Swinging London: Autumn and the Lewis Chessmen as inspiration

Swinging London: Chelsea Autumn

Jason Kouchak, an English composer and musician, is a real chess fanatic. So are many of his friends in London, and there are many places in London associated with chess or people who have or have had an interest in or a fondness for the game.

In west London, the King's Road - a name that evokes chess - is the main road through the borough of Chelsea.

The English Royal Family also held chess in high esteem.

The King's Road was the King's private road until 1830. In five years' time, this famous road will celebrate the 200th anniversary of its opening to the public.

In the 1960s, the area became famous for fashion icons such as Mary Quant, Vivienne Westwood, Pattie Boyd and Twiggy, after Chelsea had become the centre of London's hippie and then punk movements.

Every autumn, when the trees change the colour of their leaves, only to lose them completely later, artists like Jason Kouchak are seized by a touch of melancholy. For Jason Kouchak, autumn and the walk along King's Road were the inspiration for his piece, "Wild Knight".

In the video for the piece, Jason Kouchak, dressed as the King in Autumn Coat (design: Daisy Belle), chases Stephen Johnstone, the "White Knight". The republican "wild white knight", moving "to the rhythm of the wind", has stolen the king's crown and wants to throw it into the Thames.

Pure Magic: The Lewis Chessmen

Of course, London is full of places that commemorate significant chess events. The most famous piece of chess history and the oldest chess pieces are kept in the British Museum. They are the Lewis Chessmen, or Uig Chessmen, named after the island of Lewis, which belongs to the Outer Hebrides, or the bay near Uig where the stones were found. 

The nearly 80 chess pieces were carved from walrus ivory, presumably in Norway, probably in the Trondheim area, and date back to the 12th century. Somehow the figures made their way to the Isle of Lewis, where they disappeared for unknown reasons in the sand of a bay. Perhaps the chessmen were part of the cargo of Viking traders who were caught in a storm on the west coast of Scotland. The Isle of Lewis lies on the then busy trade route from Bergen to Dublin.

The Viking trade network in the North Sea

Perhaps they were buried in the sand for other reasons. In early 1831, Malcolm MacLeod from the nearby village of Pennydonald found the chess treasure, which had been buried for so long in a small stone box under a dune. The box had been exposed by a storm.

Most of the pieces were eventually sold to the British Museum, while eleven pieces remained in Scotland and can be seen in the National Museum of Scotland. 

The Lewis Chessmen are probably the most famous chess pieces in the world because of their medieval figurative representation, their age and their history. For this reason they were partly used as models for the chess scenes in the film "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone".

Last autumn, Jason Kouchak mourned the loss of a good friend. Maggie Smith played Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter films. She died on 27 September 2024 at the age of 89.

Another good friend of Jason Kouchak's is not only a passionate chess lover, but also a really good chess player. 

Chess Musketeers: Jason Kouchak plays against Richard Farleigh. GM Stuart Conquest is watching.

Born in Australia in 1960, Richard Farleigh grew up in foster care and began playing competitive chess as a teenager. He won a scholarship to study economics and became a successful investment banker. Farleigh moved to Bermuda and then to Monaco. In 1994 he represented Bermuda at the Chess Olympiad in Moscow and in 2000 he represented Monaco at the Chess Olympiad in Istanbul.

Richard Farleigh, Sally Wood, Ronnie Wood and Jason Kouchak

Richard Farleigh and Jason Kouchak recently visited the British Museum to see some of its treasures, a medieval book and, of course, the Lewis Chessmen.

Photo: outerhebridesheritage.org.uk, Come and visit the Lewis Chessmen

Richard Farleigh loves old books

In his composition "Wild as the Wind", Jason Kouchak dreams of the Lewis Chessmen returning to their home in Norway and travels to their place of discovery himself.