DUCHAMP and HALBERSTADT | Manuscript solution to a chess endgame

DUCHAMP, MARCEL, AND VITALY HALBERSTADT

Chess Endgame

Correspondence Chess slip, comprising a printed chess board with rubber stamp pieces, replicating an endgame discussed in their book Opposition and Sister Squares are Reconciled, with detailed notes by Vitali Halberstadt providing his solution ("White to play and win"), additionally inscribed by Duchamp ("Excellent, Brave! | Marcel"), single slip of paper (107 x 330mm), verso blank

A UNIQUE POSTSCRIPT TO ONE OF THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY BOOKS ON CHESS OF MODERN TIMES. In their 1932 book, Marcel Duchamp and French chess master Vitaly Halberstadt set out a series of endgame studies that explored the esoteric theories of opposition and corresponding (or sister) squares. These are chess puzzles most common, as in this example, in king and pawn endgames, where situation arise in which if one player moves to x then the other must move to y, almost like a dance, or in which two facing kings cannot advance directly on each other. In the words of Duchamp and Halberstadt, the king "may act in such a way as to suggest he has completely lost interest in winning the game. Then the other king, if he is a true sovereign, can give the appearance of being even less interested." They introduced the term "heterodox opposition" to provide a new approach to solving these endgames. Halberstadt here uses their theory to provide a solution to one of the examples included in the book.

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