{Photo provided courtesy of Terese & David W. Hatch}
Guido van der Werve (left) and GM Leonid Yudasin at the chess piano during the filming of Mr. van der Werve’s new film taken at the Marshall Chess Club.
{Photo provided courtesy of Terese & David W. Hatch}
The filmmakers added to the excitement of the day as they prepared for the shoot at the Marshall Chess Club.
{Photo provided courtesy of Terese & David W. Hatch}
The string ensemble taking direction from Mr. van der Werve at the Marshall Chess Club.
{Photo provided courtesy of Terese & David W. Hatch}
The filmmakers shown filming the opening scene at the Marshall Chess Club.
{Photo provided courtesy of Terese & David W. Hatch}
Columnist David W. Hatch (front right) can be observed participating while he plays the black pieces at the Marshall Chess Club.
{Photo provided courtesy of Terese & David W. Hatch}
Here we have one of the filmmakers at the controls during the filming at the Marshall Chess Club.
[In October 2008, Dutch artist Guido van der Werve filmed a scene at the Marshall Chess Club in which he plays a game of chess with grandmaster Leonid Yudasin. One of the extras was David W. Hatch who, assisted by Terese Hatch, writes about his adventure in the October-December 2008 issue of Atlantic Chess News.]
The second event was for us a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Dave responded to an open casting call to appear as an extra in a short film by Guido van der Werve, a member of the Marshall Chess Club, a composer of classical music, and an independent filmmaker. Mr. van der Werve was looking for chess playing “men who are 50 and up” to come to the Marshall Chess Club in New York City on October 6, 2008 to play chess “slowly and quietly” during the filming of the opening scene for his short film tentatively entitled, “Number Twaalf” (it being his 12th film).
During filming I asked him why he wanted only males over 50-years-of-age and he told me because he wanted the opening scene to have a “nostalgic feel” to it. I asked his assistant what the film will ultimately be called and she told me a subtitle for the film will be named by Mr. van der Werve at a later date. The press release explains it this way: “The film is about the parallels between chess and piano. Guido van der Werve, who is a classically trained composer, built a chess table which also functions as a mechanical piano. He wrote a composition based on a chess game and the opening of the chess game will be played in this scene of the film in the Marshall Chess Club. The notes generated from the chess piano will be accompanied by a 9-piece string ensemble.”
Mr. van der Werve’s classical composition for the film is titled “The King’s Gambit Accepted” and Mr. van der Werve and GM Leonid Yudasin did indeed play the KGA on the chess piano while the orchestra played Mr. van der Werve’s beautifully somber musical composition. When each move of a chess piece was pressed down on a square, the chess piano played a predetermined musical note composed specifically for that moment.
We will not pretend to know the premise or theme or plot of this short film, but some of Mr. van der Werve’s work can be seen on his website http://www.roofvogel.org/ and we do look forward to seeing the completed project. We did garner an appreciation for how much time and energy it takes to film a movie scene. Everyone involved worked tirelessly for over eight hours to set up, rehearse and film the 12-minute opening scene. A 10-person film crew, cameras, camera crane, crane tracks, sound recording equipment, film recording equipment, still cameras, lights, computers, a 9-piece string ensemble, and 18 chess players crammed into the upstairs playing room of the Marshall Chess Club and all worked in unison and harmony to help create Mr. van der Werve’s avant garde . . . uh . . . brilliancy!
For us, it certainly turned out to be a worthwhile trip to New York City giving us the opportunity to play chess in the historical Marshall Chess Club and absorb some of the history, memorabilia and nostalgia of such a time-honored and prestigious establishment.
