.!T photographs show che>stmn from England, Greece, Africa, Germany, Mexico, ltc.ly, Burma, Sweden, Turkey,
Flanders, France, Denmark, Alaska, lran, Ecuador, Switzerland, China, Japan and Austria.

340

A set of big chessmen carved in wood

with a hint oj the grotesque, and an
unusual table with chess, card and
domino motifs, in the chess shop in
Prague run by Mr. Rosenblatt.

NICARAGUA - In 1 963, in a series of sports

SWITZERLAND - In 1 968, the issue of a 30-

stamps issued to commemorate the Tokyo Olympic

-rappen stamp to comrnemorate the XVIII Olym

Games of 1 964, a 35-centavos stamp was included

pic Chess Games at Lugano : with a chess roo k

for chess : on an obliquely placed chessboard

shown against a chessboard background and an

were two chessmen.

appropriate inscription.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - In 1 967, the

Philatelists also collect postmarks marking the

issue of two stamps marking the V Chess Toum

occasion of important chess events, souvenir

aments of Central America : a l O-centavos stamp

envelopes and all kinds of postcards, envelopes,

(olive green) featuring the pawn and the bishop,

etc. with postage stamps.

and a 25-centavos value (blue-yellow-black) - the

rook and the knight. These two stamps were also

The

Preparatory

Committee for

the

14th

Olympic Chess Games in Leipzig issued labels

issued in a special block with an appropriate

similar to postage stamps and sold them to collect

inscription.

the funds necessary for the organization of the

MON ACO -In 1 967, the issue of a 60-centime

event. The labels were perforated and adhesive

stamp to celebrate the decision of renewing, af

and bore diagrams of chess problems. Sets con

ter 53 years' break, the tradition of international

taining 15 labels each were on sale, the respective

chess tournaments in Monte Cario. Alongside

value of the labels being 20 pfennigs, 50 pfennigs,

a drawing representing a game of chess, an inscrip

1 mark and 2 marks, as well as sets of labels

tion "Grand Prix International d'Echecs. "

without printed value as a receipt for voluntary

In 1 968, another comrnemorative stamp was

contributions. The

first row of each set had

issued to mark the international chess tourna

problems to be solved in two moves ; the second,

m ents at Monte Cario.

problems to be solved in three moves, and the

341

A set of hand-made silver chessmen designed by Marta Obidzifzska and produced by the ORNO Folk Art Industry Co-operatifle,
Warsaw.

third, problems to be solved in four moves.

with tongue in cheek like traditional fishing

Altogether there were 15 different problems in

stories : so we must not be too critica! . . .

each set.
During

In the "Arabian Nights" a story called "The

Germany,

Jealous Man and Jealousy" tells the very sad

its chess tradition, issued money

story of a certain young prince who was turned

the

famous for

disastrous

inflation,

coupons with chess motifs ( 192 1).

Playing cards with chess designs are a rarity.

into a monkey by an envious dervish. After many

adventures, the monkey prince gets into the court

In 1 508 Thomas Murner of Strasburg issucd

of the S ultan, where he entertains the courtiers

a book entitled "Cartiludum Logicae," illustrated

with his tricks. Wishing to convince the Sultan

with symbolic drawings of cards representing

that he is a man in the guise of an animal, he

logical figures. One of them, the seven of dia

agrees to undergo various tests, among others, to

monds, bore the picture of a chess player. In

play a game of chess with the ruler. The prince

1629, Tussanus du Bray printed playing cards in

recounts this game as follows :

Paris using Murner's motifs, but introducing

" . . .When the meo and board were brought in,

different dcsigns. In his edition the chess player

the Sultan made various signs to ask me if I knew

was a woman.

how to play chess and if I would like to play

a game with him. 1 bowed low to the ground

ZOOLOGICAL CURIOSITIES

and putting my paw on my head humbly agreed

to this honour. I lost the first game, but won the

Monkeys at chess is a theme not confined to the

second and third. 1 noticed that the Sultan

cathedral at Naumburg. Tales about intelligent

wasn't at all pleased at this. To console him I com

monkeys giving checkmates may have been told

posed a poem of four lines, which told of two

342

mighty armies fighting bravely all the day and

ent from

making peace with each other in the evening."

brought from sorne newly discovered slands and

the ones we knew, that had been

In many anecdotes a monkey is just a monkey,

played chess very well. One day, the monkey

with no spells and magic involved. lt is said

played chess with the nobleman who had bought

that Charles V, King of Spain, who reigned early

it, in the presence of the King of Portugal. The

in the 1 6th century, had a monkey who often

monkey, having made severa! masterful moves

won in games of chess with him and did not like

which put the nobleman in a very difficult posi

to lose. Once, seeing that the game was lost, the

tion, finished the game by checkmating him. And

monkey even threw the chessboard at the King's

his good master, getting angry as sometimes

head. From that time on, when the King seemed

happens when somebody is checkmated, took up

to be gaining superiority on the chessboard, the

his king (which was a big one, as chessmen are in

monkey jumped down and ran away from the

Portugal) and hit the poor monkey on the head

table so as not to let his feelings get the better

with it. The monkey jumped down from the

of hirn .

table and began to scream as though appealing

We find quite another kind of game with a mon

to the King for justice. Then the nobleman

key in Lukasz Grnicki's book "The Courtier,"

challenged the monkey to another game. The

written in 1566, which is a free translation of

monkey could not be persuaded for a long time

a work written by the Italian writer Balthasar

and made signs to indicate that it would rather

Castiglione.

. A rather improbable story was

not, but in the end allowed itself to be persuaded,

once told by a certain Italian who swore it was

and then played so wdl that, as before, the noble

true. He said he had seen a monkey, very differ-

roan began to get angry. In the end, seeing that

" . .

Another set of hand-made si/ver plate chessmen in jolk style designed by Marta Obidzifzska and produced by the ORNO Folk Art
lndustry Co-operative in Warsaw.

343

Chnsmen: the king, bishop, knight and queen desigmd by tire Warsaw plastic artist Adam Jabloski, to be cast in silver.

Adam Jabloski's designfor an "astronomical" ser in siloer. The rook is an observatory, the pawn a star, the king a space rocket,
tire queen a sputnik.

only one more move was needed to checkmate

The

1 8th

century German poet

Christian

its opponent, the monkey cunningly protected

Frchtegott Gellert included a chess playing

itself from another possible blow : it slipped in

monkey, with certain veiled allusions to human

under his master's elbow, who being delicate,

beings, in his poem "Der Affe." In the American

was resting it on a cushion, and quickly snatched

film "Merry Andrew," starring Danny Kaye,

the cushion away ; with its left hand, next, it made

Andrew plays chess with his elder brother, who

a checkmate move with a pawn and with its right

leaves the room after sorne time. A trained mon

hand, put the cushion on its head as a shield.

key gets in through the window, bringing a mes

Then it jurnped about in front of the King to

sage to Andrew from his girl fdend who is a circus

celebrate victory. . . "

performer. The mo.n key sits down at the table,

344

smokes a pipe and begins to move the chessmen

The Devil was again defeated in a game of

about. And.rew's short-sighted father looks into

chess in a fantastic story about the famous 16th

the room and sees bis son playing chess with

century ltalian chess player Paolo Boi, a man

somebody. Next day he asks who was the oppo

whose life abounded in all kinds of adventures.

nent. "Nobody was there," is the reply. "Then

As the legend has it, one rnorning Boi rnet a

who was that little hairy chap smoking a pipe ?"

young woman of exquisite beauty by the door of

asks the father in surprise.

the church in a little town in Calabria. Her eyes,

mysterious and penetrating, shone with feverish

DEVIL'S WORK

excitement. They became acquainted, and their

acquaintance soon ripened into friendship. The

In the early mediaeval literature of the West,

beautiful girl told him she liked playing chess.

in romances and ballads about the adventures of

Paolo was surprised, and even more so when he

knights, we often find the motif of chess magic.

found that she played very well indeed. He had

Whoever sits down at an enchanted chessboard

to try harder and harder to win. The contest

is bound to lose, and the stake may be one of life

becarne keener and keener. At last Boi, sure he

and death. So the heroes of these poems not only

was going to win, announced checkrnate in two

fought with sword, but also had to fight against

moves. But as he looked, bis white queen chang

the mysterious power of magic spells when play

ed colour to black. The beautiful girl laughed

ing chess. Often they succeeded, with unexpected

and said, "No, Paolo, you can't win." "O Santa

consequences.

