Historical chess photographs (caption competition)
Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2026 8:56 pm
Well, not really. But these two photographs I found are both lively in their own ways and worthy of humorous captions.
(1) Open air chess on Clapham Common (possibly 1930s)
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/ne ... /646319984
Makes you wonder what has happened to all the chess tables installed around the country? (Or maybe not.) Would you get such a charming picture these days, and a cross-section of society? From the young kid sporting a tie (school uniform?) to the older kid at left (blazer and cap, eating some food) and looking at the camera? And the women, girls and boys among those looking on (all the working-age men presumably working).
(2) German open-air chess in Berlin (1970s)
https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/ne ... /957278246
The three kids in the background really don't want to be there. Chess Fest in the Square this is not. But there seems to be an existential struggle in progress between the corporate suited man and the more informal vest-attired player he is facing. The abstract modernism of the chess pieces is surely not coincidental (it is not quite a Berliner modernist chess set, but getting close). And in all seriousness, apparently open-air chess spaces were installed across Berlin and other similar cities in this period as a conscious effort by urban planners (so this one really is the counterpoint to today's UK chess tables - this one is in Volkspark Berlin-Friedrichshain). Clearly the UK open-air chess tables should have had modernist chess sets.
(1) Open air chess on Clapham Common (possibly 1930s)
- gettyimages-646319984-1024x1024.jpg (145.72 KiB) Viewed 486 times
Makes you wonder what has happened to all the chess tables installed around the country? (Or maybe not.) Would you get such a charming picture these days, and a cross-section of society? From the young kid sporting a tie (school uniform?) to the older kid at left (blazer and cap, eating some food) and looking at the camera? And the women, girls and boys among those looking on (all the working-age men presumably working).
(2) German open-air chess in Berlin (1970s)
- gettyimages-957278246-1024x1024.jpg (129.21 KiB) Viewed 486 times
The three kids in the background really don't want to be there. Chess Fest in the Square this is not. But there seems to be an existential struggle in progress between the corporate suited man and the more informal vest-attired player he is facing. The abstract modernism of the chess pieces is surely not coincidental (it is not quite a Berliner modernist chess set, but getting close). And in all seriousness, apparently open-air chess spaces were installed across Berlin and other similar cities in this period as a conscious effort by urban planners (so this one really is the counterpoint to today's UK chess tables - this one is in Volkspark Berlin-Friedrichshain). Clearly the UK open-air chess tables should have had modernist chess sets.