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The Artistry of Chess Live    

Chess Live was inspired by the installation of the Giant Chessboard on Morro Bay’s Embarcadero in 1976 as part of the nationwide Centennial Celebration.  The lead for the project was Wachtang "Botso" Korisheli, a world renowned music teacher and artist who has graced Morro Bay with numerous sculptures and a stellar legacy of talented musicians.   http://botso.aspectstudios.com/

Active in Morro Bay politics in 1970s, Korisheli orchestrated the planning and creation of the Centennial Staircase that joins the Embarcadero to the town above the bluff, and marshaled the forces to create the 16’x 16’ Giant Chessboard and solid redwood chess pieces.

The chess pieces were designed by Korisheli, based on the Staunton pattern, universally used by chess players in tournament competition.  The wood for the pieces came from two redwood water tanks which had served the City for 50 years atop Morro Bay Boulevard.  Two 6” x 12” redwood timbers were glued together and then cut and lathed into 22 inch pawns, 33 inch kings and 31 inch queens.  The lathe was especially rigged for this job by Wayne Bickford.  Members of the Morro Bay Chess Club assisted with some of the labor by sanding and staining.
From  “Morro Bay’s Giant Chessboard and it’s story”  (first printed 1976)[link to scanned brochure]

During the board construction, Nancy Castle, then a 25 year-old artist and hippie rode past on her bicycle.   Stopping to watch, she realized that it was big enough to have people play the characters.  With the last name of Castle, Nancy and her brother Roger never played house, they played castle.  Roger was always the scout or guard, and got to go off and swing on the ropes that hung in the trees of their childhood neighborhood.  Nancy was the princess, covering horizontal tree-trunks with pieces of fabric for her and her ladies-in-waiting (real dolls) to lounge on. The image of costumed people on the Giant Chessboard nestled in a corner of Nancy’s mind, to emerge over a decade later, during a tour of Europe with the San Francisco-based avante- guarde theater company, Soon 3.  The troupe landed in Frankfurt, Germany, in February of 1981, building a show over the next few months.  Hitting the road, “Renaissance Radar” was a featured performance at theater festivals in Italy and the former Yugoslavia, as well as around Germany, Holland and Belgium.  Over the nine months of the tour, Nancy had ample time to think about theater and what she might like to do.  The image of the costumed chess pieces on Morro Bay’s Giant Chessboard bloomed, particularly as Nancy was realizing that Dorothy was right, “There’s no place like home.”

“When I got back, I went around town, talking about doing Chess Live.  I was very lucky that Dona Deack, a multi-talented artist and art-restorer, was so intrigued by the concept, that she became my partner, as well as knocking everyone’s sox off as The Black Queen.  In Europe, I’d been shocked at the amount of money spent on producing the shows, costumes, props, light systems, and all.  I eliminated the need for lights by staging the show outdoors in daylight, and counted on the community to donate the needed items.  It was wonderful, the Seniors were doing massive rummage sales at the time, and they let Dona and I go in ahead of time, and take whatever we wanted.  Sweet ladies would call us up and give us old jewelry, and others would bring by checkerboard patterned stuff.”

Staged on August 15th, the game was a delight to all who made it down to the Giant Chessboard.  Chess Grandmaster Loal Davis played a brilliant game with Ray Dade, a brave but seriously out-ranked chess player. 
[pictures from first game; link on ‘game’ above to scanned notation sheet]. 

That same year, the Harbor Festival was born, bringing locals and visitors alike to the Rock to celebrate Morro Bay’s marine environment and to have a final party before winter.  Rose Marie Sheets and M’may Diffly, the initial Harbor Festival organizers, invited Chess Live to be a part of the Second Annual Harbor Festival, and all involved realized the benefit of combining the events.  A new, 24” by 24” portable chess board was designed and built by the Rotary Club with materials donated by Hayward Lumber Company.  Thus began the eight year run of Chess Live at the Harbor Festival.

Coming soon: links to videos of past games....

2008 Artistry

FESTIVAL FLAGS

Reams of Tibetan prayer-flag strings would decorate the Chessboard area and the entire Festival grounds.  These can be either torn fabric squares, or cut and sewn or whatever, and attached to a length of sturdy rope, string, twisted fabric, or whatever. 

Keeping with tradition, those that are 25 squares long (with long ends for tying in place), with five repeating squares will be favored. Some checkerboard action needs to be on the string, and an optional plus is would be to have a harbor scene here or there.  Size should be no smaller than 6”x 6” and no larger than 16” x 16”. 

These flags will be valued, packed away carefully, and saved for future productions.

Flags can be mailed or shipped to
Chess Live!
c/o The Harbor Festival

            Morro Bay Ca 93442

BANNERS
As the games are “trans-historical” with the back line royalty in pseudo-Renaissance costumes, and the pawns figures of modern-day society, there is room to have a variety of heraldic banners.

Now an internet search will bring up a variety of banner styles, and you can take your pick.  If you are planning on making a banner, please email chesslive@live.com and let us know what you have in mind.  This will allow us to plan for hanging the banner to be sure it is well featured.

Suggested banner themes include peace (the peace sign is 50 years old this year!), chess, harbors, beaches, recycling….???  Every banner should have some checkerboard fabric or pattern on it.

BANNER STANDS
Now, an opportunity for the sculptors, tinker’s and assemblers.   If we’re going to have banners, we need stands and hangers.

Stands can be simple to complex, but need to be sturdy enough to stand alone and safely, even with a bit of a wind.  Sandbags will be provided as necessary. 

Hangers can be attached to poles.  Pole diameters available on the Festival Grounds are:

telephone
guy-wire standard
light poles

OTHER CHESS ART
Share your art with us!   If it is copywrited, please watermark it.  Otherwise, we may use it in some way, with a nod of the crown to you.