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Prolog: The funny side of chess
Chess is a funny thing, isn't it? We all take it very seriously when we are engaged in a tournament game or when we are preparing for one. But when we are not playing, we will see the game in a whole new light. Other players seem to have amusing mannerisms or they look funny. They may be delightfully obsessed with chess, and they may be found immersed in the game in all sorts of unusual places.
Chess brings out the caricature in us all. We all have a "chess personality" which may be entirely different from how we are outside the tournament hall. But when we play, and when someone plays our moves over on their board (if we are GM's!), they will see this chess personality of ours coming out in our moves, in the annotations and in the tournament report.
No wonder then, that chess has always been such a popular subject for biographies, autobiographies and - taking us to the topic - cartoons.
Take a look at the cartoon on the top left. If you know chess, you will identify the person depicted in the cartoon. It is Mikhail Tal, the fierce tactician of past decades. The artist has portrayed the ex-World Champion as a chess pirate - a fitting metaphor for Tal's dashingly vicious attacking play that scared the living daylights out of his opponents. Below Tal is another World Champion, Mikhail Botvinnik, known for his later interest in developing computer chess.
This chess feature section introduces the famous Yugoslav cartoonist Jovan Prokopljevic, whose old and new works - and an artist interview - you will find on these pages.
Part 2: Profile of Jovan Prokopljevic
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