The Nobel Prize and Chess: by Bill Wall

The Nobel Prize and Chess
by Bill Wall
The Nobel Prize is generally recognized

as the highest international
commendation an individual can
receive. It is awarded to people or
organizations that have made
outstanding contributions to society. The
original fields were chemistry, literature,
peace, and physiology or medicine, with
economics added later. A good number
of Nobel Prize winners have played or
written about chess.
Alfred Nobel Bill Wall
In 1901, Emil Von Behring (1854-1917)
won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine for his discovery of a
diphtheria antitoxin. He suffered from
depression and played chess to relieve
his depression, although he hated losing. In life, unlike
In September 1916, he had an operation chess, the game
and he became bedridden for the last 6 continues after
months of his life. During that period, he checkmate. -Isaac
played with his doctor, Georg Magnus Asimov
until he died. (Source: Emil Von
Behring by Derek Linton, 2005, p. 386
and Pioneers of Microbiology and the
Nobel Prize by Ulf Lagerkvist, 2003, p.
107)
In 1902, Emil Fischer (1852-1919) won

the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for
synthesizing methyl benzoate and
caffeine. He was a talented chess player.
(Source: Emil Fischer biography at
http://www.tamu.edu/faculty/biograph/p
3.htm)
In 1903, Bjornstjerne Bjornson (1832-

1910) won the Nobel Prize in Literature.
He was fond of social games and was an
avid chess player. He mentioned chess
in some of his books such as Magnhild,
The Fisher-Maiden, In God's Way, and
Paul Lange and Tora Parsberg.
In 1903, Pierre Curie (1859-1906)

shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for his
work in radiation. Growing up, one of
his favorite amusements was chess.
(Source: Pierre Curie, by Marie Curie, p.
13, 1923)
In 1904, Frederic Mistral (1830-1914)

shared the Nobel Prize in Literature. He
was a chess player. (Source: Ford
Madox Ford, France and Provence, by
Dominique Lemarchal and Claire
Davison-Pegon, 2011, p. 153)
In 1904, John William Strutt (Lord

Rayleigh) won the Nobel Prize in
Physics for discovering argon. He was
the president of the Essex County Chess
Association from 1898 to 1901.
In 1905, Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914)

won the Nobel Peace Prize as a leading
figure in the peace movement. In 1889,
she wrote her pacifist novel, Die Waffen
nieder! (Lay Down Your Arms!). She
had several chess references in her book
and wrote "Austria attacks and gives
mate at the fourth move."
In 1905, Robert Koch (1843-1910) was

the Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine for his research in
tuberculosis. He was an avid chess
player. (Source: biography at
http://www.famousscientists.org/robert-
koch/ and Robert Koch, by Thomas
Brock, 1988, p. 296)
In 1905, Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846-

He wrote about chess in several of his
works. He played chess in many of the
Warsaw cafes. He wrote the historical
novel The Knights of the Cross or The
Teutonic Knights. The book was first
serialized by the magazine Tygodnik
Illustrowany, and then printed in book
form in 1900. It was the first book to be
printed in Poland at the end of World
War II in 1945. The knights play chess
in the evening. Other works of his where
he mentions chess include Hania,
Without Dogma, and With Fire and
Sword.
In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt (1858-

1919) won the Nobel Peace Prize. He
was the 26th U.S. President from 1901
to 1909. In his diaries of boyhood and
youth, he mentions that in 1868, he
visited The Crystal Palace and observed
Ajeeb playing chess. He once played a
game against the automaton Ajeeb when
it came to America, and lost. He played
chess during his hunting trips. In 1899,
as New York governor, he followed the
Universities Cable Match between the
American and British Universities. He
cabled the following message to
London: "Executive Mansion, Albany,
April 21, 1899. International University
Teams, Knickerbocker Athletic club,
New York: Gentlemen: As a graduate of
one of the universities represented and a
warm admirer of all of them, I heartily
congratulate the members of the English
and American university teams on their
first international contest. Chess is, of
course, the game of all games, in point
of skill, of patience, of strategy and
mental darling. May the best team win.
Yours very cordially, Theodore
Roosevelt." In 1906, he invited the chess
players that played at Cambridge
Springs to the White House. He kept a
chess set at the White House.
In 1906, Santiago Ramon y Cajal (1852-

1934) shared the Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine. He was a chess
player who played in several
tournaments, then lost interest in chess.
In his autobiography, Recollections of
My Life, we wrote, "In my opinion, far
from exercising the intelligence, as
many claim, chess warps it and wears it
out."
In 1907, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

won the Nobel Prize in Literature. He
was a chess player. He had a few chess
references in some of his works. In
1908, he wrote The Light That Failed,
where he wrote"...Nilghia, who had
come for chess and remained to talk
tactics..." In 1917, he wrote A Diversity
of Creatures, in which he wrote: "I wish
I'd brought chess, but I can't play chess.
What can we do?" He mentioned chess
in some of his works, such as Captain
Courageous, Actions and Reactions, A
Diversity of Creatures, and The Light
That Failed. Chess is also mentioned in
his short story, The Embroideress of
Treviso.
In 1907, Albert Michelson (1852-1931)

won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his
work on the measurement of the speed
of light. He listed chess, bridge,
billiards, and tennis as his interests
outside of physics. He participated in
several chess tournaments in California
and played a chess game against
American champion, Frank Marshall.
In 1908, Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915)

shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine for his contributions to
immunology. He may have been a chess
player. He had a chess reference in his
book Studies in Immunity written in
1910. He wrote, "...my position is like
that of a chess-player who, even though
his game is won, is forced by the
obstinacy of his opponent to carry it on
move by move until the final mate."
In 1909, Selma Lagerlof (1858-1940)

won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the
first female writer to do so. She
mentioned chess in some of her works
such as Liliecrona's Home, Charlotte
Lowenskold, and Anna Svard.
In 1910, Paul Heyse (1830-1914) won

the Nobel Prize in Literature. He
mentions chess in some of his works. In
his novel The Children of the World,
published in 1890, he wrote, "When the
doctor entered, Balder was sitting at his
turning lathe, making a set of ivory
chess-men." He also wrote, "I vow not
to touch knight or bishop for a month,
until I have arranged my comedy." He
mentioned chess in his book The
Romance of the Canoness, about a lady's
victory at chess over a baron. Chess is
mentioned several times in his book,
Barbaroosa and Other Tales.
In 1912, Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-

He mentions chess in some of his works.
His play, Before Sunset, written in 1931,
has a chess scene. A solitary actor seated
a t a chess board playing over a game of
chess). Chess is mentioned in some of
his works such as Atlantis, Lonely
Lives, and Colleague Crampton.
In 1913, Alfred Werner (1866-1919)
won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for
his work in modern coordination
chemistry. His recreations included
chess and billiards. (Source:
https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes
/chemistry/laureates/1913/werner-
bio.html)
In 1913, Heike Onnes (1853-1926) won

the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work
on the properties of matter at low
temperatures and to the production of
liquid helium. He was an avid chess
player.
In 1913, Charles Richet (1850-1935)

