Program Type: Exhibition

A Beautiful Game both showcases lovely artifacts from the World Chess Hall of Fame collection—chess-inspired beauty products, photographs, posters, and advertisements—and illustrates how the sophistication and brilliance of the game have been celebrated and revered in chess and popular culture. The exhibition also highlights new, interactive artwork by chess champion and author Jennifer Shahade as well as Pinned! fashion designer Audra Noyes.

Chess is often described as a beautiful game, and its association with intelligence and strategy has made it an appealing subject for advertisements for a wide range of products, from automobiles to lipstick. A Beautiful Game highlights many of the chess-inspired beauty and fashion artifacts in the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) as well as illustrating how beauty is celebrated in the game of chess. Delicate Mary Chess perfume bottles from the WCHOF collection provided inspiration for staging A Beautiful Game. The Mary Chess company was named for its founder, Mary Grace Chess Robinson, who was born in Kentucky and had first created a name for herself through creating artificial flowers. In the 1930s, she began to create floral-scented perfumes and lotions in her kitchen. In 1939, when Mary Chess was choosing the bottles for her line, she gained inspiration from an image of an antique amber chess set once owned by members of the Hohenzollern dynasty. A pattern from a 17th-century Venetian chessboard adorned the wrapping paper for her packaging. Her logo, a queen piece, appeared on a variety of products from perfume to dusting powder, though in a 1942 interview she stated that neither she nor the other executives at the company played chess.

The Mary Chess items are only a small part of a much larger collection of artifacts related to chess, fashion, and beauty that we have amassed since the WCHOFmoved from Miami to Saint Louis in 2011.  Among them are products by Lipstick Queen, whose founder Poppy King visited the Chess Forum, a shop and game parlor in New York, to learn about the game while developing her chess-themed collection. Following Bobby Fischer’s victory in the 1972 World Chess Championship. Avon created a line of aftershaves and colognes in chess piece-shaped bottles that collectors could assemble into a full chess set. There are also numerous advertisements incorporating chess themes from companies as diverse as Chanel, Revlon, and Maidenform, and the reigning World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen has appeared in advertisements for the Dutch clothing company G-Star RAW. These advertisements illustrate how companies use the game of chess to evoke a variety of themes including intelligence, elegance, refinement, glamour, tradition, strategy, and power.

The WCHOF is dedicated not only to exploring the history of the game but also how it is viewed and presented in popular culture. This mission leads us to organize exhibitions like A Beautiful Game and past shows exploring the intersections of chess and fashion including PINNED! A Designer Chess Challenge (October 6, 2017 – March 25, 2018). The latter exhibition paired designers from the Saint Louis Fashion Incubator (Audra Danielle Noyes, Charles Smith II, Agnes Hamerlik, Allison Mitchell, Emily Brady Koplar, and Reuben Reuel) with chess players (GM Maurice Ashley, GM Christian Chrilia, GM Alejandro Ramirez, GM Fabiano Caruana, WGM Jennifer Shahade, and IM Nazi Paikidze Barnes) in a challenge to create an ensemble for a contemporary chess player. Noyes, who was paired with GM Maurice Ashley, won the challenge and a $10,000 scholarship. Noyes sees her design process as similar to the experience of playing chess: she inserts the unexpected into designs that draw from the guidelines of classical tailoring much like a chess player finds spontaneity within the structure of the game. A stunning piece from Noyes’ Autumn/Winter 2018 collection, which is inspired by the power of the queen appears in A Beautiful Game. 

In addition to showcasing beauty and fashion-related artifacts, A Beautiful Game includes a display related to concepts of beauty in chess. People often debate whether chess is an art, game, or sport. Chess brilliancy prizes, which were once commonly offered at tournaments, honor individuals who played games of great originality and often featuring stunning sacrifices. In 1876, Henry Bird won the first-ever brilliancy prize for his game against James Mason in the Clipper Free Centennial Tournament. During the remainder of the nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century, many tournaments offered brilliancy prizes. They were sometimes offered throughout the history of the U.S. and U.S. Women’s Chess Championships. One memorable brilliancy prize winning game fought on American soil was Bobby Fischer’s famous victory over Donald Byrne in the 1956 Lessing J. Rosenwald Tournament. Later labeled the “Game of the Century,” it featured a dramatic queen sacrifice. Today, brilliancy prizes are typically awarded in tournaments.

A Beautiful Game also marks the debut of a new artwork by two-time U.S. Women’s Chess Champion and Program Director at US Chess Women Jennifer Shahade and filmmaker Daniel Meirom. Not Particularly Beautiful is inspired by a misogynistic chessboard covered in insults directed at women, which was printed in French poet Gratien du Pont’s 1534 book Les Controverses des Sexes Masculin et Féminin (The Controversies of the Male and Female Sexes). Shahade and Meirom debuted the first version of the work at the Boston Sculptors Gallery in October 2018. That version of Not Particularly Beautiful was an oversized chessboard featuring calligraphy of insults directed at Shahade and other female chess players on the white squares. On the black squares, female chess players, students, and artists were invited to share memorable insults they had endured: however some instead flipped the challenge and offered encouragement to other women.

A Beautiful Game contains artifacts that approach the intersections among chess, beauty, and fashion in numerous ways: Yuko Suga’s Image Re: In Glass encourages self reflection through a chess set atop a vanity, Avon’s cologne bottle chess set produced after Bobby Fischer’s victory in the 1972 World Chess Championship, and prints and books related to beautiful chess games. We hope that you will enjoy the pieces on view, from Karen Walker’s contemporary designs inspired by World Chess Hall of Fame inductee Sonja Graf and U.S. Women’s Chess Champion Lisa Lane, to numerous advertisements blending the strategy of chess with the world of beauty and fashion.    

IM John Donaldson

Compared to other arts or sports chess is an easy game to learn, but a difficult one to master. Just how difficult? Malcolm Gladwell, in his best-selling book Outliers: the Story of Success (2008), postulates that “the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours.” However, while that might get you to the level of national master (2200), it is nowhere near the top of the ladder as the international master (2400) and grandmaster (2500) titles are well above this yet far from becoming champion (2800+). Gladwell’s judgment is not new. Forty years ago, in a paper in American Scientist, Herbert Simon and William Chase drew one of the most famous conclusions in the study of expertise:

“There are no instant experts in chess—certainly no instant masters or grandmasters. There appears not to be on record any case (including Bobby Fischer) where a person reached grandmaster level with less than about a decade’s intense preoccupation with the game. We would estimate, very roughly, that a master has spent perhaps 10,000 to 50,000 hours staring at chess positions…”

The level of national master is the point at which a player becomes capable of playing a mistake-free game from beginning to end, but this is more of a technical than artistic achievement. To go beyond this and play a game which is both sound and filled with imagination, where standard rules are cast aside, requires something much more. So rare and special are these games that they are referred to as brilliancy prize games.

Since chess was first played, fans of the game have put the highest value on games which feature shocking and surprising moves, ones that raise the pulse from 60 beats per minute to 160 in a matter of seconds. These mind over matter battles, in which the normal pace is transcended, ensure the winner and the loser instant immortality, their names destined to be remembered for as long as chess is played.

The first brilliancy prize in a tournament was awarded to the Englishman Henry Bird for his victory over James Mason of Ireland. Bird sacrificed his queen for a rock, obtaining long-term compensation, but no immediate win. The game took place in New York in 1876 when Ulysses S. Grant was president but is still played over and reviewed by chess players today.

One of the first games to be universally recognized as a true brilliancy was played between the champions of the United States and Russia in Breslau, Germany, in 1912. There Frank Marshall defeated Stepan Levitsky in a smoke-filled tournament room crowded with onlookers, finishing the game by playing a spectacular move that allowed his queen to be captured three different ways, but which offered Levitsky no defense. Legend has it that the spectators were so caught up in the moment that they showered the board with gold pieces to honor Marshall for his fantastic feat of imagination. More skeptical souls have speculated that this exciting game generated a lot of betting action and that the incident at its conclusion was just the losers paying up.

This historic encounter later inspired a doppelganger brilliancy prize won by Nicholas Rossolimo against Paul Reissmann at the U.S. Open in San Juan Puerto Rico, in 1967. Rossolimo, in the spirit of Marshall, moved his queen to a seemingly impossible square where it could be captured by two different pawns. Marshall and Rossolimo, New Yorkers who both managed chess clubs (the Marshall Chess Club and Rossolimo’s Chess Studio), were kindred souls who shared both an artistic temperament for the game and a romantic and adventurous outlook on life. Marshall was known to walk even the most dangerous streets of New York, comforted by his cane which doubled as a concealed gun, while Rossolimo drove a taxi, practiced judo, recorded folk albums, and was an expert linguist. Both were expert chess alchemists who could make their pieces come to life.     

Chess is often referred to as part sport, part science, and part art, and it is the latter category where the brilliancy prize fits. While art and sport don’t always mix, in chess they sometimes do, and it should come as no surprise that world champions have won more than their fair share of brilliancy prizes. International Master Jeremy Silman, in an article written for chess.com, calculated that Mikhail Tal, the “Wizard of Riga” is the all-time brilliancy prize holder with 15 prizes followed by Gary Kasparov with 12 and Anatoly Karpov with 10. Bobby Fischer, who admittedly had a much shorter career, won only four, but if one single battle by a world champion is to be remembered it might be Bobby Fischer’s victory over Donald Byrne in the 1956 Rosenwald tournament, where the 13-year-old sacrificed his queen in what Hans Kmoch dubbed the “Game of the Century.” If that doesn’t do it there is always Bobby’s win over Donald’s brother Robert in the 1963/64 U.S. Championship. Rumor has it that the two grandmasters in the commentary room thought that Bobby was lost just before he played his final move which caused Bryne’s resignation.

The late International Master Danny Kopec, in his introduction to Winning the Won Game: Lessons from the Albert Brilliancy Prize (2003), writes about how what constitutes a brilliancy prize has changed over time. The importance of the underlying soundness of the game is now deemed essential. Flawed play, imaginative though it might be, no longer passes muster. He also quotes the Russian professor A. Smirnov, writing in 1925, whose definition of brilliance in chess is still relevant today:

“Brilliance in chess is a complex concept, as complex as the nature of chess itself, combining features of art and science. Its main indication is practical expediency, with which it not only accidentally coincides, but is also intrinsically linked. Scientific thought appears brilliant to us, when it appears distinctly, apparently unexpectedly, and most important fruitfully. It’s precisely this that constitutes intrinsic brilliance in chess…”

No matter what the formal definition of brilliancy in chess is, chess players know it when they see it. As long as the game is played these inspired games and the players who created them will be remembered.

Not Particularly Beautiful 

Daniel and I are very proud to present Not Particularly Beautiful at the World Chess Hall of Fame. When the chess queen became the most powerful piece on the chessboard over five centuries ago, the new game was at first mocked as the “mad-women’s” chess game—our piece shows how there is still resistance to female empowerment, especially from anonymous “trolls.” The so-called mad woman’s chess game became the great game we now play, and I hope Not Particularly Beautiful will inspire women and men to persist through criticism and backlash, as that negativity often precedes a change for the better.

“Her Voice Makes Me Envy the Deaf.”

The title of our piece is a YouTube insult levied at me when commenting on a chess tournament, “She is not particularly beautiful at all.” The white squares of our piece were crafted from online comments about female chess champions. All these could have been replaced by silence.  A silence that trolls clamor for, both literally and in violent metaphor.

“You Sound Like a Dying Cat Being Strangled.”

Not Particularly Beautiful is an homage to the women through history who have endured criticism and backlash as they found new power, inspired by the “mad woman” chess’s queen. The chess queen was once the weakest piece on the board, only able to move one square diagonally. Games were long and tedious, as it was much harder to checkmate without the chief executioner.

“Is that Lady on Drugs?”

Around 1500, as powerful queens reigned in Europe, the piece rose to the potent powerhouse of the board she is today. This new, faster, and better game that we still play over five centuries later was initially derided as the “mad-woman’s chess game.”

“Lacking in Any Depth”

Not Particularly Beautiful was inspired by a 1534 chess engraving by French writer and critic Gratien du Pont, a piece that I originally read about in Marilyn Yalom’s Birth of the Chess Queen (2001). It was later re-introduced to me by the artist Donna Dodson, when she invited Daniel Meirom and me to show work in her 2018 exhibit Match of the Matriarchs.

In protest of the new chess game, Gratien created a chessboard with an insult for the queen on each of the sixty-four squares. Some squares, translated as “True She-Devil” and “Very Negligent,” are eerily reminiscent of the same insults trolls use to belittle female and non-binary brilliance and ambition today.

“Missing Neuroplasticity”

The invention of the printing press standardized the new mad queen rules of chess, where regional differences had often prevailed previously. Calligrapher Emily Reichlin lovingly penned the squares of Not Particularly Beautiful in her signature script named “The Grace” after Grace Kelly.  Of the font, Reichlin said, “It’s an elegant, feminine script that I felt was a fitting juxtaposition to the ugliness and misogyny of the content.” You can zone in on a capital “M” so stunning that it erases the pain of a cruel word.

“Overly Ambitious”

Online chess culture has improved in the few years since I compiled these mean slurs. Active, often paid moderation, along with tactics like shadow-banning (muting an abusive user without their knowledge) helps flush out trolls. Allyship, male feminists, and intersectionalism spreads infectious positivity.

In our first edition of Not Particularly Beautiful, we invited exhibition attendees to fill in the black squares with chalk, starting with sculptor Donna Dodson, who wrote “Ugly” in capital letters on a center square.

“Without Shame”

One woman asked me as we handed out chalk, could she write something nice? Of course, I replied- there were no restrictions. After she wrote “The Future is Female,” many of the remaining squares filled up with positive counters, like “Your Voice Deserves to be Heard” and “You are Worthy.” This mirrors online communities, where both compliments and name-calling spread like wildfire, making initial declarations incredibly important.

