“I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art—and much more.” —Marcel Duchamp
Though the world knew him as the rule-breaking, gender-bending grandmaster of Dada, French artist Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) considered himself a chess player above all else. He competed nationally and internationally, earned the rank of master, published treatises on strategy and even developed a problem that is still unsolved to this day. For Duchamp, the theory and practice of chess had a significant effect on his artistic practice. He saw the pieces as a kind of alphabet, and their movement around the chessboard created an endless array of poems. In Knight Moves to Remis, German art historian Astrid Honold and chess expert Michail Chatzidakis walk through the 315 surviving games that Duchamp is known to have played, providing art historical diagrams and position analysis throughout.
STATUS: Forthcoming | 7/28/2026
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Knight Moves to Remis The Chess Games of Marcel Duchamp
Published by Hatje Cantz. Text by Astrid Honold, Michail Chatzidakis.
“I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art—and much more.” —Marcel Duchamp
Though the world knew him as the rule-breaking, gender-bending grandmaster of Dada, French artist Marcel Duchamp (1887–1968) considered himself a chess player above all else. He competed nationally and internationally, earned the rank of master, published treatises on strategy and even developed a problem that is still unsolved to this day. For Duchamp, the theory and practice of chess had a significant effect on his artistic practice. He saw the pieces as a kind of alphabet, and their movement around the chessboard created an endless array of poems. In Knight Moves to Remis, German art historian Astrid Honold and chess expert Michail Chatzidakis walk through the 315 surviving games that Duchamp is known to have played, providing art historical diagrams and position analysis throughout.
