The Chess Artist: Genius, Obsession and the Wold's Oldest Game

Writer and chess enthusiast J.C. Hallman explores the obsessive hold chess exerts on its followers by examining the history and evolution of the game and the people who dedicate their lives to it. Together with his chessmaster friend Glenn, Hallman tours New York City's legendary chess district, crashes a Princeton math department game party, challenges a convicted murderer to a chess match in prison, and travels to the tiny chess-obsessed Russian province of Kalmykia, where they are confronted with members of the Russian intelligence service, beautiful translators who may be spies, seven-year-old chess prodigies, and the sad blight of a land struggling toward capitalism. Hallman transforms an obsessive quest for obscure things into a compulsively readable and entertaining weaving of travelogue, journalism, and chess history.