Maria!" cried Paolo, and

stood up horrified.

There is a well known Flemish legend, to be

Then he suddenly saw that despite what had

found in "Chronicle of Flanders" ( 1 13 1 ) and

happened he could still mate her. The mysterious

elsewhere. A certain Castellan's daughter is per

young woman saw this too, frowned and disap

suaded by the Devil to kili her father because she

peared. It was then Paolo realized that he had been

was afraid he would reveal the secret of her low

playing with the Devil.

birth. For she was a changeling, a wet nurse

having exchanged her for the real castellan's
daughter. From that time on she was brought up
as a princess. Her husband, on learning of the
crime, hands her over to the Devil.
Mter severa! centuries, a certain monk comes
to the castle and spends the night in the chamber
where the murder was comrnitted. At midnight the
Devil appears with the Castellan's daughter and
challenges the monk to a game of chess, the
stake of which is the monk's life. The magic
chessboard and chessmen were in a room pre
pared for the game. The monk, seeing no other
course, sits down to play. Making a terrific effort,
after rnany ups and downs, he succeeds at last in
winning the game. The defeated Devil disappears.
In the rnorning the rnonk finds the s keleton of
a woman in the charnber with a dagger in her
hand.

A. Jabloski's design for the queen and knight of a set in

hand-forged si/ver plate, with Polish jo/k motifs.

345

The capital of a column in

Naumburg
cathedral
with
a sculpture of two monkeys
playing chess; a unique specimen
of sacra/ art by an unknown
13th century artist.

This story is ill ustrated with a description of

two hundred years before and whose ghost haunt

the positions of the chessmen on the board at the

ed a castle

culminating point of the game. Anybody who

with her. Any unfortunate man who happened

knows anything about chess can see that the white

to enter the castle and was beaten by her at chess

queen's changing sides does not save Black from

was sent to the Devil.

checkmate.
So no tricks of the Devil will help in a game
of chess against a good enough player ? ?

at night making people play chess

Before the Castellan's wife formed this un

pleasant habit, she had had a lively career.
During the Thirty Years War, the Castellan left

Doctor Paul R., whose chess adventure is

his castle, and to pass the time she began to play

described by Edgar Allan Poe in the short story

chess. One day a knight who was an excellent

"Love Gambit," was one of these players. The

player carne. The Castellan's wife sat at the chess

story is fantastic and uncanny, typical of Poe.

board with him for hours on end, which caused

Doctor Paul R. was a very keen chess player

spiteful rumours. She began to lead a more and

who had beaten the champion. Suddenly, how

more loase life, invited many young men from

evcr, he gave up chess altogether. He tells his

the locality to tB.e castle to play chess with her ;

friend why.

and not only chess! - after which she had them

While travelling through Germany, he once

murdered so that they would not reveal her double

found himself in the Rhineland, near the town

game. When her husband returned she had him

of Bonn ; there he heard a local legend telling of

murdered too, being afraid that he would get to

a certain Castellan's beautiful wife who had lived

know about her sins. People began to avoid her

346

castle, passing it by at a distance. It was rumoured

Maree! Carn. The action is set towards the end

that the blood-thirsty Castellan's wife started to

of the 1 5th century. Lucifer sends two devils to

play chess with the Devil. Any men bold enough

earth on a secret mission. They take the forms

to visit the castle disappeared without trace . . .

of a young man and girl. Unfortunately, they do

It so happened that Dr. R. was caught in a sud

not do their job properly. One devil falls in love

den storm and sought refuge in the ruins of

with the daughter of a prince to whose court he

a nearby castle. In the night, the legendary Castel

had come with bis companion passing themselves

lan's wife appeared and forced bim to play chess

off as wandering minstrels. Without going into

with her. It is difficult to refuse a woman, even

the whole plot, we shall recount the chess episode.

when she is a ghost, so the game began. The

Renaud, the princess's official fianc, is play

ghost was a very beautiful one, tried to seduce

ing chess with her father the Prince, watched

hirn, but in vain! Our Doctor R. refused to let her

by the beautiful Dominique, really the she-devil

charms prevail and by a superhuman effort won

who is trying to seduce Renaud. Lucifer comes up

the game. At that moment he carne to bis senses

to the table, having left hell in the guise of a jovial

and realized that he had spent the night in the

old man, to supervise the activities of bis envoys

ruins of a castle, lying beside the skeleton of

on earth. Seeing Renaud looking troubled he

a woman.

asks : "Have I intermpted the game ?" "Notbing

One can understand

him giving up chess

after

can spoil my game . . . I was conquered from the

start," replies Renaud, referring to Dominique.

an experience like that.

We cannot omit from this little anthology of

Lucifer picks up a piece and makes a move

"Evening

"Nothing of the kind! Look, you have won . . .

Guests" made in 1942 by the French film director

it's so simple . . . in chess." Thus Lucifer humiliat-

diabolical chess the fairy-tale

film

A water cascade called "Shakhmat

naya Gora" (Chess Hill) in the park
of the former Tsar's residence at
Peterhof, Leningrad.

347

Two specimens of chess "ex libris" designs from rhe biggesr in rhe world collection
of a French historian L. Mandy; rhe jirsr design by A. Herry, rhe second
by M. Jamar.

An "ex libris" of rhe Durch col/ector

N. Niemeijer with drawing taken from
a mediaeval miniarure.

EX LI B R IS

w.v o K u y

E !'\'

C.d e HO O G

Two more "ex libris'' of Durch collectors of chess works, thefirst designed by V. Stuyvaent, the second by P. Mant. The third is
that of the Polish co/lector W. Frantz, and was designed by J. Agopsowicz.

ed his disobedient envoy Dominique by showing

far, is not going well for man. Satan is attacking

that he could have made Renaud her master had

and he has more chessmen. This painting became

he chosen.

well known

Man's struggle with Satan for the human soul

was the subject of an allegorical painting by the

through

anonymous

copies and

irnitations, sorne entitled "Faust Plays Chess with

Mephistopheles."

