02/29/2020
Ylem Art Review Issue #1: Leap Day, 2020
“Ylem Art Review” is the quarterly (at least) newsletter of Ylem Art Studio.
Ylem = Primordial Element. Art = Creative Activity. Review = Careful Evaluation.
To contain reflections, updates and projections of the creative work of Allen Craig Bishop and thoughts on creative processes, the arts and existence in general. This first issue is on chess (art!) and the Wasatch Wood-Pushers chess club/fellowship. Today is the 44th anniversary (but only the 11th birthday) of the WWP.
1976 was a crazy year for me, one of those with extreme highs and lows.
Upside:
1. The Wasatch Wood pushers chess club (“WWP”) first formally met on leap day, 1976.
2. In a field of 8 players in our first WWP tournament, I managed a tie with Mike Howlett for first place.
3. Finish rigorous foundation year of the BFA program at the University of Utah.
4. Begin first serious actual romantic relationship (“SeRomRe1”).
5. With SeRomRe1, paint large granite community icon boulder in Bicentennial USA red white and blue flag.
6. Fulfill, with hiking pal Mike Howlett, long planned tour of Glacier NP, Canadian Rockies and the Northwest.
7. Play in my first rated chess tournament, 1976 Utah open. Win top “unrated” prize (including cash).
8. Somehow managed to survive Alvin Gittins’ rigorous anatomy and figure drawing courses.
Downside:
1. SeRomRe1 vacillates on marriage discussion.
2. Dumped by SeRomRe1; reasons uncertain. Possible insight given in this exchange:
SeRomRe1: “But how will you support a family?”
ACB: “Paint.”
SeRomRe1: “Oh.”
3. Peppered myself with doubts about long-standing career choice. Why not Law? Insurance sales? Chess?
As you can see, there were many more high points than low points.
But those few low points were intense!
I should have reminded myself more often that, as yet I had no idea that such a lady as Alene even existed.
Well, that’s already too much about me. What is chess, anyway; what do smart people say about it?
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Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790); USA, Statesman, Diplomat, Inventor, Philosopher, Chess Player.
“The game of chess is not merely an idle amusement. Several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired or strengthened by it… For Life is a kind of Chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with.”
Paul Morphy (1837-1884); USA, unofficial world champion 1858-1862, attorney.
“Unlike other games in which lucre is the end and aim, [chess] recommends itself to the wise by the fact that its mimic battles are fought for no prize but honour. It is eminently and emphatically the philosopher’s game.” –
Siegbert Tarrasch (1862-1934); Germany; physician, grandmaster, world champion challenger.
“Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy.”
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) Germany/Austria/Belgium/Czech/USA, theoretical physicist.
“Chess holds its master in its own bonds, shackling the mind and brain so that the inner freedom of the very strongest must suffer.”
Stefan Zweig (1881-1942); Austria; thinker, writer.
“… [chess is] more lasting in its being and presence than all books and achievements; the only game that belongs to all people and all ages; of which none knows the divinity that bestowed it on the world, to slay boredom, to sharpen the senses, to exhilarate the spirit.”
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968); France/USA, Dada/concept artist, chess master, oddball.
"I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art—and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position.”
“Chess is a school of silence.”
“Chess fills your time when you don’t paint. …It does tend to act a bit like a drug. …If you start playing chess when you are young, you’ll grow old and die playing chess … a passion that no doubt makes you waste a fantastic amount of time.”
Bobby Fischer (1941-2008); USA/Iceland; 8xUS champ., world champion 1972-75, fugitive, recluse.
“Chess is war over the board. The object is to crush the opponent’s mind.”
Garry Kasparov(1963- ); USSR/Russia/Croatia; world champion 1985 – 2000, political activist.
“Chess is life in miniature. Chess is struggle, chess is battles.”
“Chess is mental torture.”
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In the fall of 1975 there was organized a series of chess tournaments as part of the activities program for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They started on a local level, after which the top three winners would go on to the next step up, culminating in what was called an “area tournament”. It was during these chess player gatherings that some began to recognize the possibility of forming a club for chess in the southeast quarter of the Salt Lake Valley.
The first meeting of this group of interested chess players was held in the evening of Sunday, February 29, 1976 in the home of one of these players, Dwain Mendenhall in the AltaWood subdivision of the Granite community, overlooking Little Cottonwood Creek. There was a small group of 6 to 8 players who met there.
We first elected officers and discussed our philosophy for being a club; we certainly wanted to become better players and enjoy the art of the game, but we also determined to be a place that was more concerned for friendship and good sportsmanship than it was for winning the “war over the board”.
We also established guidelines for our first club tournament, and double round robin, where we played once as black and once as white against every other player. Those who played in this first tournament became charter members of the club. In alphabetical order: Craig Bishop, Bruce Bohm, Rick Hoffman, Mike Howlett, Kelvin Jackson, Dwain Mendenhall, Glen Stohel, and Rich Sudweeks.
Such was the beginning for many years of chess among members of the Wasatch Wood pushers. We organized and sponsored a number of nationally rated tournament’s as well as non-rated events. In recent years it has been merely an online club on chess.com that has sometimes played against other clubs.
So today, leap day 2020, we are meeting again to have a little tournament and renew some old friendships........................................................
1 March 2020 -Three original Wasatch Wood pushers: Kelvin Jackson, Bruce Bohm and myself; and 2 more that we picked up through the years: Todd Tolman and John Tillotson; plus 2 more that we adopted yesterday: Jason Walker and Mark Abercrombie.
Seven of us actually did meet to play chess and eat treats.
The chess was straight blitz, with each player getting five minutes on the clock for the entire game, without any seconds being added on or delayed from move to move. In other words, it is fast chess that requires both mental alertness and lightning reflexes to win very consistently.
We each played every other player one time. Kelvin Jackson took top honors with myself at the very bottom. With only one win, I am reminded once again to try humility.
Thank goodness winning, or even improving, are only part of the reason that I keep coming back to chess. The rest of it has to do with the seemingly inexhaustible beauty of chess played well (in contrast to the ugly of chess played poorly).
Even more than that it has to do with great friends that understand the wonders of crushing egos and wasting fantastic amounts of time.
