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- 30 Jul 02
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...fyi...some interesting perhaps less known chess references, quotes, poems, etc...take care! dave--
“Now chess playing is an art, though a small one; but without his whole mind being given, and his will bent to it, a man cannot succeed in it.”
--Mencius, 289 B.C.
A Persian Poem on Chess
O thou whose cynic sneers express
The censure of our favorite chess,
Know that its skill is science’ self,
Its play distraction from distress.
It soothes the anxious lover’s care;
It weans the drunkard from excess,
It counsels warriors in their art,
When dangers threat, and perils press;
And yields us, when we need them most,
Companions in our loneliness.
--Ibn Ul Mu’tazz, circa 1038
Nicholas BRETON (1542-1626), The Chesse Play.
THE KING
The King himself is haughtie care,
Which ouerlooketh all his men,
And when he seeth how they fare,
He steps among them now and then,
Whom when his foe presumes to checke,
His seruants stand, to giue the necke.
THE QUEENE
The Queene is queint, and quicke conceit,
Which makes her walke which way she list,
Ans rootes them up, that lie in wait,
To worke hir treason ere she wist:
Hir force is such against her foes,
That whom she meets, she ouerthrowes...
THE PAWNES
The Rookes poore Pawnes, are sillie swaines,
Which seldom serue, except by hap,
and yet those Pawns, can lay their traines,
To catch a great man, in a trap:
So that I see, sometime a groome
May not be spared from his roome.
THE KNIGHT
The Knight is knowledge how to fight
against his Princes enimies,
He neuer makes his walke outright,
But leaps and skips, in wilie wise,
To take by sleight a traitrous foe,
Might slilie seek their ouerthrowe.
THE BISHOP
The Bishop he is wittie braine,
That chooseth crossest pathes to pace,
And euermore he pries with paine,
To see who seekes him most disgrace:
Such straglers when he findes astaie,
He takes them up, and throws awaie.
THE ROOKES
The Rookes are reason on both sides,
Which keepe the corner houses still,
And warily stand to watch their tides,
By secret art to worke thier will,
To take sometime a theefe unseen,
Might mischiefe mean to King or Queene."
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"'Tis all a Chequer-board of Nights and Days
Where Destiny with Men for Pieces plays:
Hither and thither moves, and mates, and slays,
And one by one back in the Closet lays. "
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
"She hung up and I set out the chess board. I filled a pipe, paraded the chessmen and inspected them for French shaves and loose buttons, and played a championship tournament game between Gortchakoff and Meninkin, seventy-two moves to a draw, a prize specimen of the irresistible force meeting the immovable object, a battle without armour, a war without blood, and as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you could find anywhere outside an advertising agency."
-- Raymond CHANDLER, The Long Goodbye, Chapter 24, final sentences.
"If chess is a science, it's a most inexact one. If chess is an art, it's too exacting to be seen as one. If chess is a sport, it's too aesoteric. If chess is a game, it's too demanding to be *just* a game. If chess is a mistress, she's a demanding one. If chess is a passion, it's a rewarding one. If chess is life, it's a sad one. "
--Source unknown.
“(Chess) is the most absorbing of occupations, the least satisfying of desires, an aimless excrescence upon life. It annihilates a man.
“It is a curse upon man.”
--H.G. Wells
“The passion for playing chess is one of the most unaccountable in the world. It slaps the theory of natural selection in the face. It is the most absorbing of occupations. The least satisfying of desires. A nameless excrescence upon life. It annihilates a man. You have, let us say, a promising politician, a rising artist that you wish to destroy. Dagger or bomb are archaic and unreliable - but teach him, inoculate him with chess.'
H.G. Wells, 'Certain Personal Matters', 1898
"You have, let us say, a promising politician, a rising artist that you wish to destroy. Dagger or bomb are archaic, clumsy, and unreliable -- but teach him, inoculate him with chess! Our statesmen would sit with pocket boards while the country went to the devil, and our breadwinners would forget their wives in seeking after impossible mates."
H.G Wells in Concerning Chess, 1901
'The profuse phallic symbolism of chess provides some fantasy gratification of the homosexual wish, particularly the desire for mutual masturbation.'
Reuben Fine, 'The Psychology of the Chess Player', 1956
'Chess and theatre often lead to madness.'
Arrabal, 'Sur Fischer', 1974
Chess is ruthless: you've got to be prepared to kill people. - Nigel Short
Chess is as much a mystery as women - Purdy
"You cannot play at chess if you are kind-hearted."
-- French Proverb
"[Chess is] a foolish expedient for making idle people believe they are doing something very clever, when they are only wasting their time."
-- George Bernard Shaw
"Surely chess is a sad waste of brains."
-- Sir Walter Scott
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