Focus on this artwork and explore the Description of the painting.
The painting, originally called Les Joueurs d'échecs is unique for multiple reasons. First, its sheer size (340 x 220 cm) makes it possibly the largest chess-themed painting in the world. Second, the concept of making a group portrait of existent chess players in a fictive scene in an existing environment (they all have been in the Café de la Régence but never at the same time) was unusual.  The most remarkable was perhaps the fact that it took Favén more than ten years to complete the painting.Favén picked up this work out of fascination for the chess scene in Café de la Régence, a meeting place of internationally renowned chess players. The reputation of Café de la Régence was such that no great chess master would visit Paris without going to the Café de la Régence. Because of their status, they would play the main role in Faven's painting. The following characters can be determined with some certainty : Siegbert Tarrasch, standing in the background, left; Frank Marshall in the middle with sigar; David Janowsky with sigarette, on the right of Marshall; Amos Burn, sitting facing Marshall, with pipe; and Ossip Bernstein (facing Burn). And "around the big stars, smaller yet bright planets revolved": among the regulars of the café were all the stars of the Parisian chess community, some of whom probably are in the painting but remain thus far unidentified.The windows and arched doorway on the background of the painting suggest that the scene is in the main room of the café.  As the painting captures the romantic atmosphere of the period before the First World War, it reflects en passant the end of a carefree and calm era.Favén made numerous sketches of the café and the chess players, which were undoubtedly the prelude to The Chess Players. In 1905, he completed another, smaller painting. At least one figure in this painting, possibly  Joseph Blackburne, seems to be returning in his masterpiece of 1913.
Frank Marshall Joseph Blackburne Café de la Régence First World War Siegbert Tarrasch Paris Amos Burn Ossip Bernstein David Janowsky