Hulachess Cover and Excerpt July 4, 2009
Posted by Jennifer in : art, chess, feminism , 2 comments.jpg)
Hulachess was just featured on the cover of Chess Life Magazine! Check out an excerpt from the full video, where I played the first ever hulachess match against my childhood friend, professional dancer Gabrielle Revlock. The variations we played were based on a game I analyzed for Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess.
Hulachess excerpt from DIM mak films on Vimeo.
U.S. Chess Scoop June 26, 2009
Posted by Jennifer in : chess , 2 commentsI started a new video blog on Chess Life Online! Here is the third episode.
Click here for the first and here for the second.
U.S. Chess Scoop Episode 3 from DIM mak films on Vimeo.
Brave Iranian Women June 22, 2009
Posted by Jennifer in : chess, feminism, politics , 1 comment so far.jpg)
I had a dream last night that I was in Iran and that I left my building without wearing hijab. I felt terrified that I would be caught so I ran around and found a pair of leggings to cover my hair. The dream reminded me I am lucky to have the right to vote, protest, or to wear whatever sort of nail polish I desire, but as a feminist I am connected to those who don’t have the same privileges.
I am moved by the courage of Iranian women who are protesting at the risk of beatings, and even death.
I wonder about the Iranian women’s chess team and Shadi Paridar, who I profiled in Chess Bitch in the chapter "Checkmate Around the World."
Chess is one of the few sports in which Iranian women can compete abroad… (because) wearing hijab is not an impediment to play. When I ask Shadi if she likes wearing hijab, she bursts into…laugher and makes faces at me….When she finally calms down she says sarcastically, "Oh I just love it. I feel like such a star in this outfit. People look at me and know I am from Iran." Then she raises her eyebrows and informs me, "I am very bad at wearing hijab."
I also wonder about the members of the Iranian team who we hung out with in China (Shadi was not there). The Iranians were very strong in China- the men beat the American men in the bronze medal playoffs for the rapid teams and Atousa Pourkashiyan, rated just over 2200 at the time, went on a rampage to defeat a number of WGMs and IMs. Iranian arbiter, Mehrad Pahlevanzadeh who now lives in United Arab Emirates, literally gave me the vest off his back when I suggested that my father would probably love it as a souvenir from the Mind Sport Games. Mehrad also wrote a very smart article on chessbase.com about how if we want to make chess more popular, it is important to play till checkmate.
I hope that Shadi, Atousa, Elshan etc. are all safe and that the revolution will end in a way that’s positive for the Iranian people. And who knows, maybe the next time we meet the Iranian women’s chess team, they will be wearing different outfits.
Recently, I reviewed Shadi Paridar’s games while mining for material for an upcoming 9queens workbook filled with combinations of top women players. You can read a little more about the workbook here. Here’s a puzzle from one of Shadi’s games. I will publish the answer as a comment to this blog post.
Videos from the U.S. Chess Championship May 13, 2009
Posted by Jennifer in : chess , 2 commentsI’m at the U.S. Chess Championship in Saint Louis, doing commentary and writing Chess Life Online articles. I also chaired the tournament committee and am also co-hosting the following nightly video recaps with Macauley Peterson:
Naked Chess April 16, 2009
Posted by Jennifer in : art, chess, feminism , 17 commentsWith Dim Mak Films, I created the following video, in which I play chess against a naked man.
The video was inspired by contributing to a new book I wrote on Marcel Duchamp and chess (buy it here!) and this famous photo of Marcel Duchamp playing against a naked woman.
One great thing about playing against a naked man in chess is that there are no pockets for electronic devices, so you can be absolutely sure he is not cheating.
A few other notes on the video, shot at the new studio, Philadelphia Soundstages:
1. I am wearing a corset. I figured it was only fair to introduce a little nudity into my own outfit.
2. The chess pieces are actually naked chess pieces, borrowed for the shoot from thechesspiece.com. Check out a close up of the beauties.
