Make Love, Not Chess

The game sits up front in the window of San Francisco's Alfred Dunhill smoke shop. It seems to be chess: the board (checkered) is unmistakable. The pieces are something else again. This is clearly no ordinary chess set; the rules are the same, but the name of the game is "Hippies v. the Establishment."

On the hippies' side, little multicolored youths (a strand of beads for each) represent pawns. The rooks are Volkswagen buses (one with a peace symbol, an American flag and "Love" painted on the side); the knights wear sunglasses, beads, flowers, and robes inscribed with the slogan "Make Love, Not War." The bishops are bearded white-and-purple-gowned gurus. The hippie queen wears a maxidress and a "spaced-out" smile. The king has a purple robe draped over a blue striped shift.

For the Establishment, the pawns (wearing helmets and carrying clubs) are members of the police tactical squad. Rooks are blue paddy wagons, knights Army and Navy officers; bishops take the form of businessmen in gray flannel suits and horn-rimmed glasses, clutching attache cases and minicopies of the Wall Street Journal. The queen wears a little black evening gown, long white gloves and pearls; she has tinted blonde hair and is decidedly overweight. The king wears a black tuxedo and a jeweled ring on his finger; he comes complete with a cigar and a bald spot.

The stylized pieces bring the familiar tactics of confrontation to the chess board; as the game progresses, a paddy wagon may remove a hippie, and a guru may outmaneuver a tactical patrolman. The chess set, created by a local artist, Jackie Pearl, has one major drawback: only the Establishment can afford the check, mate. It costs $250.

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