Medicine for his work in anaphylaxis
and allergic reactions. He was a chess
player.
In 1915, Romain Rolland (1866-1944)

his novel, Liluli, written in 1920, he
wrote, "Diplomacy is a game of chess.
The rules demand that, to win, one must
lose pawns. The pawns are there; we
have only to put them on the chess-
board."
In 1915, William Henry Bragg (1862-

1942) shared the Nobel Prize in Physics
with his son, William Lawrence Bragg.
They were awarded for their work in X-
rays and crystal structure. Both were
chess players.
In 1915, William Lawrence Bragg

(1890-1971) shared the Nobel Prize in
Physics for his work in X-rays and
crystal structure. He is the son of
William Henry Bragg, who also won the
1915 Nobel Prize in Physics. Both were
chess players.
In 1916, Verner von Heidenstam (1859-

He mentions chess in some of his works.
In his novel, A King and His
Campaigners, written in 1902, he wrote,
"This war is like a game of chess, in
which all is to protect the King."
In 1917, Karl Gjellerup (1857-1919)

shared the 1917 Nobel Prize in
Literature. He was a Danish poet and
novelist. He mentioned that chess was
an accomplishment of his hero in his
book The Pilgrim Kamanita.
In 1918, Fritz Haber (1868-1934) won

the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his
work on the synthesis of ammonia. He
relaxed by playing chess. (Source:
Prometheans in the Lab, by Sharon
McGrayne, 2001, p. 74)
In 1918, Max Planck (1858-1947) won

the Nobel Prize in Physics for his
discovery of energy quanta. Max Planck
played chess with Emanuel Lasker.
In 1919, Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924)

won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the
28th President of the United States from
1913 to 1921. One of his chess sets is
displayed at the Smithsonian.
Woodrow Wilson — Salomon

Langleben, Buffalo 1898
1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Bf5 3.e3 Nf6 4.c4 e6
5.Nc3 Nc6 6.a3 a6 7.b4 dxc4 8.Bxc4 b5
9.Be2Bd6 10.Nh4 Bg6 11.Bf3 Qd7
12.e4 e5 13.d5 Nd4 14.Nxg6 Nxf3+
15.Qxf3 fxg6 16.Bb2 O-O 17.O-O Nxd5
18.Qg3 Nf4 19.Rad1 Qe7 20.Rd2 c6
21.Rfd1 Rad8 22.f3 Bc7 23.Qf2 Qg5
24.Kh1 Rxd2 25.Rxd2 Rb8 26.Rd7 Bb6
27.Qd2 Be3 28.Qc2 Nh3 29.Nd1 Bb6
30.Qxc6 Nf4 31.Qc2 h6 32.Bc1 Qh4
33.Qd2 Rc8 34.Ne3 Bxe3 35.Qxe3 Rc2
36.Bd2 Rb2 37.g3 Rb1+ 38.Bc1 Qh3
39.Rxg7+ Kxg7 40.Qa7+ Kf6 41.Qb6+
Ne6 42.Qg1 Rb3 43.Qd1 Nd4 44.f4
Rxg3 45.fxe5+ Kxe5 0-1
In 1921, Frederick Soddy (1877-1956)

his research in radioactive decay and his
formulation of the theory of isotopes. He
was secretary of the Oxford University
Chess Club in 1898 and Captain of the
Oxford University Chess Club in 1900.
Frederick Soddy — Creassey Tattersall,

London 1900
1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 e6 4. e3 Nf6
5. Bxc4 Be7 6. O-O O-O 7. Nc3 b6 8.
Nd2 Bb7 9. Nb3 Nbd7 10. f3 c5 11. e4
cxd4 12. Qxd4 e5 13. Qd1 Qc7 14. Qe2
Rac8 15. Nd5 Nxd5 16. Bxd5 Bxd5 17.
exd5 Nf6 18. Rd1 Rfd8 19. f4 exf4 20.
Bxf4 Qxf4 21. Qxe7 Re8 22. Qxa7 Ng4
23. Qxb6 Qxh2+ 24. Kf1 Ne3+ 0-1
Franklin Hopkins — Soddy, USA-OK

universities cable match, 1900 1. e4 e5
2. Bc4 Bc5 3. c3 Nf6 4. d4 exd4 5. e5
dxc3 6. exf6 Qxf6 7. Qe2+ Kd8 8. bxc3
Re8 9. Be3 Bxe3 10. fxe3 d6 11. Nf3
Be6 12. Bd3 g6 13. O-O Nd7 14. Nd4
Qe5 15. Nd2 Bg4 16. N2f3 Qxe3+ 17.
Qf2 Qxd3 18. Qh4+ f6 19. Qxg4 f5 20.
Qh4+ Kc8 21. Rae1 Rxe1 22. Rxe1 b6
23. Qe7 Ne5 24. Nxe5 Qxc3 25. Nef3
Kb7 26. Qf7 Rd8 27. Qd5+ Ka6 28. Nb5
Qb2 29. Re3 Qa1+ 30. Ne1 c5 31. Nc7+
Ka5 32. Ra3+ 1-0
In 1921, Anatole France (1844-1924)

Anatole's first novel, The Crime of
Sylvestre Bonnard, published in 1881,
he wrote, "Still smiling, he proposed me
the 'Regle des Jeux de la Societe' —
piquet, bezique, ecarte, whist, dice,
draughts, and chess." In Farinata Degli
Uberti; or Civil War, published in 1900,
he wrote, "The pursuit of such an
interest is no mere game played
according to rule, like chess or
draughts." He mentioned chess in a few
of his other works such as At the Sign of
the Reine Pedauque and On Life and
Letters.
In 1921, Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

discovery of the law of the photoelectric
effect. He was good friends with
Emanuel Lasker. Einstein wrote a
preface to Hannak's Emanuel Lasker, the
Life of a Chess Master. Einstein was an
amateur chess player who played with
neighbors and friends. He always had a
chessboard set up at his home. He was
probably most active in chess in the late
1920s and early 1930s. Some sources
say that Einstein was so against conflict
of any kind that he didn't even like to
play chess, bridge, or the new game of
Monopoly.
In 1922, Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930)

won the Nobel Peace Prize for his
humanitarian work. He was an explorer
and played chess on his voyages.
(Source: Farthest North, by F. Nansen in
1897, p. 131, and Dridtjof Nansen, by
Jacob Bull, 1903, p. 94)
In 1922, Niels Bohr (1885-1962) won

contributions to understanding atomic
structure. He was a chess player.
(Source: Betty Schultz interview by
Aage Petersen and Paul Foreman, 1963)
In 1923, William B. Yeats (1865-1939)

was an Irish poet and an avid chess
player. He wrote a chess scene for Time
and the Witch Vivien. Yeats often
associated chess with death or the life
after death. Chess is mentioned in some
of his other works such as John
Sherman, and Dhoya, and Deirde (about
a chess board and a King and Queen
who played upon it). His son was
Honorary Secretary the chess club at
Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.
In 1925, Austen Chamberlain (1863-

1937) shared the Nobel Peace Prize. He
was the half-brother of Neville
Chamberlain. In 1889, he was President
of the West Birmingham Chess and
Draughts Club. He played at near master
level.
In 1925, George Bernard Shaw (1856-

