This isn't just, or only, a picture of chess players. It embroiders chess into the picture itself: the two figures, extreme right and left speak (visually) to each other on minor diagonols, and the players themselves echo and richochet the same motif. Black kibitzer, left, stares at player in white,and black dog v white bird answers in rotated mirror images. The most prominent of the vertical files of trees meets the horizontal rank of the wall (itself kinked in a double knight's move) at the golden section adjacent to the white player's head. There's a rook on the wall on the left, and the bird perch is a pre-Staunton design.
Apply the golden section to the chess board ( 8 / 1.6 = 5 ) and you will understand why you feel that aesthetic frisson when you play Nf5.
3 comments:
This isn't just, or only, a picture of chess players. It embroiders chess into the picture itself: the two figures, extreme right and left speak (visually) to each other on minor diagonols, and the players themselves echo and richochet the same motif. Black kibitzer, left, stares at player in white,and black dog v white bird answers in rotated mirror images. The most prominent of the vertical files of trees meets the horizontal rank of the wall (itself kinked in a double knight's move) at the golden section adjacent to the white player's head. There's a rook on the wall on the left, and the bird perch is a pre-Staunton design.
Apply the golden section to the chess board ( 8 / 1.6 = 5 ) and you will understand why you feel that aesthetic frisson when you play Nf5.
Martin S.
That is a very cool picture. I honestly wouldn't have noticed any of the details in the picture, great eye.
Thanks also to Martin for correcting the date of the picture (which I had wrong by about half a century) and for sending me this.
Post a Comment