The Big Rotterdam Chess Game has seen many sights in the city of Rotterdam. Ridder Dijkshoorn, director of the museum, speaks about this chess set that is fond of travelling and that gives him quite some headaches when it comes to its transportation to new destinations.
From 10 to 16 January, 2015, the Big Rotterdam Chess Game was exhibited in the hall of ´De Rotterdam´, on the occasion of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. On January 15, Ridder moved the game from Wijk aan Zee to ´De Rotterdam´ for a day.
‘De Rotterdam’ behind the Erasmus bridge. Copyright by Peter Schmidt and Joep Boute.
As you may know, Harry Hoek not only designed the table top version of the Rotterdam Chess Game, he is also responsible for the XXXL edition. On a game board of four by four metres, the big plastic chess pieces wait until someone plays with them on squares, courtyards or in the lobby of a big building where they are nice and dry and out of the wind.
Culture, sports and games
The Big Chess Game has been exhibited on various locations and has participated in a variety of events. It was part of the first ZIGZAG City walking tour and was available for use on the SS Rotterdam during the BASAMRO Youth Chess Tournament.
The game was placed on Schouwburg Square for a big sports event and it was witness to the Dutch Chess Open in the Top Sport Centre, near the FC Feyenoord Stadium. During 24 hours of culture, passers-by were given the opportunity to play a game of chess until the wee hours of the night, in the hall of Rotterdam Central Station. The XL game was also there at the ceremony of the Rotterdam Sports Awards at the New Luxor Theatre.
The XL Rotterdam Chess Game next to the Tata Steel sign in ‘De Rotterdam’. Photo by Teun Koorevaar
The chess set now has a prominent spot in the Central Hall of ´De Rotterdam´. This impressive building on the ´Kop van Zuid´ will host the Tata Steel Chess Tournament on Tour.
Special design by Koolhaas
‘De Rotterdam’ was designed by renowned architect Rem Koolhaas. The design was completed in 1998 but at the time there were doubts about whether it was possible to exploit a building of such enormous dimensions.
Apart from the concrete skeleton of the building, a lot of steel and glass were used for the outer walls. When, in 2009, steel prices dropped because of the crisis, and a lot of building contractors were desperate for work, it was finally decided to go ahead with the project. First though, the city of Rotterdam had to commit to renting 25.000 of the 72.000 square metres for a part of its civil servants. In addition to the office space, the building has got a number of conference rooms and a hotel with 285 rooms. There is also plenty of space for bars and restaurants as well as sports centres and shops.
The building is supported by a six-story base, on top of which there are three separate towers (´the fingers´). These towers each go a few metres into different directions at 90 metres up from ground level. This way, the buildings are better able to resist strong winds and it also made it possible to create terraces high up in the sky. ´De Rotterdam´ reaches 149 metres high (44 floors) and has a floor area of 162.000 m². It is appropriately nicknamed ´the vertical city´. The inhabitants of Rotterdam prefer to call it ´the Fist´, because of the enormity of the building with its three towers that stick out like fingers.
Kids are playing with the XL Rotterdam chess game
XL game quite a task
So, how exactly do those chess pieces get to their different destinations? It is my honourable task to transport them. I always rent a Volkswagen Transport Van at Van ´t Hart Car Rental and drive over to Vlaardingen West, where the chess pieces are waiting in boxes in a storage unit. I load the pieces as well as the tiles of the game board into the van and drive them over to their destination.
First, the chess board has to be assembled. The board is made of rubber tiles that are connected by dovetails, which makes for quite a lot of work. After that, the chess pieces need to be unloaded from the boxes and brought over to the chess board, which is sometimes set up a bit farther away from the van.
All in all, it is quite a bit of work, which I don´t always look forward to. But once I am at an event, and I see how beautifully the board and pieces fit in, and hear people´s appreciative reactions, I remember why I go through all the hard work.
By now, some perceptive individuals have noticed that sometimes the white pieces play the black ones, and other times, the white side has to battle the green one. Green/white/green are the colours of the Rotterdam City flag, so on special occasions we bring out the white-and-green set. And no, we don´t paint the pieces a different colour for every occasion; we store a number of chess sets so we can also sell them to companies, schools and private individuals that would like to display a unique chess set in their garden or courtyard.
Women’s World champignon was rewarded the Rotterdam chess Game
Epilogue: the tournament
It was an exciting tournament with an unsurprising end-result: both world champion Magnus Carlsen and future (?) world champion Anish Giri defeated their opponents. The Women´s World Chess Championship winner was rewarded the table top edition of the Rotterdam chess game.
They were not the only ones making moves; the Big Rotterdam Chess Game was also in motion. Kids showed us that there are more games to play other than the noble game of chess and both mayor Aboutaleb and Men´s Chess world champion Magnus Carlsen were keen to have their picture taken with the Big Chess Game. When I look at these pictures I feel so happy and I forget the sore muscles I get from carrying around the pieces and hammering the board together.
By Ridder Dijkshoorn