German artist Moritz Retzsch. The struggle

The outstanding Russian chess player Petrov

takes place inside a tomb, the board being placed

was once told by his grandfather about a garne of

on the sarcophagus. The chessmen are symbols

chess he had had with an Mrican devil. One frosty

of positive and negative thought. The game, so

winter's night, lvan Sokolov, the grandfather,

348

returned from a rousing party and couldn't sleep.

wanting to know how African devils played chess,

He lit a candle and sat down at the chessboard,

agreed to play the match. To exhibit his powers,

trying to solve a difficult problem by Stamma.

the Mrican solved Stamma's seven-move chess

But his head was spinning and, becoming impa

problem right off. The mysterious stranger did

tient, he cried : "The devil himself could not

indeed prove himselfto be a player ofsuperhuman

solve this! " Suddenly he heard a voice : "I can

talent, or so grandfather said . He won the first

help you . . . " and a strange figure appeared in the

game in fifteen moves, then the second, which he

doorway, a man of giant proportions, flying hair,

began with a gambit unknown to Sokolov, in

a black face with lumps on his forehead, dressed

twenty-five. The third game began in a very

in sorne hairy garment. !van Sokolov started to

tense atmosphere. Sokolov, now very worried,

call for help to the servants, but the strange

concentrated every nerve on winning it. His

guest told him not to be afraid, that he had come

situation did not loo k too bad, either ; after forty

from Mrica, he loved playing chess and that,

moves, he still had a chance if not winning, at

having heard what a wonderful player his host

least of harassing his opponent or of prolonging

was wanted to see for himself if it were true.

the game till dawn, which was the limit they had

He suggested a match of three games, on condi

agreed on for the match. So he went in for

tion that if he lost one game, then Sokolov would

a desperate attack, and was very surprised indeed

be recognized as the world champion ; but if he

when his opponent announced that he could not

won three times, Sokolov would have to stop

escape losing in a further twenty moves. Truly

playing chess for three years and keep the whole

enough, grandfather was mated exactly twenty

thing a secret for the next thirty. Grandfather,

moves later; being a man of honour he thereupon

intrigued by the boasting of the intruder and

gave up the game as he had agreed.

LEFT: Another "ex libris" of Frantz's, by the same designer. CENTRE: tlu chess knight as an ornamental moti/ in the em
blem of the German publishing firm "Springer Ver/ag." RIGHT: "ex libris" oj the SO'Viet writer Leonid BorisO'IJ.

349

The truth was that one of the best chess players

in Moscow had dressed himself up as a devil to
play a practica! joke on Sokolov, who was given
to boasting. But grandfather was too proud to ad
mit this and kept to his version of the story, to
lessen the pain of his defeat. Mter all, what hope
had

an

ordinary

man

against

charms

and

spells ?
But the best, the most infallible "magic chess
men" were shown in the Russian cartoon film
"Magic Toys," made in 1 953. A little hoy dreams
that he is in a shop where he can huy all sorts of
miraculous things ; a pen that does school exer
cises by itself, a box of paints that paint wonderful
pictures and many other things making work or
play pleasanter.

There are also sorne magic

chessmen for sale in the shop, chessmen that

win every game for the owner. The manager of the
shop, in the tall hat of a magician, personally
demonstrates the way the chessmen work; when
the signal is given, the box opens and the chess
men arrange themselves on the board. Another
signal, and they begin to play the game. The
chessmen move about the board at lightning
speed, all by themselves. Every now and then,
A playing card (the sii'Ven of diamonds) slwwing a chessplay
er. The designer was Thomas Murner, Strasbourg (1508) .

a black piece that has been captured jurnps off

the board and in a second or two the white forces
parade in victorious array.

ENTER THE DETECTIVE

! -

In quite a nurnber of detective stories, chess

has helped to catch the criminal. In "Checkmate
in Three Moves" by the English writer M. Cum

a-......-......1!!1
..

berland, a certain Dr. Robertson is shot in his

garden by an unknown person while playing chess.

E NDE 20
20 SPPFE!IJriG

50 SPENDE 50
PFENNIO

SPENDE 1 '
1 DEUTSCHE
llllX
:

The murdered man was holding a knight in his

hand. His neighbour gave himself up to the poli ce,
saying he had been playing chess with the murder
ed man, and in the middle of the game, had got

Stamps issued for the 14th Chess Olympic Games Fund

in Leipzig with diagrams of chess problems in four, two
and three moves respective/y.

350

up, walked a little distance away and shot him.

The detective, examining the position, established
that it was a chess problem which would have been

solved by a move of the knight. So it became

obvious that the doctor was not playing with
anybody but was trying to solve a problem on his
own. This disproved the neighbour's false con
fession and enabled the real culprit to be found.
The amateur detective in "The Black Queen,"
by the German writer Paul Hssy, had a more

Uerrn

Red,

Jroy

Gizycki

!!ti!:!
ul.

complicated problem to solve.

Siolecka

Nr. 67/69

Polen

A certain physician from Heidelberg, a keen

chess player, receives an invitation to go to the
United States to contest a match with the cham

ltll'liHI OT.-1. \OY 1111

pion of America. Greatly honoured, he starts

practising hard before leaving for the States. His
fiance's brother, whose hobby is criminology, is
anxious about him ; it so happened that three chess

A special en'Velope wirh postage stamp and seal commemo

rating rhe 14th Chess Olympic Games in Leipzig, 1960.

players who have previously participated in con

tests in the Chicago chess club (the U.S. Cham
pion's Club) died shortly after returning borne
from causes the police could not establish. The
deaths were ascribed to excessive exhaustion and
nervous strain, but the chemist suspects that they
were due to poisoning by curare, a strong Indian
poison, and he thinks that the invitation sent to
his sister's fianc is somehow connected with
these previous cases. So he follows the doctor to
America to get to know the truth.
The most unexpected things start happening in
Chicago and the story becomes a real thriller.
The chemist's suspicions turn out to be justified.
He gets on the trail of an organized gang working
with great precision and murdering people who
were "inconvenient" for them. The doctor from
Heidelberg was to be the next victim. The "chess
champion" was the head of the gang.
The doctor and the "champion" are playing the
game which will decide the match. After sorne
difficult play, a situation arises in which the doctor
could improve his position by taking his oppo
nent's chessman with his black queen. He took
hold of the black queen and . . . then there was an
unexpected

interruption.

Somebody

knocked

over the chessmen, stopping the game. It was the

amateur detective. He picked up the black queen
and examined it carefully. Inside it was the deadly

Money coupons with chess motifs on both sities, issued at

Strobeck in Germany during the 1921 injlation.

351

A prince turned into a monkey

by a sorcerer playing chess with
the Sultan. Illustration to
a French edition of the A rabian
Nights" ( 1860) .

curare, which would have been injected into the

have won it, proving his point by analysing the

doctor's finger through a fine needle, a mechanism

Iast few moves. The young girl's fianc happened

causing this to protrude the moment the black

to be a very sharp fellow especially at chess. He

queen was placed on a certain square. The crim

gave a complicated demonstration to prove that

inal was duly punished and all ended well.

the endgame was such that an excellent chess

In a thriller by the English writer Raymond

player, and the secretary was undoubtedly a mas

Allen, "The Right Solution," an amateur detec

ter of the game, would have no difficulty in re

tive had to know a great deal about chess to

constructing the two moves made during the fatal

wreck the apparently cast-iron alibi of a person

two minutes. Moreover the secretary, during his

suspected of stealing a

explanations, had touched one or two of the

f l ,OOO banknote. The

theft, carried out in the home of a certain lord,

pieces, on which stains appeared later.

