Dada, Surrealism and the Bongcloud Attack – TheArticle
The Dada Movement, which arose during the First World War, represented a complete break with conventional conceptions of aesthetics. A key member and link to chess was Marcel Duchamp . Dada was officially launched in 1916 at theCafe Voltairein Zurich by poets and artists,such as TristanTzaraand Hans Arp,and was a direct reaction to the mass slaughter, contradictory propaganda and inexplicable insanityof World War One. Independent but sympathetic groups emerged soon afterwards in New York, Berlin and Paris. These various groupswere thematically connected by their rejection ofidealism, aesthetic conventions, which had outlived their relevance to contemporary conditions,and contemporary societys continuing embrace of rationalism and progress in spite of the patent irrationality of the on-going world conflict. They condemned the nationalist and capitalist values that led to the cataclysm of the war and employed unorthodox techniques, performances and provocations to jolt the rest of society into self-awareness. The absurdity of Dada activities created a mirror exposing the absurdity in the world around them. (Oxford Art Online)
Marcel Duchamp, for example, outraged the art world with his ready-mades, such as Fountain (which is simply an inverted urinal). He further participated in thatpaean to illogic, the film Entracte (1924), where Duchamps game of chess against Man Ray, played on the roofs of Paris, is one of the fewclips whicheven remotely approaches any kind of rational sense. Also complicit in the anti-rational fabric of Entracte were the composer Erik Satie, the director Ren Clair and the artist FrancisPicabia.
After the close of hostilities, many of the Dada artists migrated to Surrealism, which in its turn was officially inaugurated (also in 1924), when the writer Andr Breton published his Manifesto of Surrealism . Like itsDadaist precursor, Surrealism was characterised by a profound disillusionment with and condemnation of the Western emphasis on logic and reason. However, Breton wanted tocreate something more specificout ofDadasnonsensical and seemingly disparate and unfocused activities. Consequently,Surrealist works veered towardspredication on the psychoanalytical theoriesand Traumdeutung of Sigmund Freud, relating to the irrational and instinct-based drives of the unconscious or dreaming mind.
Those artists who subscribed to Surrealismincluded Ren Magritte, Man Ray, JoanMir,MeretOppenheim, Dorothea Tanning and SalvadorDal. Man Ray, as we have seen, was a chess sparring partner of Duchamp, while several of the abovebecame obsessed with chess and,like Alexander Calder, joined Ernst, Man RayandPicabiain creating their own chess sets . The intention of both Dada and Surrealism wasto undermine established values, while their contrarianstance served as an important precursor to many late 20th-century artistic developments.
Marcel Duchamp: The Chess Game (Alamy)
I have often maintained that chess mirrors developments in life, in particular intellectual, artistic and military developments. A case in point is the elaboration of the theory of the chess blockade byAronNimzowitsch, inspired, perhaps, by trench warfare on the western front from 19141918. A further striking example is therise of Hypermodernism in chess, at around the same time as Dada and Surrealism began to emerge and in some ways dominatedthe intellectual post-Bellum landscape. To Grandmasters reared on the classical precepts of chess, as espoused by DrSiegbert Tarrasch,Hypermodernismmust have seemed irrational. However, the goal of chess isnot just to challenge and shock, but primarily to win, therefore a core of reason and purpose must most certainly have lain behind the Hypermodern modes of thinking.
The Hypermodern school is the name given to a number of ingenious writers and players in the 1920s (JuliusBreyer, ErnstGrnfeld,Aron Nimzowitsch, RichardRtiand Xavier Tartakower) who reacted strongly against the influence of Tarrasch and his classical school, which they regarded as over-dogmatic and tending to produce routine play. If Nimzowitsch represents the Marcel Duchamp of the group,and Duchamp eagerly usedNimzowitschsopenings in his own games,then the ideologueRichardRetiwas the Andr Breton, with perhaps Julius (akaGyula)Breyeras Dadas founder, TristanTzara.By the use of paradox and colourfulimagery they made a convincingcase that appealed very much to the young . Breyers famouslycontroversial and provocative remark: After 1.e4Whites game is in the last throes,reveals the chief domain for their activities: the chess openings.In particularRtiand Nimzowitsch, brought a new concept to the theory of the centre, preferring in many ways to observe it, rather than occupy it.
