CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 9/16/2024

From Grandmasters to method actors, 'Chess Players' presents the pure pleasure of the most serious game

On the fascination scale, it�s hard to beat new release Chess Players: From Charlie Chaplin to Wu-Tang Clan from London-based photobook phenomenon, FUEL publishing. Collecting exactly what it purports to�photographs of chess obsessives either famous in the chess world, famous in the real world, or totally, gloriously unknown�it is rich with captions and contexts that allow the reader to tap in to that notoriously intellectual gamesmanship that has crossed both centuries and continents. �This photograph, taken on 25 November 1969, shows Donna Gaines, who later rose to international super stardom as Donna Summer (�Queen of Disco�), playing chess with her colleague and companion at the time, Ron Williams. She had just been offered a recording contract after finishing a stint in the German production of the musical Hair. She achieved global success almost exactly seven years later with the release of the single �Love to Love You Baby� (1975).