could only have occurred at a specific time which

amateur detective surmised that these stains had

The

was narrowed down without a shadow of doubt to

been made with invisible ink : the thief had taken

certain two minutes. All the evidence pointed

the banknote out of one envelope and put it into

towards one young girl whereas the real thief, the

another that he had ready, and had crossed out

nobleman's secretary, had witnesses to swear

the original address, writing another, that of an

that he had been in the drawing room where his

accomplice, in invisible ink. The changing of the

master had been playing chess with a guest.

envdopes was discovered by accident, but the

The secretary, who was watching, had occasion

real thief's guilt was proved exclusively by way

ally made suggestions during the game and, when

of analysing the situation on the chessboard. The

the nobleman resigned, had showed how he could

story was based on a definite situation, giving

352

a diagram of the positions of the chessmen in the

officer. At eleven, he beat the champion of Cuba,

endgame, so that a reader who knew a bit of chess

the veteran Vadquez. Dr. Max Euwe also learnt

had an additional pleasure in going through the

to play at the age of four, by watching his parents

play.

at the board.
Then there was a wonder child, Milorad Bozic,
the son of a Belgrade caf proprietor. Little
Milorad used to watch the chess players who
INFANT PRODIGIES

frequented his father's caf and at last tried

playing hirnself. He was not yet seven when, to

Nobody has ever heard of a newborn baby

everybody's amazement, he beat them all. Invited

being able to play chess, but children only a few

to the local chess club, he beat many renowned

years old have mastered the rules. Capablanca,

players. Zweig probably had Bozic in mind when

later World Charnpion, could play at four, having

writing bis "Chess Story" about the arch-cham

learnt by watching his father play a Spanish

pion Mirko Centovic.

lllusrration by M. Orlowska-GabryJ ro the Polish editio11

of the Arabian story about a prince turned into a monkey.

A monkey p/aying chess and draughrs. French 1 7th century

drawing.

353

"Is ir a dr(JfiJ l'' Czech childrm'J post C4rd.

Cartoon by L. E. Karlowski ("Panorama P6lnocy").

Cartm by T1tsv ("Noir er Blanc").

"1 might

" You're dreaming again, arrd ]'JI win rhe banana." Cartoon by
K. Schrader ("Eulenspiegel") .

354

as

well admit 1 was a /irr/e qfraid of you ar

first . . . " ("La Baraille" ).

Mter the First World War, we heard a lot

about the Polish-born, later American, prodigy
Samuel Reshevsky. At the age of six or seven, he
toured Europe, then America, giving simultaneous
displays against dozens of opponents.
..
.
"During the filming of "The Kid" Samuel Re
shevsky, aged seven, the boy champion chess play
er of the world, visited the studio. He was to give
an exhibition at the Athletic Club, playing chess
with twenty men at the same time, among them
Dr. Griffiths, the champion of California. He had
a thin, pale, intense little face with large eyes that
stared belligerently when he met people. 1 had
been warned that he was temperamental and that
he seldom shook hands with anybody.
Mter bis manager introduced us and spoken
a few words, the boy stood staring at me in silence.

1 went on with my cutting, looking at strips of

"The devil plays a man for his sorll." Reproduction of

an allegorical painting by Moritz Retzsch, first half of tlu
19th century. Amhor unknow11. ( Museum of the History of
Religion in Lmingrad) .

film.
A moment later 1 turned to him . 'Do you like
peaches ?'
'Yes,' he answered.
'Well, we have a tree full of them in the garden;
you can climb up and get sorne - at the same
time get one for me!
His face lit up. 'Ooh, good! Where's the tree ?'
'Carl will show you,' 1 said, referring to my
publicity man.
Fifteen minutes later he returned, elated, with
severa! peaches. That was the beginning of our
friendship.

'Can you play chess ?' he asked.

1 had to admit that 1 could not.

Sccne from th1 French film "Evening Guests" (1942) .

Arletry plays the she-devil.

'1'11 teach you. Come see me play tonight, l'm

playing twenty men at the same time,' he said
with braggadocio.

1 promised and said 1 would take him to supper

afterwards.
'Good, 1'11 get through early.'

looked even less than his years. To watch him

walking about in the centre of the table, going
from one to another, was a drama in itself.

lt was not necessary to understand chess to

There was something surrealistic about the

appreciate the drama of that evening : twenty

scene as an audience of three hundred or more

middle-aged men poring over their chessboards,

sat in tiers on both sides of a hall, watching in si

thrown into a dilemma by an infant of seven who

lence a child pitting bis brains against serious old

355

The dead man was holding a knight in hs hand. . . " Illustraton by J. Flisak to a novel by M. Cumberland.

men. Sorne looked condescending, studying with

face lit up and he waved, indicating that he would

set Mona Lisa smiles.

not be long.

The boy was amazing, yet he disturbed me,

Mter checkmating severa} other players, he re

for I felt as I watched that concentrated face fiush

turned to Dr Griffiths, who was still deeply con

ing red, then draining white, that he was pay

centrating. 'Haven't you moved yet ?' said the boy

ing a price with his health.

impatiently.

' Here!' a player would call, and the child would

The Doctor shook his head.

walk over, study the board a few seconds, then

'Oh, come on, hurry up.'

abruptly make a move or call 'Checkmate!' And

Griffiths smiled.

a murmur of laughter would go through the audi

The boy looked at him fiercely. 'You can't

ence. I saw him checkmate eight players in rapid

beat me! If you move here, I'll move there!

succession, which evoked laughter and applause.

And if you move this, I'll move that!' He named

And now he was studying the board of Dr

in rapid succession seven or eight moves ahead.

Griffiths. The audience \vere silent. Suddenly he

'We'll be here all night, so let's call it a draw.'

made a move, then turned away and saw me. His

356

The Doctor acquiesced. "

He grew up to be one of the leading chess play

in the Monte Cario tournament of 1903. He was

ers of the United States. Sceptics have observed

staying in the outskirts of the town with a family

that he and other child prodigies at chess often

who had a little child. One day, playing with chess

win through being under-estimated by their op

champion Marshall, he interrupted the game in

ponents. The youthful chess player has nothing

a difficult position. He was a pawn to the good but

to lose and everything to gain. As at music,

might only draw, and then he would miss first

however, there are talented young people with

prize. He sat down and began to examine the

"absolute chess pitch., A child

like this may

position, but he could not find a satisfactory move.

not know much theory but has an instinctive

His efforts had been watched with great interest

feeling for the strategy and tactics of the game.

by a toddler. When, finally, he gave up and started

The routine player may fail to adapt bis know

to put the pieces back in the box, the child sudden-

ledge to bis young opponent's unusual moves.

In 1958 a sensation was caused in the Soviet
Union by a five-year-old boy from Tashkent,
Ernest Kim, who played wonderful chess. He even
beat players of the second category and qualified
as a third category player according to the rigid
standards in the USSR. When asked why he had
made

this

or

that

move,

he would reply :

"1 couldn't do otherwise, 1 should have lost

if

1 had., The little boy did not know how to analyse

positions, but he could generally make a very
good evaluation of the situation. With all bis
amazing mastery of chess, he was never anything
but a little child, even for a moment. He was
as excited about winning as another child would
be about receiving a new toy and cried bitterly
wh n he lost. Which reminds me, Reshevsky
toonwept bitterly when as a child he lost to the
grand master Rubinstein.
In Mikhail Botvinnik's opinion, a cbild prodigy
at chess should not be allowed to play until at
least eight to ten years old. If he is exceptionally
talented bis talent will develop in later years any
way. On the other hand, premature and exces
sively intensive mental effort by a cbild can have
serious consequences on bis physical and mental
health.
The chess champion Dr. Tarrasch gave bis
views on the ability of a child to master the secrets
of chess in a charming and ironical anecdote based
on an authentic happening. He tells us about an
eighteen-month-old toddler who showed him
a decisive move in an adjourned game. lt was

In the U. S.A. "He had the impertinence to take the white queen
with a black pawn., Cartoon by z. Lengren in "Przekr6j.'

