Check: reading about chess

The Washington Post looks at a stack of chess-related books, recommending the nonfiction "White King and White Queen" and the fictional "Zugwang." Gary Kasparov's memoir, "How Life Imitates Chess," is not recommended.

Kasparov is on a bit of a losing streak. On a chess players' forum about the best books of the year (via), John Cox's "The Berlin Wall: The Variation That Brought Down Kasparov" is among the favorites. One user writes that it's "much more than just opening a manual" (there are also many manuals in the running).

Longtime chess player, coach and writer Bob Wade died this weekend in England at age 87. His library was a longtime resource for world-champion players:

Wade built up an enormous chess library at his house in South London, which included books, magazines and many original bulletins from tournaments: these latter were the primary sources for many types of chess literature.... In the days before computer databases the Wade library was often used by British and foreign players in preparation for matches.

Expert chess playing takes more attention and memory than I've ever been able to devote. But I can read novels with chess players — to the Washington Post's list, I'd add "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" by Michael Chabon (the protagonist, Meyer Landsman, is the son of a chess player). Chabon's father taught him to play chess, he told the New York Times in 2007. "I was good at it, like Meyer. I grew up hating it." Yet chess players figure prominently in this detective story; maybe its intricate plot uses chess-like moves too.

— Carolyn Kellogg

Photo by JGNY via Flickr

Comments

[bruce]

the only two significant literary works involving chess that i'm aware of are vladimir nabokov's "the defense" and stefan zweig's "the royal game".

[Royale]

A fantastic piece of chess literature is "The Queen's Gambit" by Walter Tevis. I can't imagine there is a better fictional work, related to chess, than this exceptional novel.

[greg]

Don't forget Fernando Arrabals "The Tower struck by Lightning", a novel built according to the rules of chess.