To the Right Honourable Vincent Massey, and Members of the Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters, and Sciences.

Honourable Sirs:

We have the honour to submit the following brief relative to the Chess Federation of Canada.

On behalf of the Chess Federation of Canada, this delegation wishes to express their sincere appreciation and gratitude to the Honourable Members of the Commission for having consented to review the brief now being presented.

Chess - An Expression of National Culture

Chess, the most venerable for its antiquity, the most esteemed for its intellectual character, and the most universal in its extent of all those pastimes in which men and women of every age have been accustomed to seek rest from the fatigue of physical labor or the weariness of mental toil, arose in India at a very early period in the history of the world. It is distinguished from all other sports, arts, and sciences no less by its greater age than by its superior excellence; for, although an amusement, it is separated from the most abstruse of sciences only by a faint line of demarcation. The singular fascination which it has ever exercised over its votaries is a curious phenomenon in the history of mind. Men differing in character and disposition, in tastes and pursuits, in climate and race, have been charmed by the study of its delightful pleasures. The peasants of Persia and Iceland, the warriors of the East and the West, the scholars of Asia and Europe, the priests of the Moslem faith, the monarchs of enlightened nations and the rulers of Pagan lands, have all found entertainment in its study and pleasure in its practice. Kings, in imminent danger of losing their heads and their thrones, have clung to their game of chess undismayed by the threatened loss of honor and of life. Statesmen, at a time when their brains were busy with projects destined to result in the overthrow of kingdoms or the emancipation of nations, have found leisure to engage in chess. Generals, on the eve of important and decisive battles, as if in mockery of real and sanguinary warfare, have thrown their whole souls into a bloodless contest on the checkered field. Sages have sanctioned its use as a recreation. Learned men have devoted the earnest efforts of acute minds to the elucidation of its theory, to the elaboration of its history, and to the enlargement of its literature. The graces of poetry and the charms of eloquence have been thrown around it. Orators in their speeches, poets in their songs, dramatists in their plays, and annalists in their histories, have not hesitated to use expressions couched in its technical language and to employ metaphors drawn from the movements of its mimic soldiery. As in the multiplicity of its combinations it sets at defiance all the discovered laws of the science of numbers, so in its adaptability to minds of unlike formation it seems to repudiate all the theories of mental philosophy. For eminent skill in the game is neither limited to any particular class of individuals nor dependent upon any peculiar intellectual qualities. Its pursuit is not confined to highly cultivated minds. Eulers and Rousseaus have striven in vain to become practitioners of the first class, while Grecos and Mourets have risen to the highest rank. Almost every profession has furnished its quota of names illustrious in chess. Damiano was a pharmacist, Lopez was a priest, Alekhine a lawyer, Philidor was a musician, Capablanca was a diplomat and Botvinnik, world champion, is an electrical engineer.

Trifling as is the place usually assigned to Chess in the economy of the world, it is, nevertheless, a theme bountiful of incident and prolific of interest. It would be impossible to here narrate its story in detail or to relate a fraction of the poetical fables, the noteworthy legends, the diverting anecdotes, which cluster as things of memorable beauty about its fifteen centuries of existence.

There is certainly no other game which has inspired so many masterpieces in the art of carving in wood, ivory, gold, silver, and crystal glass. There are innumerable collections of these works in sublime art in the possession of individuals and museums the world over, and a de luxe edition has been published by Donald M. Liddell, illustrating and listing nearly four hundred of these priceless sets. It is an industry in itself, and every chessplayer's dream is to possess a set of his own of a distinctive character, of whatever material it is made.

As the peak of civilization has slowly moved westward, from Persia, India, and China, to Arabia, and thence through Spain to Italy, France, Germany and England, the art and science of Chess has been enriched in a most characteristic manner by each of these great civilizations.

Chess in Canada

The Canadian Chess Association was formed at Hamilton in the year 1872. This organization was subsequently replaced by the Canadian Chess Federation at Haileybury in 1932. In 1945 the name of the Federation was changed to the Chess Federation of Canada, which is presently the governing chess body in Canada. The Governors of the Chess Federation of Canada, numbering 25, reside in all principal cities of Canada, and in all Provinces with the exception of Newfoundland.

Provincial Chess Associations exist in the majority of Provinces, and these Associations are active in promoting chess in their respective regions. Finally the organization of chess in Canada is completed by the City Leagues in Canada's principal cities.

We submit that the Chess Federation of Canada is an institution which adds considerably to the richness of Canadian life, rural as well as urban. For example, through chess by correspondence, a resident of the smallest Canadian village may meet opponents living in most other countries of the world.

In a similar manner Canadian chessplayers take pride in their champions who have represented them in recent years in countries such as the United States, Argentina, England, Sweden, Denmark, Mexico, Spain, Holland, Czechoslovakia, and Switzerland. It is, we hold, indicative of the culture of the nation, that its chess champions have held their own in international compe- tition.

Chess has greatly contributed towards the raising of mutual understanding between foreign peoples in the past. The Chess Federation of Canada with this intent in mind has recently sponsored a majestic Border Match between Canada and the United States, in which 400 players took part at some 12 different cities or towns near the border, on July 3rd last. This meeting has secured a definite place on the programme of the CFC and will be enlarged in years to come. Canada has also staged a radio chess match with Australia in 1947, and correspondence matches are presently in progress with England, France, and South Africa.

The Chess Federation of Canada has given much emphasis recently in the preparation of a Youth Programme. In such cities as Toronto, Quebec, and Saint John, fortunate enough to possess leaders who give of their time freely in this domain, hundreds of school children have learned the art of chess. It is in this growing group that the future of chess in Canada lies. The relative backwardness of the development of chess in Canada, as compared to the development in such countries as Russia where millions participate, is not difficult to explain. It is part of a rapid development in the fields of radio, motion pictures, newsstand literature, and spectator sports which provide a relaxing and non-stimulating release from the worries of the present era. In most European countries where these media have not been developed pronouncedly, chess flourishes.

An analogous observation has been made at the recent second conference of the National Sports Governing Bodies of Canada convened by the National Council on Physical Fitness. At this conference held some five days ago at Ottawa, it was repeatedly affirmed by the Canadian sports leaders that the low standard of physical fitness in Canada was due primarily to a turn away from the participation sports of years ago, to the present spectator sports. The Chess Federation of Canada recommends respectfully to this Royal Commission that in its recommendations, the Commission give greater encouragement to those institutions and organizations in the realm of art which stimulate mass participation in the arts, rather than the organizations which promote passive appreciation.

It is our feeling that the art culture of a nation can be measurably increased only if the population participate generally, or at least to a greater extent than heretofore in the production of works of art or attempts at works of art. We wish to leave no doubt in the minds of the erudite members of this Commission that a recorded game of chess played between masters of the game constitutes in many cases a highly prized work of art. A perusal of the massive chess literature by the adept will testify to this.

Chess an art, is paradoxically the purest of sciences simultaneously. It has been subject to vast experimentation in the last hundred years, and the evolution of the theoretical aspect of the game has proceeded apace with the other sciences, as man has learned to proceed by experimentation. The game of chess lends itself admirably to the development of the human faculties of perception and deduction so necessary in a scientific training. The purpose of this Brief is primarily to acquaint the Government of Canada through its Royal Commission on National Development in the Arts, Letters and Sciences, with the existence of the Chess Federation of Canada, and with the extent to which this latter body is helping to contribute towards the promotion of understanding, and variety and richness of Canadian life in its particular field.

We ask of this Commission in its recommendations, that it express recognition of the work that the Chess Federation of Canada is doing in the domains outlined above.

Signed on behalf of the delegation

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