(Harmony and intuition)
When asked why he plays chess, Grandmaster Peter Svidler once replied: "In my understanding, the things of the world strive to become music. And chess comes very close".
This is a sentiment that Jason Kouchak could certainly adopt. While Peter Svidler, on his path to mastery in chess, has preserved his love of music, Jason Kouchak achieved mastery in music, yet always felt drawn to chess and combined his two passions whenever possible.
As a musically inclined chess enthusiast, Jason Kouchak is a welcome guest at chess tournaments and introduces his friends in the chess world to music. With his compositions, he has appeared, among other places, at Judit Polgar's chess festival in Budapest, among many other chess events, while he also organises both smaller and larger chess events himself.
On 7 and 8 February, Jason Kouchak's hometown, London, hosted the final of the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship. The tournament series is played online. For the final, the four best players gather in one place, but still compete in front of screens in semifinal and final matches for the overall title.
Jason Kouchak was invited as a guest of honour and was impressed by the players' virtuosity:
It was as if the top chess players, with their speed and improvisational ability on the board, were suddenly bringing jazz into their classical chess repertoire. They were simultaneously in harmony with their intuition. Magnus was clearly the best!
Photo: Chess.com
"With the help of modern technology, the venerable game of chess has undergone a contemporary update", says Jason Kouchak. "The avant-garde moves on the virtual board provide fast-paced entertainment".
Jason Kouchak has been friends for years with Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura and was pleased to see them again.
A few years ago, with a very young Magnus Carlsen... | Photo: Ray Morris-Hill
...and today alongside Magnus and Henrik Carlsen | Photo: Jason Kouchak
Way back when with Hikaru Nakamura... | Photo: Jason Kouchak
...and this year in London | Photo: Jason Kouchak
In recent decades, chess has developed from a backroom pastime into a modern spectacle and has thus become a popular subject for filmmakers. With the miniseries "Queen's Gambit", Netflix achieved great success and recently followed it up with the documentary about Judit Polgar, "Queen of Chess".
The greatest female player of all time has stepped away from tournament chess, is active as a chess ambassador and organises a large chess festival in Budapest once a year. At the 2018 edition, she appointed the musician Jason Kouchak and the artist Yoko Ono as "Goodwill Ambassadors" for chess.
Jason Kouchak with Judit Polgar | Photo: Jason Kouchak
Yoko Ono with Judit Polgar | Photo: Judit Polgar
Yoko Ono was ahead of her time when she created her conceptual artwork "Play it by Trust" (first devised in 1966), a chess set consisting exclusively of white pieces on a white board.
Photo: André Schulz
Jason Kouchak has always admired Yoko Ono's creativity, and especially this chess set:
This is an appealing abstract concept in which the players forget where the pieces are in time and space, yet still move instinctively. By dispensing with colour contrasts, the players are compelled towards collaboration and mutual trust, promoting communication and cooperation rather than conflict. It is intended as a metaphor for the futility of war.
The desire for peace is also reflected in John Lennon's composition "Imagine". The song was written 55 years ago, yet is more relevant today than it has been for a long time.
In the following video, the song is reinterpreted by Jason Kouchak and combined with images from a game played by John Lennon with Yoko Ono in 1966.
With many thanks to Jason Kouchak for the inspiration and images.
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