Although he played chess, he wrote that
"Chess is a foolish expedient for making
idle people believe they are doing
something very clever when they are
only wasting their time." As a music
critic, he said this of England, "This
unhappy country would be as prolific of
musical as of literary composers were it
not for our schools of music, where they
seize the young musician, turn his
attention forcibly away from the artistic
element in his art, and make him
morbidly conscious of its mechanical
conditions, especially the obsolete ones,
until he at last becomes, not a composer,
but an adept in a horribly dull sort of
chess played with lines and dots, each
player having different notions of what
the right rules are, and playing his game
so as to flourish his view under the
noses of those who differ from him.
Then he offers his insufferable gambits
to the public as music, and is outraged
because I criticize it as music and not as
chess." In his book, Back to Methuselah,
he mentioned that the newspapers were
occupied by the exploits of Sammy
Reshevsky at age 8 defeating 20 adult
players simultaneously. He also
mentioned chess in his book, The
Irrational Knot.
In 1925, James Franck (1882-1964)

shared the Nobel Prize on Physics for
his studies of the impact of an electron
on an atom. He was a chess player.
In 1927, Henri Bergson (1859-1941)

won the Nobel Prize in Literature. As a
French philosopher, he mentions chess
in a few of his works. In 1920, he wrote
Mind-Energy: Lectures and Essays. On
page 196-197, he discussed the memory
of chess players and how they play
blindfold chess.
In 1927, Julius Wagner-Jauregg (1857-

1940) won the Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine for his work on
malaria inoculation. He was an avid
chess player in Vienna. One night in
September, a Berlin reporter woke him
from a sound sleep around 1 a.m. to tell
him that he won the Nobel Prize. After
that news, he could not sleep: he got up
and played chess against himself.
(Source:
http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm
/2753.html and The Malaria Project, by
Karen Masterson, 2014)
In 1928, Sigrid Undset (1882-1949) won

the Nobel Prize in Literature. She
mentions chess in several of her works.
In her 1921 book, Kristin Lavransdatter
II: The Wife, she describes chess play
between Erlend and his father-in-law.
She mentioned chess in some of her
works such as The Son Avenger, The
Mistress of Husaby, and The Cross.
In 1929, Thomas Mann won the Nobel

Prize in Literature. He included a brief
chess playing scene in a sanitarium in
The Magic Mountain, published in 1924.
Chess is also mentioned in his book
Buddenbrooks, as well as some of his
short stories.
In 1930, Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951)

wrote Main Street, Babbitt, Arrowsmith,
Elmer Gantry, and Cass Timberlane.
During the last period of his life, he
would hire secretaries to play chess with
him and keep him company. He would
pay them a month to learn the game,
then paid them as his secretary to play
chess. He secretaries included San
Francisco writer Barnaby Conrad and
John Hershey. Other friends that visited
Sinclair Lewis to play chess included
Bennett Cerf, Carl Van Doren, and John
Gunther. He took chess lessons from Al
Horowitz.
In 1931, Jane Addams (1860-1935)

shared the Nobel Peace Prize for her
social work. She was a chess player.
(Source: Jane Addams by Judith Fradin,
p. 24; The Selected Papers of Jane
Addams, vol 2, p. 178)
In 1932, Irving Langmuir (1881-1957)
his work in surface chemistry. He was
an avid chess player. (Source: The
Quintessence of Irving Langmuir by
Albert Rosenfeld, 1966, p. 78)
In 1932, John Galsworthy (1867-1933)

won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Chess
is mentioned in several of his books,
such as The Island Pharisees, The
Country House, Five Tales, and The
First and Last. He played chess with
several ship passengers as he crossed the
Atlantic a few times.
In 1932, Werner Heisenberg (1901-

1976) won the Nobel Prize in Physics
for his work in quantum mechanics. He
was a strong chess player and was
probably taught chess by his father. He
spent his free time in the evenings
playing chess, which he always won. He
often held chess matches under his desk
at school and could give Queen odds and
still win. He would often play blindfold
chess with his father while hiking. He
was able to reconstruct entire games
from memory. After he entered the
university in Munich, his obsession with
chess became so obvious that Professor
Arnold Sommerfeld (1868-1951) finally
had to forbid him to play, claiming it
was a waste of his time and talents.
Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958) also told
Heisenberg to give up chess and save
whatever intellectual effort he could
muster for physics. Heisenberg
continued to play chess, however.
During World War II, Heisenberg was
convinced Germany would lose the war.
He once said, "Hitler has a chess
endgame with one rook less than the
others, so he will lose — it will take a
year." According to his wife, Heisenberg
saw politics as a "game of chess, in
which the feelings and passions of
people are subordinated to the charted
course of political events, just as the
chess figures to the rules of the game."
In 1933, Paul Dirac (1902-1984) shared

in quantum mechanics. He was a chess
player, probably taught by his father,
who gave him a chess set for Christmas.
In his biography, The Strangest Man —
The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac,
Quantum Genius, by Graham Farmelo, it
stated that Dirac worked all day long
and took time off only for his Sunday
walk and to play chess. He beat most
students in the college chess club,
sometimes several at the same time. He
served for many years as president of the
chess club of St. John's College,
Cambridge. With his stepson, he would
go over chess problems that they found
in newspapers. He played chess with
friends such as Peter Kapitza (1894-
1984), a Russian physicist, who taught
Dirac how to play tennis. When he
lectured, he sometime linked subatomic
particles to chess. In 1929, Dirac
discussed chess problems with
Heisenberg on their tour to Japan. After
his return to Leipzig, Heisenberg wrote
to Dirac: "You are wrong...in the
question of mating a King and a Knight
with a King and Rook; this is not
possible according to the edition of 1926
of Dufresne's handbook of chess (the
best book about theory of chess)."
(source: Dirac: A Scientific Biography,
by Helge Kragh, 1990, p. 259)
In 1933, Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961)

work in quantum mechanics. He once
wrote "I do like chess, but it has turned
out to be not the appropriate relaxation
from the work I am doing."
In 1934, Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936)

was an Italian dramatist and novelist.
Chess is mentioned in some of his
works, such as Tales of Suicide and
Berecche and the War.
In 1935, James Chadwick (1891-1974)

discovery of the neutron. He played
chess in college at the University of
Manchester. (Source: interview by
Charles Weiner in 1969
https://www.aip.org/history-
programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-
histories/3974-1)
In 1936, Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953)

was an American playwright. Chess is
mentioned in some of his plays. He
compared card players to mechanical
chess players in Long Day's Journey into
Night.
In 1937, Clinton Davisson (1881-1958)

discovery of electron diffraction. He was
fond of chess, bridge, and the piano.
(Source: The Pantagraph, Oct 27, 2013 -
https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/
73414796/)
In 1937, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi (1893-

