Gábor Altorjay’s Fluxus object entitled Chess Preserve was realized as part of the action Chess!! In 1967 (Írószövetség, Budapest, April 12, 1967) – evoking Marcel Duchamp’s passion for chess. The action was accompanied by the following poem:

1.         Preserve a set of chess!

2.         Put on a dark suit, a white shirt and a tie!

3.         Use 250 ml of perfume!

4.         Put the chess set on a table in front of you!

5.         Put on 3 pairs of rubber gloves!

6.         Open the chess set and say out loud: “Chess!” and pour the chess pieces on your own head!

7.         Point at the door and shout: “There he goes!”

Around this time, Altorjay was working on other similar “anti-artworks” which recontextualized everyday objects, for instance Short Circuit Instrument (1968) and Uncomfortable (1968). The reconstruction of the Chess Preserve was made by Artpool for the exhibition 3×4 (1993), and it was exhibited in other shows, as well (Impossible Realism, Artpool P60, 2001; Dada and Surrealism / Rearranged Reality, Hungarian National Gallery, 2014).