Samuel Beckett and chess

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I recently found some references in a biography of Samuel Beckett on how he was a very keen chess player, with some interesting snippets here and there, including encounters with some well-known chess players. While looking for more on this, I found this excellent article on Duchamp and Beckett and chess:

https://www.toutfait.com/opposition-and ... l-beckett/

'Opposition and Sister Squares: Marcel Duchamp and Samuel Beckett'
by Andrew Hugill, Bath Spa University (2013, updated 2016)

Well worth a read!

In a similar vein:

https://journals.openedition.org/caliban/152

'Beckett, Duchamp and Chess: A Crossroads at Arcachon in the Summer of 1940' by Harry Vandervlist (2013).

And another article from an academic journal:

https://doi.org/10.1111/criq.12018

'Playing on: chess and its metaphors in the life and work of Samuel Beckett' by Derek Alsop (2013)

And (a bit less literary) a bit here on the chess books that Beckett had in his library:

https://www.kingpinchess.net/2019/04/sa ... s-library/

What I found most interesting is that Beckett spent lots of time playing games against himself. Maybe only a certain type of person/chess player does that, though to be fair it is also described as playing through instructive games by others:

He also studied the chess columns regularly in Le Monde and spent hours playing chess against himself, re-enacting some of the famous games described in the Best Games of [...]

[John McKenna]

"He likes to play chess against himself, but he's getting sick of the Kasparov opening." (Louis Theroux speaking about his 5 y.o. son, Walter, to Chris O'Dowd in one of a series of interviews for Radio 4, last night, 12th Sept. at 22:15. Louis is the son of the writer Paul Theroux.)

Samuel Beckett's novel Murphy is set in West Brompton, London, in the year 1935 on Thursday 12th Sept.

In Ch. 11 there's a chess game that the reader is encouraged to play through with board and pieces at that point in the narrative.

(Coincidentally, in the world of non-fiction that same day, September 12th 1935, in a simultaneous exhibition in Riga, Latvia, Alekhine scored +9=16-15.)

[John McKenna]

The fictitious game -

[Event "Magdalen Mental Mercyseat"] [Site "?"] [Date "1935.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Murphy"] [Black "Endon"] [Result "*"] [PlyCount "86"] 1.e4 Nh6 2.Nh3 Rg8 3.Rg1 Nc6 4.Nc3 Ne5 5.Nd5 Rh8 6.Rh1 Nc6 7.Nc3 Ng8 8.Nb1 Nb8 9.Ng1 e6 10.f3 Ne7 11.Ne2 Ng6 12.g4 Be7 13.Ng3 d6 14.Be2 Qd7 15.d3 Kd8 16.Qd2 Qe8 17.Kd1 Nd7 18.Nc3 Rb8 19.Rb1 Nb6 20.Na4 Bd7 21.b3 Rg8 22.Rg1 Kc8 23.Bb2 Qf8 24.Kc1 Be8 25.Bc3 Nh8 26.b4 Bd8 27.Qh6 Na8 28.Qf6 Ng6 29.Be5 Be7 30.Nc5 Kd8 31.Nh1 Bd7 32.Kb2 Rh8 33.Kb3 Bc8 34.Ka4 Qe8+ 35.Ka5 Nb6 36.Bf4 Nd7 37.Qc3 Ra8 38.Na6 Bf8 39.Kb5 Ne7 40.Ka5 Nb8 41.Qc6 Ng8 42.Kb5 Ke7 43.Ka5 Kd8 *

The game ends when White 'retires'.

An article about this topic -

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/201 ... -influence

The following game is the closest to Murphy-Endon that I could find -

[Event "World Schools U-9 Ch."] [Site "?"] [Date "2014.11.28"] [Round "3"] [White "Henri"] [Black "Sam"] [Result "*"] [PlyCount "74"] 1.e4 Nh6 2.Nh3 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.Be2 d6 5.O-O Bd7 6.Bb5 Ng4 7.Re1 Bb5 8.Nb5 a6 9.Nc3 Nd7 10.e5 de5 11.Re5 Nge5 12.Nf4 c6 13.Nh5 Rg8 14.d4 Ng6 15.Bf4 b6 16.Qc1 c5 17.dc5 bc5 18.Qd1 Nf4 19.Nf4 Qc7 20.Qc1 e5 21.Nfe2 Nb6 22.Ng3 h6 23.Qd2 Bg5 24.Qe2 Qe7 25.Nf5 Qa7 26.Rd1 Nc4 27.Qe5+ Kf8 28.Rd6 Rh8 29.Ng7 Kg8 30.Re6 Qb8 31.Re8 Qe8 32.Ne8 Kf8 33.Nd5 Re8 34.Nc7 Rc8 35.Ne6+ Kg8 36.Qg5+ hg5 37.Ng5 Nb2 {0-1}

[SeanCoffey]

Some information on Beckett as a player can be found at https://www.irlchess.com/2014/02/12/sam ... trong-cup/, http://www.irlchess.com/2015/05/27/samu ... ett-contd/, and http://www.irlchess.com/2015/05/30/samu ... e-removed/ on the IRLchess site.

Are any of his games available? I don't know of any.

[John McKenna]

Thanks, Sean.

I suspect any games will be hard to come by.

Some more details -

https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/ah- ... s-endgame/

His chess playing in France during WWII was probably just of the casual kind.

[Matt Mackenzie]

The following game is the closest to Murphy-Endon that I could find -

[Event "World Schools U-9 Ch."] [Site "?"] [Date "2014.11.28"] [Round "3"] [White "Henri"] [Black "Sam"] [Result "*"] [PlyCount "74"] 1.e4 Nh6 2.Nh3 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.Be2 d6 5.O-O Bd7 6.Bb5 Ng4 7.Re1 Bb5 8.Nb5 a6 9.Nc3 Nd7 10.e5 de5 11.Re5 Nge5 12.Nf4 c6 13.Nh5 Rg8 14.d4 Ng6 15.Bf4 b6 16.Qc1 c5 17.dc5 bc5 18.Qd1 Nf4 19.Nf4 Qc7 20.Qc1 e5 21.Nfe2 Nb6 22.Ng3 h6 23.Qd2 Bg5 24.Qe2 Qe7 25.Nf5 Qa7 26.Rd1 Nc4 27.Qe5+ Kf8 28.Rd6 Rh8 29.Ng7 Kg8 30.Re6 Qb8 31.Re8 Qe8 32.Ne8 Kf8 33.Nd5 Re8 34.Nc7 Rc8 35.Ne6+ Kg8 36.Qg5+ hg5 37.Ng5 Nb2 {0-1}

Has to be said, the "quality" of that is a bit shonky even for an under-9 game

[John McKenna]

Taken as a stand-alone game you are right, Matt.

In juxtaposition to the Murphy-Endon game it has a kind of life of its own - I doubt the players knew what they were doing - and at times it made me laugh at the sheer absurdity of the moves.

A small unintentional nod in the direction of Beckett.