3. The game from the shoot is based on a Duchamp win over E.Smith, one of the 15 games I analyzed in Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess. Contrary to the video, Smith did not play all the way to checkmate; He resigned a couple moves before in a totally lost position.
4. The naked man, Jason Bretz, is nicknamed "Smiley" and I didn’t realize why till after the shoot, as I guess being naked, cold and in a doomed chess position took away some of his natural cheer.
On Tuesday, May 5, there will be a panel discussion on Duchamp’s chess career at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, one day before the art exhibit Marcel Duchamp: Chess Master opens at the Saint Louis University Museum of Art (SLUMA). Joining me on the panel will be Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess authors Francis M.Naumann, Dr. Bradley Bailey and Larry List. Larry wrote The Imagery of Chess, Revisited and was a curator for the recent show 32 Pieces in Iceland. Susan Barrett was the mastermind behind getting the event together, and we’re planning some more spectacular art chess events for the Fall. I can only hope that Duchamp would be pleased.
Some stills from the shoot:
Nashville Talk April 1, 2009
Posted by Jennifer in : art, chess , 1 comment so far
I’m off to Nashville tomorrow for SuperNationals IV. I’ll be reporting for Chess Life Online and hosting a seminar, video showing and Q+A on Saturday, April 4th at 11 AM. Hope to see you there!
Princeton Photo Gallery March 18, 2009
Posted by Jennifer in : chess , 5 commentsI had a great time at the Princeton Library last weekend, where I gave a talk, showed an excerpt of hulachess and played a 25-board simultaneous exhibition. Check out the photo gallery and keep your eyes out for a report on uschess.org, which will include a video from the event.
Simul and Talk at Princeton March 7, 2009
Posted by Jennifer in : art, chess , 4 commentsIf you’re in the area, check out my talk and simul at the Princeton Library on March 14 at 2 PM EST. I love the poster below that the organizers made for the event, but there are a couple errors: chess expert is a specific term for someone rated between 2000 and 2200 (I am 2300) and I created hulachess with DimMak Films. I will also be giving a talk, Writing, Chess and Art at the SuperNationals in Nashville, TN, on Saturday, April 4, 11 AM, I hope you can make one of the two. If not, come back for more event announcements for spring and the summer of 09.
I wish I was in Iceland March 6, 2009
Posted by Jennifer in : art, chess, travel , 7 commentsI have been to Iceland two times, and on the second visit, I was floored by both the beauty of the landscape—and how expensive everything was ($40 pizza anyone?). So, the bright side of the economic crisis in Iceland is that it would now be reasonable to eat, drink and shop there. When I even think about visiting Iceland, I hear the music of Bjork and Sigur Ros in my head, and I calm down. My new relaxation therapy is to just say Iceland over and over again until any anger and stress melts away. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I’d also love to visit right now to see the exhibit at the Reykjavik Art Museum, 32 Pieces: The Art of Chess in person. My friend Larry List is a co-curator of the show, and the sets look amazing. I probably won’t make it to Iceland in time to see the show live, but this has me thinking about what kind of chess set I’d create if given the task.
I am totally in love with the first set by the Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama. It’s my fantasy of form and function and I actually believe that I would use it. Kusama broke the record for the highest sale for a female artist in history: 5.1 million dollars, so I guess I won’t be affording the Pumpkin set anytime soon. Check out a close up of the pieces:
This brings out some hidden phobias in me. How about Fear Factor Chess?
This set by Paul McCarthy was in Moscow for a while, and Garry Kasparov played with it!
This is my least favorite in some ways, and my favorite in another way. Most of the other sets in the exhibit make me smile, while this makes me feel sort of sick and angry, like I just lost a chess game.
Can you figure out which piece is which in the set above? I will post the answer as a comment to this blog.
Read more about the show on CLO and the Reykjavik Art Museum website.
Chess Lessons for Artists February 17, 2009
Posted by Jennifer in : art, books, chess , 7 comments
I annotated 15 chess games by Marcel Duchamp for a forthcoming book, Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess (Readymade Press, 2009). The conceptual artist and painter is famous for works such as Nude Descending a Staircase, Étant Donnés, and of course, the urinal, or Fountain.
