Reflections on the topic "life is like a chess game"

Analogies and parallels to the game of chess

The following article by Günther Nicolin is at the same time the introduction to my book "Schach - Spiegel der Gesellschaft" (chess - mirrors of the society), published 1992 in the chess publishing house of Arno Nickel, Berlin. ISBN 3-924833-26-5.

Fernando Arrabal, the Spanish dramatist, stated Bobby Fischer during the world championship fight against Boris Spassky (1972 in Reykjavik):

"Chess is not like the life…
Chess is the life.
Exactly like the theatre. "

On closer examination: Arrabal is not content to see the game of chess in comparison to the life but he sees it as an analogy for the life in so far an equality of conditions. For the dramatist Arrabal is it obvious to draw also the parallel to the theatre.

Elke Rehder’s artistic reflections on chess go into a very similar direction.

Remarkable is that the artist became the inspiration by observing an open-air chess game. Normally the game is played sitting and nearly motionlessly. But in open-air chess the playing field must be entered by the players and the chessmen must be carried from field to field, in order to realize the respective draws. The intellectual debate of the players gains additional dynamic and life. Furthermore this game is played in the public; chess becomes quasi a "res publica", a public thing.

"The Flank Bishop" painting	"The e-Pawn" painting

Elke Rehder understands the game of chess as a reflection of social life in the historical past just like in the present: hierarchical systems and class societies become visible - competitive situations as for example in the working sphere (searching problem solutions, goal-oriented working, switching disturbing factors, enforcing of own ideas, eliminating a competitor) appear, the chessboard becomes to a social experimental field with many possibilities of social cooperation and disharmony.

On closer look to Elke Rehder’s chess pictures, which are painted on canvas and in mixed media on paper or with acrylic, some significant characteristics attract attention. Abstract to the game situation, the opponents of the game are not displayed. The artist deliberately omitted the pose of the two chess players and their game-arranging dominance. However the chessboard and the chess pieces (= social experimentation field) are taken into the view; the chess pieces win an independent existence: the kings negotiate with one another, the bishop dances over the chessboard, the pawns - armed with lances - are nearly always present, marked by the artist in a provocatively shining red.

The titles of the pictures - a further characteristic - are mostly from the chess terminology, like "The Opening", "Dragon Variant", "Knight takes Rook", "Remis" etc. What in the respective picture is shown, does not correspond to the chess terminology in the sense of a chess diagram. Rather we see a life situation, differently said a scene "exactly like the theatre" (Arrabal).

Some examples:

	The view falls by an opened door, which is secured by a pawn, on the subrange of a chessboard, on which in some distance inconspicuously two further figures emerge. Dominating is the pawn in the foreground. Without the pawn, the opening is impossible, like well-known in the game of chess also. Turned in the social this means: without the base (= the pawns) nothing works.
Chess painting - "The Opening"
	The pawns, four at the number, in the "Dragon Variant" are substantially involved. The "dragons of this world" were not up to the solidarity of the basic pawns. A dragon lies ended in its blood.
Chess painting - "Dragon Variant"
	Of special attraction is the composition "Knight takes Rook". The imp under the chessmen, the knight, unorthodoxly in its forward urge, overwhelms the rook, this support of the society. The social avant-garde overcomes the crusty, in firm courses moving establishment. In the line work of this picture the crucial draw is to be discovered: red point as starting point - once diagonal - once straight - draw with impact effect = little red cross.
Chess painting "Knight takes Rook"
	And last the kings in "Remis". An absurd, an impossible situation in a game of chess which can be taken seriously that the kings remain on the chessboard. Indeed, in the presented picture they do not stand on the chessboard, but sit on a scale. In social context this means: weighed and found too light.
Chess painting "Remis"

It is a charming game in form and color, Elke Rehder sketches in her chess pictures. The deeper sense of their artistic statement requires the decoding - one way leads into the social critical dimension.

translated from the German on a text by Günther Nicolin

Chess - Mirror of Life

by Dr. Gerhard Stübner, in "Graphische Kunst" magazine for book art and graphic art. Published by Curt Visel in Memmingen, Germany. New series Number 2/2008.

Chess is after Stefan Zweig mathematics, which does not calculate anything; an art without works; an architecture without substance. But nevertheless this in the 6th century developed combat game has a continuous fascination up til today, because basic elements of human thinking and acting, which are formalised in its rules, have timeless validity and topicality. The rules as conservative structure form the basis. But what happened on the chessboard are dynamic conditions by the infinite possibilities of moves. Crucially for the result of the game is the thinking, which enables the player to examine his own strategy permanently at the material experiences and to see his own chances and those of his opponent and acting afterwards.

Chess Room installation by Elke Rehder 
Federal Academy in Wolfenbüttel, Germany

The artist Elke Rehder became attentive to chess, when she watched an open-air game in a park. Here the participants must carry the figures from field to field, in order to the moves, contrary to usual games, where the players sit motionless opposite. The open-air players seem indissolubly connected with the chessboard.

