Reconciling Chess

The artist Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) was obsessed with chess throughout his life. Art critics and Duchamp scholars have deeply analyzed his artistic oeuvre in dozens of books and hundreds of articles, but few have truly understood the role of chess in his life and art. Chess permeated his life as intensely as did art, yet most critics treat his chess as a passing phase. I suggest the reason for their bafflement is that they were not serious chess players and had no first hand knowledge of the chess world. Very few masters have ever analyzed Duchamp's chess in relation to his art and none have made a detailed study.

Herein lies a very small sampler, derived from my forthcoming definitive book on the subject. This appetizer will focus primarily on the sole chess book he authored and also include a few of his special games. It is meant to whet the palate and to peak the reader's interest in this iconoclastic artist who made many contributions to chess that have gone unrecognized.