Yoko Ono, Central Park, NYC (49707-28-12), 2006
Bruce Weber
Fahey/Klein Gallery
Chess.com has introduced a new Yoko Ono bot, bringing the artist’s conceptual 1966 work Play It By Trust to the platform as a playable chess experience with all-white pieces and squares.
Announced in February and shared by Ono on X earlier this week, the release was timed to Ono’s 93rd birthday, and to the recent online rollout of the Academy Award-winning animated short War Is Over! (2023), which was inspired by the music of John Lennon and Ono.
The bot allows users to play against a digital Ono using a monochrome board and set derived from her artwork Play It By Trust. It has long been understood as a reflection on war, identity, and mutual recognition, and Chess.com is presenting the collaboration as both a game feature and an art encounter.
First shown in 1966 at London’s Indica Gallery under the title White Chess Set, the piece turns the normal black-versus-white logic of chess into an all-white board with all-white pieces. That simple change makes the game progressively harder to play, because the players eventually lose track of which pieces belong to whom. Ono’s original inscription describes it as a “chess set for playing as long as you can remember where all your pieces are.”
Chess.com also tied the launch to War Is Over!, the anti-war short in which two soldiers on opposing sides connect through a game of chess. According to its website, Chess.com noted that in the film, the game serves as a symbol of empathy and communication across conflict.
The collaboration adds Ono to the growing roster of celebrity and culture-driven bots on Chess.com that have included DJ Steve Aoki and tennis player Carlos Alcaraz. The Ono collaboration, however, is notable for drawing directly from one of the artist’s most recognizable participatory works.
