Matthew Smith placed his hand on his pawn and contemplated his next move. After some thought, he bent down and picked up the 50-pound piece.
This was not an average game of chess.
Smith, geography sophomore and president of the University chess club, played with the group’s members on a life-size granite chess set downtown at the LSU Museum of Art in the Shaw Center on
Thursday night.
The set is part of the museum’s latest exhibit, “Tearing Granite: Jesús Moroles,” which features several sculptures that can be touched, including stone fish that can be played like harps and a large stone cylinder that rocks back and forth.
And, of course, the 4-foot-tall, 4,500-pound chess set.
Smith said he was “ecstatic” when the museum staff approached him with the event idea, but he was surprised when he saw the set in person.
“I had envisioned it a little smaller,” he said.
Smith said the size of the pieces made him play more cautiously than he normally does.
“I usually don’t play like this,” he said. “But I feel like these pieces are more important. I don’t want to lose any of