357

ly cried "Aa-Aa!" lt's mother came and took her

become an inherent part of its traditions and

pet away. Of course she did not know what the

local customs.

child was trying to say ; but Tarrasch (or so he

A glance at any of the official village documents

claims) understood it at once ; he was being told

reveals a big seal with a chessboard on it. On the

to move a pawn one square further than he had

top of the church belfry there is a chessboard

intended. lt was a flash of genius. The move led

instead of weathercock to indicate the direction

to victory.

of the wind. Young scouts in Strobeck wear chess

Tarrasch was a fair-minded man. Players ought

not to be assisted by outside persons. So at the
prize-giving he openly admitted his "guilt."

badges.
Chess has been a school subject there for over
a century. Pupils are obliged to pass a theoretical
and practical examination in chess. A young
man wooing a girl used to have to beat the village
bailiff at chess or pay a big fee, otherwise the

THE CHESS VILLAGE

wedding would not take place. When the Strobeck

bailiff was a good player, the village had a perma

Not far from the town of Halberstadt, in the

western part of the German Democratic Republic,
lies the village of Strobeck. There is nothing in
its outward appearance to show that chess has

nent income from it. This interesting custom is

dying out nowadays.
How and when did chess find its way to this
exceptional village ?

J. Bots: "A Lost Game.'' An

engraving dating back to the
end of the 19th century.

358

Elaine Saunders, now Mrs. D. B. Pn"tchard, at eleven, when

she was already a most promising player.

A SO'fJiet cartoon of 1948: The World champion Bowinnik

Long, long ago in the year 1068, Duke Gunce

tain taxes in return for its inhabitants' constant

lin, a Slav nobleman of the Wendic tribe, was

readiness to play chess. There had to be a chess

taken prisoner of war and kept in the stone tower

set and board in every farm, so that a game could

of Strobeck. To kili time, he played chess,

always be arranged without delay. At coronation

a game taught him by guards recruited from the

ceremonies, young people from Strobeck used to

local peasantry. Chess was gradually winning more

give a performance of "living chess," the pageant

makes his opponents loo k like children ("Krokodil").

and more popularity in the village and, as time

being repeated in its traditional form to this very

went on, it became the passion of the population.

day.

Travellers passing through Strobeck could easily

Regrettably, the old passion for playing chess

get a game there. The fame of the village spread ;

has been gradually weakening of late. Yet it was

kings and bishops exempted the village from cer-

still very much alive up to a few years ago ;

359

ignorance of the game was regarded as a kind

of illiteracy. Young people are looking for other
kinds of entertainment, and there are fewer and
fewer old chess players. The chess village of
Strobeck is becoming more and more of a myth,
a historical exhibit, and not a living beautiful
example of chess being bound up with everyday
work and entertainment. lt would be an irrepara
1

ble loss should chess in Strobeck become no

thing more but an attraction for tourists and a bait
for visitors, a folk custom preserved like a museum
exibit.

"Dad's lost again!" ("Mru:hner lllustrierte" ).

Chess is peculiarly popular in advertising.

Shop

window

displays

frequently

involve

various commodities placed on a chessboard, the

commodities can range from kitchenware to hats.
Sometimes chess comes in as mere decoration,
but sometimes there is a real chess significance.
For instance, a giant fly in the corner of a chess
board has been "checkmated" by other pieces
representing insecticides.

1 have seen chess motifs used in advertisements

for underwear, optical products, drugs, food
articles, machines, cigarettes, lottery tickets and
innumerable other articles of everyday and not
.
...

. ...

so everyday use. Slogans accompany such as

"!.1.

"Heat waves are in check if you wear the airy

"We wanted

to

play chess just like daddy and uncle d/J."

("Ludas Matyi").

shirt produced by X ;" or "The best move you

can make is to choose ball-bearings produced
by Y ; or "Z

syrup

checkmates

influenza,

and so on.
On the cover of an issue of the French maga
zine "Connaissance des Arts/' which contained
an article about the famous chess collection of
Jean Maunoury, was a beautiful composition of
a few pieces from the collection with an ingenious
pedestal of light and dark blocks in the back
ground. A Polish film poster advertising the
Franco-ltalian film "Helen and Men," conveyed
the essence of the plot through chess symbols.
The poster showed Helen in the background,
a chessboard with her admirers as cardboard
"We'll never finish this game, you must do your homework
now." Cartoon by z. Lengren ("Swiat") .

360

pawns - indicating their role as her playthings

in the game of life.

THE CHESS FAN, UNKNOWN STRANGER

The spectator at chess is a notorious figure.

He appears in many an old drawing. Without the
spectator, matches and tournaments would lose
much oftheir appeal and excitement. In this, chess
has much in common with other games. But as
a Soviet j ournalist once put it :
" . . . Even the most enthusiastic and tempera
mental football fan would never dare to think of
appearing on the 'Dynamo' football pitch, with
the ball at bis feet, just opposite the goalkeeper.
He only admires other people doing it. The boxing
fan would be very embarrassed

if you suggested

he go into the ring to tackle the champion.

"In chess it is completely different. The specta
tor is bold, aggressive, and ready to fight. An
onlooker will criticise almost every move, con
vinced the players are wrong ; it is not Smyslov but
the unknown talented stranger, undiscovered
till now, who should be competing with the world
champion.
"The reason for this is that a chess enthusiast
enjoys an enviable privilege : he can play against
champions. What a pleasure to take part in a si
multaneous exhibition game given by a chess

The "che11 tOfJJer'' in the GermtJn flil/Qge of Str6btek. Leg

end has t that long ago the Sl(l'IJ prince Guncelin, whilst
mprisoned there, raught his guards lww ro play chess.

master! There is nothing to be lost, it is no dis

honour to lose the game if one plays against
a master! (I am not joking!) And if, by chance,
one succeeds in winning! Oh, my goodness!
Quivering with emotion and wondering how it
could have happened, one gets up from one's
chair seemingly complete master of oneself, gives

one's name to the referee as if by accident, walks

slowly to the door listening to the whispers about
you.
"And this is not the end of it. After sorne time,
when quite by chance one is talking to a group of
one's friends about the defeated champion, one
may say in an offhand way : 'Who ? Oh, you are
speaking about X ?

I beat him the other day.'

You absent mindedly forget to mention that he

Members of the Pioneer youth orgamzarion at Srrobeck wear

a chessboard badge.

361

Children from the ''chess fJilla.ge" of Strobeck going

to

school with their chessboards.

A typical Str6beck scene. Photograph taken in 1930.

362

was confronting thirty-nine other people at the

into the next room. The traitors! The players

they had so kindly replaced were quietly finishing

same time."
Open tournaments, for which anybody may

their game on their own.

enter, are not very common. Denied an adequate

But sometimes the chess fan triumphs. The

outlet for his ability a man may become an ob

French actor Jacques Tati once recalled an amus

trusive spectator.

ing scene from a comedy starring the American

An ill-bred onlooker can be the bugbear of

comedian W. C. Fields.
Two men were playing chess in a caf run by

a club.
Such spectators are called "Kibitzers" among

Fields. They had been sitting there for hours and

the Jews. They were described in an issue of

had only drunk one glass of fruit juice each.

