Chess Quote by Aleksandar Hemon
““I do not know how old I was when I learned to play chess. I could not have been older than eight, because I still have a chessboard on whose side my father inscribed, with a soldering iron, “Saša Hemon 1972.” I loved the board more than chess—it was one of the first things I owned. Its materiality was enchanting to me: the smell of burnt wood that lingered long after my father had branded it; the rattle of the thickly varnished pieces inside, the smacking sound they made when I put them down, the board’s hollow wooden echo. I can even recall the taste—the queen’s tip was pleasantly suckable; the pawns’ round heads, not unlike nipples, were sweet. The board is still at our place in Sarajevo, and, even if I haven’t played a game on it in decades, it is still my most cherished possession, providing incontrovertible evidence that there once lived a boy who used to be me.””
About This Quote
Source Memoir: The Book of My Life, 2010
A childhood chessboard, marked by his father, becomes a treasured relic, symbolizing identity, memory, and sensory attachment.
In simple terms: The board is a cherished memory of self.
Key Takeaway
Preserve objects that anchor personal history.
Themes
memory
identity
sensory
family heritage
Mood
reflective
sentimental
Type
personal
cultural
When to use this quote
- keeping heirlooms
- creating memory boxes
- writing personal histories
- sharing stories with descendants
- museum curation
Key Concepts
Material culture
psychology of attachment
nostalgia
Questions to Reflect On
- What objects define you?
- How do sensory details shape memory?
A Different Perspective
Objects may fade in relevance over time.
![“[Photographer Julian Wasser] had this great idea that I should play chess naked with Marcel Duchamp and it seem to be such a great idea that it was just like the best idea I'd ever heard in my life. It was like a great idea. I mean, it was - Not only was it vengeance, it was art, and it was, like…” quote by Eve Babitz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/18d/eve-babitz-19835_art_photographer-julian-wasser-had-this-grea_14326.jpg)
