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Chess in the Arts

Three short lessons on chess as writers, filmmakers and artists have used it: a story written in exile, a knight playing for time, and an artist who left painting for the board.

Spark & Whetstone · sparkwhetstone.org/learn/chess-in-the-arts · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Answers are at the end, so you can try each question first.

Lesson 1. A game in a cell

Stefan Zweig's novella The Royal Game (Schachnovelle) was finished shortly before his death in 1942. A prisoner held in isolation steals a book of famous games and plays them in his head, then against himself, until the game becomes a kind of illness.

Zweig uses chess to show a mind with nothing else to hold on to. Years later the prisoner, crossing the ocean by ship, plays the world champion.

Question. In The Royal Game, how does the prisoner learn chess?

  1. From a teacher in the prison.
  2. From a stolen book of games he plays in his head.
  3. By watching guards play.

Say it back. In your own words: what does chess stand for in Zweig's story?

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Lesson 2. Playing for time

In Ingmar Bergman's film The Seventh Seal (1957), a knight returning from the Crusades meets Death on a beach and challenges him to a game of chess. As long as the game goes on, the knight lives.

The game is a way of asking for more time to do one good thing. It is one of the most copied images in film.

Question. Why does the knight in The Seventh Seal challenge Death to chess?

  1. To win money.
  2. To stay alive as long as the game lasts.
  3. To learn the rules.

Say it back. Say it back: what does the knight want the extra time for?

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Lesson 3. The artist at the board

Marcel Duchamp, one of the most famous artists of the twentieth century, largely stopped making art around 1923 to play chess seriously. He played for France in several Chess Olympiads.

He said that while not all artists are chess players, all chess players are artists. The novelist Vladimir Nabokov agreed in his own way: he wrote a novel about a chess master, The Defense, and composed chess problems, which he published beside his poems.

Question. What did Marcel Duchamp do around 1923?

  1. Painted his most famous chess painting.
  2. Largely stopped making art to play chess.
  3. Invented a new chess piece.

Say it back. In your own words: why might an artist see chess as art?

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At the table: A chess evening with a story

Players: two or more, 12 or older. You'll need: a chess set and a copy of one of the works (or a short summary read aloud).

  1. Read or tell one of the three stories aloud.
  2. Play a game, and stop at the middle to ask: what is this game standing for tonight?
  3. Finish the game.
  4. Each person names a book, film or picture where a game means more than a game.

Answers

  1. From a stolen book of games he plays in his head. — Alone in his cell, he plays the games from a stolen book, first from the page and then from memory.
  2. To stay alive as long as the game lasts. — While the game continues, he lives, so the chess buys him time.
  3. Largely stopped making art to play chess. — Duchamp largely set art aside for chess and went on to play for France in Chess Olympiads.