In this arena, they favoured the half open and closed defences to the Kings pawn (such asAlekhinesDefence, 1.e4 Nf6; the French Defence, 1.e4 e6; the Sicilian Defence,1.e4c5;and the Caro-Kann1.e4 c6). As Black against 1.d4 they chose,and developed to a great degree, the fianchetto defences,such as the Kings Indian and Queens Indian, whileGrnfeld invented an entirely new defence, named after him. The Grnfeld positively invited White to construct a mighty pawn centre, which Black would undermine from the wings (1.d4Nf62.c4g63.Nc3 d5).
One name is, paradoxically, absent from the Hypermodern roster, the great Alexander Alekhine. Inventor of the most controversial and quintessentially Hypermodern defence, 1.e4 met by the ultimate provocation 1.Nf6, Alekhine distanced himself from any association with schools or movements. A lone Titan he considered himself, and a lone Titan he was, in spite of his creation of the most extreme Hypermodern defence one which, to an even greater extent than theGrnfeldDefence, tempts White into constructing a gigantic pawncentre. In art terms,Alekhinesdefence, along withNimzowitschsparallel provocation1.e4Nc6,might be seen as the chessboard parallel to Duchamps Fontaine .
One of the major advantages of playing Hypermodern systems asWhiteis that they rely far more on general strategic understanding than rote memorisation. However, this does not mean that both sides are not set onerous problems to solve. In the modern eraHypermodernsystems as Whitehave mainly been championed by VladimirKramnikand LevAronian. Both these players have frequently set very difficult problems for their elite opponents with these complex systems.
RichardRtihimself (pictured below) is one of the most fascinating and colourful characters in the history of chess.Rti developed theories that were regarded as little less than revolutionary in his era. Heassertedthat, contrary to classical principles, the centre need not be occupiedby pawns. This must have seemed like heresy to theclassically-mindedgrandmasters of his day. As we have seen, this new approach was dubbed Hypermodern and led to the development of theRtiOpening (1.Nf3).
Rti(18891929) was the grandmaster and writer who principally conveyed the teachings of thehypermodernsto the chess public.Rtiwasborn inPezzinok, at that time in Hungary and later (after the First World War) Czechoslovakia. It was for the latter country that he was to play in the international team tournaments between the wars.He, like Tartakower, went to Vienna to study mathematics at the University and, like most of the great players of central Europe of that time, was a product of the Viennese School of chess. His early appearances in international chess were far from impressive and in fact he came bottom in a tournament at Vienna in 1908.Then, under the influence of his friend JuliusBreyer, there came a great change for the better in his play. He became well knownfor the brilliance of his ideas before 1914.For the next four years there was no international chess. However, once the nations were able once again, as Handel almost put it in his Messiah,to rage so peacefully together overthe chessboard,it became apparent thatRti,doubtless benefiting from his profound thinking during his enforced absence from play during the war, had matured intoa great master. He now ranked alongside theworldsbest.Retisresults in quick succession were: first prize atKaschauin 1918, ahead of such notables as Professor MilanVidmar, the leading Yugoslav Grandmaster, andBreyerhimself, followed by equalfirst at Budapest,then firstagain at Rotterdam in 1919.
Rti had intended to complete his doctorate in mathematics at the University of Vienna and he carried his doctoral thesis around with him in a small booklet which, however,helost and never recovered.Hisabsent mindedness was to become legendary: wherever his yellow briefcase was to be found,Rtiwas sure to be somewhere else. The loss of his mathematical notes apparently drove him near to suicide, as he later confided to his older brother Rudolph.Then destiny intervened, andRtireceived an invitation to the Netherlands, as Chess Master in Residence. He accepted, resolving to pursue a chess career instead of becoming an academic.
