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Duchamp 
Photograph courtesy of Real Clear Arts 
Marcel Duchamp
Number of games in database: 23
Years covered: 1924 to 1961
Overall record: +4 -12 =7 (32.6%)*
   * Overall winning percentage = (wins+draws/2) / total games
      Based on games in the database; may be incomplete.

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E20 Nimzo-Indian (3 games)
B03 Alekhine's Defense (2 games)

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MARCEL DUCHAMP
(born Jul-28-1887, died Oct-02-1968) France

[what is this?]
(Henri Robert) Marcel Duchamp was born on July 28, 1887 in Blainville, Cervon in Normandy. As early as 1902 Marcel Duchamp was painting in the garden of the family home. A pioneer of Dadaism and Surrealism, Duchamp was equally passionate about chess. In 1923 he concentrated on playing and his strength became near master class. He played in the French Championships and also in the Olympiads 1928-1933.

In 1925 he had his chances to become the French chess champion of France. He started well in the tournament, but blundered in a winning position against the eventual victor Robert Crepeaux, and then, perhaps deflated, lost to Casier. Duchamp ended up sixth.


 page 1 of 1; 23 games  PGN Download 
Game  ResultMoves Year Event/LocaleOpening
1. J Kleczynski Jr. vs Duchamp 0-139 1924 ParisB03 Alekhine's Defense
2. A Chepurnov vs Duchamp 1-023 1924 Paris prel-7B02 Alekhine's Defense
3. M Romi vs Duchamp  1-029 1924 Paris, finaleB03 Alekhine's Defense
4. Weenink vs Duchamp ½-½29 1928 OlympiadB13 Caro-Kann, Exchange
5. Mueller vs Duchamp 1-010 1928 Den Haag olA28 English
6. Duchamp vs Menchik ½-½37 1929 ParisD10 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav
7. J Cukierman vs Duchamp 1-050 1929 ParisB12 Caro-Kann Defense
8. Koltanowski vs Duchamp 0-115 1929 ParisE00 Queen's Pawn Game
9. Duchamp vs J Rejfir  ½-½46 1930 Hamburg ol (Men)E43 Nimzo-Indian, Fischer Variation
10. Marshall vs Duchamp ½-½38 1930 HamburgE12 Queen's Indian
11. Duchamp vs Maroczy 0-122 1930 NiceD17 Queen's Gambit Declined Slav
12. Duchamp vs Przepiorka  0-146 1930 Hamburg ol (Men)D51 Queen's Gambit Declined
13. Duchamp vs Noteboom  ½-½51 1931 NiceE20 Nimzo-Indian
14. Duchamp vs Znosko-Borovsky ½-½60 1931 Nice itE20 Nimzo-Indian
15. T Sigurdsson vs Duchamp  1-033 1933 OlympiadE34 Nimzo-Indian, Classical, Noa Variation
16. P Devos vs Duchamp 1-083 1933 OlympiadA47 Queen's Indian
17. Opocensky vs Duchamp ½-½37 1933 OlympiadA18 English, Mikenas-Carls
18. Duchamp vs Lilienthal 0-137 1933 OlympiadD69 Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox Defense, Classical, 13.de
19. F Herzog vs Duchamp  0-140 1933 IFSB BundesmeisterchaftE19 Queen's Indian, Old Main line, 9.Qxc3
20. K Makarczyk vs Duchamp  1-029 1933 Folkestone ol (Men)E15 Queen's Indian
21. E Glass vs Duchamp 1-020 1933 OlympiadE21 Nimzo-Indian, Three Knights
22. Duchamp vs Dake 0-137 1933 OlympiadE20 Nimzo-Indian
23. Grimme / Luuring / Ree / Krabbe vs Duchamp 0-131 1961 CorrespondenceB40 Sicilian
 page 1 of 1; 23 games  PGN Download 
  REFINE SEARCH:   White wins (1-0) | Black wins (0-1) | Draws (1/2-1/2) | Duchamp wins | Duchamp loses  
 

Kibitzer's Corner
< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 5 OF 5 ·  Later Kibitzing >
Jul-18-08   myschkin: "In 1927 his bride, Lydie, glued all his chess pieces to the board because he spent his honeymoon week studying chess. They were divorced three months later." (Trivia)
Jul-28-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  An Englishman: Good Evening: Among 20th Century artists, actors and writers, Duchamp was probably the best, but whom do you think might have been second-best? Charles Boyer and Humphrey Bogart seem to have been pretty good, while Duchamp himself thought that Samuel Beckett could play a decent game. What do you folks think?
Jul-28-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  duchamp64: <An Englishman> IM Henri Grob was an artist but may have done more chess than art. Stanley Kubrick rates high on this list, surely above Bogart. Happy Birthday Marcel!
Jul-28-08   DrGrobb: Happy Birthday, Marcel turned himself into a very good chessplayer giving hope to all us patzers!!!
Jul-28-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  JG27Pyth: <A pioneer of Dadaism and Surrealism, Duchamp was equally passionate about chess.>

LOL! Ok, this is a chess site and I suppose it's forgiveable but this bio is just a tad absurd... (no doubt Duchamp would have approved...)

Here's an impromptu Art Historical blurb attepting to do Duchamp's art career justice...

In as much as artists can be ranked, most contemporary Art historians consider Duchamp to be among a handful of "most important artists" of the 20th century... if one rates influence as the surest measure of importance, Duchamp is arguably the most important artist of the 20th century.