Physiology or Medicine for discovering
vitamin C. He was president of the
Szeged chess circle in Hungary.
In 1938, Richard Kuhn (1900-1967)
his work on vitamins. He was an
excellent chess player. (Source: Selected
Topics in the History of Biochemistry,
vol 38, by G. Semenza,1995, p. 39)
In 1938, Pearl Buck (1892-1973) won

the Nobel Prize in Literature. She was a
chess player. She mentions chess in
some of her works. In her last novel The
Eternal Wonder, written in 1973, there
are several references to chess.
In 1938, Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) won

on induced radioactivity. He was a chess
player, but a poor one at that. (Source:
Fermi Remembered by James Cronin,
2004, p. 180)
In 1944, Isidor Rabi (1898-1988) won

discovery of nuclear magnetic
resonance. He was an avid chess player
who started playing chess before high
school. (Source: Interview by Thomas
Kuhn in 1963 -
https://www.aip.org/history-
programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-
histories/4836)
In 1945, Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958)

exclusion principle in quantum physics.
He may not have been a chess player.
He told Werner Heisenberg to give up
chess and save whatever intellectual
effort he could muster for physics.
In 1946, Herman Karl Hesse (1877-

He wrote Steppenwolf in 1926 and had
it published in 1927. One of the chapters
is called "The Chess Player." The novel
mentions a gifted chess player who
offers to show Harry Haller how to
assemble his life. The novel was
translated into English in 1929.
In 1946, Percy Williams Bridgman

(1882-1961) won the Nobel Prize in
Physics for his work on the physics of
high pressures. He played on the
Harvard varsity chess team and
represented his school in many college
events and the beginning of the 20th
century.
In 1946, Hermann Joseph Muller (1890-

genetic effects of radiation. He may
have not been a chess player, but he is
the one that persuaded Regina Wender
to move to Moscow to study medicine in
1933. Regina moved to Moscow,
enrolled in the Sechenov First Moscow
State Medical University, where she met
and married Hans-Gerhardt Fischer. In
1943, Robert James Fischer was born in
Chicago.
In 1947, Robert Robinson (1886-1975)

won the Nobel Prize on Chemistry for
his work on plant dyestuffs and
alkaloids. He was president of the
British Chess Federation (1950-1953)
and played correspondence chess while
in his 80s. He co-wrote a book called
The Art and Science of Chess.
In 1947, Andre Gide won the Nobel

Prize in Literature. He was an ardent
lover of chess. Her wrote about chess in
some of his works.
In 1948, T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) won the

Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote the
Waste Land in 1922. One of the chapters
(chapter 2) is called "A Game of Chess."
The title comes from the plays of the
early 17th-century playwright Thomas
Middleton, in which the moves in a
game of chess denote stages in
seduction. Eliot portrays a wealthy,
high-class woman planning for an
excursion and a game of chess.
In 1949, William Faulkner (1897-1962),

wrote a book called Knight's Gambit,
with six mystery stories, written in 1949.
The metaphor is that when a knight
simultaneously attacks the opposing
queen and rook, to save the queen, you
must let the rook go. The main character
must make difficult and painful
decisions, often between the lesser of
two evils, saving the queen but losing
the rook.
In 1950, Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

played chess with his family and said he
lost friends to one of three addictions:
alcohol or religion or chess.
In 1950, Edward Kendall (1886-1972)

Medicine. He discovered the hormone
cortisone. He was a doctor at the Mayo
Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and an
ardent chess player and a
correspondence chess player.
In 1951, John Cockroft (1897-1967)

shared the 1951 Nobel Prize in Physics
for splitting the atomic nucleus. He was
a chess player.
In 1952, Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was an
avid chess player.
In 1953, Winston Churchill (1874-1965)

served as Prime Minister of the United
Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, and from
1951 to 1955.He was taught chess by his
father, Lord Randolph Churchill (1849-
1895), who was vice-president of the
British Chess Association. As a young
war correspondent, he spent his
afternoons playing chess. (Source:
Winston Churchill Reporting:
Adventures of a Young War
Correspondent, by Simon Read, 2015, p.
45)
In 1955, Halldor Laxness (1902-1998)

mentions chess in a few of his works. In
1948, he wrote The Atom Station, which
has a few references to chess.
In 1955, Willis Eugene Lamb (1913-

2008) shared the Nobel Prize in Physics
for his discoveries concerning the fine
structure of the hydrogen spectrum. He
played in a few chess tournaments in
California. In high school, he was one of
about 30 students who played
simultaneously against world champion
Alexander Alekhine. Lamb won his
game against Alekhine. In 1933, Lamb
took 2nd place at an intercollegiate
chess tournament held at the World's
Fair in Chicago. He then won the rapid-
transit tournament. (Source: Willis E.
Lamb, Jr. 1913-2008, a Biographical
Memoir by Leon Cohen, M. Scully, and
R. Scully, 2009, p. 4)
In 1956, John Bardeen (1908-1991)

shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for the
invention of the transistor. He is the only
person to have won the Nobel Prize in
Physics twice (he won it again in 1972).
He was a chess player.
In 1958, Boris Pasternak (1890-1960)

wrote Dr. Zhivago. He was an avid
chess player. His love for chess was
second only to his devotion to literature.
He was an enthusiastic spectator at the
great international tournaments in
Moscow in 1935 and 1936.
Alexander Bek — Boris Pasternak,

Moscow 1947
1.e4 Nf6 2.Nc3 d5 3.exd5 Nxd5 4.Nxd5
Qxd5 5.d3 e5 6.c4 Qa5+ 7.Bd2 Bb4
8.Bxb4 Qxb4+ 9.Qd2 Nc6 10.Qxb4
Nxb4 11.Kd2 Bf5 12.a3 Nxd3 13.Bxd3
O-O-O 14.Nf3 Rxd3+ 15.Ke2 Rb3
16.Rhd1 Rxb2+ 17.Kf1 f6 18.Rac1 Rd8
19.Rxd8+ Kxd8 20.Rc3 Rc2 21.Rb3 b6
22.Rb4 Rxc4 23.Rxc4 Bd3+ 0-1
In 1958, Igor Tamm (1895-1971) shared

the Nobel Prize in Physics for their
discovery of Cherenkov radiation. He
was a chess player. He liked very much
to play chess but was not a first-rate
player. (Source: I.E. Tamm: Selected
Papers, edited by B. Bolotovskii and V.
Frenkel, 1991, p 19-20 and The Physics
of a Lifetime, by Vitaly Ginzburg, 2013,
p. 357)
In 1962, John Steinbeck (1902-1968)

wrote The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice
and Men. He was a chess player and
mentioned chess in some of his works,
such as Sweet Tuesday, written in 1954.
A character says that you cannot rig a
game of chess. Someone else responds,
"There must be some way to kind of
bend the odds in chess."
In 1963, Eugene Wigner (1902-1995)

contributions to the theory of the atomic
nucleus and the elementary particles. He
was a chess player.
In 1965, Richard Feynman (1918-1988)

for his work on quantum
electrodynamics. He also discovered
superfluidity and developed the first
quark theory. He used rules of chess to
illustrate the laws of physics. He was a
member of his high school chess club.
In 1965, Julian Schwinger (1918-1994)

for his work in quantum
electrodynamics. He played chess while
in college. (Source: Climbing the
Mountain: The Scientific Biography of
Julian Schwinger, by Jagdish Mehra and
K. Milton, 2000, p. 47)
In 1966, Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1888-

