Music and Chess: Apollo Meets Caissa

By Achilleas Zographos

A Most Fascinating Journey! It has long been recognized that there are only three major areas of human endeavor which produce prodigies: music, chess and mathematics. This does not occur by happenstance. There are links on many levels. Now, for the first time, Music and Chess – Apollo Meets Caissa examines the yet unexplored relation of chess to music. Mathematics is a main common denominator, a fact that is highlighted accordingly. The thesis of this extraordinarily researched book is that chess is art in itself. It can create art and is strongly related to mathematics and music. As becomes clear, this relationship has already been introduced by some legendary players such as Mikhail Tal and Vladimir Kramnik . Great artists such as John Cage, Marcel Duchamp and Arnold Schönberg, to name but a few, have also been fascinated by the very same idea. Surprisingly, this has not been explored in detail so far – only some sporadic articles exist, by authors specializing in either music or chess. There are chapters that address issues which are specialized in chess and music, while others cover related issues of general, social and artistic nature. Music and Chess – Apollo Meets Caissa can be appreciated by readers who have a good, general, though non-specific background, in both fields. That is, no technical knowledge of music is required, with the only prerequisite to fully appreciate the text being the understanding of standard chess rules. The text could be equally enlightening to students of music or mathematics, as an added intellectual insight into these two disciplines. The text is supplemented by many chess diagrams, charts, and over 50 full-color images. So, turn on the music, set up chessboard, get out the calculator and let the author take you on a most fascinating journey that is Music and Chess – Apollo Meets Caissa.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Russell Enterprises, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 3, 2017
• ISBN: 9781941270738

Book preview

List

Acknowledgements

I was lucky enough to be surrounded by enthusiastic, encouraging people who helped me enormously while writing this book. I take the liberty to start with my family. Special thanks to:

My mother, Soula Philippatou, for devoting precious time to read and correct the text.

My father, Nicolas for his interesting observations as a keen reader. The same goes for my brother Tasos. I had a severe test with all three!

Also:

Georgia Sofi for her love, support and valuable advice on text and editing issues.

Spyros Yarmenitis, for his photos and text suggestions.

My chess teammates: Loukas Papadimitriou and Giorgos Sioris, for their useful remarks. Nikos Roumbeglis who patiently worked uncomplainingly on a chess set designed by yours truly. (Presented on page 205).

llias Kourkounakis, who besides inspiring me with his writings, let me fish in his personal library.

Xenia Botsoli for offering to proofread and provide helpful suggestions.

Andreas Psachoulias for his valuable suggestions on the layout of the index and Alexey W. Root for her helpful observations.

Marietta Mourouti and Nikolas Tepelenis for suggesting some interesting internet links.

Carolyn Moore and Anastasia Katochianou for sending me books from the UK and USA that were not available in Greece.

Alexandros Charkiolakis for assisting me, when searching for material in the labyrinth of the Lilian Voudouri Library.

Aliki Piastopoulou for helping me with some Russian texts.

Last but not least, Maurizio Folini, Helen Hekimian, Babis Kalatzis, Christos Karajannidis, Natasha Marsellou, Sophia Papadimitropoulou, Smaroula Papaioannou, Roman Schleifer and Takis Sfakianopoulos for their support. Same goes for Katerina Anagnostidou, Pavlos Kotsonis, Kyveli Lignou Tsamantani and Katerina Tziviloglou, all former students of mine.

The encouragement and suggestions of all these people motivated me greatly!

A tribute to the publisher

Before even trying to convince candidate publishers about the commercial value of this book, I was fully aware that the reader must:

1.be fond of Western classical music and

2.play, or at least have an interest in chess and

3.be willing to risk purchasing a book on an apparently sophisticated subject.

I hereby wish to thank Russell Enterprises, Inc. for helping me fulfill my dream, and see the fruits of my efforts published.

Athens, July 2017

Symbols and terms

Chess, like mathematics and music, has a full symbolic language with over fifty signs which are capable of expressing pretty much everything happening on the board, such as: This is a new move which changes drastically the evaluation of the position. Theory considered this position to be equal, but now it must be considered as almost won for black. In this book we shall use only some basic symbols. They are all placed after the move. Here they are:

WGM/ WIM W indicates that the titled player is definitively a woman.

Classical chess Official tournament games usually played within 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move for each player.

Rapid Chess Games with a time limit of no more than sixty minutes for each player.

Blitz Chess Games with a time limit of no more than five minutes for each player.

