'Chess in Pieces - 21st Century Art': Chess on UK TV, 7 July [08/07/03]
John Saunders reports: A documentary was broadcast on BBC4
(TV) on Monday 7 July at 8.30pm to coincide with 'The Art of Chess' exhibition
being held at the Gilbert Collection from 28th June - 30th November 2003.
Further details
To quote the press release: "it takes a candid look at art and chess,
two worlds driven by money and power. Featuring interviews with Damien
Hirst... exclusive footage of Hirst working on an early version of a chess
set which will never be seen in public." There was a little bit on
Fischer and Spassky, and some rarely-viewed footage of these two super-grandmasters
in action and being interviewed. Gareth Williams showed some of his remarkable
collection of chess sets. There was also some footage of the Howell-Karyakin
simuls at Somerset House on 28 June.
It was clear from the interviews with the artists commissioned to produce
new work for the Gilbert Collection's exhibition that they had minimal
interest in the game and had taken little trouble to find out about it.
Later in the programme two chess people - GM Jon Levitt and non-GM John
Saunders (that's me writing this stuff) - expressed the tournament chess
player's more utilitarian attitude to the chess set - the simpler and
more standard the design, the better. The pieces and board are almost
an irrelevance. But it is hard to communicate to a non-chess player that
the most artistic aspect of the game lies in the abstract beauty and logic
of the ideas behind the moves. The exhibition runs from 28th June - 30th
November 2003.
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