I was inspired to update you on this project when reading a recent New Yorker article about Scrabble, "Spreading the Word" by Judith Thurman. The article touches on a lot of interesting points, including the lawsuit over Scrabulous (now renamed Lexulous on facebook.) There is also a section on online gaming addiction, in which New York Times columnist, Deborah Solomon is quoted: "I used to be a productive individual who read serious fiction in the hours before I went to sleep. But that was in the innocent Un-Scrabbled past." Thurman continues: "She plays every night on ISC(Internet Scrabble Club) under the screen name Duchamp- a nod to the French Dadaist, who claimed to have renounced art for chess, and who Solomon says, ‘in that sense, deserves to be seen as a pioneer of the ruined-by-games-online present.’"
After reading a fascinating article about fact checking at The New Yorker, I’m surprised this sentence went through. Duchamp never “claimed to have renounced art for chess,” as Thurman stated. He never said this or anything like it, although, admittedly, countless others have, as the present case demonstrates. I also object to the idea that chess stole Duchamp away, as if it was a useless pastime that didn’t inspire him or add anything to his oeuvre. In fact, Duchamp’s artistic output related to chess is prodigious: He collaborated on a book on pawn endgames, created a pocket chess set and co-organized with Julian Levy the exhibition, "The Imagery of Chess." Many of Duchamp’s works refer to or represent chess, from his early Cézanne-inspired painting, The Chess Game (1910) to the Cubist King and Queen Surrounded by Swift Nudes (1912.) When you read Marcel Duchamp: The Art of Chess, you will see that this is just the beginning. In this book, gallery owner and the mastermind behind the publication, Francis M. Naumann, writes an essay that examines Duchamp’s career arc as if it were a chess game. Professor Bradley Bailey adapted his thesis on Duchamp, chess and The Large Glass for the book. All the aforementioned things come even before Duchamp’s games themselves, which include many brilliancies. I was particularly impressed by Duchamp’s handling of an opening close to my heart, the Dragon, which showed that in some ways, Duchamp was ahead of his time in chess.
I am involved more and more in art through writing, and various video and photo projects, and I’ve noticed some ways that my background in chess helped me as an artist.
1. Relentless Self-Criticism: From chess, I know that some ideas that seem good at first do not pass the "bullshit" meter. I try to be self- critical about any major projects I undertake, so I don’t waste a lot of time on something that is inherently flawed.
2. Focus: Chess helps me recognize flow moments, where you lose a sense of time and are lost in the moment, which is crucial in any creative endeavor.
3. The importance of confidence: In chess, without confidence, you can’t improve. I’m also realizing how important confidence is in art and writing. In an interview with February 09 Chess Life cover girl Rusudan Goletiani said it again and again — she never would have won medals at the 2008 Dresden Chess Olympiad if she wasn’t confident. In chess, it’s obvious to me if I spend too much time on a move, it may be cause me to lose on time. If a month passes me by without progress on any projects that are important to me, due to some combination of a lack of confidence and distraction, it’s not as obvious that this may signify a missed opportunity, a project stalled, a chapter unwritten. Check out one embarrassing excerpt from the aforementioned interview:
Rusudan Goletiani (RG)- Our motto at (my chess academy in Westchester) is the 3 C’s. 1. Concentrate, 2. Calculate and 3.
Jennifer Shahade (JS): Hold up; let me guess the third one… Checkmate?
RG: No
JS: Control? Capture? Check?
RG: No, no, no.
JS: OK fine you can tell me. Why can’t I get this?
RG: No, you can get it…
JS: Oh, confidence, duh!
RG: Yeah, I guess if it took you so long to get that, it may be something you need to work on it…. (Laughs)
On May 6, the Saint Louis University Museum of Art will host a book signing and panel discussion for Duchamp, the Art of Chess. This is just a day before the 2009 U.S. Championships will kick off at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. Look for more details on the book and related events here or on uschess.org.
