How a Symphonist Sought Serenity in Chess
One of the days in mid-February last month served me a wonderful evening. Winter had begun to fade, the wind was blowing gently, and I could hear the soothing rustle of the leaves on the trees outside my house. I had to enjoy this moment. Closed my laptop, returned my books to the shelves, opened up the windows, and sat at my piano. Began playing Yiruma's Kiss the Rain, which was then followed up by Titanic's iconic theme song My Heart Will Go On.
Now, don't start imagining me as some virtuoso; I am nothing more than an intermediate, but I get immense pleasure whenever I play and listen to this magical and ethereal instrument!
While I was having a great time, it's also true that as a chess enthusiast, this game of sixty-four squares never really leaves my mind. Focusing on the white and black keys of the piano led to the thought of the white and black pieces of chess entering my mind. Call it a synchronicity or an epiphany, but I was now sitting on my chair in front of the piano and wondering if anybody from the past excelled in both chess and music. As someone who wrote about the artist turned chess player Marcel Duchamp in 2024, I was ready to dig up more similar stories!
And today, one month later, I present you with the chess side of one of the major composers of the 20th century, Sergei Prokofiev. As always, sit back, relax, and use your fingers to scroll through this blog and allow me to take you through the true story of how a symphonist sought serenity in chess.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
2. Prokofiev's Journey Before Foreign Departure
- STUDIES AND INITIAL WORKS
- LIFE AFTER CONSERVATORY
- PROKOFIEV AGAINST CAPABLANCA, 1914
- LIFE DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR
4. Soviet Return and Some More Chess
5. Prokofiev's Last Fifteen Years
6. BIBLIOGRAPHY
7. CONCLUSION
Born on 27 April 1891 to agronomist Sergei Alekseyevich and Maria Grigoryevna Zhitkova in the village of Sontsivka of the Russian Empire (now a part of present-day Ukraine), Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was nothing short of a child prodigy. Prokofiev's mother, Maria, grew up in Saint Petersburg in a family of former serfs who used to belong to the Sheremetev family. Back then, the Sheremetevs supported the education of serf kids in theater and the arts from a young age.
Maria had a deep love for music, especially after losing two daughters before Prokofiev. She dedicated a big part of her life to it. Every year, she would spend two months in either Moscow or St. Petersburg taking piano lessons. This made a huge impact on Sergei, as he loved hearing her practice the piano in the evenings. Soon, he wrote his first piano composition at the mere age of five. Compared to this, I don't even remember what I was doing at the age of five. Building a tower with my brother's high school books, probably.
Anyway, Profokiev then followed it up by composing his first opera, The Giant, at just nine years old. From that moment on, opera became his favorite way to express his creativity.
Prokofiev was a curious kid who loved to explore the world around him. One time, he hopped onto a train and squeezed into the engineer's cab, eager to learn all about how the locomotive worked! He had a passion for many things, including photography, plants, and chess. Among his childhood scribbles, you'll find musical sketches side by side with records and notes of chess games.
It wasn't especially comfortable in the cab, but I looked at everything around me with delight. Any fourteen-year-old boy would have envied me!
- Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev learned to play chess at the age of seven, two years before composing his first opera. Actually, I also first played chess at the age of seven. Here you go, now you know something more about the writer of this blog, thanks to Prokofiev. Ignore the fact that he was probably five times more talented than I, though. Prokofiev was super passionate about chess. He loved the game. He also loved hanging out at the St. Petersburg chess club. He was also fond of sports, especially gymnastics. Now that's something way out of my league.
Prokofiev's Journey Before Foreign Departure
Although I am writing this blog on a chess website, it would be a crime to talk about Prokofiev and at the same time not talk about his journey and legacy in the music world.
Prokofiev's mother crossed paths with Sergei Taneyev in 1902, the director of the Moscow Conservatory. He had a bright idea: he thought Prokofiev should dive into piano and composition lessons with the talented Alexander Goldenweiser. While those arrangements didn’t pan out, Taneyev found an alternative. He brought the composer and pianist Reinhold Glière to Sontsovka (the old name of Sontsivka) that summer to teach Prokofiev. With the help of Reinhold, Prokofiev endeavoured to write his first symphony.
