Musicians & Chess

Mr. Wall,

"John and Lennon"

Wasn't he married to the chessplaying artist Yoko and Ono?

Here are some musical chess players I've written about -
Dmitri Shostakovich
John Cage
Xenia Cage
Danican

While here is music as it relates to Paul Morphy
and to his mother - Thelcide's Érard

Speaking of which: Sean Lennon is definately a Chess player, but not sure if a musician. Julian Lennon is definately a musician, but not sure if a Chess player.

Just confirming that I also heard Smyslov was talented in opera, to the extent that he considered it vs Chess as a career. And Taimanov being very talented in music in some way. I heard that after his terrible match vs Fischer he had to fall back into his music while being denied further Chess travels abroad. Might he have been a pianist? 

Of course I might have been famous musically if I had continued my path to be The Worst Guitar "Player" in the world instead of committing to become a middling Chess player. But honestly, playing guitar Really Badly seems all too easy and one might even get paid for it. Whereas a bad Chess Game is totally profitless, completely full of angst, and therefore much more artistically appropriate & satisfying . . . .  }8-) 

 Hi! I'm a Chamber orchestra conductor and a pianist! Not world famous yet...

I am a drummer for our high school marching band I would believe that would qualify as a sport... But playing chess is the only time that I can talk to people about the fun game and just unwind from working all day...

I'm REALLY surprised that no-one has mentioned Zukertort, the guy who was almost the first WCC during the first official match vs. Steinitz, who won (obviously).

"He was an accomplished pianist and, for a while, a music critic."

Here's a couple i stumbled on awhile back. Right here at Chesscom we have one Saul Hudson (or at least that nik) playing. Now whether this would be the same Saul Hudson that plays a bit of guitar, aka "Slash", I must leave it to you to figure out.

But here is a definate, straight from Rock n Roll tour stories, and if you can't trust those ... I saw an interview with Ville Valo, front man for HIM, stating that he hired a Chess Master to tour with them and play some Chess. How bout that?

Now I realize we must be a bit sceptical; dozens of other Rockers may claim to be Chess players, just to look cool .... so as They say "Caviar Empty", let the buyer beware ... 

Louis Persinger and Sam Baron were world class musicians who were also quite strong chess players int he 1930's-50's. Both were at the time almost master strength which was quite good.

I did not check all the earlier posts but Philidor also was a very accomplished musician.

I know this is a really old post but I felt like jumping in because I'm a classical singer and I'm in the Soprano division of my high school chorus

Gregory Fulkerson is a well known violinist and a life member of USCF. Though his current rating is 1994, I believe that in the 1970s he had a master rating or very close to it.

This is all super cool stuff! Btw I have a FB group called "Musicians in the Chess Community" so if you're interested feel free to join our group!

If I recall correctly there is some footage somewhere on YouTube of Mark Taimanov playing the piano.

I wondered if  Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Tim Rice play Chess.

I play the acoustic guitar,about as poorly as I play chess.....but....I love both  and continue to pursue improvement daily.

David Oistrakh is one of the greatest (maybe the greatest ever) violinists. He played chess too. 

billhicksmostfunny

 I  could almost swear I saw a YT Video with Rza and Josh Waitzkin. I remembered they both made a guest appearance together at a chess club or some school. They were trying to get kids interested in chess. Can't find it now. Unless I got stuck with the Mandella effect and I got mixed up with another parallel universe. I tried to find the video and the only one I saw with both Rza and Josh Waitzkin was a Chess panel. 

Years ago I had a rehearsal room above a bar that had around 6 of those rooms rented out to various musicians and bands. It wasn't at all uncommon to see multiple chess games going on after 10 PM when we had to stop playing and everyone came downstairs.

 There is an old video clip from classic rock band Deep Purple that shows legendary guitar player Ritchie  Blackmore playing chess. The song is Call of the Wild and is from 1987, IIRC. It is a very humorous  video clip and I like it very much.

Lennon and Yoko played chess in one of his videos in early 70s Bowie used to play with Catherine Deneuve on set of The Hunger there is a picture of them playing