JACKET GAMBIT
Don’t come to these captions expecting the Four Knights Opening, the Nimzowitsch Defence or the Torre Attack: I’m no Grandmaster. The first move, that preface aside, must be to say that we are not suggesting here that playing chess demands specific dress. That applies to the other pursuits in this section too. Because unless they have codes that require a uniform of play, Olympic style, then obviously you can play anything you want in anything you wish. And yet all patterns of action accrete culture, and clothes are an articulation of culture (to play the Barthes Gambit). So the pieces on the grid above these words are a curation of perceived confluence between chess and clothing. Exhibit 1? These dope taupe field and workwear jackets.