ABSTRACT

This article examines nineteenth-century chess-player and writer George Walker’s essay ‘Anatomy of the Chess Automaton’ (1839). Walker’s writing frequently highlighted how spaces of urban modernity co-existed uneasily with historical memories. His tendency to highlight disreputable scenarios regarding chess-play can be set against a narrative which suggests chess-play became respectable in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Unusually for Walker, however, his ‘Anatomy of the Chess Automaton’ demonstrates a desire to close off meaning and complexity, to diminish the potential for disreputable acts, whilst existing at odds with the historical context in which he wrote. This cultural mode in which Walker operated in can be viewed through the conceptual frameworks of curiosity (following Barbara M. Benedict) and respectability (following Mike Huggins) which highlight ideas of regulation, consumption, performance, transgression, and ambition. This article employs the frameworks of curiosity and respectability to interrogate related leisure and sporting practices in relation to the Automaton Chess-Player which existed outside the regular boundaries of society. It continues research previously published in Sport in History and elsewhere on the nature of chess-play and chess-spectacle as a disreputable spectacle. Ultimately, I show how both Walker and the object of his essay were curiosities themselves, engaging in an infinite game which produced a jumble of meanings.

摘要

本文考察了 19 世纪国际象棋棋手和作家乔治·沃克 (George Walker) 的论文《国际象棋自动机剖析》(1839)。沃克的作品经常强调城市现代性空间如何与历史记忆不安地共存。他倾向于强调有关国际象棋的声名狼藉的场景，这与一种表明国际象棋在 19 世纪中后期变得受人尊敬的叙事相对。然而，对于沃克来说，不同寻常的是，他的“国际象棋自动机解剖”表现出一种关闭意义和复杂性的愿望，以减少声名狼藉的行为的可能性，同时与他写作的历史背景不一致。沃克运作的这种文化模式可以通过好奇心的概念框架来看待（遵循 Barbara M. 本尼迪克特）和受人尊敬（跟随迈克哈金斯）强调监管、消费、绩效、违规和野心的想法。本文采用好奇心和受人尊敬的框架来询问与存在于社会常规边界之外的自动机国际象棋棋手相关的休闲和运动实践。它继续研究先前发表在历史和其他地方的体育运动将国际象棋比赛和国际象棋奇观视为一种声名狼藉的奇观。最后，我展示了沃克和他的文章的对象本身是如何好奇的，参与了一个无限的游戏，产生了混乱的意义。