July 2020

FUSION: A REVIEW OF "DUCHAMP'S PIPE: MARCEL DUCHAMP AND GEORGE KOLTANOWSKI, A ROMANCE", By CELIA RABINOVITCH, NORTH ATLANTIC BOOKS, 2020

THE SURREALIST AND THE DIAMOND CUTTER AND THE FUSION OF ART AND CHESS By Peter O'Brien, Brussels Present day New York has been described The Canadian artist and cultural historian, as “the last European city”, meaning the Celia Rabinovitch (not herself a chess place which embodies the pattern that player), has now turned the spotlight onto characterized Vienna, Berlin, Paris, and a particularly intriguing example of fusion, London in the period from about 1850 till the 1930s. Those were the cities where MARCEL DUCHAMP WAS NOT the intermingling of gifted characters of every origin and from all walks of life was ONLY ONE OF THE LEADING the , and where the many fusions FIGURES IN THE ART WORLD, were richly creative and not destructive. They were also, along with St Petersburg BUT ALSO A CHESS PLAYER and some other centres, the places which ("CHESS IS MY DRUG") AND together constituted the chess equivalent AUTHOR OF CONSIDERABLE of the artists’ Grand Tour in the post- Napoleonic decades. TALENT

BRITISH CHESS MAGAZINE | 427 07/140 and at multiple levels. Drawing on her deep knowledge of the art world, she has succeeded in giving us a splendid insight into what the game can inspire in gifted individuals better known in other fields. Marcel Duchamp was not only one of the leading figures in the art world, but also a chess player (“Chess is my drug”) and author of considerable talent. Born towards the end of the nineteenth century into a well- established family in Normandy, he rapidly became part of the effervescent artistic scene of Paris prior to the 1914-1918 war. His first painting (1910) was called “The Chess Players”, and he already developed his ideas of the players as being joined yet separated across a kind of “X”. Canvases of Duchamp illustrating the chess theme at that time bring immediate associations with works by other great painters of that epoch. From his formative years, Duchamp was “fusing” art and chess. Post 1918, he spent substantial spells in New York, where his patrons included Peggy Guggenheim GEORGE KOLTANOWSKI. and Walter Arensburg (who had been captain of the chess team at Harvard – he his country. The roles of themselves and and Duchamp played their teams in establishing FIDE was for many years), as well as almost a year instrumental. They met again at the 1928 in Buenos Aires. In this period he produced Olympiad in The Hague, and in 1929 and collaborated in a number of artworks played a game in Paris, which Duchamp using chess as leitmotiv and invented one won (to the chagrin of Koltanowski, who of the first wallet style travelling chess sets kept the score of the game for the rest of his (of which only a few were made). Nobody life). When Duchamp had first gone to New could have been, at least superficially, York he had frequented Frank Marshall’s more different than George Koltanowski. club. It was there that they met up again, The son of an Antwerp diamond cutter, in in 1944. In the intervening years, however, a family of Polish Jewish origin, he started chess had become an ever more significant out following his father. But Koltanowski element in their lives. For Koltanowski, it was determined to spend as much time was his life. He managed to survive through on chess as possible, becoming Belgian combining his skills over the board with a champion (against his great rival Colle) in blooming entrepreneurial talent (rarely the early 1920s. absent in someone from the famous Flemish seaport), later to come to full fruition in the The surrealist and the diamond cutter USA. It was while he was on a chess tour first met in Belgium in 1923, followed by in Guatemala en route to the Buenos Aires the inaugural , in Paris Olympiad, that he received a telegram in 1924, where each was representing announcing the outbreak of war and the