Literature. He mentions chess in a few
of his works. In A Simple Story, first
published in Hebrew in 1935, there are
several references to chess. In 1938, he
published A Guest for the Night, which
has several references. He wrote that in
the house of a Zion Group, "We play
chess and talk politics, and we exhaust
every subject."
In 1967, Hans Bethe (1906-2005) won

on the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis.
He was a chess player who could play
chess by memory and without a chess
board. (Source: Nuclear Forces: The
Making of the Physicist Hans Bethe, by
Silvan Schweber, 2012, p. 47)
In 1968, Lars Onsager (1903-1976) won

work on superfluid properties. He was a
chess player who regarded chess as too
much like ral-problem solving to spend
too much time on it. (Source: Lars
Onsager, A Biographical Memoir, by C.
Longuet-Higgins and M. Fisher, 1991, p.
190)
In 1969, Ragnar Frisch (1895-1973)

shared the Nobel Prize in Economics.
He was a chess player and was often
seen playing chess with his students.
In 1969, Samuel Beckett (1906-1989)

was an Irish writer, dramatist and poet.
He wrote Waiting for Godot. He wrote a
one-act play called Endgame. He often
played chess with Marcel Duchamp.
During his student years, he played on
the chess team at Trinity College in
Dublin. In 1935, he wrote Murphy, his
first published novel. In the novel, the
protagonist Murphy takes a job as a
male nurse in a mental hospital (the
Magdalen Mental Mercyseat) where he
plays chess with Mr. Endon, a
schizophrenic patient there. Chess is
Endons one frivolity. All the moves are
in the novel, which lasts 43 moves.
Murphy was written at a time when
Beckett was undergoing psychoanalysis
in London and playing a lot of chess.
Beckett himself was an avid chess
player who often played chess with
Marcel Duchamp.
In 1969, Max Delbruck (1906-1981)

Medicine for his work in the genetic
structure of viruses. He was a chess
player. He invited many people to his
home and play chess at no more than
one minute per move. (Source: Max
Delbruck by Edward Lewis, Oral
History,
http://library.cshl.edu/oralhistory/intervi
ew/cshl/memories/edward-lewis-max-
delbruck/ and Max Delbruck and the
New Perception of Biology, 1906-1981,
by Walter Shropshire, 2006, p. 144)
In 1970, Alekandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-

He has made several chess references in
his works.
In 1970, Bernard Katz (1911-2003)

Medicine for his work on
neurophysiology of the synapse. He was
born in Leipzig. He chose to learn Latin
and Greek rather than mathematics
because, he said, it game him more time
to play chess in the cafes of Leipzig. He
developed a lifelong passion for chess.
In 1971, Willy Brandt (1913-1992) won

the Nobel Peace Prize. He was
Chancellor of West Germany from 1969
to 1974. He was a chess player.
In 1971, Gerhard Herzberg (1904-1999)

his contributions to the knowledge of
electronic structure. He was a chess
player who relaxed at home by playing
chess. (Source: Gerhard Herzberg: An
Illustrious Life in Science, by Boris
Stoicheff, 2002, p. 207)
In 1971, Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) won

the Nobel Prize in Literature. He once
said, "To me [chess] is poetry, the poetry
of fight, intelligence and will."
In 1972, Heinrich Boll (1917-1985) won

the 1972 Nobel Prize in Literature. He
1956, he wrote Like a Bad Dream where
one of his characters is at the Gaffel
Club playing chess, as he does every
Wednesday. In 1963 he wrote The
Clown and had this chess reference: "I
even managed to get Marie, who prefers
chess, addicted to this game [parchesi]."
In 1973, Henry Kissinger (1923- )

shared the Nobel Peace Prize. He served
as National Security Advisor and
Secretary of State in the Richard Nixon
administration. Kissinger called Bobby
Fischer several times during the 1972
World Chess Championship match to
encourage Fischer to play on and defeat
Spassky.
In 1973, Ivar Giaever (1929- ) shared

on the tunneling phenomena in solids.
He learned chess from his father and
used chess to illustrate the science of
Nature. He played a lot of chess as a
university student and wanted to be a
chess champion. (Source:
Superconductivity: Discoveries and
Discoverers, by Kristian Fossheim,
2013, p. 56)
In 1974, Sean MacBride (1904-1988)

shared the Nobel Peace Prize. He was a
chess player. (Source: Sean MacBride,
A Life: From IRA Revolutionary to
International Statesman, by Elizabeth
Keane, 2007, p. 39)
In 1974, Friedrich Hayek (1899-1992)
He was a chess player.
In 1975, Andrei Sakharov (1921-1989)

won the Nobel Peace Prize. He and his
wife were chess players. (Source:
Andrei Sakharov: Facets of a Life, 1991,
Lebedev Physics Institute, p. 522-523)
In 1975, John Cornforth (1917-2013)

shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for
his work on the stereochemistry of
enzyme-catalyzed reactions. He has
played chess all his life. He was a strong
county and correspondence chess player.
He competed in the New South Wales
Chess Championship in 1937 at the age
of 20. He was perhaps the strongest
chess player of all Nobel Prize winners.
John Cornforth — F. Kelly, Perth 1937

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 f6 3. Nxe5 Qe7 4. Nf3 d5
5. d3 Bf5 6. Be2 dxe4 7. dxe4 Qxe4 8.
O-O Bd6 9. Bb5+ Kf8 10. Re1 Qg4 11.
h3 Qh5 12. Re8+ Qxe8 13. Bxe8 Kxe8
14. Nc3 a6 15. Qd5 Bc8 16. Bd2 Ne7
17. Re1 Nd7 18. Ne4 Rf8 19. Nxd6+
cxd6 20. Qxd6 1-0
John Cornforth — Cecil Purdy,

Australian Correspondence Ch 1937 1.
d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 d5 5.
cxd5 exd5 6. e3 O-O 7. Bd3 c6 8. Ne2
Re8 9. Bd2 Nbd7 10. Ng3 Nf8 11. O-O
a6 12. Na4 Bd6 13. Rfc1 Ng4 14. Be1
Qh4 15. h3 Nxe3 16. Qd2 Nxg2 17.
Kxg2 Bxh3+ 0-1
In 1975, Aage Bohr (1922- ) shared the

Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery
of the connection between collective
motion and particle motion in atomic
nuclei. His father was Niels Bohr, who
won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922.
Aage Bohr and his father were chess
players. (Source: Betty Schultz
interview by Aage Petersen and Paul
Foreman, 1963)
In 1976, William Lipscomb (1919-2011)

his work on chemical bonds. He was a
chess player. (Source:
http://wlipscomb.tripod.com/wnl_life.ht
ml)
In 1976, Milton Friedman (1912-2006)

won the Nobel Prize in Economics. He
was a chess player. He played on his
high school chess team in Rathway,
New Jersey. (Source: Milton Friedman:
A Biography, by Lanny Ebenstein,
2007, p. 10)
In 1976, Saul Bellow (1915-2005) won

the Nobel Prize in Literature. He learned
how to play chess as a boy. (Source: The
Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and
Fortune, 1915-1964, by Zachary Leader,
2015). He had a few chess references in
his novel, The Adventures of Augie
March, published in 1953.
In 1978, Menachem Begin (1913-1992)

shared the Nobel Peace Prize together
with Anwar Sadat. He was the sixth
prime minister of the State of Israel. He
played Zbigniew Brzezinski at Camp
David and won. In 1940 he was playing
a game of chess with his wife when
Russian soldiers burst into his home to
arrest him. As they dragged him away,
he shouted to Mrs. Begin, "I resign."
In 1978, Anwar Sadat (1918-1981

shared the Nobel Peace Prize. He was
the third President of Egypt, serving
from 1970 until his assassination in
1981. He was a chess player. In 1978,
Herbert Simon (1916-2001) won the
Nobel Prize in Economics. He was an
American psychologist and made a
study of chess players. In 1957, he
predicted a digital computer would beat
the world chess champion by 1967. He
developed a chess program in the 1950s
and co-invented the alpha-beta
algorithm in chess.
In 1978, Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-

