Science Fiction and Chess, Again

Source: see below

The above is the opening of "the Chessmen," a short story by William G. Shepherd. It was published in The Best of Omni Science Fiction vol. 2 (1981), with the painting by Rene Magritte. 

It is a story of a special set of chessmen where a set of chessmen - Soviet-style, with workers vs. capitalists - take on (in effect) a life of their own so that the capitalists always win, no matter what the skill of the players, with interesting results. 

The Old Tropes Again

Bobby Fischer in 1962 (credit: Wikipedia)

Edward Winter had noted, for example, in his 'once' article, many cases of unsubstantiated chess stories and rumors. A common target for these rumors is Bobby Fischer. His notorious behavior and, later in life, apparent insanity, made him a common target. 

The following web page, for example, has both suggestions that Fischer's antisemitism was due to his discovery that his presumed father, Hans-Gerhart Fischer, who divorced his mother and abandoned the family, was Jewish. (It is now known that Fischer's biological father was probably Paul Nemenyi. Nemenyi was also Jewish but he took interest in Fischer and helped his mother financially.) This is done without any evidence, apparently on general "Freudian" grounds. 

To add to this, the web page also repeats the story about Bernstein facing being rescued at the last minute from execution after playing a game of chess for his life against the officer in charge, a story that is also doubtful.

This would be understandable if the web page in question was that of a private person or a hobbyist, but the web page belongs to no less than the Museum of the Jewish People, perhaps the most important museum for Jewish history in the world.

Chess Book Covers, Redux

Credit: see here.

We discussed art and chess in Science Fiction before, for example here, but here is an interesting example of a futurist non-fiction chess theme. The work is by the well-known computer technology artist Robert Tinney, best known for his cover art for Byte magazine. This cover is from October 1978. 

Chess, the Musical

 

Image credit: CHESS | Official Broadway Site

Chess - the musical - is enjoying a revival on Broadway right now. Reviews seem mixed. The New Criterion's review (February 2026, by Karl Smith) notes that "its story has always been a clunker despite many attempts at reworking it over the past forty years. And yet it continues to thrive because of its many top-notch songs." Certainly the songs, as Edward Winter notes in his review, are the high point.  

Smith considers the lyrics themselves "flat" because the story is a clunker, but "Ulvaeus and Andersson exhibited a thrilling breadth, saluting Italian opera in “Merano” and devising the appropriately soaring and well-titled “Anthem.”" 

Not knowing much about chess history, Smith misses much of the subtlety of the lyrics, with their many ironic references to chess history, fables about its origin, famous players, and so on. But while such knowledge is necessary for fully appreciating the songs, the lyrics are not obscure or insulting - or "flat" - to the general audience. Rice, after all, was not writing the musical for the exclusive enjoyment of chess historians! 

Smith's bottom line? "In an era when most Broadway shows fail to deliver even one memorable number, Chess offers easily half a dozen. Intermingled with the soggy drama is an enthralling concert." Agreed about the memorable songs; as for the "soggy drama," I quote Winter again for the defense: Chess is "no less ‘fun’ than earlier musicals about such rib-tickling subjects as Argentine dictators and crucifixions." 

Perhaps it's significant that it is just these two musicals (Evita and Jesus Christ Superstar) that Smith compares to Chess in his review. He thinks that in all three the plot is a mere excuse for the musical numbers. But even if they are, all three also deserve their success for their memorable songs alone. 

Unexpected Discoveries

 

Aron Nimzowitsch. Credit: Wikipedia.

Sometimes chess discoveries just happen. A close relative (who shall remain nameless for privacy reasons) regularly visits an old woman (ditto) every second weekend. The old woman keeps speaking about how she had a "famous chess player" in her family. 

Since "famous" and "chess player" are very relative terms - especially when, as in this case, the old woman is from Eastern Europe - I paid no particular attention but asked the relative to ask on her next visit, just in case. 

The relative sent me a message the other day. "He was her grandmother's brother. He had a weird name... something like 'Nimzowitsch'?! Does that mean anything to you?" The relative also mentioned the old women showed her a book the player wrote, in case that helps me out. 