In 1904, a 13-year-old Prokofiev and his mother met the amazing composer Alexander Glazunov, who was a professor at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory. He was so blown away by Sergei’s talent that he excitedly encouraged him to apply to study there.
With a fresh set of theoretical tools at his fingertips, Prokofiev began playing around with bold dissonant harmonies and quirky time signatures in a delightful collection of short piano pieces he called "ditties." Inspired by the classic song form, or ternary form, these charming compositions helped shape his unique musical style. During this time, Prokofiev composed two more operas, Desert Islands and The Feast during the Plague.
Prokofiev was quite a few years younger than his classmates at the Conservatory, who described him as eccentric and arrogant. He had a bold personality and wasn’t shy about sharing his thoughts on the education he found a bit dull. Prokofiev was now seen as a maverick (like Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in the Top Gun franchise) and a rebel, alongside earning lots of applause for his unique compositions that he brought to life on the piano. Despite this, in 1909, when he finished his composition class, his grades weren't anything special.
Prokofiev was the contrary of a musical thinker. He was, in fact, startlingly naive in matters of musical construction. He had some technique and could do certain things very well, but more than that, he had personality; one saw it in his very gestures, biological personality let us call it. His musical judgments were usually commonplace, however, and often wrong.... But one could see Prokofiev a thousand times without establishing any profound connection with him, and we rarely discussed music when we were together.
- Igor Stravinsky
A lot of talent but no special grades? Hey, that sounds like.....me! Okay, no, but that's what they write on my report cards and all.
Sergei Prokofiev lost his father in 1910, which led to an increase in Sergei's financial problems. Luckily, the St Petersburg Evenings of Contemporary Music noticed his talent, and Sergei Prokofiev received an invitation to perform Arnold Schoenberg's Drei Klavierstücke, Op. 11. In 1912, Prokofiev brought the use of polytonality into play and composed Sarcasms for piano, Op. 17.
At the premiere of one of his first piano concertos in 1913, the audience was left unimpressed and left the hall while making demoralizing statements. However, the modernists absolutely loved it!
To hell with this futuristic music! The cats on the roof make better music!
- The audience while leaving the hall
PROKOFIEV AGAINST CAPABLANCA, 1914
In the modern world, where there is always a rush of deadlines and duties, we often tend to forget the simple joy of engaging ourselves in an activity of our interest. But not Prokofiev. Despite the hurly-burly nature of his few recent years, he did not forget his love for chess and carried on the daily routine of the game in his early 20s, occasionally taking part in simuls. The year is 1914, and Capablanca is currently in Saint Petersburg for the famous 1914 tournament.
Prokofiev, in the Sergey Prokofiev Diaries 1907-1914, described Capablanca as an utterly irresistible person, lively, handsome, quick-witted, and a genius. He then jumped into three exciting simuls with Capablanca during the St. Petersburg Tournament (on three consecutive days); although he lost the first game, he was thrilled to receive an open invitation from Lasker to visit him in Berlin!
In the second game, Prokofiev actually had a winning position after Capablanca fell for a trap. But the latter turned the tide with a brilliant equalization and then followed up with quite a combination to secure his victory. At least, this is what the sources say because I couldn't find the second game in the database, sadly. I feel for Prokofiev here, as I have lately lost a lot of games after gaining an advantage as well.
I was thrilled that I had caused Mister Champion a problem. However, I couldn't prevent myself from saying 'You devil!'.
- Sergei Prokofiev after losing the second game against Capablanca
The next day, Prokofiev scored the victory he had been after, where he capitalized on Capablanca's mistake that helped him snag a piece and win the game.
Now there is quite an interesting story about what happened after the third and final simul, which I must share. After the simul, Prokofiev and a few friends, including Capablanca, were invited over for a delightful tea party. Prokofiev played the piano for the group and with utmost concentration, focused on Capablanca's reaction.