This was achoice whichhas faced many young devotees of the game, including the maths genius Dr John Nunn, who renounced histenure atOriel College, Oxford, in order to pursue a professional chess career, which was to include victories against the world champions Tal, Petrosian, Karpov and Anand. As for myself,I had to decide between pursuing a doctorate in German literature at Trinity College, Cambridge,ortrying to become a chess Grandmaster. Ultimately the siren summons of Nimzowitsch andRtiovercame my devotion to Goethe and Schiller. RegardingRtisdilemma, Brother Rudolph said, It haunted him throughout his life, and he never found a definite answer to it . Others, such as AdrianHollis, ProfessorNathan Divinsky and JonathanMestel, juggled chess and university life, but ultimately preferred a professional career in the groves of Academe. In the case of Hollis, a kind of inner emigration took place, when he replaced the hurly burly of over the board combat, with the complexities of chess by correspondence, in which craft he rose to become a correspondence Grandmaster.
WithRti, mathematicss loss was chesss gain, as more successes followed during 1920:first at Amsterdam ahead of leading GrandmastersGeza Maroczyand Xavier Tartakower, not to mention future World Champion Max Euwe. Firstat Vienna ahead ofBreyer,Grnfeldand Tartakower, and most impressive of all,first prize at thegreat tournament of Gothenburg, Sweden, an event that includedmost of Europes most prominentplayers.
As I have explained in previous columns, a 1 in the table indicates a win, a draw and 0 a loss. This was, indeed, a result worthy of a potential world champion.
Then came a pause in Rtischess playing career. He had become involved in the occupation of writing about chess. Starting off as a newspaper columnist,he was, in the wordsof HarryGolombek, to become a great and vital writer on the game . It was the writings of a certain German incompetent, FranzGutmayer,that provokedhim to react, refute and write his masterpiece DieNeuen IdeenimSchachspiel , Vienna 1922, which appeared under the title Modern Ideas in Chess , London/New York 1923. For the first time in the history of books on chess a writer capable of a genuine historical surveyof the evolution of chess ideas, and also of a colourful and poetic picture ofthe state of contemporary chess, had made his appearance.
Returning to the active playing of the game, he now participated in practically all the great tournaments of the 1920s. In the great New York event of 1924 he won the brilliancy prize for a celebrated win overBogoljubovand inflicted upon Capablanca his only defeat of the tournament astonishingly, the world champions only loss in eight years.
During a prolonged visit to South America,Rti exhibited a remarkable side to his skills, establishing a new world blindfold simultaneous record at So Paulo in Brazil, where he played 29 games with a score of 20 wins, seven drawsand just two losses, without being able to see any of the boards or pieces. Chess had come a long way since Diderot, over a century beforehand, had warned the Immortal Philidor against taking on three opponents at once, without sight of the games, lest the stress cause his brain to explode .
By 1927 Rtiwas coming back into true grandmaster form.Then, returning to Prague, he prepared for publicationhis second great book: Masters of the Chessboard , but tragically, he never managed to complete it. He was taken ill with scarlet fever and died at theage of 40 in a Prague hospitalin 1929. This premature death was a disaster for the chess-world, but, once again, in the hallowed opinion of Harry Golombek, it should be stated that, had he written only Modern Ideas in Chess , he would still have belonged to the chess Immortals.
Dada, Surrealism and Hypermodernism in chess: these movements might have seemed the epitome of illogic to the classically minded denizens of the bastionsof traditionalism, but all three tendencies indicated evidence in their own fields of what Sigmund Freud had,somewhat belatedly, describedas DasUnbehagenin derKultur ( Civilisation and its discontents ) . Inchesswe now, once again, see similar signs, of tremors on the chessboard,indicative of wider disturbingimplications. For example, the ostensibly ridiculous BongcloudOpening (1.e4e5 2.Ke2) and similarly weird offshoots are being given credence at the highest echelons, having been employed by such exalted figures asthe present World Champion,MagnusCarlsen,and his rivalHikaruNakamura, and claiming such illustrious victims asthe current world number six, Wesley So .
Meanwhile, the exploits of that erratic British genius, MichaelBasman, who has defeated not only John Nunn, with theeccentric 1.g4 but also World Title Candidate, JonSpeelman, with the even more eccentric 1.e4 g5, have been categorised and lauded by Gerard Welling in a new book U Cannot be Serious! Avant-Garde Strategy in Chess .