Thru Dadaism (Duchamp should not be called a surrealist though some of his associates turned that way) Duchamp sent 20th century art on it's radically intellectualized course, valorizing concept above execution. Duchamp's grasped that art could be the idea the work as much as, or more, than the work's crude physical appeal to the senses. Physical "beauty" (whatever that means) became for Duchamp a tired non-starter when placed against the bracing shock of wholly new ideas <about> beauty. So, Duchamp's physical products were the fulfillment of theses -- it was in the thesis itself wherein the art resides.

This notion of "conceptual" art specifically, and the consequent intellectualization of art it encourages in general, come to dominate the painting, sculpture and music given most attention and praise by academic Art critics of the 20th century. (Even in the face of almost complete popular rejection as in the case of much 20th century Art music.)

Duchamp's long abandonment of art to pursue the unmuddied abstraction of chess makes more sense when one understands Duchamp's lifelong attraction to the realm of pure idea.

But because negation, and even more, nullity, were elements in Duchamp's unprecedented deconstruction of Art, (Duchamp has been called the father of Warhol, but he is at least Derrida's uncle, as well...), one can argue that turning away from Art to chess was a last conceptual gesture. An eloquent erasure. Abandonent of Art as Art. Like Beckett's half-mad whispering into the void -- without the whispering.

And the coda to Duchamp's career -- his last works -- allow the master of the head-scratching "huh?" a final contradiction, the negation of a negation... it's the seeing that matters... perfect.

=== apologies for the pompous tone.. . something about writing about art does that to a bloke.

Jul-28-08   MorphysMojo: Lots of great artists play chess: Lenin, Trotsky, Will Smith, Dustin Diamond, Peter Graves, Peter Falk, the current author Steven Carter (who also teaches law at Yale), but surely the most exciting celebrity to play chess is Morgan Fairchild. Bacall was hot in her day, but Fairchild has to be the hottest, especially if you are over 40.
Aug-01-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  vonKrolock: A veritable treatise on Chess Studies on-line, already pointed out by <whiteshark> (thanks!) in this address http://hdelboy.club.fr/end_games.html In French, but all time and effort applied to the study of this encyclopedic work will be worthwhile
Aug-19-08   myschkin: . . .
<Larry Evans on chess: Marcel Duchamp's vexing problem>

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/feature...

Aug-30-08   akapovsky: Rc2+,Kh3,Rc3+,Kg2,Kg4,Rh8,Rc8 next move Queen and white wins
Aug-30-08   akapovsky: its a helpmate problem
Oct-24-08   walker: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail...
Nov-17-08   DarthStapler: <the French chess champion of France> Redundant much?
Nov-17-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Open Defence: unless one can be French Champion and yet not be French.....

erm.. pardon my French

Dec-12-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  whiteshark: <Repetition is always dangerous> -- M.D.
Dec-22-08
Premium Chessgames Member
  Karpova: Some quotations from Marcel Duchamp - with sources: http://www.poemhunter.com/quotation...

Quote #7:

<<I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art—and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position.>

(Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968), French artist. Time (New York, March 10, 1952). Duchamp had given up painting in favor of chess thirty years before.)>

Feb-09-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  drkodos: Headed back to Phila this week and will of course make a pilgrimage.

Past summer (2008) I took a chess-friend to World Open (with all sincere intent to play). When he realized how close we were to the museum (walking distance) he ended up not playing a single game of chess in the week we were there.

Mar-25-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  Billy Vaughan: My dad once saw a license plate with "LHOOQ."
Mar-26-09   MaxxLange: I saw one of his urinals at SF MOMA this summer. It was a lot more interesting than it sounds.
Mar-30-09   Dredge Rivers: I loved his "Dude Decending a Staircase".
Apr-22-09   myschkin: . . .

http://vimeo.com/4165866

by Jennifer Shahade

Apr-22-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  timhortons: <myschkin>

I'd read that she recorded a video that she's naked in it playing chess.

I can't find the link.

Apr-22-09   MorphysMojo: Sorry Jen, clearly, mere shock is your only art.
May-08-09   myschkin: ~~~

Beckett, Duchamp and Chess in the 1930s:

http://www.mti.dmu.ac.uk/~ahugill/w...

(by Andrew Hugill)

Duchamp's last work:

https://www.msu.edu/course/ha/850/n...

(by Nicolas Calas)

Jul-28-09
Premium Chessgames Member
  duchamp64: Happy Birthday Marcel! I see you made the cover of NIC Magazine 2009/5. Your legacy continues.
Aug-07-09   mandy64: Here is Duchamp's blundered game (in pgn format) against Crépeaux which costed him the title of champion of France:

[Event "French Championship"]
[Site "Nice"]
[Date "1924"]
[Round "-"]
[White "Duchamp"]
[Black "Crépeaux"]
[Result "0-1"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. dxe5 Ng4 4. e4 h5 5. Be2 Nc6 6. e6 Qf6 7. exf7+ Qxf7 8. Nf3 Bc5 9. O-O d6 10. Bg5 Be6 11. Nbd2 Ne7 12. a3 O-O-O 13. b4 Bb6 14. a4 c6 15. a5 Bc7 16. b5 d5 17. cxd5 cxd5 18. b6 axb6 19. axb6 Bxb6 20. Ra8+ Kc7 21. Qc2+ Nc6 22. Bxd8+ Rxd8 23. Rxd8 Kxd8 24. exd5 Bxd5 25. Bc4 Nd4 26. Bxd5 Ne2+ 27. Kh1 Qxd5 28. Ne4 Nd4 29. Nxd4 Bxd4 30. Rc1 Qxe4 31. Qc7+ Ke8 32. Qc8+ Kf7 33. Qc7+ Kg6 34. f3 Nf2+ 35. Kg1 Qe3 36. Qc2+ Nd3+ 0-1

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