Freedom, chess and Friedrich Schiller

Friedrich Schiller has, in my mind, always been associated with chess, since I became familiar with his ideas about the nature of play. Actually identifying a specific, undeniable reference to chess in Schiller ’ s oeuvre has, however, proved more elusive. 

On my desk I have a number of books which retain a permanent position and are never removed, much like a bibliophile version of the constituent members of the United Nations Security Council. These books include: Cicero ’ s complete Philippics against Mark Anthony, in parallel Latin and English translation; complete works of Marlowe and Shakespeare, Milton ’ s Paradise Lost and Beowulf, all in the original. In addition the complete works of Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, the two titans of German literature, in the original German. Also Guizot’s History of Civilisation in Europe from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the French Revolution, kindly presented as a birthday gift by the Editor. 

I have already written about Goethe and chess. This week I turn to Schiller. In comparison with Goethe, Schiller’s dramas, starting with Die Räuber (1782) are somewhat histrionic, but they do make excellent Verdi operas: I Masniardi, Don Carlos, Maria Stuart, Giovanna d’Arco (“Joan of Arc”, based on Die Jungfrau von Orleans), Luise Miller (based on Kabaleund Liebe) and Wallensteins Lager (adapted into the opening scenes of La Forza del Destino) being obvious examples. However, Schiller’s Wallenstein trilogy, 1799, his most mature dramatic work, transcends all previous plays and deserves to be ranked with Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, the great tragedies by Shakespeare and Racine or even Goethe’s Faust. I must admit that it is one of my ambitions not only to stage Wagner’s Ring cycle, with Wotan as the Kaiser and the gods of Valhalla as Prussian generals, resplendent in Pickelhäube or spiked helmets, but also to weld Schiller’s Don Carlos into a single unit with Goethe’s tragedy Egmont. The fusion would provide a complete evening’s insight into the political situation in the 16th century Spanish Netherlands, as the Dutch nationalists fought to liberate themselves from the yoke of the Imperial Regent, Margaret of Parma, and the tyranny of the Duke of Alba.

Freedom, indeed, if not outright revolution, was Schiller ’ s watchword. As I explained in the British Chess Magazine earlier this year, it is a well known fact that the opening text to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony ( Freude sch ö ner G ö tterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium. ..) ,  is based on Friedrich Schiller’s Ode to Joy ( Freude in German). It is less well known that Schiller originally wrote the poem as an ode to Freedom, Freiheit in German, but that the word freedom was suppressed by the censors in the French revolutionary days when it was written. Freude, likewise with two syllables, begins with F and was deemed more suitable. However, if you read the full text of the ode, it’s obvious that Freedom works far better than the less energetic Joy. (My translation.)

  An die Freude / Ode to Joy
  Freude, sch ö ner G ö tterfunken, ​​​
Tochter aus Elysium, ​​​​​
Wir betreten feuertrunken, ​​​​
Himmlische, den Heiligtum. ​​​​
Deine Zauber binden wieder, ​​​​
Was die Mode streng geteilt, ​​​​
Alle Menschen werden Br üder,​​​
Wo dein sanfter Fl ü gel weilt.

Joy, beautiful divine spark, daughter of Elysium, Oh heavenly one, we enter, drunk with fire, your holy realm. Your magic makes whole, what custom had sternly rent asunder, all men become brothers, where your gentle wing protects us. ​​

​​ Seid umschlungen Millionen! ​​​
Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt! ​​​​
Brü der – ü berm Sternenzelt ​​​
muss ein lieber Vater wohnen.

Embrace ye millions! Offer this kiss to the entire world! Brothers, above the canopy of the stars, a dear Father must reside.

Ecstasy? Yes! Freedom? Certainly! Joy? Absolutely not. It ’ s no accident that Beethoven not only converted Schiller ’ s Ode into music, but also wrote the overture and incidental music to Egmont , Goethe’s youthful paean to freedom, along with his own hymn to liberty, his only opera, Fidelio . It is a shame that supine conductors still bow to custom (ironically, as in the very words of the Ode itself). They should be joyously replacing Freude with Freiheit , as did Leonard Bernstein when conducting Beethoven’s ninth on the metaphorically ruined ramparts of the German capital’s hated circumvallation (better known as the Berlin Wall).

While honing my chess skills at Dulwich College, in antediluvian days while Villon’s Neiges d’antan were still falling, I spent much time with the so-called red books published in the Weltgeschichte des Schachs series by Dr Eduard Wildhagen. This German series consisted of 40 volumes, with 20,000 master games, and 200,000 diagrams. There were few notes, but the key (in pre-database times) was the provision of a diagram after every fourth or fifth move.  This enabled the student (me) to absorb strategy and tactics visually at a glance and gain a real feel for the architecture and skeleton of every position displayed. 

Every volume carried a logo of the famous Classical Greek vase by Exekias, showing Ajax and Achilles playing an abstract mind sport during the siege of Troy. I later had this image adapted by the top artist at The Royal College of Arms, Robert Parsons, to signify the Mind Sports Olympiads which I co-founded in the 1990s with Tony Buzan.

Along with the Exekias logo, Dr Wilhagen always appended a highly relevant quote by Schiller: “ Der Mensch spielt nur, wo er in voller Bedeutung des Wortes Mensch ist, und er ist nur da ganz Mensch, wo er spielt. ” ( Mankind only plays, where the fullest importance of the word mankind has been achieved, and full humanity is only completely possible, where play is also possible.)

Clearly the words of a chess player, which would have been applauded by Tony Buzan and progressive educationalists , such as the indefatigable Malcolm Pein, with his charity Chess in Schools and Communities. Indeed, the educational and psychiatric value of play is being increasingly recognised. According to Energia SOI Global Education, advertising a seminar held last week in Mumbai  on The Cognitive Science behind the importance of play therapy, “ Play therapy is a form of therapy used primarily for children and can be effective in helping children through emotional and mental issues. That ’ s because children may not be able to process their own emotions or articulate problems to parents or other adults. While it may look like an ordinary playtime, play therapy can be much more than that as children learn how to know their strengths and build their skills for best learning”

I like to imagine Goethe and Schiller, those two titans of German culture, in Weimar, where Goethe was Prime Minister and Schiller Professor of History at Jena University, settling down for a game of chess in the evening, over a bottle or two of Goethe ’ s favourite red wine. Perhaps even, ‘’ a Jenenser from Jena, that has lain in a Madeira barrel for a while” …Schiller , it need hardly be said, ordered his wine through Goethe, using Goethe ’ s trusted Erfurt wine merchant, Raman, but sadly only the quotes and wine labels have survived, not the games.

Before leaving you this Easter, here is a position which shows that even Bobby Fischer , traduced last week by John Nunn, was not himself always infallible. 

  See this position after White ’ s 38th move? Here Fischer, as Black, played the supine 38…Rxd1 and lost, when, already having sacrificed his Queen, he could have administered the coup de grace. 38…Re4+ elegantly sacrifices a rook to force mate in three moves. If 38. fxe4 Bg4 + finishes White off. Posterity weeps at this lost opportunity.  

Raymond Keene’s latest book “Fifty Shades of Ray: Chess in the year of the Coronavirus”, containing some of his best pieces from TheArticle, is now available from  Blackwell’s .

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