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Chess and music has been a favored recreation for centuries by many researchers and artists, especially musicians. The following are individuals who were known both as chess players and musicians in their life:
The Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev was a very good chess player in his youth. He drew with Emanuel Lasker in a 1909 exhibition in which Lasker was playing against several opponents simultaneously. Later, in 1914, he played in three of Jose Raul Capablanca's simultaneous exhibitions, given in St. Petersburg, Russia. Prokofiev lost in his first two attempts, but in his third try, on May 16, 1914, he managed to beat Capablanca during a simultaneous exhibition given by the latter. Prokofiev played at least one other time against Capablanca, in a simultaneous exhibition given by Capablanca at the Manhattan Chess Club in New York on February 23, 1922. Prokofiev lost.
The chess genius Paul Morphy was extremely fond of music, and while he was not a composer, was said to have the ability to memorise any piece of music after hearing it a single time. He had the same ability with chess games, being able to recall games after seeing them once.
There have also been a number of pieces directly insprired or otherwise featuring chess. One example is Arthur Bliss's ballet Checkmate. Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus of ABBA fame collaborated with Tim Rice on a musical Chess.
Chess and music are also two of the fields in which true child prodigies are most known.
References
- Capablanca - A Compendium of Games, Notes, Articles, Correspondence, Illustrations and Other Rare Archived Materials on the Cuban Chess Genius Jose Raul Capablanca, 1888-1942 by Edward Winter. McFarland 1989
External links
Further reading
Bill Martin discusses chess and music, as well as Go, in his book Avant Rock: Experimental Music from the Beatles to Bjork (2002), ISBN 0812695003.
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