“Less Intelligent then All Men”

The Saint Louis Chess Club is ramping up efforts to grow girls and women in the game, from the top women’s tournament the Cairns’ Cup, weekly Ladies’ Knight classes, and a partnership with US Chess to bring more females into the game via the US Chess Women Initiative. The World Chess Hall of Fame has presented exhibitions featuring female artists exploring chess themes and women chess champions. Its exhibit, A Beautiful Game, debuts the second version of Not Particularly Beautiful.

“Loves to Hear Herself Talk”

On US Chess’s Ladies Knight podcast interview, popular streamer Alexandra Botez explained to me her low tolerance for trolls as she built a community of 50,000 Twitch followers, while another famous chess player and personality Anna Rudolf wrote: “The best response to them is to keep going and keep growing. Your own success is the best middle finger.”

“Would Look Better with a Makeover”

Not Particularly Beautiful is part of a growing trend I’ve seen to reclaim and tackle negative comments head on. The old advice “not to feed the trolls” or to “ignore the haters” can be sound in some cases but condescending and insufficient in others. Many contemporary artists, musicians, and writers have incorporated negative feedback from fans into creative work in very literal ways.

In Lifting the Sweetness, weightlifter and performance artist Kleida Spiro (with whom we collaborated with on a chess and weightlifting performance, The Battle of the Beasts) cleaned and jerked a barbell loaded with melons as male audience members shouted things that she frequently heard at the gym from men, like “Nice Melons” or “Time to Clean Up.”

In The Bully Pulpit, photographer Haley Morris-Cafiero staged elaborate scenes, imagining the lives and appearances of online attackers as they pelted vicious words at her. In Bad Blood, Australian artist Casey Jenkins ratcheted up the shock level by converting online insults levied against her earlier work Casting Off My Womb into wool canvases dyed with her own blood.

“When’s the Last Time You’ve Been Assaulted?”

Even ardent feminists may critique this genre of art as attention seeking and whiney. I’ve stopped myself when reposting a mean comment on Twitter, knowing that friends and fans will eloquently defend me, but also using the tactic sparingly because it’s so easy, with guaranteed victory.

But an aggressive approach toward cruelty and bigotry is also spiriting. Gratien du Pont initially wished for his misogynistic chess board to be anonymous, but he was exposed. Like du Pont, the message to casual haters is clear. Comments veering from rude to evil won’t always evaporate as an aberration, a temporary and therefore acceptable cruelty. They may just end up viral on Twitter, in a comedian’s punchline, the New York Times, or the wall of a museum.

For more information view our exhibition brochure here!

Funding for this exhibition provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency.

Press

02/13/2020: St. Louis Public Radio — On Chess: Brilliancy In Chess

10/31/2019: Explore St. Louis — A Beautiful Game

10/17/2019: St. Louis Public Radio — On Chess: Not Particularly Beautiful

10/14/2019: St. Louis Post Dispatch — World Chess Hall of Fame Exhibits Celebrate Best of Chess, Fashion and Beauty

10/10/2019: Ladue News — Fall 2019 Exhibitions Opening Reception

9/24/2019: Press Release — World Chess Hall of Fame Exhibits Celebrate Best of Chess, Fashion and Beauty

Michael Drummond: Being Played weaves a narrative about the effects of the fast fashion industry on climate change through the lens of chess-inspired creations by Saint Louis-based garment designer Michael Drummond. The exhibit showcases new designs using a variety of naturally-occurring and man-made materials and techniques, including laser-cut synthetics, clothing spun from steel, handcrafted shoes and digitally-printed accessories

Michael Drummond: Being Played marks the second time the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) has presented a chess-themed solo exhibition of a regional artist. With a mission to celebrate the history of the game of chess, we strive to make everyone feel welcome here, whether you are a grandmaster, or you have never picked up a chess piece. Since opening in September 2011, we have presented an array of exhibitions that showcase the great players and contributors to the game as well as examining chess as it relates to popular culture, journalism, history, world cultures, science, and fashion.

In March 2017, the WCHOF opened the exhibition The Imagery of Chess: Saint Louis Artists. This was directly inspired by the groundbreaking 1944 exhibition The Imagery of Chess at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City. Organized by Marcel Duchamp, Julien Levy, and Max Ernst, the original show included the work of over 30 painters, photographers, sculptors, critics, and composers, among others, and sought to challenge the general conventions of the ancient game. The highly-publicized exhibition was well received by the chess, art, and general communities, and the project went on to inspire artists of the last 70+ years to reinterpret the game in an artistic way and later became the basis of the artistic programming at the WCHOF. Our contemporary exhibition featured 20 leading local artists, writers, designers, musicians, and composers and their newly-commissioned artwork and performances inspired by the game of chess. This new exhibition was so inspiring because it celebrated the impact of chess culture in Saint Louis and promoted local artistic talent. Among them was Michael Drummond, who created a dynamic pair of connected black and white knit dresses—Queens—which is on view in the exhibition A Beautiful Game currently in our second floor gallery. I knew immediately that the WCHOF needed to create more local artistic programming and exhibitions.

Peter Manion was the first artist to participate in this new wave of commissioned regional artist exhibitions with his show Universal Turf (October 5, 2018-April 24, 2019). Manion’s innovative exhibition created an immersive environment where the viewer engaged with a series of drawings, plaster, and felt sculptures, and installations where one could get lost in endless interpretations of the universe, of time, of space, and of the mind of a chess player. The show was brilliant and so unbelievably well received that I could not wait to invite the next artist to exhibit at the WCHOF, and I wanted that person to be Michael Drummond!

I contacted Michael a year ago, and he seemed slightly nervous but agreed immediately. Our entire staff became so enamoured with him. His dedication and beautiful spirit have been an inspiration to all of us, and we are so fortunate to have him as an artist at our institution. I was first “introduced” to Michael when he was a contestant on Season 8 of Project Runway, and was fortunate enough to be personally introduced to him casually from time to time. He exhibited white wood and leather platform shoes in the 2013 WCHOF exhibition A Queen Within: Adorned Archetypes, Fashion & Chess alongside the likes of Alexander McQueen, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Gucci. When curating The Imagery of Chess: Saint Louis Artists, I selected Michael to represent the intersection of chess and fashion. From some wonderful conversations we had as he created his piece for that exhibition, I knew how thoughtful and innovative he would be in developing a solo show for us.

Being Played is an exhibition that could be loved by anyone…just as I try to make chess loved by everyone. Lovers of fashion, chess, film, and the environment will enjoy this exhibition. Drummond has somehow managed to successfully thematically marry the issues surrounding climate change and the stresses the fashion industry places on the environment with noted chess fan Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Though he has dedicated his life to celebrating and creating fashion, Drummond seeks to educate the viewer about the waste and pollution caused by the fashion industry. To represent the challenges climate change poses to humanity, he was driven to find a famous game depicting an underdog playing against a superpower. He was led to Dr. Frank Poole playing against the supercomputer HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Though Poole ultimately resigned, HAL 9000 was programmed to win 50% of the time to encourage good morale.

The majority of the pieces in the exhibition are based upon moves in the famous game and are named with algebraic notation of each move. Drummond’s hope is that, “If you are a chess fan, you can follow along as the game is being played in the exhibition, but if you just enjoy art, then you can enjoy the art.” As Michael likes to define his work as “practical and dramatic,” I have seen the show evolve to become something encompassing both “zen and chaos.” We hope you enjoy this installation, whether as a chess player appreciating the beautiful narrative blending fashion and chess, or as a fashion aficionado who may ultimately become inspired to study the game and pick up a piece. Special thanks to Michael for his unbelievably creative exhibition. And thank you to Sarah Stallmann for her thoughtful and beautifully written essay about Michael and his work. Additional thanks to the photography crew: Attilio d’Agostino, Sarah Carmody, and Austin and Crystal Fuller, as well as the models, all of the staff at the World Chess Hall of Fame, and Dr. Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield who all made this exhibition a huge success. Enjoy!

—Shannon Bailey, Chief Curator, World Chess Hall of Fame

Looks Like You’re Finished Playing Games

With his head down and the sound of a harpsichord rhythmically chiming in the background, Michael Drummond slides from one part of his at-home studio to another, masterfully and meticulously bending, shaping, and attaching bra underwires to a vinyl form. In the corner, a dress form boasts a series of black ruffles that are delicately attached to a shapely boned core; nearby, a set of vibrant red cast resin fossils are strewn across the table; and below, a black and white cat slinks by, eager to head into the backyard for his daily security watch.

What could be described as a real-life tribute to the Anna Pan illustration The Witch’s Son is just another day’s work for the reclusive fashion artist. Despite being thrust in the limelight for a stint on the hit reality show Project Runway–and frequently after as a headliner for fashion weeks and shows across the country–Drummond actually prefers the solitude of creating his work at home to the sounds of M.I.A., George Michael, or various classic and industrial goth instrumentals in the late 1800s farmhouse he’s rehabbing deep in South City Saint Louis.

The home is a testament to Drummond’s taste and visual aesthetic. Its freshly-painted black exterior (which is a stark, yet equally surprising change from the previous cotton candy pink) and large, white-trimmed porch stands out amongst its surroundings like a dark and stoic landmark. Inside, painted white from floor to ceiling, you are surrounded by sleek and minimal finishings, a selection of collected art, plants galore, workbenches, fabrics, and a cat. Progress.

Drummond approaches the rehab of his home in the same way he approaches his work. It starts with an idea, and morphs and evolves as needs change and as inspiration strikes. What appears to be a dress is actually a politically-charged tribute to feminism. A living room is now a fully-functioning workshop. A shoe, now a table centerpiece. Everything is considered, placed, questioned, tested, questioned again, and tweaked to become something that elevates the space in which it resides. Most importantly, it’s in flux and ever-evolving, open to the changes that the surrounding environment requires. This very concept inspires and leads the narrative of Being Played. Being Played not only explores what’s directly linked to the evolution of the world around us, but the evolution of Drummond as an artist, which plays an important role in the narrative he creates.

From his formative years as an experimental artist, Drummond took to fashion first and foremost as a way to express his own personal style. What began as a hobby of finding, foraging, and refitting items to craft new pieces for himself, became a passion and affinity for knitwear—a focus that became the center point of his work that followed. This niche opened doors in the fashion world locally and nationally and earned Drummond a steady fan base and loyal clientele–most of whom became close friends with him over the years due to his down-to-earth approach and personalized process.

But the excessive nature of worldwide consumerism in fashion has always caused Drummond pause. As one of the most resource-intensive industries in the world, adding more fuel to the fire—literally and figuratively—is, quite simply, not something he is willing to do. For him, fashion is more than the final product, more than moving units, more than more. It’s about the creative process, the materials used, the energy it creates in a room, and the feeling it evokes for the creator, the viewer, and the wearer. It’s practical yet dramatic. Obvious yet ambiguous. Beautiful yet dark.

Fashion is also often placed in a box that separates it from art. Because of fast fashion, trends, and pop culture, it’s often perceived as elite, shallow, and wasteful. The craft has been overshadowed by the drive for money and speed, and the result is a one-time-wear piece that all too often ends up in a landfill. And the cycle continues.

But take a sharp left turn back to the little black farmhouse deep in South City Saint Louis, and you’ll see Drummond doing his part to inspire the world around him to experience fashion and art in a new, evolved way. If you look beyond his signature shapely knits, pleated skirts with leather accents, and form-fitting wrinkle-look dresses in custom prints, you will discover a new and evolved body of work that explores materials beyond the traditional garment including resin cast sculptures, laser-cut leathers, steel, wood, digital printing, and plastics.

Positional Play

Being Played balances and explores three overarching themes that are interpreted through this evolved body of work—chess in strategy and form, the climate change crisis, and the concept of “predatory delay.”

In a chess game, players use strategy and tactics to outmaneuver their opponent and overtake their king. While each player begins with the same circumstances, the same number of pieces, and the same odds, ultimately, one player’s strategy will advance him into a position to checkmate and win the game. There is both a sense of challenge against our opponent and within ourselves to make moves and sacrifices that will ultimately lead to victory.

In Drummond’s game, “predatory delay”—a term coined by futurist Alex Steffen to describe “the blocking or slowing of needed change, in order to make money off unsustainable, unjust systems in the meantime”—is placed as one opponent, and us—the consumers and humans of Earth—are the other.

In this case, the “predatory” opponent is multi-faceted. It’s climate change, it’s time and evolution, it’s the fashion industry, and it’s corporations whose profitdriven processes have caused reprehensible damage to the planet in which we live. Sometimes, this opponent is also us, who, by the systems put in place by those in power, become the “predator” of the world around us in one way or another.

For Drummond, it’s the game between Dr. Frank Poole and HAL 9000 that inspires the trajectory of his works for Being Played. In the game (which occurred in Stanley Kubrick’s iconic classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey), Dr. Frank Poole plays a game of chess against HAL 9000, a supercomputer that is programmed to win 50% of the time to encourage good morale. While HAL ultimately wins the game, Drummond was driven to dive deeper into the overarching storyline: A player (in this case, our “predator”) who has all of the strategy and resources of an actual supercomputer vs. Man, or us as a people who are trying to navigate and strategize our moves for the future, despite being in the midst of a game with an unfairly advantaged opponent.

Endgame

Using chess as a guide, each piece in Being Played represents a piece on the board and is aptly titled using algebraic notation to represent its move. Chess fans and players can explore the exhibition as an active game, while those who are less familiar with chess can connect to the overall themes from a consumer’s point of view.

As you navigate the space, works that are ripe for your individual translation spring into action like a series of hieroglyphs. What’s left behind from a former society has turned into the gems of a new one. A tale is woven of the options we have as far as creating sustainability moving forward. What will the plastics we leave behind become? The trash left behind by corporations? These fossils of items left behind take new forms, create questions, and inspire conversations.