Bullet Chess Even quicker than blitz, the norm being one, or maximum two minutes for the whole game for each player, very popular among internet-chess freaks.

Correspondence chess Moves are sent by post or email. Several years might be necessary in order to finish a tournament.

Chess 960 A variant chess game, where the pieces of the first rank are placed randomly.

Ch. Championship

Elo A calculating method that rates the playing strength of a chess player. The best players in the world are currently rated above 2800. Players over 2500 usually hold the grandmaster title and there are approximately one thousand of them.

[…] Indicates that part of the original text is not included.

Prologue

Perhaps chess and music are drawn together by laws of harmony and beauty which are difficult to formulate and difficult to grasp, or perhaps by something else. Vasily Smyslov, baritone and 7th world chess champion.¹

With the aptitude of his overwhelming scholarship, in his novel Selective Relations, J. W. Goethe attempts an inspired parallel. On the one hand, there exist the powers affecting human relationships whereas on the other, stand the chemical compounds. Anyone who has read the book will typically remember the 4th chapter. The erotic drama unfolding is mainly heralded through scientific observations about chemical substances.

The idea of comparison of seemingly irrelevant items is therefore not a novel one. It refers to man’s desire to better comprehend the world surrounding him. This necessity leads to classification and comparison, while it assumes the aid of imagination to be a prerequisite. The present book is an effort to this end. It does not endeavor to prove anything because there is nothing concrete to prove. It is more of a wander that however aspires to a direction.

Over the past years, I have been thinking about the connection between chess and music. Mathematics is a main common denominator, a fact that will be highlighted accordingly throughout this book. Being a professional music teacher, my interest in the subject grew when I started teaching chess. While reading a lot, attending seminars for trainers and getting some experience, I noticed many similarities in the teaching process. Gradually it dawned on me that these were not accidental. The more I thought about them, the more I was fascinated. This is how this book came to life.

I hope that the book will be of interest to a broad audience. I also hope it will be fun to read as it was for me to write and provoke some interest on the subject. I tried to use well-known terms and avoid sounding too dogmatic or pedantic. (I like accuracy, but using the term parallel lines instead of parallel rectilinear segments for example, is something I hope you approve.) That said, this book has a theme (as its title indicates), a development but not necessarily a definite conclusion.

One final word. Although I suspect there is still much to be said, I will not make the mistake of entering into a discussion on fields such as quantum mechanics, chaos theory, semiotics etc. These topics are not only beyond my expertise, but they are also out of scope of this book. I would rather approach the subject from a musician’s perspective. I wish to document my thoughts. It is however well-known that in the arts there are issues we cannot rationalize but rather perceive them intuitively.

¹ Smyslov, Vasily; 125 Selected Games; trans. K. P. Neat; Cadogan Chess Books; 1994, p.3. Original: V Poiskakh Garmonii (In Search of Harmony), 1979.

1

Introduction

Chess is found in all forms of art: literature, theatre, sculpture or paintings, where the artist depicts, for example, people playing chess. It may likewise portray ballet or musicals. However this sort of relationship is not the main subject of this book. That said, there is no list with music works, paintings, cinema scenes or literature inspired from or involving chess. In the aforementioned cases, chess is an art object, it is the theme – like a sunset or whatever else you may wish – that inspired an artist to create. The thesis of this book is that chess is art in itself. It can create art and is strongly related to mathematics and music.¹

Apollo meets Caissa explores this thesis. In the comparisons made, many examples will be used. Some of them might be well known for obvious reasons: Referring to Beethoven and his 5th Symphony could be boring even for the music-lover. Same goes for the chess enthusiast who sees the famous pawn study by Reti. However, I hope that the reader will take into account that this book is meant to be of interest to the non-expert as well, in this or the other field.

One main difference between chess and music is that in order to appreciate the beauty of the first, good knowledge of the game is required, whereas in music this is not necessary. Therefore, do not feel frustrated if the chess examples appear difficult to you. The book is designed to be readable even without completely comprehending the chess (or even the music) material involved. Lots of examples contain just kings and pawns in order to keep it as simple as possible. Chapter 13 Imagination and mysticism is the most difficult in this sense, but I heartily suggest you give it a try! Even if you do not succeed at the first attempt, you can give it a second chance, if your interest in the royal game rises after reading the book.

