I have a confession to make. I have a dark, horrid secret known only to those close to me.
I have a chess addiction.
And it goes back a long, long time. Ever since I started playing my grandfather when I was a wee young lad (I never won, and the wise old sage kept his family title until he went to the grave). One of my favorite Nintendo games was ChessMaster2000 (what a dork, huh?) Then there was the days during my graduate studies when I’d alternate between reading literary theory and playing chess — I’d get in five or six hours of both in the library. And yeah, I played for money in Washington Square Park (first they scalped me, and the next year I scalped them).
And nowadays I’m trying to get things under control. Only 3 puzzles a day and a few computer games.
But I bring all that up only so you can know how excited I am for a new anthology: Masters of Technique
Masters of Technique (also know as “The Mongoose Anthology of Chess Fiction”) is the antidote.
Not only does it showcase topnotch talent such as Wells Tower “Executors of Important Energies” it has historical fiction (Katherine Neville’s “En Passant”) which features the real-life Lewis Carroll and Alice — yes, that Alice, of the Wonderland type.
In Michael Griffith’s “Zugzwang” (Love that title!), a dweeby child attempts to earn the favor of his macho amateur-wrestling father in a creative way.
All in all, a great anthology of chess-related fiction
2 comments
Hey, thanks for the kind words, John. I’m glad you enjoyed the anthology and got your chess fix. Sales have been slow. The literary community seems to have dismissed the book as a mere chess book, without appreciating each story for its individual literary merit; the chess community does not seem to appreciate the quality writing. This second observation is strange, because up until now the only contemporary short chess fiction generally available has been amateur stuff. -Howard
Well, I feel a book like this will have a long tail, because of its specificity and lack of competition. So take heart — sales might go for a good length of time.