With Being Played, Drummond takes something that, for most of us, is hard to discuss or comprehend, and creates a narrative that opens the discussion of “what’s next?” for the generations to come. We know that the earth is resilient. But are we? How will the climate crisis affect the way we think and interact with the world around us? With our clothing, with our consumerist tendencies, with our relationship to fashion, with our strategies for making the best moves? How will we come out on top when we are playing against an opponent who seems to enjoy prolonging our defeat?

Using a variety of media and mostly found and sourced materials, Drummond creates a story about evolution that in and of itself is still evolving. While viewers won’t walk away with a resolution, they will walk away with something to consider. Perhaps they will be inspired to adopt more sustainable habits for themselves, or buy less stuff, or learn how to play chess. Maybe they will leave feeling nostalgic, hopeful, or captivated. Regardless, it’s the emotional connection to the work and the personal feelings that you walk away with that intrigue Drummond the most and inspire his quest to create.

Realistically, the little black farmhouse, the works by Drummond and other artists of our time, our cities, our homes, and our processes are always evolving. While we can create and do and progress what we can while we are here, ultimately, we merely have the collective authority to not “mess things up” for those that are here after us. And while it seems like a losing game for those that are more collectively conscious, it’s grounding and freeing perhaps to remember that despite change, despite destruction, despite obliteration, and despite the “predator”—there will always be beauty. And the game isn’t over.

—Sarah Stallmann

Being Played

It’s a tricky predicament to simultaneously give yourself over to the glamor and fantasy of fashion and yet be repelled by the industry’s excess and its hold on the public psyche. Often a client will express a “need” for something, a one-night-only look or simply shop out of boredom. How much of this zeitgeist is the work of a sort of shadow merchant, developed by the few in power to make us dissatisfied with life as it is? A ruse to make us desire something new, something chic, something slimming, something distracting, something “more.” Walk into any vintage shop or thrift store and you see monstrous loads of unwanted goods. Some destined for your home, some for the rag mill, but mostly for the incinerator. While it is difficult to trace fashion’s effects on the health of our environment, there is little doubt it is a resourceintensive industry. Toxic textile industry runoffs poison our rivers and oceans. Low-wage workers toil in pesticidesoaked cotton fields. Fossil fuel-based fast fashions designed to last no more than a season could take 450 years to finally decompose. A simple cardigan sweater can travel several continents before landing in a local department store, on sale.

In October 2018, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its report, which painted scenes of wildfires, famine, and bleached coral reefs emerging as soon as 20 years from today—well within most of the current population’s lifetime. Today is September 2, 2019, and the Brazilian rainforest has been on fire for four weeks. Many of the people of that region believe President Jair Bolsonaro is to blame for some of the blaze by turning a blind eye to loggers, ranchers, and miners as they set flame to biodiverse lands so that a profit may be made. Bolsonaro claims this is fake news.

I still hold foolish optimism that maybe the climate crisis could be the great unifier. How could we all continue to separate from one another if our shared home is collapsing around us? Much of the art in Being Played represents this hope for a connected fearless future. I felt the best way to explore these complex issues was to create a wild science fiction romp—one heel in reality and the other in complete whimsy.

While searching for a game that features a definite underdog playing against a superpower, I remembered Frank Poole vs. HAL 9000, which was briefly featured in Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey. It proved perfect for a point of departure and became the basis for my work in Being Played. First, it provided a tale for time and space by using algebraic notation. The first moves on the board brought to mind Adam and Eve vs. The Big Bang—one a narrative of humanity, religion, dogma and the other a beginning, rooted in science, God perhaps, something bigger than us, a mystery. As the game is played, a tension develops—our underdog, representing humanity, is conflicted within itself and as a grouping. Would sacrificing one piece over the other free up space for movement and ultimately victory? HAL 9000 becomes the machine of time and Dr. Frank Poole the Yin and Yang.

At times creating this work felt like a theatrical play, but the actors had all gone home. The curtain fell, and I had hung up their costumes and put away their props. Here we have the knight’s armor dusty and damaged, oh look, the queen forgot her shoes again.

The color red is used to signify HAL 9000, a state of emergency, and harken back to one of the earliest colors to appear on the chessboard. To represent humankind I felt multiple colors should be present, to speak to an inner conflict and diversity. Gold, black, silver, and white are used throughout the center of the gallery. Serendipitously at the time of Being Played’s creation, several sources donated deadstock fashion trims and notions. Pounds and pounds of bra elastic, underwire, buckles, leather, and fabrics, all destined for the landfill or incinerator. I was able to employ these items and give them a second chance. On my bedside table there is a collection of fossils and meteorites. In my fantasies, a world was created where these items became fossilized once again—but this time in our discarded artifacts.

Meteorites are forged into jewelry, woolly mammoth’s fur is caught in a resin locket. Bold corseted sculptural silhouettes recall the beauty of the Staunton chess set. A garment covered in black pieces tells of overpopulation and possibly war. A pair of women’s heels becomes a feminist call to arms. Algebraic notation is used to allow the viewer to follow the game being played in real time. As the match approaches an end, we see our player in red speaking in varied negotiating tactics. Mirroring and labeling are used to grab the attention of the other player. “It looks like you are finished playing games” is etched onto a red reflective surface, calling to mind that last wardrobe check in the mirror before leaving the house or convincing a terrorist to evacuate a building.

Being Played considers the systems of power at work in the climate crisis, and the ever-changing flow of our universe. Our ability to be both the dark and the light at once, balanced and unbalanced. All placed on an imaginary chessboard, with multiple alliances and opponents. Some seen, unseen, and perhaps a few a distant memory. A totem representing a time before us that also suffered a climate catastrophe.

The pieces beg the question: our planet always heals itself, but are we accelerating an inevitable climate event? Will greed and fear lead the charge for our future (demise?), or could beauty, honesty, justice, and action elevate us to the next rung of human evolution?

—Michael Drummond

For more information view our exhibition brochure here.

Funding for this exhibition provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, and the Regional Arts Commission.

Gallery Photography by Carmody Creative.

Model Photography by Attilio D’Agostino.

Press

11/10/2020: New York Times — Queen’s Gambit Clothes Make Us Want to Toss Our Leggings

03/06/2020: St. Louis Public Radio — Commentary: Fashion is Given its Due in Saint Louis

12/16/2019: KDHX — Arts Interview with Shannon Bailey and Michael Drummond (audio)

10/22/2019: Alive Magazine — Michael Drummond Considers humanity’s Next Move in ‘Being Played’

10/14/2019: St. Louis Post Dispatch — World Chess Hall of Fame Exhibits Celebrate Best of Chess, Fashion and Beauty

10/10/2019: Ladue News — Fall 2019 Exhibitions Opening Reception

10/3/2019: St. Louis Public Radio — On Chess: Fashion, Climate, and Chess

9/24/2019: Press Release — World Chess Hall of Fame Exhibits Celebrate Best of Chess, Fashion and Beauty

The World Chess Hall of Fame is proud to be a maker and sponsor in The Sheldon Art Galleries’ newest exhibition, Golf the Galleries: Artist-Designed Mini Golf, on view June 1 through August 11, 2019.

The Sheldon Art Galleries presents a unique interactive art exhibit—a nine-hole playable, family-friendly mini golf installation that takes over their entire 2nd floor gallery space.

The World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) returns to Golf the Galleries with a chess-themed mini-golf experience perfect for summer. Perpetual Check features neon graphics drawn from a travel chess set in the collection of the WCHOF. Summer-themed chess pieces wearing sunglasses are posed on an infinite grid inspired by the chessboard. Navigate around the chess pieces to get your ball to the sand castle and capture a winning score!

For more information, visit The Sheldon’s website.

Press

6/7/2019: KMOX — You can now play golf at an art gallery in St. Louis
6/7/2019: HEC Media — Golfing the Galleries at The Sheldon (video)
5/31/2019: St. Louis Post Dispatch — Best Bets: ‘Golf the Galleries,’ ‘Rigoletto,’ Tig Notaro, ‘Flores Mexicanas,’ Jewish Film Festival

M.C. Escher: Infinite Variations examines the mind-bending, mathematical, and metamorphic works of world-famous graphic artist M.C. Escher. The exhibit features an extensive collection of drawings, mezzotints, lithographs, and woodcuts, which blend and blur constructs inspired by impossible worlds, the intricacies of nature, and the infinity of chess.

M.C. Escher: Infinite Variations examines the mind-bending, mathematical, and metamorphic works of world-famous graphic artist M.C. Escher. The exhibit features an extensive collection of drawings, mezzotints, lithographs, and woodcuts, which blend and blur constructs inspired by impossible worlds, the intricacies of nature, and the infinity of chess.

M.C. Escher: Infinite Variations examines the mind-bending, mathematical, and metamorphic works of world-famous Dutch graphic artist Maurits Cornelis Escher. This exhibit features an extensive collection of drawings, mezzotints, lithographs, and woodcuts, which blend and blur constructs inspired by impossible worlds, the intricacies of nature, and the infinity of chess.

Over 100 pieces, on loan from the Herakleidon Museum in Athens, Greece, showcase Escher’s extreme variety of groundbreaking techniques and subjects from his early Italian landscape sketches, self-portraits, and book illustrations to his most iconic images of impossible spaces, tessellations, infinity, and his metamorphosis series. Despite his massive fame in popular culture, Escher never fit into one style of art nor was he recognized as an important artist by the art community during most of his lifetime. However, he was venerated by the mathematics community and the American counterculture of the 1960s, who viewed him as a pioneer of psychedelic art.

In an almost six-decade career, Escher created over 450 prints and over 2000 drawings and sketches. To this day, he remains one of the most popular and most reproduced graphic artists of the 20th century. His captivating illusionistic spaces, staircases that lead to nowhere, and his endless reflections are so recognizable though most viewing them do not realize the decades of studies he labored over to create these seemingly playful scenes. It is an honor to present M.C. Escher’s work and share his processes at the World Chess Hall of Fame for the first time, and we hope that the viewers get lost in the endless spaces that he has created.

In addition to the work exhibited at the World Chess Hall of Fame, 35 other pieces from this collection are on display at the Saint Louis University Museum of Art.

M.C. Escher (1898-1972) Life and Work: Maurits Cornelis Escher was born June 17, 1898, in Leeuwarden in the northern Netherlands. He was the youngest son of George Arnold Escher and his second wife Sarah. Despite growing up wealthy with numerous resources, “Mauk,” as he was known to his friends and family, was a sickly child who did very poorly in school. He spent much of his time drawing and his artistic talent was recognized by an art teacher who began to teach him printmaking.

From 1919 to 1922, he studied at the School of Architecture and Decorative Arts in Haarlem, Netherlands, but lost interest and chose to pursue graphic arts. After graduating, Escher and a group of friends traveled to Italy and immediately fell in love with the culture and landscape, particularly the areas with steep slopes. A few months later, he traveled to Spain and became obsessed with the geometric tiling of the Moorish Alhambra Palace in Granada. Escher was captivated by the floor and wall patterns, and he spent hours tracing and drawing the abstract designs covering the complex. This planted the seed of what would become his lifelong fascination with repeated patterns that would fill a plane.

In 1923, he met and fell in love with Jetta Umiker in Ravello, Italy. They married the following year and later had three sons. The couple moved to Rome, and Escher had exhibitions in both Italy and the Netherlands. These works at first glance seem to be faithful picturesque representations of various city and country-scapes; however, he was also playing with the boundaries of perspective and space, showing the beginnings of his new interest in creating impossible spaces on the two-dimensional plane.

During his early career, Escher also created illustrations for books that included Flor de Pascua (Easter Flower), which was written by his friend Aad van Stolk, and De vreeselijke avonturen van Scholastica (The Terrible Adventures of Scholastica) written by his friend Jan Welch. Images from these commissions as well as Emblemata, written by G.J. Hoogewerff (pen name A. E. Drijfhout), the first art historian to take interest in Escher’s work, are on view in this exhibition.

Press

8/26/2019: Seeing Dandy — MC Escher at World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis

7/22/2019: Art Daily — Best Photos of the Day

7/15/2019: Art Daily — Exhibition examines the mind-bending and mathematical works of M.C. Escher

6/14/2019: Classic 107.3 — World Chess Hall of Fame (podcast)

6/6/2019: St. Louis Public Radio — On Chess: M.C. Escher Exhibition At World Chess Hall Of Fame

5/2/2019: Saint Louis Mag — See this now: ‘M.C. Escher: Infinite Variations’ at the World Chess Hall of Fame

4/26/2019: Press Release (pdf) 

Organized for the first Cairns Cup, this exhibition contains highlights related to women’s chess from the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF). Among the artifacts are objects related to important moments in women’s chess history, including Women’s World Chess Championships, Women’s Chess Olympiads, and many national championships held at the Saint Louis Chess Club (STLCC). Several of the artifacts are related to competitors in the tournament, including Women’s World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk and U.S. Women’s Chess Champions Irina Krush and Anna Zatonskih.

Inspired by its mission to further promote the game of chess to women and girls, the STLCC created the Cairns Cup, a nine-round classical chess tournament that brings together one of the strongest international fields ever assembled in women’s chess with one of the largest prize funds for an all-female tournament. The tournament is named in honor of STLCC co-founder Dr. Jeanne Sinquefield, whose maiden name is Cairns. In addition to being a co-founder of the Club, Jeanne also played an instrumental role in creating the Boy Scouts of America Chess Merit Badge, which has been earned by over 170,000 scouts.

Dr. Jeanne Sinquefield appears at the launch of the Scouts BSA (BSA) chess merit badge, which coincided with the opening of the World Chess Hall of Fame. Astronaut Greg Chamitoff, who had played chess against players on earth while stationed on the International Space Station, attended the event at her invitation and presented the scouts with their chess merit badges.