Some information on the structure of the book follows. Chapter 2 aspires to offer more than a term definition. It is a sort of a warm-up for the chapters to follow. Chapter 3 sets out the historical dimension. Chapter 4 is a necessary read explaining the algebraic notation, in order to be able to follow the chess examples of the book – experienced chess players may as well omit it. Chapter 5 is a prelude to chapter 6, which attempts a first comparison of chess and music. In chapter 7 the components of music are explained and compared in detail to chess. Chapters 8 to 13 present a variety of subjects directly or indirectly associated with chapter 7. Chapter 14 presents an interesting connecting theory by Juan Maria Solare. Chapter 15 makes an analogous attempt by yours truly.

Chapters 16 to 24 present personalities associated with our subject in one way or another. These involve World Chess Champions, famous music composers or interpreters, artists, and scientists with a special interest in both disciplines. Raymond Smullyan, who passed away recently at the age of 98, and Harmony Zhu who has turned 11 as these lines are written (February 2017) are some of them. Chapter 25 is about Ludwig, a computer program combining chess and music. Valeri Tsaturian and his invention chessmusic are presented in chapter 26, while Guido van der Werve’s chess-piano is chapter 27. Finally, chapters 28-29 intend to share some further thoughts, while chapter 30 needs no additional explanation.

Some more points:

•Chess is regarded as an art and in this context its association with music is examined in its broadest sense. Thus, references to architecture or literature for example should not be surprising.

•Parts of the book are interviews or writings of others. In such cases, I feel that the role of the writer is restricted to choose (sometimes out of a wealth of information) and present the appropriate material. Finally, if not noted otherwise, I am also responsible for the translation of Greek and German texts.

•It is advisable to have a chessboard available in order to better follow chess examples.

•All internet links referred to in this book are valid at the moment of publication and are important for the comprehension of the text. Some of them might not be accessible in certain countries. An index of videos or youtube channels sorted by order of appearance is to be found at the end of the book.

¹ For those interested, Connections between Music and Chess by John Greschak includes a list of works of music that are related to chess. Additionally, the following links present paintings with a chess theme: http://www.jmrw.com/Chess/Tableau echecs/index.htm Art et curiosites echiqueennes (Art and chess curiosities) and http://www.chessreference.com/ChessArtwork/ Chessreference.

2

Definitions

It should be helpful to explain what the terms music, chess and mathematics mean in this book. The approach serves practical purposes and aims to facilitate the understanding of its content.

Music

The whole problem can be stated quite simply by asking, Is there a meaning to music? My answer would be, Yes. And Can you state in so many words what the meaning is? My answer to that would be, No. Aaron Copland

A definition like Music is the art of sounds is correct but rather vague. It is very difficult to define the concept of music theoretically. A clear, universally accepted definition does not seem to exist. However, the phenomenon of music cannot be perceived without the understanding of its components. A whole chapter of the book is therefore devoted to their analysis.

The significance of music components can vary depending on the genre of music. At the risk involved in simplification, here is an example: West African music is characterized by intense polyrhythm, Carnatic music of Southern India for its strict mathematical structure, Western classical music for the development of harmonization, and Byzantine church music for its melodic sophistication. However, seeds of the aforementioned elements are to be found in all four of them. In chapter 7 we will focus on these characteristics and compare them to chess.

It must be stated that, in this book, references to music are influenced by the preferences of the author. These are defined by a preference for Western classical music from the 16th century to today, and for jazz. Admittedly, this is a very small part of the phenomenon involved in the term music. It goes without saying that the value of other music genres is equally appreciated. Duke Ellington expressed the idea as follows: There are simply two kinds of music. Good music and the other kind.

I hope that the reader will be motivated enough to listen to the examples of music provided, which should be familiar or easily accessible. Finally, brief references are made to other art forms, hoping that better suited writers to the purpose will be inspired and engaged in the future to share their thoughts on this broad topic.

Chess

When a chess player looks at the board, he does not see a static mosaic, a still life, but a magnetic field of forces, charged with energy as Faraday saw the stresses surrounding magnets and currents as curves in space; or as Van Gogh saw vortices in the skies of Provence. Arthur Koestler

As opposed to music, in order to ensure comprehension, chess presupposes knowledge of its rules, while some of its aspects are totally unfamiliar to the general public. This book sets out by acknowledging that the reader is aware of the moves and the basic rules governing the game. It aims however to remain an interesting text for both chess experts and non-connoisseurs alike.