I watched Capablanca and it was interesting to see how unaffected he was. He listened with obvious pleasure but displayed total ignorance.
- Sergei Prokofiev
Even though Capablanca displayed total ignorance, we can definitely assume that the 23-year-old Prokofiev succeeded in impressing the champion chess player.
During this 1914 tournament, Prokofiev also forged a friendship with Alexander Alekhine. They played a blindfold odds game the same year!
On 27 April 1917, Prokofiev handed his notebook to Alekhine, and urged him to craft a few lines on... the sun. After a moment of thought, this is what the future world champion had to say:
On gray, cloudy days, I dream about it, but when I see it, I start looking for dark spots on its surface.
LIFE DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR
Like everyone else, the tense atmosphere in Russia before the war made Prokofiev uncomfortable, yet he remained positive about life. As the only son of a widow, he was not drafted and continued to hone his organ skills while performing in concerts. During this time, his music became increasingly complex. Prokofiev composed the ballet Ala and Lolli in 1914. The ballet The Tale of the Buffoon Who Out jested Seven Buffoons came out in 1915. Both of these were commissioned by Sergei Diaghilev.
Prokofiev remained active in opera, with The Gambler being composed in 1915-16. 1917 was a great year for Prokofiev; he composed two sonatas, his first symphony, and was invited to become a part of the Council of Workers in the Arts, which represented the progressive side of art in Russia. Sadly, he was separated from Petrograd by the shadows of civil war, got stranded, and found himself lost in the Caucasus for nearly nine months. It wasn't until the spring of 1918 that he finally managed to make his way back home.
During these rough years, he realized that music didn't fit into the council's work, so he chose to leave Russia for a while to embark on concert tours abroad.
San Francisco welcomed Prokofiev in August of 1918; however, on his way to the United States, he also performed in the Japanese cities of Tokyo and Yokohama. His piano skills in the US led him to the Chicago Opera Association, where he was commissioned for a comic opera.
Prokofiev enjoyed incredible success as a pianist in his time outside the Soviet, touring major cities in Europe and the US in the 1920s and the first half of the 1930s, where his performances earned him new commissions like the Symphony No. 4 for the Boston Symphony's 50th anniversary and the String Quartet No. 1 from the Library of Congress, along with exciting new piano concertos. His U.S. tours in 1925, 1930, and 1933 were amazingly successful and full of excitement! Prokofiev returned to the Soviet Union briefly in 1927 and 1929, but only for a performance or two.
At the end of June 1932, Prokofiev recorded his first album at the famous Abbey Road studios in London, featuring his third piano concerto with the London Symphony Orchestra.
Once a chess enthusiast, always a chess enthusiast. Chess was a cornerstone of Prokofiev's life until his final years, when doctors sadly prohibited him from playing. The game allowed him to spend time with himself, amidst all the busy schedules. As someone who has been using chess and blogging during the meaningful breaks away from academics for almost two years now, I can relate, and many of you would as well. In 1921, after Capablanca became the world champion, he received a one-word congratulatory message through cablegram from none other than Prokofiev.
On [23 February, 1922] Capablanca, who has become a close friend and who, incidentally, has just got married, played a simultaneous match at the Manhattan Club against 40 opponents, B.N. [Boris Nikolayevich Bashkirov] and me among them. It was a great event. Sitting watching us were Liebman, Deryuzhinsky and several others. I developed a furious attack and thought I was going to topple his eminence. To this day I do not understand how he managed to extricate himself and launch a counter-attack.
- Sergei Prokofiev
Prokofiev played a lot of chess even after leaving Russia, with the database containing games from 1922, 1924, 1932, 1933, and 1934. One of these games is a game against Edward Lasker, which resulted in a draw.
During his time in America, Prokofiev met the talented Spanish singer Lina Carolina Codina, who performed under the stage name Lina Llubera. They fell in love and eventually married in 1923, and had two sons together, named Svyatoslav and Oleg. However, the marriage ended in less than 20 years, and they got separated in 1941. You can read more about this on her Wikipedia page, which I had hyperlinked earlier.
