On the chessboard: Beckett and Duchamp

Abstract

The present article explores an unusual meeting (1940) between
the French artist Marcel Duchamp and the Irish writer Samuel Beckett at
Arcachon, southwest region of France. This meeting is only possible because
of the Nazi invasion of Paris, as well as the interest both manifested for the
game of chess. First of all, we briefly make allusion to the relation of the game
with literature and philosophy, then we read the Beckett`s piece Endgame, a
fundamental work in his poetics – taking into account it was written and
staged after the Second World War – from some chess assumptions referred
to the third moment of a game of chess (namely the endgame) of Duchamp.