Involved with the Scouts BSA for 30 years, Jeanne Sinquefield is passionate about the organization and the benefits that it provides to participants. When she learned that there had been discussions of creating a chess merit badge for 40 years, but it had not yet been realized, she dedicated herself to making it a reality. Through her friend Christina Gables, the Troop Committee Chair for Troop 400 of the Western Los Angeles Council, she was able to contact the National Executive Board and worked with Janice Downey, Senior Program Innovation Manager, to begin the process of creating the badge. Ralph Bowman, Jerry Nash, and US Chess helped develop the requirements, which include learning the rules of the game as well as its history, benefits, and etiquette, among other tasks. Scouts must not only learn how to play the game, but also teach it to another individual, ensuring that the benefits of chess are shared with others.

Lisa Lane, the 1959 and 1966 U.S. Women’s Chess Champion, learned to play chess at age 19. She quickly rose to the top ranks of American women’s chess, competing in the U.S. Women’s Chess Championship only two years after taking up chess. However, Lane stopped competing in chess tournaments at age 30, only briefly returning to the world of chess in 1971 to publicly play a game against an IBM chess computer, which she won. Of the computer she stated, “It did not…appear to resent losing to a woman as do many human male players.”

Vera Menchik, the world’s first women’s chess champion, was born in Russia in 1906, learned chess at age nine, and moved to England as a teenager in 1921. Over the course of her career, she competed for Russia, Czechoslovakia, and England. She became the first Women’s World Champion in 1927 and successfully defended her title six times over the next 17 years. She lost only one game over the course of these seven championship tournaments. Menchik’s career was cut tragically short when she, her two sisters, and their mother were killed in a V-1 rocket bombing raid at their South London home in June 1944. The Women’s Olympiad trophy is known as the Vera Menchik Cup in her honor.

GM Maya Chiburdanidze’s introspective, exceptional play earned her a place at the top of women’s chess from a young age. In 1977, she won the U.S.S.R. Women’s Chess Championship. The following year she defeated GM Nona Gaprindashvili in the Women’s World Chess Championship, becoming the new World Champion at age seventeen. Chiburdanidze would defend her title four times, finally losing it in 1991 to GM Xie Jun. A pioneer in women’s chess, in 1984 Chiburdanidze became only the second woman to earn the title of grandmaster. Additionally, she was a member of the Soviet and later Georgian women’s teams that dominated the Women’s Chess Olympiads through the 1980s and 1990s, winning nine team gold medals and four individual gold medals on Board 1.

Five-time winner of the Women’s World Chess Championship, Nona Gaprindashvili, held the title from 1962 to 1978, when she lost to Maya Chiburdanidze. Gaprindashvili’s accomplishments were instrumental in proving that women could compete with men on the international stage. In 1978, she was the first woman to be awarded the title of grandmaster by the World Chess Federation (Federation Internationale des Échecs or FIDE). She earned this distinction for her impressive performance in the 1977 Lone Pine International Tournament, where she shared first place.

The sixth Women’s Chess Olympiad, which was held in Medellin, Colombia, marked the last time that the women’s competition was held separately from the open section of the Olympiad, in which people of any gender may compete. However, this is not the only noteworthy fact about this Olympiad, the first held outside Europe and even today one of only two hosted in the Americas. It is truly unique because in over 100 open and women’s competitions, it is the only Olympiad that not only finished in a tie for first but also had a playoff match between the Soviet Union and Romania (the U.S.S.R. won). The American team of Mona May Karff, Ruth Herstein, and Ruth Haring placed fourth in the B group.

Grandmaster (GM) Judit, International Master Sofia, and GM Susan Polgar pose on the cover of this colorful issue of Chess Life. Inside, the magazine details the events of the United States Chessathon, a charity event in which the three sisters appeared. Judit took second in the 1992 U.S. Chess International (Samuel Reshevsky Memorial), behind GM Julio Granda Zuniga. There have been several famous sister pairs in chess (the Muzychuk and Kosintseva sisters the most prominent), but no group of three as distinguished as the Polgars, with Judit the highest-rated women in the history of the game and the only female Candidate for the World Chess Championship, Susan a Women’s World Chess Champion, and Sofia achieving one of the highest tournament performance ratings and having a peak FIDE rating of 2505.

The 2008 Mind Sports Games, which included chess, bridge, draughts (checkers), go and xiangqi (Chinese chess), was the first competition of its kind. It was held in Beijing, China, as were the Olympics and Paralympics the same year. The World Chess Federation (Federation Internationale des Échecs or FIDE) organized the chess section of the program which consisted of ten separate events for men and women as individuals and teams, including mixed pairs. All events were held at either blitz or rapid time controls. The newly-crowned Women’s World Chess Champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia, won the gold medal in the women’s blitz portion of the competition ahead of former Women’s World Chess Champion Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria and future Women’s World Chess Champion Hou Yifan of China.

The Women’s World Championship match between Grandmaster (GM) Xie Jun of China and GM Maya Chiburdanidze of Georgia (then a part of the Soviet Union) marked an important moment in chess history. Xie ended Chiburdanidze’s 13-year reign by the score of 8 ½-6 ½. At age 21, Xie became the first Chinese women’s world chess champion (there are now six) and the first champion in the post-World War II era not from the Soviet Union. Chiburdanidze’s defeat ended an almost 30-year run at the top by Georgian players (Nona Gaprindashvili 1962-1978 and Chiburdanidze 1978-1991). The poster claims this was the first women’s title match held outside of the Soviet Union; however, the earlier 1986 match between Chiburdanidze and Woman Grandmaster Elena Akhmilovskaya Donaldson was played in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Women’s World Champion Xie Jun of China won a pair of bronze medals in the women’s section of the Manila Chess Olympiad, which was held in the summer of 1992. China placed third in the team competition behind Georgia and Ukraine, and Xie Jun was the third best first board (10 out of 13) behind Women’s World Chess Champion Maya Chiburdanidze and International Master Alisa Galliamova. One of the most successful olympiad players of all time, Xie scored 67 points from 94 games (+50, =34, -10) in eight of the events, winning seven team medals (3-1-3), and five individual medals(0-2-3). Amazingly, since 1990, China has missed the podium only once (2008) in 20 Women’s Chess Olympiads.

The U.S. women’s team made history at the 2004 Women’s Chess Olympiad held in Calvia, Spain, by finishing second as a team. It was the first time that the United States had won team medals in the Women’s Chess Olympiad, a team competition in which the best players around the world play as teams representing their countries. Grandmaster (GM) Susan Polgar, who came out of a seven-year retirement to score an undefeated 10 ½ out of 14 (2622 performance), the best individual result of the event, led the team. Pictured (l-r) are International Master (IM) Anna Zatonskih, IM Rusa Goletiani, GM Susan Polgar, Woman Grandmaster Jennifer Shahade, and GM Irina Krush. Goletiani trained with the team but did not play in Calvia. The U.S. women’s team was sponsored by the Kasparov Chess Foundation and the US Chess Federation, with FIDE Master Paul Truong serving as captain, FIDE Senior Trainer Michael Khodarkovsky as coach, and GM Alexander Chernin as chief theoretician.

International Master (IM) Nazi Paikidze studies the board in this photo from the 2018 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship. Paikidze has won the competition twice (2016 and 2018) and placed second twice. The 12-player round robin tournament was arguably the strongest-ever U.S. Women’s Chess Championship. The competitors included experienced veteran players like U.S. Women’s Chess Champions Irina Krush and Anna Zatonskih as well as rising young stars like 15-year-old Annie Wang and 16-year-old Jennifer Yu.

Ten years ago, the number of American-born women who had achieved the title of master could be counted on two hands. That mark has since doubled thanks to rising young talent. Jennifer Yu of Virginia and Carissa Yip of Massachusetts are two of these stars. Last fall, Yu made a sensational Olympiad debut at Batumi, Georgia, winning an individual bronze medal and making her first international master norm. In 2015, Yip broke the record for the youngest female master by crossing 2200 at age 11. Here, the two are pictured before their last-round game in the 2018 U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship held at the Saint Louis Chess Club, which ended in a draw. Yip won the title and Yu tied for second.

This picture emphasizes that skill rather than age, size, or gender is what counts in chess. Here, former National Football League player (Baltimore Ravens) and mathematician (MIT) John Urschel is playing against seven-year-old Rachael Li of Plano, Texas, as part of the 2017 Ultimate Moves Match held at the Saint Louis Chess Club as a fun side event accompanying the annual Sinquefield Cup and Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz tournaments. Urschel, a US Chess-rated class B player (1723) was defeated by Li, who in January 2019, with a rating of 2079, is the top-rated eight-year-old player—girl or boy—in the United States.

Three-time Women’s World Chess Champion Hou Yifan of China is only the third woman to break into the list of the top 100 players in the world. Hou was only 14 when she earned the grandmaster title and 16 years old when she earned her first women’s world chess championship— making her the youngest woman to earn either title. Here she plays against Grandmaster (GM) Parimarjan Negi of India during the 2015 Showdown in Saint Louis, a pair of exhibition matches that included Hou and Negi as well as top American stars GMs Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. The pairs played a round of Basque chess (a chess variant where players play their opponents in two simultaneous games against one another—one with black and one with white), four rounds of rapid and Chess960 (a chess variant in which the positions of chess pieces on the first rank are randomized), and eight rounds of blitz. Hou won the match, which had a $30,000 first prize.

US Chess: 80 Years—Promoting the Royal Game in America celebrates the official governing body of American chess and its many accomplishments since its 1939 founding. The exhibition uses audio, video, photographs, and never-before-exhibited artifacts which illustrate US Chess’s mission to empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess.

US Chess: Empowering People One Move at a Time

US Chess formed 80 years ago out of the merger of two predecessor organizations: The American Chess Federation and the National Chess Federation. The newly combined entity, now named the United States of America Chess Federation (and currently known as US Chess), primarily promoted tournament play throughout the country. More importantly, the U.S. Chess Championship, the U.S. Open, and the U.S. Olympiad team now fell under a single organizational roof and served about 1,000 members.

There have been many important milestones since 1939 as US Chess grew and evolved. Bobby Fischer’s quest for the World Championship in the 1960s and 1970s, the growth of scholastic chess, the broadening of the US Chess mission beyond the organization’s singular focus of rated play, and most recently, Fabiano Caruana’s challenge to Magnus Carlsen for the World Championship.

Along the way, US Chess has learned much about itself and what a powerful tool chess is. As we now look towards the century mark and approach 100,000 members, we embrace our heritage while looking for new ways to excel. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with an educational mission, we are branching out to explore new program areas described below.

First, we recognize the potential of chess as a learning tool. We can recite many stories about the role of chess in early childhood development as it relates to providing building blocks for future academic success in areas such as mathematics. Chess teaches one to think critically, plan every move, and understand that actions have consequences. Through an objective ratings system, among other measures of success, chess provides a framework for people to realize their potential outside of a classroom where different types of excellence are rewarded. The resultant skills place students on a path for not just educational achievements but also later successes within their career and life.

Second, we accept chess as a tool for the social and emotional development of young people. Chess is a game where sportsmanship is core to the game’s culture. Winning, losing, and drawing teach people how to act graciously no matter the situation.

Third, we increasingly see interest in chess as a rehabilitative tool. Whether as an intervention for a stroke victim, an individual with dementia, or a person with a traumatic brain injury, we actively seek to partner with other organizations who are working to improve outcomes for individuals with cognitive impairment.

Fourth, US Chess is a place for anyone—regardless of gender, national origin, age, or any special circumstances. We enthusiastically work to promote the game to under-represented groups within our existing community, including women and girls, at-risk youth, and seniors. As a boundless, universal game, chess truly is a uniting enterprise for all.

Carol Meyer, US Chess Executive Director

US Chess: 80 Years—Promoting the Royal Game in America

US Chess: 80 Years—Promoting the Royal Game in America celebrates both the 80th anniversary of the US Chess Federation (US Chess) and a new golden era for chess in the United States. The World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) and Saint Louis Chess Club (STLCC) have been privileged to witness this transformation and are proud to partner with US Chess on this exhibition. Since 1939, US Chess has built and sustained a community of American chess lovers, from its early efforts to bring the benefits of the game to those injured during World War II via the Chess for the Wounded program to its current efforts to bring more girls and women to the game through the US Women’s Chess Initiative. Through its mission, US Chess empowers people, enriches lives, and enhances communities through chess.

US Chess: 80 Years is a natural fit for our institution—the first location of the WCHOF, then known as the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame, was established in the basement of the US Chess Federation’s former headquarters in New Windsor, NY, in 1988. A highlight of our collection is the first artifact acquired by the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame and displayed at that initial location—the silver set presented to Paul Morphy for his victory in the 1857 American Chess Congress. Since 2009, the STLCC has hosted the U.S. and U.S. Women’s Chess Championships, putting the WCHOF in the unique position to collect important artifacts related to the history of American chess as it happens in our hometown. Every year we hold the inductions for the newest inductees to the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame at the opening ceremony for the U.S. and U.S. Women’s Chess Championships, honoring legends of American chess in front of the game’s best players. We see the benefits that chess brings to diverse audiences firsthand—the STLCC has reached over 40,000 students through its scholastic programs and draws chess enthusiasts from around the country during the championships as well as the Sinquefield Cup, the strongest tournament ever held on American soil.

