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The Immortal Game: A History of Chess
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Customer Reviews
Rating:  - We're living through a mini golden age for chess literature
There have been a number of chess books published recently, most of them in expensive hardback format: Bobby Fischer vs. Russians, Kasparov's My Illustrious Predecessors, even Shahade's uneven Chess Bitch. Now add to those titles The Immortal Game, a great overview of chess by David Shenk. The author became interested in chess rather late, and he'll never be a great player, and he knows it. But that doesn't mean the game can't be fascinating. One of the things to take away from this book is you don't have to be a Grandmaster to get a lot of out chess.
The book follows the history of the game as it also tracks one famous encounter between two chess players in 1851. Dubbed "The Immortal Game," it sums up what is so magical about chess--its unpredictability, its sudden reversals, and the feeling that no matter how much you play it, you will never fathom its depths. That's also the point Shenk drives home in the part of the book not devoted to the game, as he looks at how chess has shaped thinking on everything from math to science to social class to warfare to art to computers to psychology. He talks about great achievements brought about by chess, and the game's darker side, which has led to more than one case of madness, more than one suicide, and a reclusive American genius' raving anti-semite comments. No other game, he argues, has impacted the world as much, and few have lasted as long.
This is a well-written book, and very engaging. It does not have to be read by a person deeply-immersed in, and it's not overly-technical. I have to quibble a little about his insistence that chess geniuses are made and not born. While I don't doubt that thousands of hours puts the Garry Kasparovs and Susan Polgars of the world ahead of the rest of us, he ignores the fact that many other a would-be champ devoted equal effort to the game and failed miserably. He also doesn't seem to get that much of the "research" that has "proven" effort over aptitude is effected and infused by social and PC bias of the time, just as research on the subject half a century ago was similarly biased in the other direction. We seem to hesitate to say there may be a "chess gene" because the game is predominantly male and almost completely excludes certain racial groups. Be honest and ask yourself if we'd approach the sport of basketball with the same convictions.
Overall this is a very good book, however, and I recommend it for both the devoted fan and the casual, as well as curious, person, as a fine entertainment. Hopefully we are seeing a chess-publishing revival in the book world, and renewed interest in the game in the U.S.
Rating:  - Superficial
I found this book to be a superficial run-through. It reads like it was assembled in slap-dash fashion, by cherry-picking some interesting material from other books and adding a couple of famous games (annotated by other people, not the author). The writer has obviously done some research, so give him credit for that, but his trifling observations on the history, psychology, and cultural impact of the game don't add anything new to the already huge literature on Chess. It's a fascinating subject, but I'd give this particular book a pass.
Rating:  - Very good!
Great read for fans or the game... or anyone interested in learning more. Very easy to read and a good blend of history and our current world.
Rating: - a solid history of the game
the book is a pretty thorough history of chess, interwoven with "the immortal game," an informal game played during a larger tournament. if you never heard of the game of chess before, that is not a problem, the book explains each peice, how they move, and what the rules are. if you play chess regularly, but are not familiar with it's history, this might be interesting for you. if you study chess and have a rating, this book might not have anything new for you. i enjoyed the interludes of "the immortal game," the play by play of each move was interesting and honestly exciting. i also enjoyed other parts of the book, but i only give the book 4 stars because, while quite comprehensive, the book seemed too academic and dry in some spots. perhaps i was spoiled by "the chess artist" but this book lacks something, i just don't know what it is. it's a good book, but i wouldn't put it on a "must read" list. between the two, i liked "the chess artist" a bit better.
Rating: - This book will move you...
It's a flavorful history that only a fictional writer can effectively weave. Shenk went ahead and took on the task of learning the game early on in life, just to revisit it later. He was still a novice, but he has a genuine admiration for the game as well as the history that has been woven.
Just in the first chapter, the point that got me in the chess myths, was the story of the queen watching a chess game, and them proclaiming that her son was dead.
This book pulls at the emotional as well as the pathological, and skims through the history as a finely weaved tapestry of events.
This was the best book I have read on the history of chess. My suggestion is to purchase the book, and prepare to be enthralled by it's captive words.
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