He was a chess player. In an interview,
he said, "I consider chess the fairest of
games because the opponents can hide
nothing from each other." He had a
chess prodigy character in his book
Shadows of the Hudson, written in 1997.
Singer is also quoted as saying, "We all
play chess with Fate as partner. He
makes a move, we make a move. He
tries to checkmate us in three moves, we
try to prevent it. We know we can't win,
but we're driven to give him a good
fight." In 1968, he wrote 'A Friend of
Kafka' for The New Yorker. He
mentions chess being played by Kafka
and Jacques Kohn.
In 1978, Pyotr Kapitsa (1894-1984)

work in low-temperature physics. He
was a first category chess player in the
USSR, rated about 2000. He played
chess with Paul Dirac at Cambridge in
1928. When he was living in Paris at one
time, he used to make a living by
playing chess in the small cafes for some
stake. He pretended he was just a
beginner and, in the end, he would
usually win. He was frequently Stalin's
chess partner.
In 1979, Abdus Salam (1926-1996)
work on the electro-weak theory. He
played chess in college and spent many
hours at the game before being
reprimanded by his father for wasting
valuable study time.
In 1979, Allan McLeod Cormack (1924-

X-ray computer tomography (CT). He
was a chess player. (Source: Imagining
the Elephant: Biography of Allan
MacLeod Cormack, by Christopher
Vaughan, 2008, p. 18)
In 1981, Elias Canetti (1905-1994) won

the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 1935,
he wrote Auto-da-Fe (meaning "act of
faith" in Portuguese), his only work of
fiction. The original title was Die
Blendung, "The Blinding." The title
refers to the burning of heretics by the
Inquisition. Canetti finished the
manuscript in 1931 and had it published
in his home town at that time, Vienna,
1935. It is Canetti's first publication. It
was published in English in 1946. The
main character, Peter Klein, meets a
hunched back dwarf called Fischerle
who fancies himself as a world chess
champion. Fischerle spends his time
fantasizing about becoming wealthy and
winning the world chess championship
in America, then building himself a
palace. He then fantasizes that he will
become an American citizen, drop the
—le from his name, and become
Fischer. How ironic that Canetti
predicted the first official American
world chess champion would be named
Fischer before Fischer was born in
1943.
In 1982, Aaron Klug (1926- ) won the

Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his
development of electron microscopy. He
was a chess player, but gave it up,
saying "It wasn't work remembering all
those things in the game." (Source: oral
interview -
ew/scientific-experience/becoming-
scientist/what-it-takes-be-scientist/)
In 1982, Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1927-

2014) won the Nobel Prize in Literature
and is the author of One Hundred Years
of Solitude. He mentioned chess in
several of his works, such as Love in the
Time of Cholera where the doctor, Dr.
Urbino, and his friend, Jeremiah de
Saint-Amour, plays chess until his friend
commits suicide with a cyanide capsule.
He also wrote The Long Chess Night of
Paul Badura-Skoda.
In 1982, John Vane (1927-2004) shared

Medicine for his work on ACE
inhibitors and on how aspirin works. He
was a chess player. (Source: Blindfold
Chess, by Eliot Hearst and John Knott,
2009, p. 4)
In 1983, Gerard Debreu (1921-2004)

won the Nobel Prize in Economics. He
was a chess player.
In 1983, William Golding (1911-1993)

won the Nobel Prize in Literature. In
1954, he wrote Lord of the Flies. One of
the quotes from that novel is "The only
trouble was that he would never be a
very good chess player." Golding listed
chess as one of his hobbies and he used
to play correspondence chess. He
included a chess theme in his 1979 book
Darkness Visible. He was playing a
game of chess when he heard that he had
won the Nobel Prize.
In 1984, Niels Kaj Jerne (1911-1994)

Medicine for his work on understanding
the immune system. During his youth he
developed a strong interest in chess. He
listed chess as one of his favorite
pastimes. (Source: encyclopedia.com -
http://www.encyclopedia.com/science/di
ctionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-
press-releases/jerne-niels-kaj)
In 1986, Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) won

the Nobel Peace Prize. Chess was the
one game he enjoyed as a child. (Source:
Elie Wiesel: Spokesman for
Remembrance, by Linda Bayer, 2000, p.
10)
In 1986, Dudley Herschbach (1932- )

his work concerning the dynamics of
chemical elementary processes. He was
a chess player.
In 1986, Wole Soyinka (1934- ) won the

Nobel Prize in Literature. He is an avid
chess player. He is good friends with
Boris Spassky.
In 1987, Karl Alexander Mueller (1927-

) shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for
his work in superconductivity in ceramic
materials. He was a chess player.
(Source: Oral history of Alex Mueller -
http://ethw.org/Oral-
History:K._Alex_M%C3%BCller)
In 1988, Johann Deisenhofer (1943- )

his work on crystal structure of an
integral membrane protein. He was also
a chess player. (Source: Johann
Deisenhofer — encyclopedia.com)
In 1989, Trygve Haavelmo (1911-1999)

won the Nobel Prize in Economics for
his study of probability theory in
economics. He was a chess player. He
played chess as a form of relaxation.
(Source: Norwegian Nobel Prize
Laureates, by Olav Bjerkholt, 1989)
In 1989, Camilo Jose Cela (1916-2002)

mentioned chess in some of his works.
In Mazurka for Two Dead Men, written
in 1983, he wrote, "The Casandulfe
Raimundo plays chess with Robin
Lebozan, he always beats him." In The
Hive, written in 1951, he wrote, "After
lunch Don Pablo goes to a quiet cafe on
the Calle de San Bernardo to have his
game of chess with Don Francisco
Robles y Lopez-Paton..."
In 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev (1931- )

won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was the
last General Secretary of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union, serving from
1985 to 1991. He has been involved
with the Chess for Peace initiative with
former world chess champion Anatoly
Karpov.
In 1990, Harry Markowitz (1927- )

He is a chess player and speaks about
the similarities in chess and investing.
In 1991, Ronald Coase (1910-2013) won

the Nobel Prize in Economics. He was a
chess player. (Source: Ronald H. Coase
— Biographical at nobelprize.org)
In 1992, Rudolph A. Marcus (1923- )

his contributions to the theory of
electron transfer reactions in chemical
systems. He was a chess player. (Source:
Rudolph A. Marcus interview by Shirley
Cohen, 1993 -
http://oralhistories.library.caltech.edu/13
9/1/Marcus_OHO.pdf)
In 1992, Derek Walcott (1930- ) won the