The WCHOF’s collection is rich in artifacts related to the history of American chess. From the first yearbook produced by the newly-formed US Chess Federation to photographs of American players competing at the highest levels of international chess, the artifacts showcase how the organization has evolved over its 80-year history. During its first decade, which coincided with the outbreak of World War II, the organization experienced a period of quiet growth. In August 1940, the organization’s membership was estimated at just 1,000 members. However, they built the organizational structure that still exists today and created the first issues of Chess Life—then published as a newspaper. Though World War II interrupted the World Chess Championship cycles, the organization continued to organize the U.S. and U.S. Women’s Chess Championships, which included many of the figures who earned the most wins in the competitions’ histories: Gisela Gresser, Mona May Karff, and Samuel Reshevsky. The organization also held its first U.S. Open Chess Championships. The George Sturgis trophy, named for US Chess’s first president and engraved with the names of the earliest winners, is a highlight of the collection of the WCHOF and is featured in this exhibition.

In the 1950s and 1960s, American chess experienced many rapid changes. A group of young stars, including Larry Evans, William Lombardy, and Bobby Fischer, began competing in tournaments. Fischer’s accomplishments—becoming (at that time) the youngest player to achieve the title of grandmaster and winning the U.S. Chess Championship—would attract not only the attention of chess enthusiasts but also the general public. Fischer appeared on I’ve Got a Secret in 1958, prior to competing in the Portoroz Interzonal Tournament. Additionally, U.S. Women’s Chess Champion Lisa Lane appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated on August 7, 1961. During the same period, US Chess, led by President Jerry Spann, launched a membership campaign that more than doubled its membership (2,100 to 4,579) from the years of 1957 to 1960. Materials from Spann’s archive, including photos from American tournaments are being exhibited for the first time in US Chess: 80 Years. The Spann Collection, which is owned by US Chess includes a large number of archival materials related to his activities on the national and international stage, promises to be a great resource for researchers interested in the early history of US Chess.

The 1960s also saw the staging of one of the highest-rated tournaments ever held in the United States—the 1966 Piatigorsky Cup, which featured competitors including future world chess championship rivals Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer. Fischer’s rise to the top of international chess in the late 1960s and early 1970s created the “Fischer boom,” inspiring people around the country to take up the game. In 1972, the year that he clinched the world chess championship title, membership in US Chess was 30,844. In just one year, that total nearly doubled, rising to 59,250 members. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, new national competitions, including the U.S. Junior Chess Championship, the National High School Chess Championship, the National Junior High Chess Championship, and the National Elementary (K-6) Championship, were created, providing an arena for young players to compete and build their skills.

The decade also witnessed the rise of a new generation of American-born women who would challenge Gisela Gresser and Mona May Karff’s 30-year dominance of U.S. women’s chess. Diane Savereide and Rachel Crotto, along with future US Chess President Ruth Haring, won the country’s top women’s chess competitions and represented the country on the global stage. In the 1979, Alicante, Spain, Interzonal, Diane Savereide had the best performance of any American female player from the 1930s to the early 1990s. Other members of the Fischer boom, including Joel Benjamin, Larry Christiansen, John Fedorowicz, Nick de Firmian, and Yasser Seirawan represented the United States in international competition in the 1980s. Many top players from around the world immigrated to the United States in the 1980s and 1990s, including former Women’s World Chess Champion Candidate Elena Donaldson-Akhmilovskaya and Boris Gulko.

US Chess: 80 Years celebrates many of the milestones of the 2000s as well. In the 2004 Calvía, Spain, Women’s Chess Olympiad, a team that included future seven-time U.S. Women’s Chess Champion Irina Krush took team silver for the first time in the event. In 2016, the U.S. Olympiad team, which included Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Sam Shankland, and Ray Robson took team gold for the first time since 1976. The first U.S. Junior Girls Chess Championship was held in 2014 and has since become one of the national chess championships held annually in Saint Louis. In 2019, the U.S. Senior Chess Championship will also be held in Saint Louis for the first time. More than illustrating trends in US Chess, we hope to begin to collect the stories of individual players, writers, and organizers through this exhibition. US Chess: 80 Years debuts a new video featuring interviews with many of the commentators and journalists who enliven our coverage of Saint Louis Chess tournaments, including US Chess Women’s Program Director, Woman Grandmaster Jennifer Shahade. The exhibition also premieres material from a new collaboration with the Chess Journalists of America (CJA). The project includes interviews between members of the CJA and figures from American chess. This brochure also contains remembrances from past editors and writers for Chess Life. A special installation in US Chess: 80 Years invites visitors to share their own memories of participating in US Chess tournaments and what chess means to them, allowing us to both preserve important parts of chess history and show why the game is important.

In 2018, the Saint Louis Chess Campus celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Saint Louis Chess Club and a resurgence of chess in the United States sparked by the “Sinquefield Effect”—the efforts of Dr. Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield to support chess in the United States. The same year, an American—Fabiano Caruana—contested the World Chess Championship title in a unified World Chess Championship match for the first time since 1972. The 2019 U.S. Chess Championship will feature five super grandmasters—Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Hikaru Nakamura, Sam Shankland, and Leinier Dominguez—making it not only the top event in American chess, but also a world-class tournament. With rising young talent and US Chess membership at its highest in its history, we are proud to celebrate the storied past and bright future of US Chess in 2019.

Emily Allred, Associate Curator, World Chess Hall of Fame

Special thanks to International Master John Donaldson, whose research for the World Chess Hall of Fame was of great assistance in the creation of this essay.

US Chess and Women

Playing chess at a high level requires confidence, focus, and drive. My favorite part of the game is losing yourself in thought, and thought resembling music in those moments.

So many of chess’s benefits are of particular value to girls and women. In a world of rising distractions, chess encourages deep, slow thought removed from devices and immediate comparisons. Players check ratings immediately after a tournament on the US Chess website, but during a game, they get lost in knight forks and checkmating nets. In a February 18, 2019, interview with Forbes, I explained how chess requires young people to learn to calibrate their self-confidence, “switching” from wise self-criticism while preparing to self-assurance while in combat.

In my new role as US Chess Women’s Program Director, I will bring the key benefits of chess to more women and girls, while being conscience of challenges that women in various situations face. Women of color, transgender women, women with disabilities, and women with small children add so much valuable perspective to our subculture and we can’t afford to leave anyone out. “Chess is like life to me,” as a young fellow Philadelphian says in Jenny Schweitzer’s video “Girls in Chess,” featured in this show.

At US Chess, the numbers of girls and women playing are rising, but the change is gradual. We are up to about 15% participation, from about 10% a decade ago.

At the highest levels, there is also progress as our youngest female players are among the best players in the country. At eight years old, Rachael Li recently broke the record for the youngest female expert in our 80-year history. In an incredible example of synchronicity, another girl, Alice Lee, broke the record the same week. Also in 2018, Jessica Lauser became the first woman ever to win the U.S. Blind Championship.

Leadership at US Chess also mirrors the positive trends in our membership, as my longtime friend Jean Hoffman became the first female executive director in 2013 and was followed by another woman with great vision in 2017, Carol B. Meyer. Their tenures also overlapped with the leadership of former US Chess President Ruth Haring (1955-2018), who was a vocal advocate for women and girls in chess and would smile to see the continuing strides we are making in 2019. On February 1, 2019, girls were welcomed into Scouts BSA, allowing them to earn chess merit badges. The very first weekend possible, I helped lead a workshop at the Saint Louis Chess Club to award the first girls in history the chess merit badge. In my lesson, I showed them a beautiful checkmate executed by seven-time U.S. Women’s Champion Irina Krush. As Dr. Jeanne Sinquefield explained to me, scouting badges are not only about learning, but also about sharing knowledge. “I don’t know why,” one scout said as she showed another girl the stunning “epaulette” mate from the Krush victory, “but it’s just so beautiful.”

The scouting workshop dovetailed perfectly with another historic event, the inaugural Cairns Cup (February 5-19), featuring ten of the top female players in the world, the strongest women’s event ever held on U.S. soil. Valentina Gunina of Russia won the event with a thrilling performance. In one game, she executed a checkmate that was so beautiful I created a version with fine chocolates in her honor. The gem was eerily similar to the checkmate I showed the scouts, with the final blow in both landing on the d7 square.

During the Cairns Cup, the Saint Louis Chess Club announced an incredible $100,000 donation to US Chess Women. I am honored to steward this gift on behalf of the federation. One of my primary goals is to spread more resources to local organizers and coaches who are already working to widen our base of female players and could use an extra push. I am passionate about improving the image of chess, and helping women and girls see their potential not only in the game, but in life. In my new US Chess podcast, “Ladies Knight,” inspired by a 2015 World Chess Hall of Fame show of the same name, I interview female chess champions, leaders, and visionaries. I asked one guest, Adia Onyango, about how she plays up to five games blindfolded. “When people ask if it’s hard, I just do it.”

Jennifer Shahade, US Chess Women’s Program Director

Early Predecessors of the US Chess Federation

The US Chess Federation has a distinguished pedigree, as the U.S. and Britain were the first nations in the world to form national chess associations. Furthermore, the first American Chess Association, formed in 1857, was along with baseball and cricket, one of the first national sports organizations in the United States. Despite our pioneering beginnings, it took many years for a permanent U.S. chess organization to become established. As strange as it seems today, for most of U.S. chess history American players saw little need for a national organization. Today, we would be lost without a rating system, a national magazine, regular championships sanctioned by an organization, standardized rules, a national scholastic program, and the additional roles US Chess has.

However, chess players in the 19th and early 20th centuries lived in a different world. They had no rating system, relying on vague concepts such as “first-class” player or “Rook player” in lieu of a standardized numerical system. There were comparatively few tournaments, even at the local level. There was no set method for determining a U.S champion, and there were many resulting problems regarding that title. Several national chess organizations in the U.S. were formed between 1857 and 1934, but all failed to thrive until the merger of two such organizations in 1939 to form the US Chess Federation (USCF), now named US Chess.

The first national chess association in the U.S., named the American Chess Association (ACA), was officially formed on October 19, 1857, at the First American Chess Congress in New York. Paul Morphy, who was soon to become one of the all-time great players, made the historic nomination of its first president, Colonel Charles D. Mead. Since Morphy was from Louisiana, his nomination of a New Yorker was an important gesture of national unity at a time of intense sectional divisiveness in the country.

The ACA decided to admit both individuals and clubs at dues “placed at so low a rate as to enable every chess-player to inscribe his name upon its book.” The ACA published one issue of The Bulletin of the American Chess Association, which outlined its plans to build chess interest in the U.S. and bring more cooperation among local clubs. The Bulletin published no other issues although such were intended. It remains possibly the first chess periodical to be officially published by any chess organization in the world. The ACA soon declared that it was “inexpedient” to hold its next Congress, projected to occur in 1860; and it became inactive. Nevertheless, it helped to inspire the formation of a Western Chess Association in Saint Louis on April 21, 1860, although that organization had no connection with the Western Chess Association formed in 1900.

Numerous other attempts were made to form national chess organizations over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Another American Chess Association was established in 1871 at the Second American Chess Congress, but gave little evidence of activity except for an abortive attempt to arrange a major tournament in 1873. Yet another American Chess Association was formed at the Third American Chess Congress in Chicago in 1874, but it soon dissolved. Undaunted by the failures of three predecessors, another national chess association was formed at the Fifth American Chess Congress in 1880. Hoping for more success, they adopted a new name: The Chess Association of the United States of America. They also had dues at the democratic level of $2. In spite of those changes, the association apparently did little.

Hope springs eternal, so on September 4, 1888, yet another national chess association was formed. This new organization was called the United States Chess Association (USCA). A significant feature of this new organization was the participation of state chess associations. (State associations were a new concept, dating only to 1885 though some regional associations had existed before then). In order to encourage the formation of new state associations, the USCA held a tournament of state champions alongside an open tournament. Max Judd and Jackson (J.W.) Showalter played in the state champions’ event, though their states did not have state associations and their “state champion” status was thus unofficial. Both had been claimants of the U.S. Championship, itself then unsystematized and controversial, so the USCA hoped a match between the winners of the open tournament and the state champions’ event would settle an official U.S. Championship. Although Showalter became the USCA Champion, it was not accepted as the overall U.S. Championship, which remained without a generally-accepted, systematized procedure.

The USCA did survive long enough to hold at least four tournaments at its annual congresses. However, when a new national organization was proposed in 1898, its organizers said that the USCA had not met since 1890, with a brief revival in 1893. With no viable national organization around, the American Chess Code (official rulebook) was published by the Manhattan Chess Club in 1897. On April 24, 1899, a new organization called The Chess Association of the United States was formed. It differed from its predecessors by emphasizing clubs rather than individuals as members, saying that “by placing control in the care of a council made up of delegates from all the chess clubs, it would so entwined with the direct interests of the local organizations that its work would be watched by all, and its life would become a part of theirs.” This attempt to better integrate the local and national levels fell flat, apparently, as World Champion Emanuel Lasker in 1904 was trying to “bring new life into the organization” by publishing its constitution in his magazine. However, Lasker also opined that “The wrecks of chess organizations that strew the beach of the ocean of time would seem to indicate that the chess-playing faculty is not accompanied by energy and continued effort that are necessary to success.” Fortunately, the success of US Chess since 1939 has proved Lasker’s pessimism wrong.

The Western Chess Association, founded in 1900 (one source gives 1890, though its list of tournaments begins with 1900) held its fifth annual championship in 1904 in Saint Louis in connection with the World’s Fair. That tournament allowed anyone regardless of residence to play. In 1906 the Western Chess Association called for a national gathering to form rules for an annual U.S. championship tournament. This call preceded by a month an effort by the Brooklyn Chess Club to create a new national association, a timing that caused some initial unpleasantness between the organizations. However, the Western Chess Association subsequently decided at its 1906 business meeting to remain regional, suggesting that other areas also form associations, while supporting efforts by others to create a national organization. The president of the Western Chess Association claimed that organization had 10,000 members in 1906. At its 1907 meeting, the Western Chess Association limited its “territory” to 16 states, plus Manitoba: the states were Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. By 1916, membership was opened to all the U.S. The 1920 and 1923 tournaments of the Western Chess Association were held in Tennessee and San Francisco, respectively. The Western Chess Association consistently favored annual tournaments open to all players, a tradition that has remained over the decades in the U.S. Open Chess Championships. Other national chess organizations were formed in 1906 and 1921, but neither showed much activity.

