Cover Story / Chess in Popular Culture
Chess in music is not as well known as movie references, but its appeal crosses the entire taste spectrum. Prior to the 21st century, chess in song was mostly limited to the soundtrack to the musical Chess and its whimsical 1980s hit “One Night in Bangkok” by Murray Head (hitting number three on the U.S. charts). The song was not exactly supportive of the worthiness of chess pursuits—it mostly discussed the alluring and lascivious attractions of the Thai capital. Lyricist Tim Rice was probably more concerned with rhyming and meter than substance—why else would random references to Yul Brynner and Somerset Maugham be used in the same song? Recently, a wider array of musical acts has shown respect for chess. The former rap mega-group
Wu-Tang Clan had several members who devoted much time to playing, and their appreciation of the game spilled over into their lyrics. In 1994’s Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), the song “Da Mystery of Chessboxin” told listeners that “the game of chess is like a swordfight” and portended future chess projects for several members of the group. RZA, also known as Robert Diggs, participated in several of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation’s
early events (and held their belt). He also helped out 9Queens, the Arizona-based non-profit that focuses on availing chess to women and children. In a biography of the musical group, RZA claimed to play nearly every day. He helped start the brief endeavor
wuchess.com and claimed in an interview on
uschess.org that GM Maurice Ashley estimated his strength at 1300 or 1400. “Not bad though, you know?” RZA said. He also claimed, somewhat regretfully, to have missed a chance in Iceland to meet Bobby Fischer shortly before his death. Another Wu-Tang Clan member, GZA, otherwise known as Gary Grice, is also a huge
fan of the game and an artistic infuser of chess. He visits the Chess Forum in New York City regularly and released an LP in 2005 with DJ Muggs called Grandmasters (which he said he could have become if he had played more as a child). The video for “General Principles” is rife with chess scenes, and true to the song’s name, the moves shown are strategically sound. The intro is a sample of a Kasparov lecture, which is less idiomatic than previous Wu-Tang Clan chess references, but is perfectly understood by the tournament chess player. “Castle, Qc2, if black takes on c4, then White could play e4,” Kasparov advises. It sounds like a Queen’s Gambit, and to show how arcane the chess reference, most song lyrics websites botch the transcription by writing illegal moves or simply forgoing the algebraic minutiae by writing “chess sample.” If chess in music was relegated to only one genre, it could be seen a
niche subject for source material, but several other arena-filling acts have found their own ways to highlight their interest. The Canadian indie- group Arcade Fire, which is so popular that they had a rare encore after the close of a Saturday Night Live episode, used the man-versus-machine metaphor in their last album The Suburbs. Largely a polemic against urban sprawl over natural beauty and the apocalyptic paranoia of computer intelligence, the record’s 12th track “Deep Blue” uses the unnamed first game of Kasparov’s match to bring home the point. “You could have never predicted it could see through you/Kasparov, Deep Blue, 1996.” The reference is probably to the fact that no world champion had ever lost to a computer in regular time controls (although the final game of the 1997 match would have perhaps been an ever more apt metaphor—more on that later). For the band, the stunning loss signaled the coming of Y2K fears, the ubiquity of cell phones, and the proliferation of pervasive technology. With the hip-hop and indie genres well covered, which
The Official Star Trek® Tridimen- sional Chess Set, TM ® & ©1994 Paramount Pictures
singer can represent the younger teenybopper crowd? Enter Carly Rae Jepsen, former reality television contestant and opening act for Justin Bieber’s 2012 tour. She does not sing about chess so much as she professes her love for it. Jepsen explained in a prior interview that she made her stepfather teach her the game so she could approach a boy in high school. She was crushed by her crush but he eventually asked her out. “I felt like that was a victory in itself,” Jepsen said. Like all good students of the game, Jepsen is now seeking a stronger opponent to play on her tour. “My personal assistant sucks at it, so I win every single time. Which can be an awesome feeling, but it gets old.”
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