Does the intellectual weathervane, represented by chess, once again reflect a general retreat from reason and rationality in world affairs? Among such I might mentionan hystericaldrive to combat climate change, when wildfires (widely identified as the symptom) could alternatively be attributed to arson;abandonment of Lithium-rich Afghanistan, when Lithium is essential to power thoseselfsame green batteries, which are so necessary in the fight to quell the terrors of climate change; assaults on western culture and its traditions, by the very citizenswhich that culture is designed to protect. Additionally, in the canon of illogic one observes eccentric decisions concerning gender in the world of competitive sport, not to mention support from the most unlikely of quarters for political regimes who, to put it mildly, do not tolerate same sex relationships. Let us also not forget the raging of Greta Thunberg, and herextinctionrebellioncohorts, against the UK, for our climate change failings, contrasted with the activists collective, and almost complete, absence of public vitriol against demonstrably worse offenders.
In an impassioned perorationin abroadcast by Neil Oliver on GB News (21 August 2021),the Sage of Stirling pointed out that we in the UK live in a privileged time and place, a liberal democracy, rare both in human history and current human geography. He emphasised that preoccupation with tearing down statues, gender identity and pronouns could be a fatal distraction, about as relevant as the concern of the Roman Emperor for his chickens, while Rome was falling on24th Augustto Alaric King of the Goths in 410 AD. Oliver added that gender identity and pronouns are probably not high on the list of priorities of The Taliban, and other similarly unpleasant regimes, whose general policies are entirely inimical to our interests.
Chess, in its own modest way, may be indicative of thegreater dangers: small symptoms, with farwider implications. Thomas Manns Death in Venice (1912, sometimes described as the most important novel of the twentieth century) brilliantly exposes in microcosm, those very ante-Bellum discontents which engaged the Dadaists and which Sigmund Freud eventually caught up with and delineated in his Unbehagen (1929).In my opinion, the English parallel to Manns masterpiece is Sir Arthur Conan Doyles ThePoison Belt , 1913, the original cover of which depicts the hero, Professor George Challenger, as the spitting image of World Chess Champion Wilhelm Steinitz, whom I am convinced that Sir Arthur encountered during dinners at Simpsons-in-the-Strand.
Toquote Miltons Paradise Lost , Book II, tocompare great things with small ,Sir Arthur adducesa blurring of the( sic) FrauenhoferLines in the spectrum, as a portent of something far more hazardous. The fictitious Professor Challenger writes: I have read with amusement, not wholly unmixed with some less complimentary emotion, the complacent and wholly fatuous letter ofProfessor XXXwhich has lately appeared in the columnsof The Times ,upon the subjectof the blurring ofFrauenhoferslines in the spectra ,both of the planets and of the fixed stars.He dismisses the matter as of no significance. To a wider intelligence it may well seem of very great possible importance- so great as to involve the ultimate welfare of every man, woman and child upon this planet.
And as for ProfessorChallengerslitmus test of theFrauenhoferLines, in my Lexicon, read: chess openings!Perhaps the solution, in a bewildering ocean of global contradiction and apparent irrationality, is to cultivate ones own garden and derive solace from thePanglossianlyself assured words of that arch classicist, Alexander Pope:
All nature is but art, unknown to thee;
All chance, directionwhichthou canst not see;
All discord, harmony not understood;
All partial evil, universal good.
And spite of pride, in erring reasons spite,
One truth is clear, whateveris,is right.
Pope, Essay on Man 1733
This weeks chess games involve classics from RichardRti.
Thefirst is whenRtiwon thebrilliancy prize game from the great tournament at New York 1924 againstEfimBogoljubov.
The second :RichardRtivsFrederick Dewhurst Yates 1924, is an amazingRetisystem win deploying extreme flank pressure against Blacks centre pawns.
Thethird , also in 1924, was thesensational win which brokeJosCapablancasrun of eight years without loss.
And, finally, the fourth isan early gamein 1923against a great classicist,AkibaRubinstein,usingRtisnew methods.
And the best book on Rti , distinguished not just by Rtissuperlatively creative games, but also by Grandmaster Emeritus HarryGolombeks elegantprose annotations.
Ray Keenes latest book is Chess for Absolute Beginners , written in conjunction with artist Barry Martin who masterminded the revolutionary teaching diagrams.
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Dada, Surrealism and the Bongcloud Attack - TheArticle