Soviet Return and Some More Chess
Prokofiev was still significantly engaged in chess in the first half of the 1930s, as stated in the previous section, and one of his favorite chess spots was the Café de la Régence in Paris. In 1933, he faced off against the legendary Saviely Tartakower in two games. He emerged victorious in the first one and then managed a draw in the second!
Tartakower is one of the strongest players in the world. So you can imagine how proud I was to win.
- Sergei Prokofiev
SOVIET RETURN AND MEETING BOTVINNIK
Even if a place far away from our homeland provides us with immense success, we all know that nothing actually feels like home other than home itself. He shut down his Paris apartment in 1936 and was now all set to return to Moscow, despite the disagreement of his wife. During his final journey overseas, Prokofiev explored Hollywood to learn about the challenges of sound films. Before World War II, Prokofiev composed some amazing classical works, including his incredible Violin Concerto No. 2 in G Minor and the famous ballet Romeo and Juliet.
The Moscow 1936 tournament resulted in the meeting of our protagonist, Sergei Prokofiev, with none other than Mikhail Botvinnik. Prokofiev was now ranked as a first-rate chess player and didn't miss a single game. When Botvinnik faced Capablanca in the same tournament, although Prokofiev had sympathies with Botvinnik, who was a young player at the time, wishing for the defeat of his good friend Capablanca was simply impossible for him!
A few months later, Capablanca and Botvinnik tied for first in the Nottingham tournament, and when Botvinnik proudly shared his telegram of congratulations from Sergei Sergeyevich, he realized Capablanca hadn’t received one, but Capablanca soon returned with a grin, having received a message too, as both were sent at the same time, but Capablanca's telegram arrived second.
My first introduction to Prokofiev and his music occurred at one of the musical appreciation lessons in Leningrad. I played chess with Prokofiev several times. He played a very vigorous, forthright game. His usual method was to launch an attack which he conducted cleverly and ingeniously. He obviously did not care for defence tactics.
- Mikhail Botvinnik on Prokofiev
Upon returning, Prokofiev discovered a chess rival and partner in the virtuoso violinist David Oistrakh. The two had first met in 1927 in Odesa, Ukraine, where a teenage Oistrakh was playing Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1. In 1937, the rivalry between Sergei Prokofiev and David Oistrakh peaked with an official chess match organized by the Master of Art Club, featuring real chess clocks, referees, and an eager audience. Both players poured their hearts and souls into the game by practising day and night. This felt like a world championship itself!
Living next door to each other, we often played blitz-contests and I wish you could see how excited he was drawing all kinds of colorful diagrams of his wins and losses, and how happy he was with each victory, as well as how devastated each time he lost
- David Oistrakh
The match was officially announced, featuring ten classical games at the Master of Art Club in Moscow, where three games will be played each week, supervised by Russian chess master Vladimir Alatortsev and renowned theorist Ilya Kan. They were given two hours for the first 36 moves, and then an hour for every 10 moves. Both talented musicians were hired for a concert tour, but only one was necessary, so they decided that the one who lost the match would have to do it.
Out of the ten announced games, only seven took place, and it was rumored that Oistrakh decided to skip the rest and went on a concert tour outside of Moscow after anticipating defeat. However, some sources also claim that Oistrakh was actually leading the match after seven games. Although the match was highly publicized in Soviet chess magazines like 64, the actual scores for six of the seven games have been lost. Only a drawn game managed to survive.
The friendship between Oistrakh and Prokofiev lasted until Prokofiev died in 1953.
Prokofiev's Last Fifteen Years
BEFORE AND DURING WORLD WAR II
In 1938, Prokofiev worked with director Sergei Eisenstein on the film Alexander Nevsky, during which he created some of his most incredible music. He later turned all of it into a widely performed cantata featuring a mezzo-soprano, orchestra, and chorus. 3 years later, Prokofiev evacuated Moscow in early 1941 and now lived in the Caucasus. Do you remember this place? Were you paying attention? You were paying attention, but you forgot because life's tough, okay, I understand. The Caucasus is the same place where Prokofiev was stuck for nine months during 1917-18.
