Chess Tournaments “I only had to decide - to play chess or write novels”

Celebrating the birthday of Anšlavs Eglītis (1906–1993), the Latvian National Museum of Literature and Music (LNRMM) invites everyone who loves the game of chess and wants to spend a weekend in a tournament atmosphere by playing one of Anšlavs Eglītis’s chess games at the event “I only had to decide - to play chess or write novels” on 17 October at 12:00 in the permanent exhibition “Procrastination and Creation” at Mārstaļu iela 6, Riga.

At the start of the event, art expert from the LNRMM Collections Research Department and senior researcher at the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia, Inguna Daukste-Silasproģe, will share the story of Anšlavs Eglītis and the importance of chess in the writer’s life.

Ever since his youth, Anšlavs Eglītis had been interested in chess, and he continued to play it both during the refugee period in Germany and later, while living on the west coast of the United States, where he took part in weekend chess tournaments in California. Throughout his life he kept up an interest in tournaments around the world and in chess players, and he subscribed to the magazine “Chess World,” in which those interested can also look for and find a game played by the writer.

“I learned chess from my father when I was about six years old. Writers played a little. Valdemārs Dambergs and others, but primitively. [..] But old habits are hard to forget. I played an occasional easy game. [..] Among artists, Suta and Strunke were ‘passionate’ players, but terribly weak and did not develop at all over the years. By contrast, the left-wing writers Rokpelnis and Muižnieks were strong players,” Anšlavs Eglītis told writer Gunars Janovskis.

The Anšlavs Eglītis collection at the LNRMM includes notebooks with records of his chess games, several sets of chess pieces, as well as a chess clock from the 1950s, a chess prize (1964), and chess game covers.

Everyone who is drawn to the game of chess is invited to the event. After the event, visitors will be able to explore the LNRMM permanent exhibition “Procrastination and Creation,” with a stop at the Anšlavs Eglītis episode as well!

The event takes place in cooperation with the Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art of the University of Latvia within the framework of the State Research Programme “Latvian Literature as Belonging: Personalities, Poetics and Public Space” (LITBEL) (No. VPP-IZM-Letonika-2025/1-0006).