The Chess Artist Genius, Obsession, and the World's Oldest Game

by Hallman, J. C.

• ISBN13: 9780312333966
• ISBN10: 031233396X
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-11-14
• Publisher: Griffin

Summary

In the tiny Russian province of Kalmykia, obsession with chess has reached new heights. Its leader, a charismatic and eccentric millionaire/ex-car salesman named Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, is a former chess prodigy and the most recent president of FIDE, the world's controlling chess body. Despite credible allegations of his involvement in drug running, embezzlement, and murder, the impoverished Kalmykian people have rallied around their leader's obsession--chess is played on Kalmykian prime-time television and is compulsory in Kalmykian schools. In addition, Kalmyk women have been known to alter their traditional costumes of pillbox hats and satin gowns to include chessboard-patterned sashes. The Chess Artist is both an intellectual journey and first-rate travel writing dedicated to the love of chess and all of its related oddities, writer and chess enthusiast J. C. Hallman explores the obsessive hold chess exerts on its followers by examining the history and evolution of the game and the people who dedicate their lives to it. Together with his friend Glenn Umstead, an African-American chessmaster who is arguably as chess obsessed as Ilyumzhinov, Hallman tours New York City's legendary chess district, crashes a Princeton Math Department game party, challenges a convicted murderer to a chess match in prison, and travels to Kalmykia, where they are confronted with members of the Russian intelligence service, beautiful translators who may be spies, seven-year-old chess prodigies, and the sad blight of a land struggling toward capitalism. In the tradition of The Professor and the Madman , Longitude , and The Orchid Thief , Hallman transforms an obsessive quest for obscure things into a compulsively readable and entertaining weaving of travelogue, journalism, and chess history.

Author Biography

J. C. Hallman is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop and the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins University. His work has appeared in GQ, Boulevard, Prairie Schooner, and a number of other journals and anthologies.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	vii
Prologue	1	(113)
1 Developing Your Pieces	5	(5)
2 Mutant Message from Forever	10	(15)
3 Writing Sonnets in Public	25	(16)
4 The Theory of Commodes	41	(18)
5 Developing Your Pieces	59	(3)
6 Epideixis	62	(8)
7 Nothing Can Be Lost in Elista	70	(24)
8 Developing Your Pieces	94	(4)
9 The Chess District	98	(16)
10 ?!	114	(28)
11 The Queen of Mongolia	142	(10)
12 Developing Your Pieces	152	(4)
13 Illuminating Ilyumzhinov	156	(23)
14 Infinite Variety	179	(12)
15 Developing Your Pieces	191	(4)
16 The Road to Lagan	195	(22)
17 The Narrow Way	217	(25)
18 Developing Your Pieces	242	(3)
19 Nothing New Under the Sun	245	(18)
20 Salt in the Coffee	263	(34)
21 Reentrance	297	(6)
22 Check-O-Rama	303	(16)
23 The Upside-Down Urinal	319	(10)
Appendix	329	(4)
Sources	333