Chess Weekly in 1898.

Mr. Field's wife became annoyed. Fields went

"lt would be difficult to enumerate all the

inconvenientes suffered by chess players.
"The most painful are the Kibitzers. A dis
respectful and badly behaved onlooker can be
a real plague. He criticizes every move, or ques
tions it; he blows tobacco smoke over the board
or into the players' faces . . . he rattles his walking
stick or the captured pieces ; he crowds in on the
players, leans on them . . . "
There is no remedy for chess fans. Although . . .
a remedy was found once.
Two keen chess players were having a friendly
game in their club, when two equally keen chess
enthusiasts sat down beside thern. Soon the air
was thick with critica} remarks about

every

move. The game became torture to the players.

Requests and persuasion had no effect. Then one
of the players turned round to his "fan" and said,
"You know a lot about this garne ?" " 1 certainly
do," replied the fan. "That's fine," said the player,
"perhaps you will be so kind as to take my place
for a moment ?" "With

pleasure."

The spectator

replaced the player, who left the room. A few

minutes later the other player asked the other
fan the same question and made the sarne propos
al. Having been assured that his fan's abili
ties were superior to those of the other, the
player

"agreed"

to give him his place

for

awhile.
The game did not seem to be so interesting now.
Being an onlooker seemed to have suited both of
them more than playing. After sorne time of wait
ing for the real players to come back, they peeped

"You've heaps of rime, rhe no:t nems phorographer won'r be

herefor ren minutes." Modern carroon on Srrobeck by K. Kla
mann ("Eulenspiegel") .

363

A Polish poster designed by Liliana Ba

czewska advertising rhe French film
"Elne el les hommes."

A Polish pre-war paper factory ad

vertisemenr showing an 18th century
chess kni'ghl.

A poster by Scarolet advertising rh.

14th Chess Olympiad in Leipzig in
autumn 1960.

it's your

NEPHEL I N E SV EN.\""( E
u1 'fOil. MO'n fOWAII .IIAfUI I.<UI1'f .,

Cover of the French magazine "Con

naissance des Arts" ( 1958) showing
a set from Maunoury's collecrions.

'f

An adverrisement of an American agri

cultura[ machi11es producer incorpora
ting a chess king.

An advertisement for ami-jiu medica

mellts by the well known Swiss firm
GIBA

up to them and, just as one of the players was

The third time, however, Fields winked to the

about to move a pawn, nudged him with his

player in approval. The move was a blunder which

elbow as a sign to delay his move. The player

lost the game at once. Fields brought them their

made as if to move another pawn and, again, was

hats and bowed them out politely and shut up for

held back by a light kick on the shin .

the night. Outside in the street they look at

364

A 13th century miniature which reminds us that the inter

fering bystander has always existed.

Women have not only played chess from olden days but liked
to watch it. Miniature from the manuscript of Alfonso the Wise.

eaeh other, one not knowing quite how he had

vocally, the spectator shouted out a better move

won, the other how he had lost.

than the one announced. It really was a better

Once a spectator butted into a friendly blindfold

game

played

by

two

American

champions

without a chessboard ; the moves being conveyed

Chess players and spectators in a workers' district in London.

Piloto 1934.

move. The moral of which is, I suppose, that it

is advisable on the whole to go about with your
eyes open.

In the Cracow "Planty" gardens you can't see the players

for the onlookers.

365

The "silent spectator" is certainly an awkward person here.

A French 18th century engraving.

In

366

London cqf. Drawing by L. Roberts ("Chess Pie") .

An interfering onlooker has wrecked the game. A mid-19th

century French lithograph.

The iru:orrigible onlooker gagged ("PaFUJrama").

The onlooker-consultant ( Shtkhr7W.ty," U.S.S.R.) .

"

A typical scene on the Vistula embankment, Cracow. Drawing by J. Bruchnalski

("Swiat").

The

Onlookers. Drawing
J. Skariyski.

by

Charles Dullin as Kempelen, construaor of an automatic chm player, in the French film "The Cheu Player" (1926) .

370

ILLUSTR ATIONS BY :

J. Agopsow i c z : 348f, 349a

K. Klamann : 96g, 1 23abc, 363

G. Rechowicz : 272, 273

S. Anguisciola : 287

S . Kobylis ki : 93, 1 28a, 1 64b

M.

L. Baczewska : 364a

J. Kosieradzki : 96d, 1 25a

D. Rewkiewicz : 299b

Retzsch : 355a

K. Baraniecki : 92e, 96b

Z . Kowalewski : 299a

L. Robcrts : 366c

1\1. Bcrezows ka : 249, 25 1 , colour

Kovarsky : 1 2 1 a

F. Roybet : 37

H. Bidstrup : 1 27

Kruger : 28

E. Ri:as ka : 300

H. Bielski : 295b

Larry : 323

M . Rulewicz : 16a

L.-L. de Boilly : 80b

Z. Lengren : 1 1 9a, 1 47, 1 8 1 , 2 1 6b, 3 1 5 ,

G. d e Saint-Aubin : 2 1 8b

P. Bordone : 289

M. Samlicki : 298b

357, 360c

Scaro1et: 364c

J. Bots : 358

E. Lipiski : 92c

F. Boucher : 292a

Lucas van Ley den : 66

J. Bruchnalski : 367b
B. Cepl eha: 1 5 9

S. Luckiewicz :

Chaval : 1 1 6b

M. Majcwski : 70

E . Shcheglov : 120

M . Cheremnych: 1 64d

C. de Man : 1 83

J . S karzynski :

Y. Cherepanov : 1 1 8

P. Mant : 348e

H . Chmielewski : 268, 27 1

A. Marczyski : 1 78, 263

W. E. Spradbery : 1 62b

D. Chodowiecki : 1 85, 290, 320

A. !v1arkowicz : 296

A. Staczy k : 7 1 a, 74, 75, 86, 87, 88a,

H. Daumicr: 80a, 294

S. Maslowski : 298a

89, 99,

E. Dclacroix : 29

H. Matisse : 84

291

9, 19, 65, 95,

1 3 1 , 1 53, 189, 205, 237, 309

K. Schrader : 354c
1 l l,

l. Semyenov : l l 9b
S . S icnnicki : 78a
36, 282, 285,

288,

367c, colour

1 0 1 ab,

102ab,

1 07,

108,

V. Stuyvacnt : 348d

G. Demctriad.:s : 1 7 1

E. Meissonier : 293

Desprez : 163a

L. Mendez : 1 65

J. M. Szancer : 1 96ab, 246

N. D uboy : 292b
F. D ietric h : 2 1 9

G. Miklaszewski : 98a, 1 2 6abc

B. Tabey : 1 2 1 b

D. Milty : 146

J . Tenniel : 274, 276ab, 277

J. Flisak : 1 0 5 , 356

L. Mintycz : 100

Tetsu : 1 1 9d, 354b

A. Fran<;ois : 96f

A. Mor : 2 1 0

F. T hemers o n : 1 22a

P. Gavarni : 3 1 4

Moreau le Jcune : 2 1 5

L. Tinayre : 4 1

l. Geneh : 1 1 9c

L . Morin: l l 2

H . W. Tischbc i n : 321

l. Grinstein : 1 1 5b

M. Motty : 3 1 6

A. Uniechowski : 264, 267, colour

J. Gris : 301
Z. and L. Haar : 1 57b

D. Mrz : 252, 255, 256

O. Vereysky: 234

Mllcr : 128b

V. Voyevodin : 145b

J. Hegen : 92f, 96c, 125c

T. Murncr : 350a

E. Vuillard : 83

A. H erry : 348a

J. Noel : 38ab
T. Ociep ka: 1 67

L. \'{'erner: 92d

J. Heyden : 25
J. E. Hummel :

P. Vasilye v : 222

A. Orlov : 278

Wolff: 297

A. Jablonski : 344ab, 345

M. Orlowska-Gabrys : 353a

M. Jamar: 348b

H. Parschau : 143a

B. Yefimov : 46
J. Zaruba: 1 58a, 164a, colour

295a

A. Johannet : 184

J. Petry-Przybylska : colour

J. Zen: 103

B. Jurgielewicz: 224, colour

A. Picto r : 160

J. Zitzman : 307abc, colour

A. Jurldewicz : 238

M. Pokora : 98b

J. Zubov : 96c

L. E. Karlowski: 354d

J. Pop : 158b

J.