Chess is a multi-faceted game. Its most familiar aspect is the competitive one. In the West, the popularity of the game owes a lot to the achievements and persona of the 11th World Champion Bobby Fischer (1943-2008). Nowadays, chess is considered to be the most ecumenical game. The rapid dissemination of information has resulted into that traditional powers such as Russia, Armenia and Ukraine are now being challenged. At the moment of writing the present text (February 2017), the World Men’s Champion is the 26-year old Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, while for the first time in the history of chess the two most populated countries in the world rose to the podium of the Chess Olympiad concluded in Tromsø, Norway 2014: gold medal Men’s Olympic Winners being the Chinese, with Indians in the 3rd place. It might well be that all the more women are getting engaged in the game, as indicated by the fact that the Hungarians, winners of the 2nd place, had a woman in their team, the stunning Judit Polgár.¹

Irving Amen; Partie d’echecs; 1977

Less familiar however is another aspect of the game, that of chess compositions. It involves problems (the main category being the orthodox) and studies and has been characterized as the poetry of chess. It should be clarified that studies are captioned as White wins or White draws whereas orthodox problems are captioned as White mates in X moves. Main feature of the compositions is that they concern invented positions which have been constructed by a composer, i.e., they have not actually occurred in any game whatsoever. As C.P. Ravilious notes:

For problemists the rules of chess are merely the starting point, rather as the diatonic scale has been the starting point from which western composers of music have constructed many thousands of unique compositions.²

The creator poses to the potential solver a challenge calling for its solution. The purpose of this introductory chapter is not to expand into technical details. Instead, it should be briefly mentioned that beyond the compositions, there exist puzzles, didactic positions, construction tasks and problems of retrograde analysis. It can however be safely said that the aesthetic pleasure offered by chess compositions to both the composer and the solver alike, could be compared with those of a music composer and a performer. More on this, in chapter 6 Exploring similarities.

Mathematics

Number rules the universe. Pythagoras

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty – a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture, without appeal to any part of our weaker nature, without the gorgeous trappings of paintings or music, yet sublimely pure and capable of a stern perfection such as only the greatest art can show. Bertrand Russell

The idea that the world, at all levels (from the smallest particle of matter to the vast universe), is governed by mathematical order, was initially formulated by the great Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, in the 6th century B.C.³

The ancient Greeks searched out the formulation of this order by introducing the concepts of symmetry, proportion/analogy and harmony. Mathematics applies to all areas of human creation and research. Philosophy, architecture, poetry, photography, economics, biology, strategy, information, technology … the list could be infinite. Let us for example ponder upon the timeless value of the golden ratio which has inspired fields ranging from theology to anatomy.⁴

Adam Lude Döring; Schach; 2002

Chess and music share a common field which is mathematics. As we shall see, the concepts of quantity, structure, space and time, just to name a few, run throughout the book. We shall focus however on the geometrical dimension of the game as the geometric patterns in chess are as frequent as the weeping of a baby. Finally, it is worth mentioning that a major branch of mathematics (recreational) engages with problems inspired by chess.

¹ The 42nd Chess Olympiad held in Baku in 2016, resulted in a sensational win for the United States of America in the open section, while China won the women section. In chess it is allowed for a country to include women in men’s teams, but the opposite does not apply. For this reason, team competitions are divided in two sections: the open and the women section.

² Ravilious, C.P.; The aesthetics of chess and the chess problem; British Journal of Aesthetics, vol. 34/3, 1994, p. 288.

³ The calculation of music intervals developed through experimentation on one chord, the Monochord, is also attributed to Pythagoras.

⁴ The golden ratio – expressed by Fibonacci ratios – is common in musical compositions. Examples can be found in the Schillinger System of Musical Composition. Schillinger, Joseph; Schillinger System of Musical Composition; C. Fischer, Inc., 1946. See also chapter 7.6 Components/Structure.

3

Historical review

Philidor and the Enlightenment

The very first name coming to mind when speaking about chess and music is that of the French music composer and chess player François-André Danican Philidor (1726-1795). Philidor was indisputably the strongest chess player in the 2nd half of the 18th century (the title of world champion had not been instituted yet). He would defeat his opponents with exceptional ease, while his theoretical contribution to the game, the famous book L’ Analyse du jeu des Échecs (Analysis of the Game of Chess), published in 1749, became a sort of Bible for the generations to follow. The ideas contained in the book were very advanced for its time. Such was its success that more than 100 versions, in many languages, have appeared.¹

In the book, he formulates the radical view for his time, that pawns are the soul of chess. Given that Philidor lived in the Enlightenment Period, the idea that his theory had been influenced by the ideals of the French revolution does not sound at all absurd. The pawns could be compared to the suffering people, at the