In 1926 the National Chess Federation of the USA (NCF) was formed in Chicago. Maurice Kuhns, a president of the Western Chess Association, became the first NCF president. At last, permanence was achieved, as the NCF survived long enough to merge with another organization to form the US Chess Federation in 1939. The NCF accomplished several important goals that have been carried forward by today’s U.S. Chess. It affiliated with the newly-formed World Chess Federation, an affiliation that has been maintained by US Chess. The NCF gained control of the U.S. Championship, giving it an official, systematic status determined by regular official tournaments. The NCF established a scholastic chess program. Its effort to create a title system, however, was a non-starter until the numerical rating system came years later. The NCF had only $1 dues, but required a 3-person membership committee to “examine into the character and history of every applicant for membership”—hardly conducive to big growth in membership! The Western Chess Association soon became a chapter of the NCF, a move that some felt diminished the status of the Western organization and its annual national tournaments.

Perhaps due to this restrictive provision, and with some feeling that the NCF was too elitist, The American Chess Federation (ACF) was formed in 1934. The ACF was “a successor to the Western Chess Association,” according to Arpad Elo, its president and later a major pioneer in creating the worldwide rating system. Elo added in 1935: “The Western Chess Association was founded in 1900 at Excelsior Springs, Minn., and since that time has sponsored an unbroken line of annual tournaments. Originally these tournaments were intended to be merely regional in scope as the name of the organization indicated, but in 1916 the tournaments were opened to the chess players of the entire continent, and from that time on the outstanding players of North America competed to make the ‘Western’ a truly representative American tournament.” Elo listed a number of top players who competed in these events, including several who are now in the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame: Max Judd, J.W. Showalter, Edward Lasker, Isaac Kashdan, Samuel Reshevsky, and Reuben Fine. The ACF planned to disseminate a wider appreciation of the recreational benefits of chess, especially to “the younger generation.”

In September 1939, the NCF and ACF agreed to merge into one organization, called the United States of America Chess Federation. The merger was legally formalized later that year. US Chess assumed the functions of both the NCF and ACF, including the NCF’s management of the U.S. Championship and its FIDE affiliation. The annual tournaments of the Western Chess Association and its successor, the ACF, became the U.S. Open Chess Championship held annually ever since by US Chess. In spite of this positive start, US Chess had only 299 members as of October 31, 1943. By 2003, the total membership reached 98,000. US Chess has become a major contributor to the international chess world in a number of ways, including popularizing Swiss system tournaments; issuing its own official rulebook; creating a major official chess periodical; and creating a numerical rating system that has been accepted worldwide.

John McCrary, past US Chess President

The full version of this essay can be found here.

Out of the Desert

In the late 1970s, my family moved to a chess desert. Augusta, Georgia, may be a golf mecca as home of The Masters, but what it offers in birdies and bogies, it lacks in Bisguiers and Benjamins. Not that my chess life had been cosmopolitan before; since my father had taught me how to play during Fischer’s run to the world championship, dad was largely my only opponent.

Then, by chance, he joined US Chess for the first time in 1978. Suddenly, our small chess library of a handful of books (which I treated as fetish objects, such was my intense desire for all things chess) was increased by the first copy of Chess Life that arrived at 225 Threadneedle Road: November 1978 with its headline of “Man Beats Machine!”

I drank in this issue like a beast on the Serengeti finding a waterhole during a drought. I immediately read it cover-to-cover, then again many times over the years (yes, including the Tournament Life section; please don’t judge me). The cover art by Bob Walker—a mad scientist’s vision of a chess computer paying out a jackpot to IM David Levy—supports Levy’s story about how he defeated the computer CHESS 4.7. It all captivated my junior-high self.

As editor myself decades later, I was part of a team that created notable covers. Among them: April 2010 executed the concept of a cow standing on a chessboard field for a feature about rural chess, designed by our Art Director Frankie Butler—readers either loved or hated it, making it one of our most provocative covers. March 2016 showed GM Vassily Ivanchuk deep in thought, captured by the renowned photographer David Llada. November 2018, and the final cover I was directly involved in, presents GM Timur Gareev gleefully skydiving over southern California while wearing a checkered flight suit and holding a board with pieces. (There was even the tragicomic issue of October 2012 on which GM Ivan Sokolov is looking so unbearably glum that Conan O’Brien used this cover as comedic fodder on his late-night talk show).

But as proud as I am to have added to chess literature myself, one never forgets their first love.

It is telling how many names contributing to this 1978 issue continued to work with me during my tenure 30, then even 40, years later. Bruce Pandolfini remains a columnist. GM Pal Benko retired as our endgame columnist a few years ago but still contributes the occasional feature. Jerry Hanken is listed as a US Chess Policy Board (now called Executive Board) member; he was one of my go-to reporters for major U.S. tournaments my first few years as editor. In the Tournament Life section, Bill Goichberg’s Continental Chess Association events still dominate the listings. Editor Burt Hochberg died while I was editor, and I had the sad privilege of publishing his obituary.

Once this Chess Life issue quenched my psyche, I was set on a path than now seems inevitable in retrospect. It pointed me towards the chess journalist path I continue to this day, allowing me to share remarkable stories about this extraordinary game.

Daniel Lucas, US Chess Senior Director of Strategic Communication

Parent Issues

My initiation into the chess world was through an observer’s lens, as perhaps is fitting for a writer/editor: I began as a chess parent. One day my nine-year old son was taking on and defeating all comers at a Renaissance fair; before I knew it, I was fretting and pacing along with hundreds of other parents at scholastic tournaments. I soon learned about pairings and how to read wall charts. I made friends with other chess parents. As time went on, I even began, somewhat, to “talk the talk.” But I never thought I would be anything but an involved chess parent who occasionally blogged about, well, life as a chess parent.

Until two years ago.

My current stint as publications editor for US Chess has been remarkable and unexpected. It began, innocently enough, when I answered an advertisement for an assistant editor position in February 2017. (To this day, I suspect I won the position because I emphasized that I was vigilant about deadlines.) Shortly after I passed the one-year mark, then-Director of Publications and Chess Life Editor Dan Lucas asked to meet with me. I suspected he might tell me I was ready to take on editing Chess Life Kids solo. But to my surprise, he instead passed the entire publications torch to me because he’d been promoted to a newly-created position within the organization.

Luckily for me, Dan didn’t leave me floundering. His parting gift was a treasure trove of articles and cover ideas to see me through the rest of the year. I am proud of these early issues, especially because we produced three amazing and completely different covers in a row: a confident GM Cristian Chirila, National Open champion, posing for the talented Lennart Ootes (September 2018); a fierce FM Mike Klein, photographed and artfully stylized by Sean Busher (October 2018); and GM Timur Gareev gleefully skydiving from 10,000 feet holding a chessboard (November 2018). But even though these über-cool covers were released with my name on the masthead, they were, in fact, the results of effective guidance from Dan and outstanding art direction from Frankie Butler.

So, my all-time favorite issue has nothing to do with my nascent role as publications editor; it instead hearkens back to my initial role as a chess parent and the thrill of seeing my son’s name in Chess Life for the first time after he co-won the seventh-grade title at the 2008 National K-12 Championships. Yes, his name was in a tiny “At A Glance” box on page 28. No, his photo wasn’t plastered on any of the pages. But the April 2009 issue of Chess Life remains a touchstone to this day: it reminds me that what I do matters to readers and chess lovers of every stripe.

Chess has been good to me. It helped pay for my son’s college education; it introduced me to some fascinating people, including my husband; and today it is a fulfilling career and source of endless education. Knowing that I follow in some mighty intimidating editorial footsteps, my hope is that one day a future player, parent, writer, or editor chooses an issue from my tenure—for whatever reason—as one that made a similar impact on them.

Melinda Matthews, Chess Life Editor

Looking Back

I always knew I would be a journalist, but I never thought I would have a love affair with the game of chess. In fact, I didn’t even know how to play the game until 1972…until Bobby Fischer. I think that time unravels before us as a ball of string. Eventually it becomes a thread of revelation. Looking back, I realize that 1972 set the stage for my opening chess move. I joined the San Diego Chess Club.

My opening strategy was simple. As a dancer, I used chess to balance the mental and the physical. Over time, I was able to combine chess and journalism. I worked at the San Diego Union-Tribune, wrote for different publications, and became vice president of the San Diego Chess Club.

Then time put on its running shoes. In 1978, I moved to Oregon, where I continued writing and became president of the Oregon Chess Federation. My opening repertoire was drawing to a close and my middle game was just beginning.

I moved from Oregon to New York in 1987 and started as assistant editor at Chess Life. The magazine was in a state of turmoil. I worked with three different editors over a short span of time and was about to face a fourth when the Chess Life staff took me aside and asked me to apply for editor. Well, back then men were at the front door when opportunity knocked, but women were usually in the kitchen. There had never been a woman editor at Chess Life. I received numerous letters of support and encouragement from chess players around the country, so it made me think. It would take hard work and it would take courage. I viewed this challenge as a great opportunity.

The Chess Life staff worked like a well-oiled machine. We won the Most Improved Magazine award from Chess Journalists of America, as well as commendations for interesting articles and colorful creative covers. And we did all the typesetting and editing without a computer, as ChessBase was brought in as I was leaving. But I am most proud of bringing grandmaster annotations and columns back to the magazine. I learned that during my editorship US Chess received more complimentary letters from readers of Chess Life than at any other prior time. Harold Winston, president of US Chess when I was hired, later said “…her last six issues can be favorably compared to any others in the history of Chess Life…I’m proud of the job she did.”

Do I have a favorite issue? I’m not sure. But I do have a few that stand out in my mind. The April 1989 issue will always be special to me for personal reasons; and I worked diligently on the content for the June 1990 issue, which debuted special instructional columns. Readers especially liked the August 1990 issue which contained: an artistic colorful cover; the debut of “Theoretically Speaking,” a new column written by GM Joel Benjamin, GM Larry Christiansen, and then GM-elect Patrick Wolff; “Larsen Wins in London” by IM Bjarke Kristensen; Luis Hoyos-Millan’s coverage of St. Martin; “U.S. Championship Playoff” by Frisco Del Rosario; GM Ron Henley’s article “The Voronezh Cultural Chess Festival;” “An Interview With Garry Kasparov” by Evgeny Rubin; New York Open coverage and games by Bleys Rose; GM Edmar Mednis’ superb column “How To Select Your Opening Repertoire”; IM Jeremy Silman’s instructive “The Art of Making Plans;” Frank Elley’s “The Measure of a Grandmaster;” as well as our regular monthly columnists: GM Andy Soltis, GM Larry Evans, Bruce Pandolfini, and David L. Brown.

I loved each day editing Chess Life. I interviewed seven world champions, covered national events, and became friends with grandmasters from all around the world, many who continued to write to me years after I left the magazine. I am thankful for my staff, and the columnists, writers, and photographers I worked with during my tenure.

The past is like a time tunnel. Heading into the end game, I can fast forward and rewind past and present to question, to remember, to weigh, to estimate and to judge. Today’s technology was only a dream in the making in the late 80s. Who knows what we will see in the future? I always knew I would be a journalist…but I didn’t know I would have a love affair with the game of chess.

Julie O’Neill, Former Chess Life Editor

Chess Kaleidoscope

Most Americans who take chess seriously remember when they first read Chess Life. That was when the magazine was at its best, they say. Chess was new and exciting to them then. Looking back, I can see that the Chess Life I first encountered nearly 60 years ago was not a very good publication. But I loved it—mainly because of Eliot Hearst’s column.

American chess was much smaller then, and so was Chess Life. The January 1962 issue had only 20 pages and the next issues had 24 each. When the latest issue arrived in the mail, I quickly flipped past the pages of “house ads” and promotional material (“USCF membership is the best buy in

chess”) as well as the self-congratulating articles by Larry Evans and Sammy Reshevsky, who annotated their own games as if they were imparting deep instructional wisdom.

I did not care about that. I wanted to find the page headlined, “Chess Kaleidoscope,”—the Hearst column. I was new to chess, but I could tell I was reading something unlike anything that was appearing in America. (Or abroad, as I later found out when I subscribed to British, Russian, Yugoslav, and other chess magazines).

Hearst could mix perceptive insights with a kind of chess news, in the style of the three-dot journalism that appeared in newspaper gossip columns. He did some original reporting, such as in August 1962 with his interview of Richard Cantwell, a Virginia dentist and avid chess amateur. Cantwell had spent his summer vacation at the Candidates Tournament on the island of Curaçao, where he snapped some of the best photos ever taken of top chess players and provided fascinating insights into what grandmaster chess was really like.

In other columns, Hearst would run snippets culled from his various sources, each separated with an ellipsis: How Pal Benko was in time trouble five times in his 106-move game with Hearst in the recently-completed U.S. Chess Championship and succeeded in rewriting endgame theory…How Viktor Korchnoi considered himself a serious runner because he could do the mile in seven minutes….How Mikhail Botvinnik said he gained weight during his 1960 World Chess Championship “because my head functioned poorly.”

There were a few other good things about Chess Life then, such as Botvinnik’s annotations of his quickly-famous game with Bobby Fischer from the 1962 Chess Olympiad. But my favorite articles that year were written by Hearst. One was his riveting account of serving as captain of a U.S. Olympiad team that barely made it to the Bulgarian playing site and then nearly carried off medals. When I grow up, I said, this is how I want to impart the drama of chess.