When Germany invaded Russia on June 22, 1941, Prokofiev, who was already thinking about turning Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace into an opera, was inspired to spend the next two years creating his original version. The first version of the opera was done and dusted by 1942. People who listened to it were shocked to discover the huge scale of the opera, as it consisted of 13 scenes and more than 60 characters. He then composed his Piano Sonata No. 7 the same year.
Prokofiev teamed up with Eisenstein in Alma-Ata, Kazakhstan's biggest city, to create music for the film Ivan the Terrible and the beloved ballet Cinderella (Op. 87), one of his most melodic works. In 1944, Prokofiev composed his Fifth Symphony (Op. 100). On 30th December 1944 preimiered his Piano Sonata No. 8 with immense success. A fortnight later, another performance was conducted on 13 January 1945 by Prokofiev.
On January 20, 1945, Prokofiev fainted in his apartment from high blood pressure and suffered a concussion; his friend Dmitry Kabalevsky found him barely awake in the hospital, thinking it might be the end. Even though he survived, he never fully recovered and was forced to limit his composing. Overworking was proving to be hazardous to Prokofiev's health.
During 1945-47, Prokofiev wrote the Symphony No. 6 in E-flat Minor. In his last years, Prokofiev received support from a new wave of Russian artists, especially cellist Rostropovich, for whom he created his Symphony-Concerto. Prokofiev was also present at the inauguration of the First All-Union Congress of Composers at the House of the Unions, on 1st April 1948.
By August 1948, Prokofiev faced deep financial trouble, buried under a personal debt of 180,000 rubles. Some of his last works include: the opera The Story of a Real Man (1947–48), the ballet The Stone Flower (1948–50), the oratorio On Guard for Peace (1950), and the Symphony No. 7 in C-sharp Minor (1951–52). From 1949, Prokofiev's health declined noticeably after becoming extremely ill the same year.
During his final months, he stopped visiting the Composers' Union and going to concerts, gave up conducting and playing the piano, never answered the phone, and even abandoned chess, which he once loved. The game that he once played with utmost interest now seemed something way beyond his reach. Doctors told him to stay away from work, with nothing more than one hour a day.
On 5 March 1953, Prokofiev passed away following a cerebral hemorrhage, after fighting chronic illness for nearly eight years at the age of 61. He left behind a stack of unfinished compositions, which included a 10th and an 11th piano sonata. Around 30 people became a part of the funeral and his final journey, paying their respects to one of the greatest composers of the 20th century.
I wish he had at least another hundred years to live and create. Listening to such works as the Seventh Symphony makes it much easier and more joyful to live.
- Dmitri Shostakovich
- PROKOFIEV: 15 FACTS ABOUT THE GREAT COMPOSER
- SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891 - 1953)
- WIKIPEDIA
- BRITANNICA
- THE PAWN CONCERTO
- MUSICAL GENIUSES WHO LOVED CHESS
- THE 1937 PROKOFIEV-OISTRAKH MATCH
- SERGEI PROKOFIEV AND CHESS BY EDWARD WINTER
Hey, congratulations if you made it here after reading every single line. Not everyone's capable of that nowadays. I had lots of fun discovering the chess side of Sergei Prokofiev, and I hope you did as well! Many of you might have already been aware of Prokofiev, but admit it, only a few of you were aware of his love for chess. His sad demise at the age of 61, which consisted of a struggle-filled last years, again reminds us of the inevitability of death and decline, whether you're a normal person or one of the greats of music history.
This will be the end of this blog. If you find any mistakes or have complaints about anything, make sure to PM me or write them down in the comments. I hope you enjoyed the read. And again, I know it's really annoying to read a chess blog with 5 games without analysis or annotations, but trust me, for some reason I just don't feel like doing that anymore. I hope you'll forgive me : )
Goodbye, take care, and see you all in the comments section!
