A few weeks ago, Susan Polgar recommended a chess related novel on her blog. The novel is titled Zugzwang by Ronan Bennett. I read it over Thanksgiving weekend and recommend it wholeheartedly. It blends chess, intrigue, history, romance, psychology. The protagonist is a Freudian analyst in Russia in the years leading up to WW I and the Russian Revolution and is involved in a correspondence chess game (diagrammed in the book) that offers parallels to the plot of the novel. There are two pretty graphic scenes of an intimate nature and some other references that ruled out giving it to my daughter to read (which is too bad because she would have liked the way that chess was woven into the novel and it would have been a good introduction to early 20th Century Russian history). This week’s New Yorker had an ad for the book with the following plug by Katherine Neville, author of The Eight: “Surely the most thrilling chess thriller ever written.”
I received a review copy of this book from a friend (who owns a bookstore) before it came out, I wasn’t all that impressed with it. But, different strokes for different folks.