The other Hearst masterpiece appeared in his July 1962 column. His “Gentle Glossary” was an ironic look at chessplayers. He defined an “amateur” as “someone who only plays for money.” A “professional,” he added, is “anyone who cannot make a living playing chess.”

There was little interaction with Chess Life readers in those days. But that column struck a chord. Readers responded in October with their own whimsical definitions. An “annotator” is “a grandmaster of clichés,” one wrote. A “Giuoco Piano” is “playable but not quite so good as a Steinway,” said another. And “analysis” is “irrefutable proof that you could have won a game you lost.”

I only got a few chances over the years to meet Eliot and tell him how he had inspired me and how I had tried to make my Chess Life column as good as his. I last saw him in 2014 when the Marshall Chess Club had an evening to honor previous champions of the club (he was the 1952 champion).

He told me how he had accidentally met Fischer long after Bobby’s world championship match, when he had disappeared from chess. Fischer wanted to have dinner. Eliot agreed and then had to listen Fischer rant about various non-chess topics. When Fischer was done, he asked if they could analyze some chess games together. “But Bobby, you were always better than me,” Hearst said. “What can I add?”

“You can learn from everyone,” Fischer replied.

When I heard in 2018 that Eliot had died, I remembered that story. And how much I had learned from him.

Grandmaster Andrew Soltis, U.S. Chess Hall of Fame Inductee

US Chess Timeline

US Chess History, Part I: The Early Years (1939-1959)

US Chess History Part II: The Fischer Boom (1960-1979)

US Chess History Part III: America Rising (1980-1999)

US Chess History Part IV: A New Golden Age (2000-2019)

Presenting Partner:

Press

10/21/2019: US Chess — Masters of the Arts: Tony Rich Interviews Carol Meyer

6/14/2019: Classic 107.3 — World Chess Hall of Fame (podcast)

5/23/2019: St. Louis Public Radio — On Chess: US Chess Federation Celebrates 80th Year and Looks to the Future

4/9/2019: US Chess — One Move at a Time with April Guest Emily Allred

3/15/2019: FOX 2 — Weekends on the Web: Saturday and Sunday, March 16-17, 2019

3/6/2019: FOX 2 — Tim’s Travels: World Chess Hall of Fame new Exhibit (video)

3/5/2019: Press Release — World Chess Hall of Fame Exhibit Honors the 80th Anniversary of the US Chess Federation

2/15/2019: Tennessee Chess Association — 100 Year Old Memphis Artifacts Visiting World Chess Hall of Fame

Through the Featured Chess Set project, the World Chess Hall of Fame showcases a variety of chess sets throughout the year. These include highlights from the institution’s collection as well as chess sets owned by Saint Louis metropolitan area friends and chess lovers who have special stories to accompany their sets.

Do you live in the Saint Louis metropolitan area and have a chess set with a great story? Submit it for inclusion in our Featured Chess Set project! This program highlights chess sets with interesting backgrounds borrowed from chess lovers and fans of the Hall of Fame. Featured chess sets are displayed for a period of one month at the World Chess Hall of Fame.

If you would like to participate in the program, send a photo and the story of the set to Emily Allred, Assistant Curator, at [email protected].

January

January’s Featured Chess Set is on loan from Kyle Weber, a scholastic coordinator at the Saint Louis Chess Club. Weber, who has nearly a decade of experience in public education, public policy, curriculum, and instruction, has worked with the organization since September 2016. While he was teaching at University Academy in Kansas City, chess became a regular part of the school day both inside the mathematics classroom and as part of a robust 80 student after school chess program. Chess facilitated a need to connect with students on a personal level and address the holistic needs of their development. Weber is a father, husband, and educator.

Players must protect their brains from ninnys and numskulls in Smess, a humorous variant on the game of chess. Perry Grant, a sitcom writer and producer who created scripts for over 35 shows including The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, Maude, The Jeffersons, Good Times, I Dream of Jeannie, The Odd Couple, and Happy Days, created the game. Smess replaces the familiar chess pieces with four numskulls, which can move any number of squares; seven ninnys, which may only move one square at a time; and one brain, which can move one square at a time. The objective of Smess is to capture your opponent’s brain. Pieces move around the colorful board according to the directions of the arrows on their starting spaces and may capture other pieces by landing on their squares. According to the box, which touts SMESS as a simpler alternative to chess, “the game can be played with skill—but it’s the NINNYs or the NUMSKULLS that capture the BRAIN.”

February

February’s Featured Chess Set is part of the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF). Since its creation in 1986, the WCHOF has endeavored to highlight the history and cultural significance of the game of chess. The WCHOF’s collection is diverse and includes sets once owned by legendary players, mass-produced sets with lively pop culture themes, antique ivory sets, travel sets, as well as chess computers. Through these artifacts, the WCHOF illustrates how chess has evolved through its over 1500-year history. This set is part of a generous donation from the estate of Jacqueline Piatigorsky, a 2014 inductee to the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame.

Created from mother of pearl and ivory, this elegant chess set features playful variations of familiar pieces. The set once belonged to Jacqueline and Gregor Piatigorsky, a couple who shared a passion for music, art, and chess. A skilled chess player, Jacqueline earned second place in the 1965 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship. However, she earned greatest acclaim for her philanthropic chess activities as well as her sponsorship of the Piatigorsky Cup—one of the strongest tournaments held on American soil before the Sinquefield Cup, which is held annually in Saint Louis. Gregor was one of the most famous cellists of his era, and during his travels, he collected beautiful artistic chess sets that he displayed at the Piatigorskys’ Los Angeles, California, home.

March

March’s Featured Chess Set is from the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame. Since its creation in 1986, the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) has endeavored to highlight the history and cultural significance of the game of chess. The WCHOF’s collection is diverse and includes sets once owned by legendary players, mass-produced sets with lively pop culture themes, antique ivory sets, travel sets, as well as chess computers. Through these artifacts, the WCHOF illustrates how chess has evolved through its over 1500-year history.

Sleek silver ships sail atop stands that resemble waves in this promotional chess set from the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame. Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines is a Japanese transportation company. The company was formed through the merger of OSK Lines and Mitsui Steamship Co. in 1964. The pieces resemble their different types of cargo liners and each have a small representation of their piece on their base to aid players in differentiating the pieces.

April

April’s Featured Chess Set is from the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame. Since its creation in 1986, the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) has endeavored to highlight the history and cultural significance of the game of chess. The WCHOF’s collection is diverse and includes sets once owned by legendary players, mass-produced sets with lively pop culture themes, antique ivory sets, travel sets, as well as chess computers. Through these artifacts, the WCHOF illustrates how chess has evolved through its over 1500-year history.

Photos of lions, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, elephants, and chimpanzees appear on the pieces for this set, which features a unique folding game board that is also a box. The set is named for the Congo Basin, an ecologically diverse region of Africa that includes portions of Cameroon, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon. A portion of sales from this set benefited the World Wildlife Fund. Established in 1961, the fund has the mission “to conserve nature and reduce the most pressing threats to the diversity of life on Earth.”

May

May’s Featured Chess Set is from the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) and was created by Yuko Suga for the exhibition Imagery of Chess: Saint Louis Artists, which was on view from March 23 to September 24, 2017. Suga studied metalsmithing with Heikki Seppa at Washington University in St. Louis, where she received an Intense Minor in Metals and a Master of Science degree in Occupational Therapy. She is involved in community-based programs as both a therapist and an artist, working with diverse groups of individuals in a variety of settings. Suga is a member of the faculty of the Craft Alliance Center of Art + Design. This set is on view in connection with the opening of the WCHOF’s newest exhibition, M.C. Escher: Infinite Variations, which has several works that include mirror images.

Image Re: In Glass presents a chess set that, upon first glance, is literally one-sided. Progress in the game is constrained by the set’s form—16 pieces and half a board. In this work, Yuko Suga positions the viewer, whose own reflection is visible in the vanity mirror, as his or her own greatest competitor. Each piece is both white and black, with gradation between the two, and the board is made of mirrored squares. The spacing among them is flexible, and may be greater, smaller, angled, or even absent; however, to function as part of the chessboard, they must relate to one another. According to the artist, in order to develop into a community that is able to identify as “we,” there is a need for individual and community introspection as well as reflection.

June

June’s Featured Chess Set is from the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame. Since its creation in 1986, the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) has endeavored to highlight the history and cultural significance of the game of chess. The WCHOF’s collection is diverse and includes sets once owned by legendary players, mass-produced sets with lively pop culture themes, antique ivory sets, travel sets, as well as chess computers. Through these artifacts, the WCHOF illustrates how chess has evolved through its over 1500-year history.

June’s Featured Set has been selected in connection with the opening of Golf the Galleries – Artist-Designed Mini Golf (June 1-August 11, 2019), an interactive art exhibition at the Sheldon Art Gallery that features a creative mini golf course with holes designed by artists, designers, and the World Chess Hall of Fame. The eye-catching colors and 90s’ aesthetic of this portable chess set provided the inspiration for Perpetual Check, the WCHOF’s submission to the exhibition. The chess set is part of a series of games—which included backgammon, checkers, dominoes, and chinese checkers—that were produced by Mattel in neon colors in 1992. The brightly-colored board can fold into a box used to hold the chess pieces.

July

July’s Featured Chess Set is from the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame. Since its creation in 1986, the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) has endeavored to highlight the history and cultural significance of the game of chess. The WCHOF’s collection is diverse and includes sets once owned by legendary players, mass-produced sets with lively pop culture themes, antique ivory sets, travel sets, as well as chess computers. Through these artifacts, the WCHOF illustrates how chess has evolved through its over 1500-year history.

In this tropics-themed chess set, swordfish and dolphins reign as king and queen. Their courts include parrots as bishops, seahorses as knights, seashells as rooks, and fish as the pawns. Though the World Chess Hall of Fame’s collection contains many playing sets once owned or used by the game’s greatest players, it also includes many sets meant for display rather than play like this one, which is made of glass.

August

August’s Featured Chess Set is from the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame. Since its creation in 1986, the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) has endeavored to highlight the history and cultural significance of the game of chess. The WCHOF’s collection is diverse and includes sets once owned by legendary players, mass-produced sets with lively pop culture themes, antique ivory sets, travel sets, as well as chess computers. This month’s featured chess set is part of a collection amassed by David Roderer, which is now part of the permanent collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame. Roderer obtained chess sets as gifts and while traveling around the world with his wife Nancy.

This cardboard chess set features the psychedelic art of graphic designer Peter Max. He rose to fame during the 1960s, when his colorful artwork appeared in advertisements and on magazine covers and posters. The Peter Max Chesset appeared in 1971, just one year before American grandmaster Bobby Fischer won the World Chess Championship. His victory led many periodicals to produce guides to buying chess sets for aspiring players. According to the New York Times’ article “Fischer Furor Sparks Big Run on Chess Sets,” the Peter Max set was a bestseller and sold for $10 (about $60 today).

September

September’s Featured Chess Set is part of the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF). Since its creation in 1986, the WCHOF has endeavored to highlight the history and cultural significance of the game of chess. The WCHOF’s collection is diverse and includes sets once owned by legendary players, mass-produced sets with lively pop culture themes, antique ivory sets, travel sets, as well as chess computers. Through these artifacts, the WCHOF illustrates how chess has evolved through its over 1500-year history. This set is part of a generous donation from the estate of Jacqueline Piatigorsky, a 2014 inductee to the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame.

This elegant porcelain chess set, which is paired with a board adorned with flowers, is one of the oldest objects in the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame. The Meissen factory, the first producer of porcelain in Europe, created the set. Joahann Joachim Kändler, one of the factory’s most acclaimed modelers, designed it. Kändler was a court sculptor for the Elector of Saxony and Meissen founder, Frederick Augustus I. He became the chief modeler at Meissen in 1733, and he was influential in creating the tradition of making porcelain figurines. This set, which is missing one green knight, is set up in a position from a 1955 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship game between Mona May Karff and Jacqueline Piatigorsky. Piatigorsky won the brilliancy prize for this game.

October

October’s Featured Chess Set is from the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame. Since its creation in 1986, the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) has endeavored to highlight the history and cultural significance of the game of chess. The WCHOF’s collection is diverse and includes sets once owned by legendary players, mass-produced sets with lively pop culture themes, antique ivory sets, travel sets, as well as chess computers. This month’s featured chess set became part of the WCHOF’s collection in 2018.

Spooky ghosts and grinning jack-o’-lanterns face off in this whimsical Halloween-themed chess set. Sammy Palmer, a disabled artist living and working in the southern coast of England, created the set. Palmer, who is self-taught, has produced many chess sets featuring creative themes, including cows vs. sheep, cats vs. dogs, and Santa vs. snowmen. Palmer first made this one as a fun set for her family to play with. Family also provides inspiration for her other sets’ themes, which often feature her children’s favorite animals. Palmer’s chess sets, jewelry, and gifts are available exclusively through HandmadebyDragon on Etsy.

November

November’s Featured Chess Set is part of the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF). Since its creation in 1986, the WCHOF has endeavored to highlight the history and cultural significance of the game of chess. The WCHOF’s collection is diverse and includes sets once owned by legendary players, mass-produced sets with lively pop culture themes, antique ivory sets, travel sets, as well as chess computers. Through these artifacts, the WCHOF illustrates how chess has evolved through its over 1500-year history.

The familiar white and black sides of a chess set are reimagined as raw and cooked meat in this set that appeared in the November 1972 issue of National Lampoon magazine. The set was printed on heavy paper, allowing readers to cut it out and assemble the pieces, and the article that accompanied the set suggested using a tablecloth or customized butcher board as the chessboard. Michael O’Donoghue and Anne Beatts, two early writers for Saturday Night Live conceived of the set.

