The chess pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chess-board, express their beauty abstractly, like a poem. . . .
Source: Address, 30 Aug 1952, New York State Chess Association.
-- Marcel Duchamp, (Jul 28 1887-1968), French-US artist; He was an important cubist and founder of Dadaism who painted Nude Descending a Staircase, 1912.