W. Kashchenko : 145a

T. Popiel : 225a

Zulaws ki :

1 56

371

PHOTOGRAPHERS :

T. Biernacki : 235b

K. Gorazdowska : 176b

A. de Blieck: 106ab

A. Gros : 337

J. Borkowski: 17a, 241, 338c

H. Hennanowicz :

H. Braun-Chotard : 1 1 5a

L. Perz and F. Makowiak : 287

B. Rose: 245
27b,

335b, 365d

I 68a,

229a,

L. Sempolinski : 225b, 226b

P. Skingley : 1 5 1

K. Broniewski : 27c

Kostka and Mulert : 1 74

O. Stanek : 3 1 0 , 334a

Constantin : 141

S. Kragujewi : 223

J. Swiderski : 299a

L. Fogiel : 228b

C. Lukas: 230

W. Wolny : 300

W. H. Fox-Talbot : 39a

Z. Maksymowicz : 226a

J. Zen : 347

S. Frey : 361ab

F. Nowicki: 281

S. Zieliski : 342, 343

A. Giraudon : 1 5

Ostennayr : 31

F. Zwierzchowski :

Glogar : 172

M. Ozerskiy: 232a

298ab, 301, 310

L. Zukowski : 167

Note : Photographic

reproduction

of

illustrations

from

various publications and periodicals by : Centralna

Agencja Fotograficzna, I. MaJe k-Jarosiska, J. Zen,
F. Zwierzchowski and W. Zdarski.

76a,

222,

295a,

SOURCES OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Abellteuer des Prinzen Achmed - Gerrnan film, 1926 : 32
Alfonso el Sabio, Libros de acedrex, dados e tablas, Geneve
1941 : 20, 2 1 , 73, 208c, 365ab
H. R. d'AIIemagne,

Rcrations et Passe-Temps, Paris (s.a.) :

22, 23ab, 69, 7 1 b, 79, 8 1 , 1 62a, 163ab, 168ab, 192,

206, 208ab, 2 1 5, 2 1 8a, 292a, 293, 353b, 366a
Atlantic-Photo, Berln : 134ab, 135, 195, 338b

La Bataille, Paris : 354e

Eulenspiegel, Berln 1954, 1956: 96g, 123a-c, 143a, 354c, 363

Evening Guests - French film, 1942 : 355b
Frischer Wind, Bcrlin 1954: 92bf, 96e, 125b
Garrnont, Pars : 303b

Die Geschichte vom kleinen Muck - German film : 30

The Ghost in the Palace - Polish puppet film, 1960: 149
J. Gizycki collection: 43a, 47, 48b, 91, 1 14, 176a, 324,
325, 347, 350b, 351ab, 354a, 364b, 366b

Berln Natonal Gallery : 66, 289

Goskinofond, Moskva: 302a-f

M. Bessy,

Gotha Schloss Museum : 210, 321

Les Truquages au cinma, Pars 1 95 1 : 140, 2 16a

L. Borisov collecton : 349c

J. Boyer,

Nouveaux jeux d'checs non orthodoxes, Paris 1951 :

86, 87, 88a, 89

The British Museum : 68
Budapest Art Gallery : 183

Campo Mamula - Yugoslavian film, 1959 : 319

Carelbach Gallery: 340

La Caricature, Paris : 1 63ab

L. Carroll, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-glass, London 1 947 : 274ab., 276ab, 277
Celtic Cinma: 370
Centrala Wynajmu Filmw : 3 1 7

A . Gmy collection : 338c

H. R. Grlitz collection: 72

A Guide to the Mediaeval A ntiquities and Objects of Later

Date, British Museum Catalogue, London 1924: 18a
C. Hlova-Jahodova, Vergessene Handwerkskunst, Praha
1955 : 310, 334a
A. Hammond,

The Book of Chessmen, London 1950: 14,

169, 170, 330ab, 332, 333

Hussite Trilogy - Czechoslovak film; 2 1 1

W . Hausenstein, Rococo, Mnchen 1918: 2 18b
H . Havard, Dictionaire de l'ameublement et de la dcoration,
Pars : 180, 209

Le Charivari: BOa
Chess Fever - Soviet film: 302
Chess Pie, London 1922, 1 927 : 40, 43b, 1 62b, 366c
China Reconstructs, Pekn 1956 : 85ab
Chopz's Youth - Polsh film : 34, 82
Cinmathque Franfaise, Pars : 2 1 7
Connaissance des Arts, Pars 1958 : 342, 364d
M. Cumberland, Mat w trzeclz ruchach : 356
Cyr11lik Warszawski, W'arszawa 1931 : 164a

F. H. Hoffmann,

DEFA, Berln : 30

K . Irzykowski,

The Deserter - Polish film 1 958 : 304a

Dikobraz, Praha 1958 : 1 58b, 159
Dookola Swiata, Warszawa 1954 : 1 27
L'chiquier de France, Pars 1956 : 160
L'chiquier de Paris, Pars 1949, 1950, 1 95 1 : 122b, 1 24a,
313, 348de

checs nouvel/ement moralist!s (MS) : 22

L'cran Fra1!faise, Pars 1945 : 182
8 x 8 - film by Hans Richter 1957 : 202a, 306c

Das Porzellan, Berln 1932 : 27a, 177

Schnell Mat! Mnchen 1913 : 288, 289
l. Ilf and E. Petrov, Dwanaicie krzesel: 268, 271
Illusion - Gerrnan film, 1941 : 303a
Illustrated, London 1947 : 198a-d
L'Illuuration Journal Universel, Paris 195 1 : 38ab
Ilusrrowany Kurier Codzienny, Krakw 1932 : 200
C. Hther,

Institute of Art, PAN (Polish Academy of Sciences), Warszawa : 27c, 167

Paluba, Warszawa 1948 : 228a

Istoria kultury drevniei Rusi, Moskva 1948: 16b
lva11 the Terrible - film by S. Eisenstein, 1945 : 203, 214
Izogiz, Moskva 1956 : 48a
M. Jastrun, Poeta i dworzanin, Warszawa 1954: 224
S. Jelcski, Lilavati, Warszawa 1954: 101
M. Jkai, Szachy: 263
A. Jurkiewicz, Podrcznik metody grajiki artystycznej, Krakw 1938: 254
Kalendarz Rodzinny, Krakw 1956: 367c

