Think of your brain like any other muscle in your body — it needs regular training to stay strong. Just like cardio strengthens your heart and boosts oxygen flow throughout your system, and weightlifting builds muscle to protect your joints and improve your physique, exercising your brain has powerful benefits. Keeping your mind active can help reduce the risk of early memory loss and cognitive decline. In fact, studies suggest that brain training may lower the risk of Dementia and even sharpen your attention span.
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Tag Archives: chess
Modern Art Monday Presents: Anna Boghiguian, Institution vs. The Mass
All Photos By Gail
A close observer of the human condition, artist Anna Boghiguian (b. 1946) draws on the past and the present, poetry and politics to interpret our interconnected world. Based in Cairo Egypt, Boghiguian travels extensively across the globe. These journeys bring knowledge of ancient and contemporary world cultures and politics to her work. This large scale installation, Institution vs. The Mass (2019) was conceived as a dynamic chest set, which builds on her interest in cycles of revolution and sociopolitical change throughout history. The figures of the ‘institution’ evoke ancient and contemporary power structures that are distanced from the lives of everyday people. The ‘mass’ is comprised of activists, demonstrators and thinkers, aspiring towards fundamental human rights and freedoms.
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Amber Game Board
Photos By Gail
The Amber from which this Chess and Backgammon board (circa 17th century) is made provides a rich golden surface across which game pieces could be moved; a fitting stage for aristocrats to rehearse the strategic thinking used in warfare and diplomacy. This set was once owned by German Politician, Georg Schreiber.
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Hand Carved Ivory Chess Set From India
All Photos By Gail
19th century Bengali craftspeople found an export market in Britain for decorative chess sets carved from ivory.
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Modern Art Monday Presents: The Chess Player (The Turk)
All Photos By Gail
This elaborate automaton is a reproduction of the original Chess Player (The Turk) built by Hungarian author and inventor Wolfgang von Kempelen. Touted as an android that could defeat chess masters, von Kempelen’s famed illusion debuted at the court of Empress Maria Theresa during wedding celebrations for her daughter in 1769. Over the course of the eighteenth century, the Chess Player (known in its time as The Turk for its robes and turban) won games against Catherine the Great and Benjamin Franklin. When Napoleon Bonaparte tried to cheat, The Turk wiped all the pieces from the chessboard. In reality, a chess master would hide inside the lefthand cupboard.
The mysterious machine sparked discussions of the possibilities and limits of artificial intelligence, and it inspired development of the power loom, the telephone, and the computer. The original and its secrets were destroyed in a fire in 1854. This reproduction is by American magician, John Gaughan.
Photographed as part of the exhibit Making Marvels at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.