A Discussion on Chess in Russian Criticism of the 1850s and 1860s

Abstract

Purpose. The article aims to consider the public evaluation of chess and attitude toward this game from the perspective of aesthetic disputes of the 1850s (based on the materials from magazines “Sovremennik”, “Otechestvennye zapiski”, “Russkoe slovo”).Results. The popularization of chess in Russian periodicals such as magazines coincided with socio-cultural changes: the opening of the first society of chess amateurs in St. Petersburg, the publication of many manuals and tutorials, including those written by Russian masters. The key role in the popularization of the chess game was played by the patron of society G. A. Kushelev-Bezborodko, who also supported the appearance of a special supplement in the “Russkoe slovo” magazine. The article deals with the attacks of the satirical weekly magazine “Iskra” on the Chess sheet. Concluding this assault, the “Iskra” columnist Vasiliy Kurochkin quoted poetry by Nickolay Nekrasov “No time for chess, No time for songs”.Conclusion. The article attempts to include local episode from the history of literary struggle in a broader context associated with both the configurations of the reader's and writer's everyday life, and the aesthetic disputes of the era. For the liberal critics of 1850, chess became the center of aesthetic theory, allowing the confrontation between geniuses and talents, for the radical commoners, game became an everyday phenomenon using at leisure.