Chess Art #1 : Argentina
I run The XY Country Chess Week on Twitter every month, or so. The countries having been covered so far are: Poland, Ukraine, Switzerland, Finland, and last week, Argentina.
It is typically a collage of works of visual chess art by the artists of the country. At least, that was the original idea. But then it has been expanded. Now I am also covering many other aspects of chess life in the country. Ordinary people playing in the streets. Famous people at chess. Chess clubs. Chess Magazines. Distinguished players. Their best games. "Chess" wines. All sort of things. (I'd really like to hear your suggestions as to what else can be included in the selection - it would be greatly appreciated.)
All that material is then put together and a blog posted here on chess dot com. There has been one Chess Life of XY Country post on this site this far. Chess Life of Finland.
Chess Life of Argentina is coming up.
Meanwhile, I am sharing with you some of the pictures seen on the Argentina Chess Week on Twitter. Every Sunday, I am going to bring new pieces of visual art from a different country. There would be also a bonus, like 'chess wines' today.
I hope you would be enjoying the chess art of Argentina, the Land of Six Continents!
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(1) The first artist I want you to meet is Vladimir Markos Merchensky Arias (1978 - ). He was born in Venezuela, with Russian and Arab ancestors. His cultural amalgam allows him to produce a rich, distinctive and singular work of art.
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(2) Vito Campanella (1932 - 2014) was born in Monopoli, near Bari, on the Adriatic Coast of Southern Italy, just across my old country of Montenegro. Later he moved to Argentina. He endured the sorrow, agony and shortage that surrounded World War II. Allied planes crisscrossing the sky and ceaseless bombings left indelible memories he later translated into works of art.
[NOTE : our early experiences have a deep and powerful impact on our lives; for example, the way we meet with chess at Square One (by the way, my area of expertise
) has a lasting effect on our game;
an overwhelming number of chess entrants give up altogether too soon too early never moving beyond the moves;
the vast majority of the rest of players who take chess seriously, see their rating steadily rise to a certain level when suddenly it stops – they seem to hit an invisible wall and no matter how much time and effort they are still investing in the game, they don't see any further progress; back to the basics, baby!;
only a tiny number reaches the Master level – yet Dr Lasker claimed that any average, not necessarily talented person could achieve the expertise level for a total of 120 hours only. –RP].
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(4) Saúl Nagelberg was born 1953, but he began his artistic career only in 2006. For him, "painting is poetry in images."
Looking at his Fighting against windmills reminds me of what I have been doing in the Chess Square One to change the early chess teaching paradigm.
* * *
And now a bonus as I promised in the beginning. I have started compiling a list of all "chess" wines of the World (again, I need your help here to make an extensive list).
Roaring's wine list looks like this so far,
1. Argentina, 3 entries (cellars) with more than ten different wines I have identified and that I am going to share with you in a special When Wine Meets Chess post)
2. Italy, 2 entries
3. to be populated...
4.
In conclusion,
Viva la Argentina! por siempre y un saludo muy pero, muy fuerte a todos nuestros amigos argentinos!