Nobel Prize in Literature. He had a few
chess references in his works. He
mentions chess in some of his poems,
such as in his poem White Egrets,
written in 2010.
In 1993, Nelson Mandella shared the

Nobel Peace Prize after 27 years in
prison. He played chess while in prison.
(Source: Nelson Mandela — a man for
the ages, at Chessbase -
https://en.chessbase.com/post/nelson-
mandela-a-man-for-the-ages)
In 1993, Douglass North shared the

Nobel Prize in Economics. He was a
chess player. (Source: Douglass North
In 1993, Richard J. Roberts (1943- )

shared the Nobel Peace Prize in
Physiology or Medicine for his
discovery of introns in eukaryotic DNA.
He is a chess player. (Source: Richard J.
Roberts — Biographical at
nobelprize.org).
In 1994, Yasser Arafat (1929-2004)

chess player. Source:
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/gall/0,8542,
1344540,00.html)
In 1994, Shimon Peres (1923-2016)

chess player and took interest in visiting
chess clubs and chess academies in
Israel.
In 1994, Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995)

shared the Nobel Peace Prize. He taught
his children and grandchildren how to
play chess. (Source: Yitzhak Rabin:
From Soldier to Peacemaker, by Libby
Hughes, 2001, p. 88)
In 1994, John Harsanyi (1920-2001)

Chess was once his passion but gave it
up later in life. He said, "At one point I
lost most of my chess games. Then I
realized many of my competitors were
memorizing the best moves and I was
unwilling to do this."
In 1994, John Forbes Nash (1928-2015)

shared the Nobel Prize in Economics for
his work in game theory, where he
called chess a "zero-sum" game. He
played chess in his younger years. Just
before his death, Nash traveled to
Europe and met Magnus Carlsen in
Norway.
In 1994, Reinhard Selten (1930-2016)

shared the Nobel Prize in Economics for
his work in game theory. He was a chess
player. He said that his economic theory
and acknowledging hostile takeovers
was like playing chess. "You have to
think hard about what you think your
opponent will do, and then you plan
your own strategy based on that. You
may not always be right, but such
thinking probably makes you play better
and keeps you from making many dumb
moves."
In 1994, Kenzaburo Oe (1935- ) won the

Nobel Prize in Literature. He has
In The Crazy Iris, written in 1985, he
wrote, "In the evening I played chess
with my friend but soon became tired
and went to bed..."
In 1995, Paul J. Crutzen (1933- ) shared

work on climate change research. He is
a chess player. (Source: Paul J. Crutzen
In 1995, Edward B. Lewis (1918-2004)

Medicine for his work on genetics. He
was an avid chess player. (Source:
Genes, Development and Cancer: The
Life of Edward B. Lewis, by Howard
Lipshitz, 2007, p. 10)
In 1996, Harry Kroto (1939-2016)

his discovery of fullerenes, molecules of
carbon. He learned how to play chess as
a kid but said he was pretty awful at
chess. (Source: Times Higher Education
-
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/
news/harry-kroto/179157.article)
In 1998, Ferid Murad (1936- ) shared

Medicine. He is a chess player. (Source:
Ferid Murad — Biographical at
nobelprize.org)
In 1999, Robert Mundell (1932- ) won

the Nobel Prize in Economics. He laid
the groundwork for the introduction of
the euro. He sponsored a major chess
tournament in China (Pearl Spring in
Nanjing), saying that the best way for
Chinese cities to show openness to the
outside world is to host world-class
chess tournaments. For relaxation, he
plays chess and played chess in high
school.
In 2000, James Heckman (1944- )

He is an economics professor at the
University of Chicago. He is a chess
player. His son, Jonathan, also plays
chess.
In 2000, Gao Xingjian (1940- ) won the

Nobel Prize in Literature. He mentions
chess in some of his works. In his play
The Bus Stop, written in 1981, and old
man announces that he is going into
town to play the chess champion Li
Moshreng, the most famous chess player
in China.
In 2000, Zhores Alferov (1930- ) shared

the Nobel Prize in Physics for
developing semiconductor
heterostructures used in electronics. He
invented the heterotransister. He
contributed to the popularity of chess at
his Academic University in St.
Petersburg. He is a good friend of Boris
Spassky. In 2016, he was awarded a
golden badge of FIDE for his personal
contribution to the development of
chess.
In 2000, Arvid Carlsson (1923- ) shared

Medicine. He was a chess player.
(Source: The History of Neuroscience in
Autobiography, Vol 2, by Larry Squire,
1998, p. 31) In 2001, Michael Spence
(1943- ) shared the Nobel Prize in
Economics. He is a chess player.
In 2001, Eric Allin Cornell (1961- )

work on the Bose-Einstein condensate.
He played chess in high school. (Source:
Eric A. Cornell — Biographical at
nobelprize.org).
In 2001, Carl Wieman (1951- ) shared

on the Bose-Einstein condensate. He
was a strong chess player in his younger
years and was an inter-state chess
player. (Source: Nobel Faces, by Peter
Badge, 2008, p. 48 and Wieman
biography at nobelprize.com)
In 2002, Jimmy Carter (1924- ) won the

Nobel Peace Prize. He was 39th
President of the United States. He
wanted to become a chess expert after he
left the White House. He bought
numerous chess books and a computer
chess program. He finally gave up on
chess around 1997, saying: "I found that
I don't have any particular talent for
chess. I hate to admit it, but that's a
fact." (Source; Chessbase -
https://en.chessbase.com/post/which-us-
presidents-played-the-royal-game--1)
In 2002, John Fenn (1917-2010) shared

work or mass spectrometry. He was a
chess player. (Source: A Conversation
with John B. Fenn, by M. Samy El-
Shall, 2009,
http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/1
0.1146/annurev-anchem-060908-
155216)
In 2002, Sydney Brenner (1927- ) shared

Oral History -
ew/cshl/memories/sydney-brenner-
babysitter/)
In 2002, H. Robert Horvitz (1947- )

H. Robert Horvitz — Biographical at
nobelprize.org)
In 2003, John Maxwell Coetzee (1940- )

He was also a chess player and was
deeply involved in chess in his early
twenties. (Source: 'The Better Player,' by
Paul Auster and J,M. Coetzee, The New
Yorker, March 7, 2013)
In 2003, Anthony James Leggett (1938-

) won the Nobel Prize in Physics for his
work on superfuidity. He was an avid
chess player, making the England under-
16 team. (Source: Nobel Faces, by Peter
Badge, 2008, p. 372 and nobelprize.org)
In 2003, Paul Lauterbur (1929-2007)

Medicine for his work which made the
development of magnetic resonance
imaging (MRI) possible. He was a chess
player and took up chess when he was a
freshman in high school. (Source: Nobel
Faces, by Peter Badge, 2008, p. 420 and
nobelprize.org)
In 2004, Edward Prescott (1940- )