428 | BRITISH CHESS MAGAZINE July 2020 cancellation of Belgium’s participation (the moves we did not make), the many in that event. So he made his way to New geometries contained in the game. York, where the initial circumstances led to a return to diamond cutting. His whole It’s more than possible that much of this family in Europe perished in concentration was lost on Koltanowski. In his - now camps, so he had little reason to return. American - existence (he took citizenship, married in 1946 and made his life there), For Duchamp, chess inspired and chess- this showman of the board had to create related themes appeared in a fair part ways to make money from the game. And of his works during the 1930s. Already so he did. What he called his “phonographic at the beginning of the 1920s he had memory”, meaning that he did not visualise published with Halberstadt the booklet games in his mind but rather “hear them”, on “Les Cases Conjuguees” and was led him to focus on blindfold simultaneous fascinated by the silent symmetries of the displays. These were a tremendous 64 squares. In chess terms, this was the success. As Rabinovitch points out, such heyday of the hypermodern movement, demonstrations of powers that seemed to where concepts close to many present border on the occult drew large audiences in the artistic world were of people who often revolutionising strategic knew little about chess. thinking. On return to Koltanowski likewise New York, he met up gave public performances with Koltanowski at the of “the ’s Tour”, Marshall club. It was embellished with publicity when they started playing stunts such as asking there that Duchamp made the audience to call out his gift. The pipe, with its numbers for each square, echoes of the remarkable memorizing them, and painting (“Ceci n’est pas then calling them out as the Une Pipe”) by Magritte DUCHAMP'S PIPE horse continued prancing. (another Belgian) was The American image of the unusual, to say the least. Made of game was being transformed from that of briarwood, chunky and probably not that a pursuit where Europeans from well to do easy to inhale from, it emphasises solidity, families played inside stuffy, smoke-filled tradition, craftsmanship of the everyday coffee houses and spent hours reflecting, object (as pipes were at that time). It is to that of an “open access” business where replete with associations. Surrealism the public could get involved and share as an art movement drew heavily on some excitement. At the same time, the ancient traditions and customs, and its redoubtable Koltanowski persuaded the representations conveyed ideas and ideals “San Francisco Chronicle” to publish a to be found in them. The notion of the pipe weekly column on chess (which ran for 52 and its ceremonial smoking as a symbol years), and conducted countless training for peace is widely known. Duchamp, sessions for people to learn the game. in talking about his performances on the Ever ready to use the media, he also made , emphasised that, for him, radio broadcasts. He was confident that the result was not so important (this is scientific progress would not threaten his not war). He was instead concerned with activities. After giving a blindfold display the symmetries, the unheard harmonies in 1960, he told an interviewer “Electronic

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DUCHAMP GLASS CHESSBOARD, ARNOLD ROSENBERG 1958 computers don’t know a damn thing about THE PRESENT CENTURY HAS chess. I’ve played ‘em and beat ‘em.” SEEN THE GAME GO RIGHT The present century has seen the game DOWN THE KOLTANOWSKI go right down the Koltanowski avenue. From sponsorship on an important scale, AVENUE. FROM SPONSORSHIP the great success of open tournaments, ON AN IMPORTANT SCALE, introducing numerous formulae for speeding THE GREAT SUCCESS OF OPEN up play, creation of a “Grand Tour” of elite tournaments, through to Magnus’ personal TOURNAMENTS, INTRODUCING and highly successful endeavours to leverage NUMEROUS FORMULAE FOR his fame and find funding for the COVID online existence where we are right now, SPEEDING UP PLAY

430 | BRITISH CHESS MAGAZINE July 2020 entrepreneurship is where the action is. The THE ENDURING POWER OF popularity of the game is almost certainly at an all-time high, however measured. Indeed, CHESS REALLY COMES FROM a Chinese American venture capitalist, with THE RANGE OF THINGS IN LIFE an eye to revenue earning opportunities in WHICH IT INSPIRES the COVID era, recently claimed there was a potential market of around 600 million players globally. An age old question about chess has been Yet it would be wrong to think that it’s to ask whether it is a science or an art. only the Koltanowski side of the board that Koltanowski’s quip of six decades ago has has had an enduring influence. Duchamp of course been buried by Alpha Zero (a likewise has had more than a word to say. very short appendix in the book refers to His attraction to the game stemmed from his this). The Belgian himself, though, as ever conviction that it offered countless avenues moved with the times. Mark Crowther tells for art to explore. Films, photos, posters, me that, soon after starting his invaluable even sculptures, created by Duchamp TWIC a quarter century ago, Koltanowski himself and/or with other innovators (works sent him a congratulatory note, by Dali, Man Ray, Di Chirico, to name accompanied by a signed photo. The recent but a few, are just some of the splendid trends might seem to indicate that science, collection of plates and reproductions in the in its computer embodiment, has decisively book), testify to the inspiration that chess answered the question in its own favour. gave to the artist. But we can see his role Yet Celia Rabinovitch’s deeply researched as an influencer in plenty of ways. World and multi-faceted book suggests something championship matches, major tournaments, else. It is that the question itself sells the Olympiads, all (at least prior to COVID) game short. The enduring power of chess are unfailingly preceded by artistic displays really comes from the range of things in life where the game is the source for the which it inspires. As Rabinovitch, who has choreography. Outstanding portrait photos also written persuasively on Surrealism by David Llada invite us to literally look and the Sacred, might put it, the board more deeply into the faces of many fine appeals to the spirits and the spirit. Therein players and speculate what we can learn lies the gift. from their expressions in front of the camera. (In the portrait of Koltnaowski reproduced here, notice that his ring is a chessboard – George never missed an opportunity). And, if we go back a few decades, the irrepressible Spaniard Fernando Arrabal arrived in Italy to be present at the Korchnoi and Karpov 1981 match in Merano, where he ensured that surrealism was the third player. Arrabal, who since the mid 1950s has made his home in Paris, was indeed closely linked with the French artists. At one stage, he was elected by them to the honorary role of “Transcendent Satrape”, a post which Duchamp himself had occupied.

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