Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp (July 28, 1887 – October 2, 1968) was an influential French/American artist. He was arguably the most important influence on the development of post-war art in Europe and North America, in particular Pop Art and Conceptual Art.

Abandons Art for Chess

During 1923, Duchamp virtually abandoned his career as an artist to play chess, a habit-forming stategy game which he played for the rest of his life to the near exclusion of all other activity. Duchamp's obsessive fascination with chess can be traced back much earlier to the themes of his major art pieces. The most immediately obvious of these is the chess position known as "trébuchet" (the trap), which gave its title to the Readymade of 1917: a coat rack with four hooks, which is nailed to the floor, hooks uppermost.

Related Topics:
Chess - Trébuchet

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Not only did he design the 1925 Poster for the Third French Chess Championship, but he finished the event at fifty percent (3-3, with 2 draws), and thus earned the title of chess master. During this period his fascination with chess so distressed his first wife that she glued his pieces to their board, which possibly contributed to their divorce four months later. He went on to play in the French Championships and also in the Olympiads from 1928-1933, favoring hypermodern openings like the Nimzo-Indian. In spite of his efforts he was unable to move from the rank of a strong French master to the rank of a strong international grand master. Sometime in the early 1930s, Duchamp realized that he had reached the height of his ability and had no real chance of winning recognition in top-level chess. Over the following years, the intensity of his participation in chess tournaments declined but he discovered correspondence chess and became a chess journalist writing weekly newspaper columns.

Related Topics:
Chess master - Olympiad - Hypermodern - Nimzo-Indian - Correspondence chess

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In 1932 Duchamp teamed up with fellow chess theorist Halberstadt to publish "L'Opposition et Cases Conjugees sont Reconciliées" (Opposition and Sister Squares are Reconciled). This pataphysical treatise describes the Lasker-Reichelm position, a unique and extremely rare position that can arise in the endgame (or third and final phase) of a game of chess. In conclusion, the authors observe that the most Black can hope for is a draw. Given accurate play by White, Black can only succeed in delaying the progress of events, ultimately losing to White. They demonstrate this fact by plotting the game play on enneagram-like charts that fold in upon themselves. Grasping the central theme of this work, the endgame, is an important key to understanding Duchamp's complex attitude towards his artistic career. While his contemporaries were achieving spectacular success in the art world by selling their visions to high society collectors and trend setters, Duchamp observed "I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art - and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position."

Related Topics:
Pataphysical - Endgame - Enneagram - Commercialized

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During his later years, many people attempted to lure Duchamp back into the art world.

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His theme of the endgame was picked up by British playwright Samuel Beckett who used it as the narrative device for his commercially successful 1957 play of the same name, "Endgame". One of Duchamp's most notable chess games occurred in 1968, at a concert called "Reunion" at Ryerson Polytechnic in Toronto. His opponent was the avant-garde composer and event organizer John Cage. The music was produced by a series of photoelectric cells underneath each square of the chessboard which were sporadically triggered during normal game play.

Related Topics:
Samuel Beckett - "Endgame" - John Cage

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On choosing a career in chess Duchamp had this to say:

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"If Bobby Fischer came to me for advice, I certainly would not discourage him - as if anyone could - but I would try to make it positively clear that he will never have any money from chess, live a monk-like existence and know more rejection than any artist ever has, struggling to be known and accepted."

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