He learned chess from his father and
taught his son to play chess. (Source:
Edward C. Prescott biographical at
nobelprize.org)
In 2004, Frank Wilczek (1951- ) shared

the Nobel Prize in Physics for the
discovery of asymptotic freedom in the
theory of strong interaction. He is a
chess player. (Source: Mathematical
Apocrypha, by Steven Krantz, 2002, p.
53 and National Academy of Sciences -
http://www.nasonline.org/member-
directory/members/46075.html)
In 2005, Robert Aumann (1930- ) shared

the Nobel Prize in Economics. He is a
chess player. (Source: An Interview with
Robert Aumann, by Sergiu Hart -
http://www.ma.huji.ac.il/hart/papers/md-
publ-aumann.pdf)
In 2006, Orhan Pamuk (1952- ) won the

chess in some of his works. In The
Black Book, published in 2014, chapter
27 is called "A Lengthy Chess Game."
He has been quoted as saying that
writing a novel is a lot like playing a
game of chess. He said that most writers
attempt to guess how a reader will
respond to their writing, just as a chess
player makes his moves in anticipation
of his opponent's nest move in a chess
game.
In 2007, Al Gore (1948- ) shared the

Nobel Peace Prize. He was the 45th
Vice President of the United States from
1993 to 2001. He is a chess player.
In 2008, Martti Ahtisaari (1937- ) won

the Nobel Peace Prize. When not
travelling around the world, he was at
home and liked to retreat to his small
library to play chess with his son,
Marko. (Source: The Mediator: A
Biography of Martti Ahtisaari, by Katri
Merikallio and T. Ruokanen, 2011, p.
88)
In 2008, J.M.G. Le Clezio won the

chess in some of his works. In his novel,
Tera Amata, written in 1969, he wrote,
"A pawn — you were no more than a
pawn on the giant chess-board, a disc
that the expert invisible hand moved
about in order to win the
incomprehensible game."
In 2008, Harald zur Hausen (1936- )

Medicine for his discovery of papilloma
viruses. He is a chess player. (Source:
The Nation, Nov 28, 2012 -
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news
/national/aec/30195177)
In 2009, Barack Obama won the Nobel

Peace Prize. He is a chess player. He
learned the game from his grandfather
and his Indonesian stepfather. In the
past, he has met former world chess
champion Viswanathan Anand. (Source:
Chessbase article on the US Presidents -
https://en.chessbase.com/post/which-us-
presidents-played-the-royal-game--1)
In 2009, Venkatraman Ramakrishman

(1952- ) shared the Nobel Prize in
Chemistry for his work on the structure
and function of the ribosome. He was on
his college chess team. (Source:
nobelprize.org and Dr. Venkatraman
Ramakrishnan, by Arun Anand)
In 2009, Hera Mueller (1953- ) won the

Nobel Prize in Literature. She mentions
chess in some of her works. She writes
about the friends and family on whom
some of her characters are base, such as
her chess-playing grandfather who
carved chess pieces by hand. In her
novel The Land of Green Plums, written
in 1996, there are many chess
references. (Source: Herta Mueller, by
Brigid Haines and Lyn Marven, 2013, p.
214)
In 2011, Tomas Transtromer (1931-

He has mentioned chess in some of his
works. From one of his poems in Den
Stora Gatan (The Great Enigma), written
in 2004, he wrote this haiku:
Death stoops over me.

I'm a problem in chess. He
has the solution.
In 2015, the Nobel Banquet started with

'Anthem' from the musical Chess by
former ABBA members Benny
Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus.
In 2016, Bob Dylan (1941- ) won the

Nobel Prize in Literature for having
created new poetic expressions within
the great American song tradition. He is
the first songwriter to win a Nobel Prize.
He has been a chess player all his life. In
the Bob Spitz biography on Dylan, there
are several paragraphs describing how
Dylan used to psyche out his opponent
out by talking during a game of chess.
There is also a report that Dylan's
manager paid Bobby Fischer so Dylan
could play a game of chess with him.
When Rolling Stone interviews Dylan
about winning the Nobel Prize, will they
ask, "How does it feel?"
International Master (Grandmaster in

Chess Problem Composition) Milan
Vukcevich (1937-2003) was considered
for a Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He was
Chief Scientist at General Electric and
professor of metallurgy.
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by William D. Wall
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The Nobel Prize and Chess: by Bill Wall

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The Nobel Prize and Chess

The Nobel Prize is generally recognized

In 1902, Emil Fischer (1852-1919) won

In 1903, Bjornstjerne Bjornson (1832-

In 1903, Pierre Curie (1859-1906)

In 1904, Frederic Mistral (1830-1914)

In 1904, John William Strutt (Lord

In 1905, Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914)

In 1905, Robert Koch (1843-1910) was

In 1905, Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846-

In 1906, Theodore Roosevelt (1858-

In 1906, Santiago Ramon y Cajal (1852-

In 1907, Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

In 1907, Albert Michelson (1852-1931)

In 1908, Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915)

In 1909, Selma Lagerlof (1858-1940)

In 1910, Paul Heyse (1830-1914) won

In 1912, Gerhart Hauptmann (1862-

In 1913, Heike Onnes (1853-1926) won

In 1913, Charles Richet (1850-1935)

In 1915, Romain Rolland (1866-1944)

In 1915, William Henry Bragg (1862-

In 1915, William Lawrence Bragg

In 1916, Verner von Heidenstam (1859-

In 1917, Karl Gjellerup (1857-1919)

In 1918, Fritz Haber (1868-1934) won

In 1918, Max Planck (1858-1947) won

In 1919, Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924)

Woodrow Wilson — Salomon

In 1921, Frederick Soddy (1877-1956)

Frederick Soddy — Creassey Tattersall,

Franklin Hopkins — Soddy, USA-OK

In 1921, Anatole France (1844-1924)

In 1921, Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

In 1922, Fridtjof Nansen (1861-1930)

In 1922, Niels Bohr (1885-1962) won

In 1923, William B. Yeats (1865-1939)

In 1925, Austen Chamberlain (1863-

In 1925, George Bernard Shaw (1856-

In 1925, James Franck (1882-1964)

In 1927, Henri Bergson (1859-1941)

In 1927, Julius Wagner-Jauregg (1857-

In 1928, Sigrid Undset (1882-1949) won

In 1929, Thomas Mann won the Nobel

In 1930, Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951)

In 1931, Jane Addams (1860-1935)

In 1932, John Galsworthy (1867-1933)

In 1932, Werner Heisenberg (1901-

In 1933, Paul Dirac (1902-1984) shared

In 1933, Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961)

In 1934, Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936)

In 1935, James Chadwick (1891-1974)

In 1936, Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953)

In 1937, Clinton Davisson (1881-1958)

In 1937, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi (1893-

In 1938, Pearl Buck (1892-1973) won

In 1938, Enrico Fermi (1901-1954) won

In 1944, Isidor Rabi (1898-1988) won

In 1945, Wolfgang Pauli (1900-1958)

In 1946, Herman Karl Hesse (1877-

In 1946, Percy Williams Bridgman

In 1946, Hermann Joseph Muller (1890-

In 1947, Robert Robinson (1886-1975)