More Chess Book Covers -- Hebrew Language Edition

Image Credit: here.

This time, a book from a rather well known veteran Israeli writer, Eli Netzer, who wrote many books and won several literary prizes. One of his books, Mot Ha'Kanarit (The Death of the Canary), a collection of stories, was published with a chess-themed cover (above). While the cover is hardly meant to be a realistic representation of a chess game, it should be seen that it, too, has the 'dark square in the lower right corner' disease. Then again, perhaps the rules are different for a 4x4 board.

Chess in High Places

Photo credit: A. P.

Above is a photograph of the De Haar Castle in the Netherlands. On a recent tour there I have found out -- unsurprisingly -- that the owners had had, in (one of) their living rooms, a nice chess set:

Photo credit: A.P. 

The set is arrange in the array, and, for once, with the right bottom square being white.

Hans Frank and Chess (and the Black-Square-in-Right-Corner Mafia)

Credit: Ullstein Photo, from The Trials of the Germans, by Eugene Davidson, p. XXXV in the photo section.

In Chess Notes #5533 and the article Hans Frank and Chess, the indefatigable Edward Winter gives this photograph of Hans Frank in 1940, playing chess as governor of Poland, but in a much lower quality photo, presumably taken from a contemporary magazine. He notes that Olimpiu Urcan referred him to a web site which has that photo in a higher resolution. The web site in question seems to have been taken offline, so I am submitting here a higher-quality photograph of Frank playing chess.

And, yes, in the book where I found the photograph, the picture is -- as is so often -- reversed (unless one is to believe Hans Frank was both left-handed and set up the board incorrectly). Interestingly, in a different picture given by Winter in the same article, taken in 1941, Alekhine and Frank seem to be using the same chess set he uses here.

My Trip to Paris

Photo Credit: www.chessbase.com 

There is something about Paris that brings out the proverbial rustic in all of us. One close relative came back from Paris very impressed from the (as the relative pronounced it) "tomb-es l-es invalid-es". Another close relative and I -- with whom I was walking in Paris on a rainy Tuesday this week -- stumbled upon what he later called "a small place off the guidebooks" -- the Montparnasse cemetery. As for myself, I found out that my ability to translate, say, Poincare (as I had to during my studies) did in fact allow me to read the newspaper, road signs, Metro instructions, menus, etc. -- but as for speaking, the French might as well have been talking to me in High Martian, for all I understood. Everybody should just speak a normal language like English that people can understand, that's what I say.

Well, in the Montparnasse cemetery, I had insisted on visiting Alekhine's grave. To my astonishment, the board on the gravestone was -- you guessed it -- rotated 90 degrees, with a black square on the lower right corner. How could such a thing happen on the grave of the world's chess champion? The solution is simple: as chessbase notes, the grave today is a restoration, with both the marble image and the board renewed after being damaged in a hurricane in 1999. It was then, not when the tombstone was originally erected in 1956, that the screw-up occurred. It would have been indeed astonishing for FIDE in 1956 to set up a chess board wrongly on Alekhine's grave, quite another for a restorer to do so 43 years later.

To my mind, the originals were far better, not only because the board was in the right orientation, but because the marble image of Alekhine on the grave was superior.

Chess and Art, the Continuing Story

Occasionally, I post here about chess in art -- or art in chess. Another example is a contemporary Israeli painter, Boris Dubrov. Below are two pictures from the "Judaica" section of his web site -- "The Chess Game" (top) and "Shah" (bottom). The positions on the boards make sense, as does the design of the chess pieces, and what's more, the bottom right square is white -- which makes one think Mr. Dubrov might be a chess player himself.

King-on-Wrong-Square Mafia

Perhaps you've heard of an obscure corporation named "google". Well, here is how its "crystal chess board" theme looks.

Incorrect Array Mafia Strikes Again

My photo of a board found in a store's display window. How many mistakes can you spot? (Click on the image for a larger view).

From the "Chess for Yuppies" File

What's wrong with this picture? (Photo: A. P.)

 Chess is seen, sometimes, as not so much a game but a status symbol -- something that intelligent and/or successful and/or rich people engage in to show their superior mind. Many people own a chess set without knowing how to play -- simply as a mark of culture.

The above (found in one of those god-awful "gifts for men" store, with overpriced made-in-China "exclusive" junk) is the result. Oy.

From the "King on its Own Color" Mafia

Yet another picture -- this time, from a doctor's office -- where the white king is on its own color. (At least the board itself is set up correctly, with a white square in the near right corner).

Non-players typically assume that the king, being the tallest and most important piece, should go on the same color square as it (he?) is.

The "Black Square in Lower Right Corner" Mafia Strikes Again

Okay, so the image above shows a chess board with a dark square in the lower right corner. This in itself is not too remarkable, of course. It is, however, a bit more remarkable when the image in question is on the cover of the Israeli Chess Association's Official Magazine. (Feb. 2008 issue.)

Perhaps the whole thing is an inside joke: the issue is coming out during purim, a holiday when one is supposed to dress in silly costumes. The cover shows children dressed up in such chess-related (imaginary) costumes; perhaps the dark square in the lower right corner is deliberately to add to the silliness.

More likely, however, is that the artist commissioned to draw the cover doesn't play chess.

From the "Black Square in the Lower Right Corner" Mafia

Chigorin playing Steinitz, probably in one of their world championship matches (1889 or 1892). From Tomi Lapid's house. Photo: A.P.

Another man who loved both chess and art was the late Tomi Lapid, in whose house this photo was taken. If any reader can recognize the (barely decipherable) position, or what specific game the scene below it is describing, I would appreciate it. It is possibly based on a photograph taken during one of their games -- probably one of their world championship matches, though possibly from one of the tournaments in which both participated. But it might be an imaginary scene.

Note how, despite the fact that the artist obviously knows quite a bit about chess, he painted the board with the lower right hand corner being dark. In this particular case it is surely artistic license, not ignorance (after all, most chess boards don't have gold-plated squares, either) but it goes to prove Tim Krabbe's conjecture that "people think it looks better that way".