The Second(?) Jewish Chess Periodical

Source and details: see below

Our correspondent, Terje Kristiansen, notes that the latest (February 2025) 64 has a very interesting article about a discovery by Ilya Pechenin: "Unfinished Opening: The First Chess Newspaper in Yiddish." (pp. 86-89). The front page of the first issue is reproduced above, taken from p. 86. 

This seems to be indeed an important discovery. Keats' Chess in Jewish History and Hebrew Literature ends in 1840, and the first newspaper column (as opposed to magazine) in Hebrew, to our knowledge, is from 1888, and this magazine is not that long afterwards. However, as it is from 1913 (as Pechenin notes) another Yiddish-language magazine - which only lasted one issue - must take the prize. 

It was published in New York in 1906, and was published by Charles Jaffe, as discovered a while ago by our frequent correspondent, Moshe Roytman. The details can be found at the end of Edward Winter's feature article about Jaffe, or in Chess Notes #11875. 

More on Chess Caricatures in Israel

Our frequent correspondent, Philip Jurgens, had pointed out a few mistakes in our previous post about caricatures. We use this post to thank him, and to note a few more points about chess and caricatures in Israel. 

Unsurprisingly, in Israel, a country in a constant state of political and military turmoil, caricatures about chess deal almost exclusively with political or military issues, where the players are politicians, generals, or figures representing Israel or other nations. 

For example, from Ha'aretz, we have the following caricature (by Amos Biderman) illustrating an article by Yossi Klein (28 May, 2025) about Netanyahu's political dilemma with the IDF generals (the piece he is holding) and his right-wing coalition partner, Itamar Ben Gvir (on the board):

Or, here, a caricature of a "simultaneous game" by Shlomo Cohen (1 February 2024) for Israel Ha'yom, with Netanyahu playing both against Hamas and Ben-Gvir: 

Shlomo Cohen, incidentally, is apparently a chess player, as the chess motif is often seen in his caricatures. For example, one caricature has Netanyahu as the king and everybody else as a pawn in the Likud conference (Netanyahu's party); another has Trump starting a simultaneous game with the middle east leaders - with the boards set up correctly, the single player playing white, and both the board's orientation and the pieces being set up correctly...

Dr. Moritz Lewitt

 

Source: Weiner Shachzeitung, December 1907, p. 409

Our frequent correspondent Herbert Halsegger notifies us of his research finding about the Jewish player and composer Dr. Moritz Lewitt (link in German). His best rating was 2427 (Berlin, 1891). This rating would not be that high today, but, as Edward Winter notes in his (devastating) review of Warriors of the Mind, ratings favor the moderns, and in any case comparison between generations is at unreliable. At any rate he was strong enough to co-author a book with (fellow Jew) Mieses.

To all this Mr. Halsegger also adds the picture above, where Lewitt (no. 2) is standing next to the young Spielmann (no. 4). He was not a player in the tournament in question (the Jubilee tournament of the Berlin Chess Association) but, as the caption to the photo notes, as the chairman of the association. 

Yemenite Metalwork Set

 

Our frequent correspondent Terje Kristiansen had sent us photos of the following interesting chess set. It is, to the best of his collecting friend's knowledge, an example of Jewish Yemenite sculpturing in metal wire. They ask why the king and queen seem identical. 

It seems likely that the answer is one of two: either the set is for decoration so the exact replication of distinct pieces was less important, or the artist, presumably a Yemenite Jew from Israel and therefore likely an observant Jew, didn't want to sculpture the traditional cross on top of the king. 

Edited to add: as Mr. Ole Drønen, the collector, and others noted in a correction to me, one can in fact tell the difference between the king and the queen, and the cross has little to do with it. It is simply a French Régence set, which has no cross on the king. Dronen then adds:

Here are two pictures that maybe show the difference between the king and the queen better. The piece to the left is the king... There are many other variants of the style, and they were made in many countries in Europe and for a very long time...But Régence pieces became much less common when Staunton pieces became the international standard in 1924. 

The style was also used in other parts of the world for a long time, especially in French influenced areas. Kings with a cross is primarily connected to Staunton sets. Also other styles could have a king with a cross, but most other European and English styles normally featured kings without a cross.

We thank Dronen for the additional information and the correction.