Eremitage : 84

Karuzela, Ldi 1959 : 96ab

Express 1l"ieczorny, Warszawa 1954 : 126a-c, 233b

Keystone, Paris-London : 44, 194ab, 362ab

373

Kierunki, Warzawa 1957 : 272

G. Klein, Le Gambit des Etoiles, Ed. Hachete, Paris 1958 :
28
Der Klosterjoger - German film: 3 1
Klosy, Warszawa 1889 : 295b
J. Kochanowski, Szachy, Kra kw 1884 (anatas tic reprint) :
241

Our Man i11 Hatana - American film : 91

Pacific-Atlantic Photo, Berlin : 201c
Panorama, Katowice 1960 : 366d, 367c
Panorama Plnocy, Olsztyn 1960 : 354d
Pardosi - Indian film, 1939 : 32a

La Perite Illustriation Cinmatographique, Paris

B. Kordemsky, Mathematical Puzzles : 1 64

l. Ki:iszega, J. Pap, Kempalan Farkas, Budapcst 1955 :
1 36ab, 1 37ab

Photo-Cinma Magazine, Paris 1955 : 1 1 5 a

Krokodil, Moskva 1948, 1953, 1959, 1960 : 1 1 6a, 1 1 9c,

Platt's collection : 242

120, 164d, 359b

Lachen Links, Berlin 1 924 : 164c

M. Lange, Paul !11.orphy, sein Leben und Schaf/en, Leipzig
1894: 39b

Leader Magazine, London 1 948, 1949 : 1 57a, 338a

Lehtikuva Oy, Helsinki : 190, 201b
Z. Lengren, Sredniowieczne iarty, Warszawa 1958 : 2 1 6b

Libro di giuoco di scacchi, (M S) : 19

Lije, New York 1955 : 1950, 340
Lilliput, London 1956 : 1 28b
Locura de amor - Spanish film, 195 3 : 32b
Ludas Matyi, Budapest 1955, 1956: 1 43b, 360b
Lyons Mail: 366c

1927 :

1 38ab, 139
Perets, Kiev 1959 : 92a
Pitt-Rivers collection : 1 3

Polityka, Warszawa 1960 : 93

Presse-Photo, Berlin : 90, 197ab, 20 I c

The Proud Princess - Czechoslovak film, 1 952 : 202b

Przeglqd Artystyczny, Warszawa 1950 : 77, 165
Przekrj, Krakw 1947 : 92c, 96f, 100, 1 19d, 252, 255,
256, 357
Rabelais,

Gargamua et Pantagruel, ed. H. Laurence,

Paris (s.a.) : 1 12

J. A. Rank Organ.isation, London : 230, 318

P. O. Rave, Die Malerei des XIX. Jahrhunderts, Berlin
1945 : 295a
Renaud de Montauban (MS) : 180

La Marseillaise, Marseille 1938 : 124b

Matej ko Museum, Krakw : 229a
J. Maunoury collection : 326, 327, 364d

11ze Royal Game - film by Gcrt Oswald: 259, 260, 322

Schach-Olympiade 1960, Leipzig 1960 : 364c
Sea Hawk - American film : 34
Die Schzpost : 142
G. Selenus, Das Schach oder Konig-Spiel, Lipsiae 1 6 1 : 25
Semaine du Monde, Paris 1953 : 132

Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer, Hollywood : 231a, 235a

Senneckc, Berl i n : 175, 20 1 e

A. Mickiewicz, Ballady i romanse, Lww 1891 : 225a

Mickiewicz Museum, Warszawa : 225b, 226b
Mikhail Lomonosov - Soviet film, 1955 : 220

The Sevemh Sea/ - Swedish fil m : 1 6 1

Slzakhmaty v SSSR : 367a
S. Sienicki, Historia architektury wutrz mieszkalnych,

L. Mandy's collection : 348a

Maness, Grosse Heidelberger Liederhandschrift (MS) : 209

Le Mil/e et Une Nuit, Paris 1860 : 352

Mosfilm, Moskva : 1 79, 214
Motherland - French film : 182

Mnchner Illustrierte, Mnchen 1959, 1960 : 1 1 7, 323, 360a

H. R. Murray, History of Chess, Oxford 1 9 1 3 : 12, 1 3, 15,
17b, 19, 74, 99, 1 02ab, 1 54, 242

Warszawa 1954 : 78a

Sie und Er, Zrich 1959 : 1 1 6b

Signals - Polish film, 1959 : 306a
The Silent Star - German-Polish film, 1960 : 148
Sovctskoe Informationnoe Byuro, Moskva : 232a
Sport a11d General, London : 365c

Museum of the History of Religion in Lcn ing rad : 355a

Spr ingcr-Ve rlag: 349b

National Museum, Czartoryski collection, Krakw : 27b,

168c

H. Stenhaus, Kalejdoskop matematyczny, Warszawa 1954 :

Nacional Museum, Krakw: 296

AB Svcnsk Filmindustri, Stockholm : 1 6 1

Szlt v obrazach, Praha 1953 : 78b

National Museum, Pozna : 287

The New A dventures of Puss-in-Boots - Soviet film : 306b

Neue Berliner Illustrierte, Berlin 1960: 92d
The New Yorker, New York 1959 : 121a
Niemiecka Republika Demokratyczna w Odbudowie, Berlin
1 954, 1955 : 201a, 361ab
K. Niesiecki, Herbarz Polski, Lcipzig 1 842 : 10

Noir et Blanc, Paris 1956: 121b, 354b

Ogqnyok, Moskva 1 954, 1 955, 1956, 1959: 96c, 1 15b, 1 18,
1 19b, 145b, 234

374

108ab

Szpilki, Warszawa 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956 : 92e, 96d, 105,

125a, 1 28a, 146, 158a

Sztuki J>ikne, Warszawa 1 925-26, 1934 : 298ab

Stuiat, Warszawa 1955, 1956 : 1 22a, 144ac, 14i, 1 64b,
360c, 367b

Tekhnika Molodezhy, Moskva 1959 : 145a

This Crazy Game - American ballet : 199
Tlzret Musketurs - American film, 1921 : 212, 213
Tolstoy Museum, Jasnaya Polyana : 22i

The Tournament - Polish film by W. Nehrebecki, 1960 :

307abc

Town and Country: 245

Trois Ages de l'home (MS) : 206
J. Tuwim, Polska nowela fantastyczn<, Warszawa 1949:
196ab, 246

Tygodnik llustrowany, Warszawa 1871, 1772, 1875, 1896:

28, 174, 187, 292b
United Press, New York: 151, 231a, 235a
United Press Photo, London : 1 5 1
V . A . Fihn, Paris : 305b
L. Venturi,

La Peinture contemporaine, Paris (s.a.) : 301

Victorian Photography, London 1942: 39a

Visiteurs du soir - French film, 1942 : 33
The Volga Boatman - French-Italian film, 1959: 304b
E. Vuillard, Seize gravures en couleur: 83
M. Wakowicz, Bitwa o Monte Cassino, Roma 1945: 157b
Wamer Bros, Hollywood: 34a, 305a

Wrdrowiec, Warszawa 1908 : 358

Wytwrnia Filmw Fabularnych, Ld.Z : 34b, 82a, 166

Zeit im Bild, Berlin 1953, 1954, 1960 : 96a, 173

Znanie-Sila, Moskva : 278
W. Zukrowski, Porwanie w Tiutiurlistanie, Krakw 1947 : 178
Zycie Warszawy : 228b

Printed in England