December’s Featured Chess Set is part of the collection of the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF). Since its creation in 1986, the WCHOF has endeavored to highlight the history and cultural significance of the game of chess. The WCHOF’s collection is diverse and includes sets once owned by legendary players, mass-produced sets with lively pop culture themes, antique ivory sets, travel sets, as well as chess computers. Through these artifacts, the WCHOF illustrates how chess has evolved through its over 1500-year history.

Jack Skellington and his friends face off against the villainous Oogie Boogie in this chess set based upon the 1993 musical film The Nightmare Before Christmas. The movie was directed by Henry Selick, produced by Tim Burton and Denise Di Novi, and featured music by Danny Elfman. In The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jack Skellington, the leader of Halloween Town, stumbles into a portal to Christmas Town. He becomes enchanted with the holiday, and seeks to have the denizens of Halloween Town take over its traditions, kidnapping Santa Claus in the process. The story is told through stop motion animation inspired by that of the classic Rankin/Bass Christmas specials like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) and Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town (1970).

Check back next year for more featured chess sets!

Universal Turf: Peter Manion is a mixed media installation of never-before-seen works by Saint Louis-based artist Peter Manion that explores social and interpersonal parallels between chess and humanity. Manion’s plaster-coated panels of dyed felt create an interactive environment in which visitors are encouraged to interact with parts of the installation.

Universal Turf: Peter Manion

I met Peter Manion about 10 years ago, soon after I moved to Saint Louis. I was always impressed with his artwork, his creativity, and his interest in experimenting with different media. Little did I know, that in addition to his proclivity for art, he also had a deep interest in chess. Peter came to the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) shortly after we opened in 2011 with an old, rugged-looking Milton Bradley chess “game.” This was no ordinary cardboard or wooden board with simple, cheap, plastic pieces—this was a machine! He carried the Milton Bradley Electronic Grand·Master, first sold in the early 1980s, up to our offices and still had the actual original cord. I stared in disbelief, not only surprised that something like this existed, but also that he could actually plug it in and it would still work. We found an outlet, he plugged it in and it came to life. The box claims that it “Moves its Own Pieces Automatically and Brilliantly!—for 1-or 2-players.” He set up the pieces and began pushing buttons that had looked like they had been pushed 1000 times before. Immediately, loud creaking noises came from within the machine and the chess pieces began shaking, stuttering, and moving across the chessboard. I was amazed by the mechanism, and as he smiled watching it work, I thought that Peter might be relieved to rid his home of this old toy, not realizing that years later we would be having a very emotional conversation about what that game meant to him as a child and later as an adult.

In March 2017, the WCHOF opened the exhibition The Imagery of Chess: Saint Louis Artists. This was directly inspired by the groundbreaking 1944 exhibition, The Imagery of Chess at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York City. Organized by Marcel Duchamp, Julien Levy, and Max Ernst, the original show included the work of over 30 painters, photographers, sculptors, critics, and composers, among others and sought to challenge the accepted conventions of the ancient game. The highly-publicized exhibition was well received by the chess, art, and general communities, and the project went on to inspire artists over the last 70+ years to reinterpret the game in an artistic way and became the basis of the artistic programming at the WCHOF.

Our contemporary exhibition featured 20 leading local artists, writers, designers, musicians, and composers and their newly-commissioned artwork and performances inspired by the game of chess. Not only did Peter exhibit in the show, he also assisted me with selecting several of the artists in the exhibition and added to its success. This new exhibition was so inspiring because it celebrated the impact of chess culture in Saint Louis and promoted local artistic talent. I knew immediately that the WCHOF needed to create more local artistic programming and exhibitions.

Universal Turf: Peter Manion debuts this new wave of regional artist exhibitions at the World Chess Hall of Fame. With a mission to celebrate the history of the game, we strive to make everyone feel welcome here, whether you’re a grandmaster or you have never picked up a chess piece before. Universal Turf is not just an art exhibition, but rather it is an immersive environment that begs the viewer to engage with a series of sculptures and installations and become lost in an endless interpretation of the universe, of time, of space. Peter doesn’t use typical artists’ supplies; rather, inspired by his earlier career as a house contractor, he uses thick felt, plaster, paint, and dyes to create movable, beat-up, crumpled, living pieces of art. Because he is constantly manipulating the pieces, they will never look the same twice—there are an infinite possible ways his work can be exhibited similar to the infinite possible moves in a chess game.

According to Peter:

“As the viewer enters the gallery, the first image is simple and appears to be a blank canvas. This is an exercise in nothingness. However, these works are about looking closer and studying, just as in a game of chess. Take a moment to let your imagination wander. Composed of black plaster on black felt, this is the single largest piece I have ever made.

To the right, you are confronted with an array of small, colorful sculptures made of the same materials, but they are completely different in scale. Viewing these works you think, are they fixed sculptures? Solid or hollow? Heavy or lightweight? The surface texture gives the appearance of weight.

Mixed media works on paper on the wall were created in a sketchbook approach. Forget the composition, the purpose, or logic—they are to show my thought process, working out ideas past and future. The shapes are semi-attached sheets of vinyl that can and may fall off. The primary colors are the basis for all of the colors we see. They are elemental colors.

Opposite the sketches are human-scale, colorless works. Composed of white plaster over colored felt, they are formed and pushed to create monumental, stiff sculptures. Though they appear immovable, they are in fact flexible and ready to fall from the slightest disturbance. These works exemplify the transformation from painting to sculpture and show that the works trigger more questions than answers.

In the main room is the largest piece—both an installation and a  performance, it is alive and can and will change, testing the idea of what is the meaning of art—is it to tell the story of the artist or the story of the viewer?”

Though one may not see a perfect chessboard or an array of Staunton chess pieces, by studying and meditating on these works, our hope is that the viewers will engage with the pieces and possibly get a glimpse into the mind of a chess player—plotting future moves, reflecting on past ones, taking a moment to slow down and think and wonder if you are seeing what everyone else is seeing? Are you focusing on the big picture or the tiny details? Are you thinking before reacting? Are you moving automatically and brilliantly?

—Shannon Bailey, Chief Curator, World Chess Hall of Fame

Process & Movement: the Studio of Peter Manion

Spend an hour in the studio with Peter Manion, and you’ll learn that it is an understatement to call his artistic practice process-driven. Plastering, spraying, moving, manipulating—ultimately creating—his sculptures are tests of endurance, patience, and learning to let go.

Though his finished works appear to be thin and ephemeral, each piece can weigh as much as 100 pounds and requires the assistance of several people to carry. In the studio, Peter becomes one with his art. He crawls along the walls, climbs over and atop the pieces, jumps, and hurls the work when needed, working to create a proper balance of adhesion and protrusion. It is an example of action art at its finest. It’s mesmerizing and energizing. There’s a primal nature in how he utilizes his entire body to create.

Peter works to coax the materials, but ultimately allows them to behave as they wish. In this, he could be called a facilitator, rather than a creator.

“Art is a moment in time—a feeling, an emotion, an energy. The law of conservation of energy greatly influences my work, and I consider that, just as there is this cycle of energy, this creation and deterioration of all matter, my artwork is not removed from this cycle. My energy transfers to my work as it’s made, continuing the phenomena of senescence and entropy that is a law of all things in nature.”

This cycle—of energy of creation, transformation, and decay—is palpable. Within that hour of sitting in Peter’s studio, a piece so perfectly formed may fall without notice. Other works, as they’re handled and repositioned over and over again, become soft and deteriorate, losing their form. Just as time is fleeting, so are the moments in Peter Manion’s art.

—Jessica Mannisi, Independent Curator

Self-Infliction

I remember the room where it was placed. Glass table, two chairs—it sat lower than it should have been. It stood in front of a window that looked onto the yard and the brown graveled street. I sat there for many hours—after school, on weekend mornings, and late afternoons. Alone.

My mother bought me a chessboard that I could play without an actual human; it was all computerized. She didn’t want me to go outside to play with other kids because she said it was “Hoosier.” My mother wanted my pursuits to be more intellectual. That was never my strong suit, but I did fall in love with playing chess.

The time alone, without really understanding it, made me more connected to myself. I daydreamed as I played. I imagined the pieces and the game as a battle being waged and that there were life and death consequences for the pawn that was captured. I tried and tried to beat the computer. Level one was easy enough; two and three were breakthroughs; four was my threshold. Patience was my weapon.

As I reflect on it now, I believe that my early relationship with chess led me directly to this exhibition. It wasn’t the winning or losing, the pieces and rules—it was the way it changed my way of thinking. I was purposeful and dedicated, experimental and stubborn, and flexible and determined. All of these attributes have precipitated the work I have made. It’s work that is all of those things—and sometimes it feels like I’m playing chess with these works. As fleeting as the feeling of winning or losing is, so is the way of these works. They are one thing at one moment—with beauty and purpose—and in the next moment, they are nothing and just a thing. But you push forward. You try to win again. To find the right combinations of moves—and that perfect moment.

What I know is that those early years in particular changed me and playing chess alone was a formative experience. Some might say that seems sad, but during my childhood it was at times the only place I found peace and solace.

—Peter Manion

Peter Manion

Saint Louis-based artist Peter Manion received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Manion’s works hint at his background in drawing, and his emphatic strokes and subject matter offset a playful use of material, style, and sense of humor.

Manion’s use of non-traditional methods, materials, and practices gives his work an animative quality, lending variance and movement to what once was undisturbed, bringing the work closer to the idea of a living object.

Manion has been the recipient of multiple awards, including an Award of Excellence at Art Saint Louis and the Judge’s Award of Merit at Kranzberg Arts Center, in addition to several recent exhibitions: La Fragua to Vermont: Works on Paper at Houska Gallery, Saint Louis; Imagery of Chess: Saint Louis Artists at the World Chess Hall of Fame, Saint Louis; and En La Noche, El Convento de Santa Clara de la Columna del Siglo XV, Belalcazar, Spain.

Jessica Mannisi

Jessica Mannisi is an independent curator, curatorial consultant, and art historian with over 10 years of experience in the museum and gallery field. Working closely with regional, national, and international artists, she’s been involved in a number of award-winning exhibitions and projects.

She is the art director of Houska Gallery in the Central West End, co-founder and curator of the pop-up South City studio gallery Macklind Appliance, and the assistant curator of visual art at Angad Arts Hotel in Grand Center. Mannisi is active in supporting Saint Louis-regional arts, working with several award-winning artists to elevate the local arts community. Mannisi worked as an advisor with Peter Manion on this exhibition.

Photography by Michael DeFilippo.

Press

2/6/2019: Silver Space — Life In Plaster

1/31/2019: HEC-TV — Peter Manion & Harry Benson at the World Chess Hall of Fame (video)

10/3/2018: FOX 2 — Chess Hall of Fame Art Exhibit (video)

9/27/2018: Business Insider — World-Renowned Photography and Contemporary Art Exhibits to Open at the World Chess Hall of Fame in Saint Louis this October

9/27/2018: Press Release — Universal Turf: Peter Manion

Harry Benson: Kings & Queens features a selection of photographs spanning the 60+ year career of world-renowned photojournalist Harry Benson CBE. Images include chess players and cultural icons of the 20th century such as Robert “Bobby” Fischer, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Magnus Carlsen, celebrities, American presidents, and British royalty, in addition to newly-commissioned photography from the 2018 Sinquefield Cup.

Harry Benson: Kings & Queens

Harry Benson: Kings & Queens showcases the renowned photographs of the legendary Scottish-born photographer, who captured images of some of the most celebrated personalities of the 20th and 21st centuries. In 1964, Benson gained fame while on assignment with the Beatles on their visit to Paris, taking the iconic photograph of them pillow fighting after learning that “I Want to Hold Your Hand” had reached number one on the American charts.

In 1970 he began working for LIFE magazine and shortly after was tasked with following a rising American star, eight-time U.S. Chess Champion Robert “Bobby” Fischer, as he attempted to end 29 years of Russian domination of the World Chess Championship. Benson’s photographs of Fischer captured an important moment in chess and world history, as American Bobby Fischer defeated Russian Boris Spassky in 1972 in a match that is often described as a Cold War battle over a chessboard.

Benson has photographed every United States president from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Donald J. Trump and in 1957 began shooting photos of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip among numerous other iconic figures. In his 80s, he continues to photograph celebrities and recently published Harry Benson: Persons of Interest (2017). In 2017, Benson was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame in Saint Louis, Missouri, and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Center of Photography in New York.

Harry Benson: Kings & Queens is the latest of many collaborations between Benson and the Saint Louis Chess Campus. Shortly after the World Chess Hall of Fame (WCHOF) opened in Saint Louis, Benson had a solo exhibition Bobby Fischer: Icon Among Icons, Photographs by Harry Benson CBE, which centered on his photos from the early 1970s. Benson traveled to Saint Louis to photograph the 2014 Sinquefield Cup. Four years later, he returned to Saint Louis to capture the rivalry between current world chess champion, Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, and the world chess championship challenger, American Fabiano Caruana, in the 2018 Sinquefield Cup. Kings & Queens exhibits Benson’s photographs of chess kings like Carlsen and Caruana as well as American grandmasters Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So alongside members of royal families and “kings and queens” of popular culture like James Brown, Queen Latifah, and Elizabeth Taylor.

Thanks to a special partnership with the Jennings School District, The Magic House, St. Louis Children’s Museum and the World Chess Hall of Fame, families can enjoy our Kings, Queens & Castles exhibit in the summer of 2018—free of charge!

This innovative children’s chess exhibit was co-created by The Magic House and the World Chess Hall of Fame and brings the game of chess to life while providing an engaging introduction to individual chess pieces and game strategy.

Families can enjoy free play in the exhibit as they walk across a drawbridge into a medieval castle complete with turret slides and learn how to prepare for a game by arranging a giant chess board with large-scale pieces, don a royal cape and sit on a majestic throne to become a king or queen, use their creativity to make a fanciful crown and shield and enjoy a game of chess.