Marcel Duchamp was obsessed with chess. He turned to this fascinating, intellectual game after giving painting up. The artist attempted to distance himself as much as possible from what he referred to as retinal art, and chess appeared to be an excellent means of reconciling his principles. After all, the aesthetics of chess lie in the thinking behind the moves.
Which One’s the Winner for Marcel Duchamp: Chess or Art?
To say that Marcel Duchamp saw chess as simply a hobby would be wrong. Some art critics think that chess was even more important than art to Duchamp. The two appealed to his mind in very different ways. Either way, Marcel Duchamp seemed to have approached chess from a more professional perspective than art, at least in terms of creating art. According to him, he only immersed himself in a creative process if there was a new idea.
Although Duchamp was always committed to the French and American art world—he helped organize exhibitions and supported his friends—but he spent much of his time without focusing on making any new artworks. Chess, on the other hand, was always a part of his life. Even when Duchamp was working on new pieces of art, he turned to chess in between. The famous artist read about it, played correspondence chess, and attended tournaments.
The Beginnings of Marcel Duchamp’s Passion for Chess
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Sign up to our Free Weekly NewsletterMarcel Duchamp learned how to play chess from his brothers. In fact, all three were quite passionate about the game and would spend their weekends playing together. However, Duchamp was preoccupied with his art at the time. He was trying to establish his way of navigating through the art world of Paris. The young artist was moving from one style to another trying to find his voice.
Although Duchamp was only playing chess for pleasure back then, he still found a way to reconcile his two passions by depicting chess games in his paintings. In 1910, Duchamp painted The Chess Game, a large work portraying his two brothers playing chess with their wives in the foreground. A year later, he switched to a completely different artistic style and created Portrait of Chess Players. The painting again shows his brothers playing chess.
Portrait of Chess Players wasn’t unique only in terms of style. This time, Duchamp painted several profiles from different angles using a Cubist palette of colors. In between the profiles, viewers notice chess pieces that represent the mental projections of the game. The idea behind this painting was very different from that of the first one showing his brothers playing chess. The work aimed to convey the process of thinking while playing chess. It marked the beginning of Duchamp’s detachment from retinal art.
New York and Buenos Aires
Duchamp’s passion for chess intensified when he moved to New York. By that time, he had already given up on painting and started working on his famous work The Large Glass. At the Arensberg Circle, he met other chess players, some of whom played in professional tournaments. They played chess almost every night, and Duchamp was becoming proficient at it.
In Buenos Aires, things became even more serious, even though Duchamp did not have anyone to play with. However, this wasn’t a problem because he turned to chess literature. He spent all his time studying other champions’ games—particularly Capablanca’s games. Allegedly, while in Buenos Aires, Duchamp created a three-dimensional chess set of wood. He designed the pieces himself, except for the Knights, which were carved by a craftsman. However, Larry List studied the set carefully and concluded that it may have actually been the other way around. Either way, Duchamp was quickly becoming obsessed with chess. Calvin Tomkin states in Duchamp: A Biography that Yvonne Chastel, who traveled to Buenos Aires with the young chess player, got tired of his obsession, packed her bags, and returned to France, leaving the passionate player by himself.
Marshall Chess Club and Duchamp’s Aspirations
After returning to New York, Duchamp became involved in various artistic activities, including the making of a three-dimensional film with Man Ray. Nonetheless, nothing interested him as much as chess did. He joined the Marshall Chess Club, which was formed in 1915 and is now among America’s oldest chess clubs. He played chess at the club almost every night, usually until three in the morning. He even played against Frank Marshall, the founder of the chess club and a U.S. chess champion, and won two games.
Marcel Duchamp wrote the following words to Jean Crottihis, his brother-in-law, around the time he joined the Marshall Club: “As for chess? Great, Great! I played a lot in simultaneous matches that Marshall held, playing on 12 boards at a time. And I won my match 2 times. […] Naturally this is the part of my life that I enjoy the most. […] I am about to launch on the market a new form of chess sets. […] They will be made out of cast plaster mixed with glue, which will make them as sturdy as wooden pieces.”
Once again, Marcel Duchamp found a way to mix his two greatest pleasures—art and chess. His chess set was meant to have a unique design and color coding. The colors would serve as visual reminders of each piece’s strategic power. Duchamp believed that playing with a chromatic set would be much different than playing with black-and-white pieces.
However, it doesn’t seem that Duchamp set this idea in motion—at least, he did not sell any chess sets. There is a possibility that he may have had one set, which Roché, Duchamp’s lifelong friend in New York, might have seen. Despite this, the set has never been found.
Building a Path Toward Professional Chess
At one point, Marcel Duchamp decided he wanted to become a professional chess player. He spent some time in Brussels, playing, for the first time, a serious chess tournament against some of the best local players. He then played in Rouen at the Cercle Rouennais des Échecs. He was also part of the Nice team playing on the Riviera. In 1924, he played chess with Man Ray in Entr’acte, a short film directed by René Clair. A year later, he designed the poster for the Third French Chess Championship. That same year, the French Chess Federation declared him a Chess Master. His career as a chess player peaked during the 1930 international tournament in Paris when he played against some of the world’s best players, including Xavier Tartakower.
Duchamp’s first wife, Lydie, did not seem to object to her husband’s passion for chess. One evening, though, when Marcel’s obsession exceeded her patience, she glued his chess pieces to the board. After this, apparently, Duchamp blamed his wife for his mediocre performance because he was too preoccupied with their relationship.
Daring in Art, Cautious in Chess
Although you may expect this innovative artist to be just as innovative, experimental, and daring in chess, Duchamp was nothing of the sort. On the contrary, he stuck to well-established strategies and was highly cautious. This might have been his way of pleasing that part of himself preoccupied with logic and mathematical precision.
After an interview with Duchamp, Le Lionnais stated: “I don’t see this Dada aspect in Duchamp’s style… Duchamp applied absolutely classic principles, he was strong on theory—he’d studied chess theory in books. He was very conformist, which is an excellent way of playing. In chess, conformism is much better than anarchy unless you are a Nimzowitsch, a genius.”
Only when he started playing for his own pleasure, without joining the tournaments, did Duchamp let himself play more freely. In the early 1930s, the artist found another way to express his love for chess. He started working on a chess book alongside the chess theorist Vitaly Halberstadt. The book was published in 1932 with the title Opposition and Sister Squares Are Reconciled. Marcel Duchamp played his last Olympiad in 1933, representing France in Folkestone Chess Olympics. By that time, he had already given up on tournaments and the idea of becoming a professional chess player. Instead, he became the captain of the French team in the First Correspondence Olympics and started writing chess columns for a magazine.
Reunion: Marcel Duchamp’s Last Performance
The famous American composer John Cage and Marcel Duchamp met in the 1940s. However, it wasn’t until the 1960s that the two got closer. When Duchamp’s health worsened, Cage sought his company, asking the grand master to teach him how to play chess. Therefore, chess was the reason why John Cage became a constant presence during Duchamp’s last three years of life.
In 1968, Cage invited Duchamp to play chess on stage. Duchamp’s wife, Teeny, accompanied them during a musical performance in which they had to engage in a game of chess. But that wasn’t a usual chess game! The chess board was wired, so every move they made activated various sounds. The performance was called Reunion. The chess game was won by John Cage, marking their last game together. Marcel Duchamp died later that year.
