Opposition et cases conjuguées sont reconciliées par Duchamp et Halberstadt = Opposition und Schwesterfelder sind durch Duchamp et Halberstadt versöhnt = Opposition and sister squares are reconciled by Duchamp et Halberstadt. - 1932

112+[1 ad] pages with diagrams and errata laid in. Square folio (12 1/4" x 10 1/4") bound in original publisher's wrappers in original onionskin jacket with a handwritten letter signed by Marcel Duchamp housed in a handcrafted archival enclosure by Octavaye. (Bibliotheca Van der Linde-Niemeijeriana: 2273) First edition.

Letter by Marcel Duchamp to Richard Hulbeck 25 October 1947. Reads as follows: Dear Hulbeck, The pictures are not back and I am afraid won't be back for some months. Schweizer, the representative there is in France and is coming back in a few weeks or days. He will have exact information about the return of the shipment. Don't worry and I will call you up some day soon. Affectueusement Marcel.

Richard Hulsenbeck (1892-1972) was a German writer, poet and psychoanalyst. In 1920 he was editor of the Dada Almanach and wrote Dada siegt-Eine Bilanz des Dadaismus. After emigration to USA in 1923 he changed his name to Hulbeck.

Curiosity has impelled the authors to elucidate a question which has periodically give rise to bitter articles in chess literature. Opposition or "sister squares"; let us simplify Opposition and "sister squares", for after have read many a discussion of terminology on this question, it seems that the confusion is born, in greater part of a faulty typographical arrangement. The authors have have thought it necessary to multiply the number of diagrams, even to excess, to facilitate the understanding of the text. These external considerations will also help to take from the problem its pseud-esoteric aspect, the first cause of the feud. Among the bibliographical sources upon which they have drawn, they mention first of all La Nouvelle Regence Paris (1860-61)... etc and La Strategic Raisonnee des Fins de Partie du Jeu d'Echecs by Abbe Duran and Jean Preti, Paris (1971). The purpose of this work is the study of the role of the king in pawn end games. This role consists in attacking or defending certain pawns, certain squares or certain groups of squares.

In the early 1920s a rumor circulated through the art worlds of Paris and New York that Marcel Duchamp "the artist best known for Nude Descending a Staircase, the sensation of the Armory Show of 1913" had decided to stop making art in order to devote his life to playing chess. Although Duchamp made no effort to refute this claim, and had indeed entered into regular tournament play, he would never abandon his career as an artist. For the remaining years of his life, he sought opportunities to combine the two endeavors. Not only was the theme of chess an ever-present motif in his work "from his earliest paintings to works of his final decade" but on more than one occasion he buried coded messages in his art that could be fully comprehended only by proficient players of the game. He went so far as to suggest that the activity of playing chess be considered a component of his artistic expression.

Condition:

Housed in handcrafted enclosure else very good to fine.