Taking Chess Beyond Black and White

There's an age-old debate in the Chess world over whether Black or White is the "superior" color. Because White makes the first move, White wins an overwhelming percentage of the time. But what if both sides were Grandmasters? Would there still be a color advantage, or would every game end in a stalemate? The Surrealist artist Marcel Duchamp found his own way to break free of this philosophical "gray area." In 1920, he invented a color version of his favorite board game in an attempt to turn Chess into an artistic activity.

Duchamp's color choices weren't arbitrary. Indeed, as Duchamp expert Francis Naumann points out, the color of each piece served as a "continuous visual reminder of its movement and strategic power." Duchamp's two Rooks were light blue and dark blue. The Bishops were light and dark yellow. As the Queen is a combination of the Rook and Bishop (in terms of power and movement), she blended blue and yellow to form light and dark green. The Knights, sharing no characteristics with other chessmen, were light and dark red. Kings were white and black, and pawns were also white and black.

Naumann notes that Duchamp compared the black and white game of chess to a "pen and ink drawing," likening chess players to painters who created black and white artwork out of pre-existing forms. "Extending Duchamp's analogy," Naumann suggests, "we could then say that playing on the chromatic set would be the equivalent of drawing in color."

Though eyewitnesses recorded seeing Duchamp's painted chessmen in the early 1920s, the remarkable set seems to have become lost in the mists of time. We are left only with anecdotes and our own imaginations.

Today, specialty chess piece manufacturers offer a rainbow of colorful pieces for clients who wish to assemble custom sets. For example, Chaos creates pieces in purple, green, blue, red, white and black, while Giant Chess offers 16 hues including "Edelweis," "white milk," silver, vermillion, chestnut brown, Olympia gold, silver, and soft violet.

by Simon Pais-Thomas

An unpowdered complexion pale as any woman’s, / Unrouged lips rosy as any maiden’s. / Eyebrows so long as to meet his eyes, / A form so delicate as hardly to bear his clothes. / A jet- black crepe- silk cap he had, / Matching his face like a crown of jade. / Bright red tapestry- silk shoes he wore, / And stepped as lightly as if walking on clouds.
—Li Yu (1610–1680), The Carnal Prayer Mat, translated by Patrick Hanan, 1990.

by andrewtcrummy

The ‘best clothes’ donned for Sunday and formal occasions might be of dark material, but daily garb ran the spectrum of colors. Russet was favored, at least in New England, but reds, yellows, blues, and greens were also common. . . .

The lively colored outfits of the first settlers became more subdued as men moved into the backcountry. As James Axtell has remarked, ‘Colonial woodsmen quickly found that for stalking wild game or enemies — or being stalked — red coats, blue trousers, and yellow waistcoats were signal failures. Far better were the forest’s natural dull shades of brown and green.’
—David Freeman Hawke, Everyday Life in Early America, 1989.

The Little-Known Meanings of Crazy Color Names vol. 5

Baffling color names often tell entertaining stories, at least to those who are willing to delve beneath the surface. We continue our strange and wonderful adventure into the uncharted fringes of language, where we'll discover new "shades of meaning."

The deep green color called nnnn represents a “closed,” “intimate” hummed sound which “resonates mostly in the head,” as opposed to the “exposed” aaahh sound “which resonates in the chest. You can keep the closed sound a secret, sitting calmly at a committee meeting while others about you are losing their minds” (W. A. Mathieu, The Musical Life).

The light gray color claled nnnnnn refers to the “head guy” of “a bunch of dudes from the nameless planet”: "Nnnnnn moved his green hand in a circle, indicating the stream, the forest, the city. 'I know you feel like an alien here,' he said softly. 'But that is because you are thinking too small'" (Bruce Coville, “I, Earthling,” Odder Than Ever).

The deep blue color called nt represents the word not, written in Roger Bacon’s all-consonant secret code (devised in 1250), as discussed in The Voynich Manuscript by Gerry Kennedy.

The tan color called pff is an indication that one is miffed, as by a failed pursuit: "[W]hen they rounded the corner the bird had disappeared, and though the children searched high and low, there was not a feather to be found. 'Pff! Typical,' Georgie spat, turning back down the stairs" (Justyn Walker, The Magician’s Daughter).

The pink color called pfff refers to a French expression of loneliness, as when everyone is having too much fun to give one a call, as in “Numéro privé” by Erwan Le Goffic.

The magenta color called pfffft recalls the sound of a stabbing hypodermic needle: "She stuck the needle in, pushed pfffft, just like that, and it started burning immediately" (Janet Laurel, Heart and Soul: What It Takes to Promote Health While Confronting Cancer).

The light mauve color called pffft echoes the sound of a balloon deflating: "The volunteer was given a pair of safety glasses and a long bamboo pole to the end of which was secured a match. This was lit, and placed under the balloon. It collapsed with a dull pffft" (D.W. St. John, A Terrible Beauty).

by Chebbs

The light blue color called phhhh refers to a dismissive expression: "Nobody calls me on the house-phone line, not now that I’ve got my cell phone. Phhhh, I’m not answering it" (Grace Dent, LBD: It’s a Girl Thing).

The bright green color called pp means pianissimo (a musician’s directive to perform a passage very softly).

The bright red color called ppp echoes a French expression (usually accompanied by a shrug) meaning “beats me,” as discussed in Street French Slang Dictionary & Thesaurus by David Burke.

All of these color name insights are derived from my Dictionary of Improbable Words, which is available for online reading.