Since its invention the game of chess has taken hold of thinkers’ and artists’ imagination, and has served as a source of inspiration for both. It seems that the game had acquired in particular a central position in twentieth-century imagination as a figurative model as well a powerful metaphor that captures the central characteristics of contemporary art and culture: it functions as a central metaphor in the thought of Ludwig Wittgenstien and Ferdinant de Saussure, who have shaped to a wide extent the way we think about language in general and the language of the arts in particular; it serves as a central metaphor in Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities for basic trends and values in literature; it plays a dominant role in Marcel Duchamp's art and thought of art; and it is a central metaphor in Samuel Beckett's Endgame, etc.

During the seminar we will trace the historical roots of the appearances of the game in the arts and in the above-mentioned thinkers’ thoughts . We will try to determine the suggestive power latent in the game: What are the characteristics of the game of chess that can serve as concrete embodiments of abstract ideas? How have several ideas that can be modeled by the game found their way into the center of discourse of contemporary culture, serving as a source of inspiration for artists ? What is the idea of the game as art form and of art as a game, etc.?