Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) was a french chessplayer and renowned artist. A competitor in the world amateur championship of 1924, four French championships from 1924 to 1928, and four Olympiads from 1928 to 1933.
His obsession for the game intensified as he grew older. Of his marriage in 1927 Man Ray writes: 'Duchamp spen most of the one week they lived together studying chess problems, and his bride, in desperate retaliation, got up one night when he was asleep and glued the chess pieces to the board. They were divorced three months later.'
Duchamp used chess themes in several of his paintings and collages.