For Elke Rehder became this an experience of symbolic sense and the reason for the intellectual and artistic approaches to the game. But sporty interest did not arise from this. Her attention is drawn to the chess pieces on the board, not to the players. In the hierarchical structures and in the strategy of the game she sees similarities to situations in the real life. The figures develop thereby an independent existence and become a metaphor for social phenomenas.

Chess woodcut "Strong Pawn Position"	Chess woodcut "The White starts"

The artist developed her own symbols for the chess pieces, by assigning a color to each one. All pawns are explained in red. For Elke Rehder stands the red color for activity and vital strength. The bishops always wear a mitre. Like the rook, they are designed in black-yellow colour combination, whereby yellow stands as warning color also as symbol for ideologies. The color of the anarchy is black. The combination of both colors signals danger. In case of the rook it exists in the inexorable straight line thinking. With his mass - symbol for conservative structures - he runs down everything that comes into his way. What the rook cannot clear, takes the bishop, symbol for church power and guarantor for the consistent penetration of ideologies. The knight in blue color stands for the avant-garde, the maladjusted, the new. The king combines all colors of the rainbow in himself. A shiny stature; magnificently, awkwardly and relatively immovably.

Looking to the woodcuts and etchings more closely, some characteristics are noticeable, which are not conform to the rules of chess. The artist creates her own meaning of symbolism and develops combinations in comparison to the real life.

Some examples:

	The mobile knight strikes the massive rook from the field. New, forward arranged thinking prevails over conservative structures.
chess woodcut "Knight takes Rook"
	The lowest caste in the chess hierarchy - the pawns - succeeded in to threaten the king and possibly setting mate. The king as single figure - without his vassals - has hardly still motion possibility. He cannot free himself any longer. Historical events of world history come into the sense.
Chess woodcut "Pawns threaten the King"
	Pawns face each other hostilely. Problems of the everyday life can be the reason, in addition, because they were instigated from the powerful ones to do it. Different ideologies and provoked hate were responsible in order to send millions into death, how the history of two world wars and numerous dictatorships shows. The opponent is not a personal enemy, but the enemy is made, because he thinks differently.
Chess woodcut "The Fight"
	An absurd situation. Two glitzy dressed kings are not sitting on the chessboard, but opposite on a scale. The balance is balanced; i.e. the balance of power is alike.
Chess woodcut "Remis"
	The artist irritates with a presentation, which does not exist in the game of chess. One pawn is up, another positioned underneath the chessboard. A game beyond the reality, which would blow up all borders of chess combinations. The human spirit would be overtaxed by playing to such rules. The picture is a synonym for infinite thinking possibilities. Transferred it means that not all aspects of living together are plannable, predictable or logically comprehensible, because humans have the internal freedom, to do things, which are outside of existing standards.
Chess woodcut "Irrational Position"
	Between the blocks of secular power (rooks) and ecclesiastical power (bishops) the pawn collapsed. His lance is lowered, because there is no more sense to fight. He must endure his own powerlessness.
Chess woodcut "The Pawn is weak"
	In the etching "Bishop to b3" the situation is similar but with the exception that the pawn places himself to the resistance. He does not know yet that he is chanceless.
Chess etching "Bishop to b3"

Is chess a mirror of life, or even life itself ?

Elke Rehder’s pictures cannot answer the question, because in the rules of chess moral, religious or political convictions do not exist. In her conception and paintings the artist goes out far beyond the rules of chess. With her own symbolism, which she assigned to the different chess pieces, she creates a mirror of the society. It analyzes the essential structures of hierarchical systems and makes sensitive for new aspects. The 64 fields of the game are not sufficient for this. The artist opens new thinking areas, by making the reality surreal, in order to clarify it and showing paradoxies, in order to provoke common sense. An artistic statement, which leads into a sphere whose extent yet is not to be foreseen.

Dr. Gerhard Stübner (text translated from the German )

Bronzes, Graphics, Paintings and the topic Chess

	During the preparation of the art exhibition Elke Rehder said in a general manner: "We do not make a pure chess exhibition, but at chess one does not go past!" In the discussion becomes further clear, what provokes her to the topic. It is not the pure illustration or realistic presentation of the chess game. She arouses the pieces to alive persons and points out, how the game becomes reality and reality becomes a game.
Chess etching "The Opening"
	The fight against each other, also in ritualised form, the destruction of the opponent, probably strategic and tactical moments, all this the artist pulls it together to a multicolored kaleidoskope of opinions and actions in cycles.
Chess etching "The Fight"
	The artist sybolized "The Opening" with the opening of an entry door. Defense by crossed lances or "Three pawns" to a group arranged like parts of a cornfield.
Chess lithography "Three Pawns"

Quotationes translated from the German exhibition catalogue:
Dr. Johannes Spallek: ''Elke Rehder - Bilder, Grafik, Bronzen“ 36 S. Stormarnhaus, Bad Oldesloe 1994.