Some of you have probably noticed that on my profile page, I mentioned that I would like to write a book about chess and see this blog as a small step in that direction. I’ve recently been discussing this topic by e-mail with one of our regular readers, and I thought that some of you might also want to participate in “thinking out loud” about possible books.
Because I am a professional writer, I am particularly interested in writing a book that would not be for the “specialist” market of chessplayers, but would be aimed at a general audience of non-chessplayers. This means: no chess notation, no chess diagrams (except maybe in an appendix). It means telling an exciting story, whether the story is on or off the chessboard. It means trying to communicate to non-chessplayers why chess is such a wonderful, dramatic, passionate game. The models for such a book are Fred Waitzkin’s Searching for Bobby Fischer, Michael Weinreb’s Kings of New York, and Paul Hoffman’s King’s Gambit.
At the moment I have two ideas for a book, but I’m not quite convinced yet that either one is right. The first idea would be a book about the U.S. Chess League. Basically, I would chronicle one season (the 2008 season?). The ups and downs of one season are bound to create a strong story line. But I expect that the book would face one big obstacle: Who cares? The National Football League has millions of fans. Thousands of them buy books. By contrast, the U.S. Chess League has maybe thousands of fans. By simple proportions, we would expect one or two of them to buy a book. Uh-oh. Hard to convince a publisher that the economics of this one are viable … Still, I don’t want to give up on the idea just yet.
The other possibility, which relates to what I was discussing by e-mail with Andres, would be a book of amateur chess games for amateurs. At this point I think we have two different conceptions; he is more interested in an instructional book, while I am more interested in an entertainment book. But since we’re just thinking out loud, let’s try to go with this and see where it takes us.
Instead of presenting chess as a sport, perhaps the way to hook the vast, unsuspecting multitudes of the public would be to present chess as an art. It was Carina’s art that got me thinking about this. Why not a full-fledged art book, with beautiful color plates provided of course by Carina, that would tell the inner, subjective story of a game of chess? It could be written from the perspective of the players, or even from the perspective of the pieces (which is Carina’s specialty). It could be unabashedly mythological and melodramatic (“the black knight impaled himself on the sword of white’s bishop in order to save the king… while meantime, on the opposite side of the board, talk of rebellion was brewing among white’s pawns, who could not understand why it was taking so long to repair the giant sinkhole on b3 …”). Well, I don’t know, this may be a little bit over the top, but it could be a lot of fun, and it would definitely present chess in a new light to people who think of it as a boring game for nerds. I would call the book Chess Epics or something like that.
My original idea for Chess Epics was that the games would be grandmaster games, but of course there is no reason they have to be. Amateur games might actually be better for the purpose, because the strategies might not be so well concealed, and the unexpected swings of fortune would be greater. The most important thing would be for each game to tell an unforgettable story… not necessarily for it to be impeccably played.
But maybe these thoughts are all too grandiose, and I should think in terms of a normal chess book, written for the normal niche market of chess players. That is the kind of book that Andres had in mind. And I think there’s a lot of value to his idea, a collection of games “for amateurs, by amateurs.”
One practical problem is that I’m already up to my eyeballs in other book projects as part of my regular writing career, not to mention the time I already spend on ChessLectures, and so it’s not clear when I would find time to write a chess book. On the other hand, if I had an idea that I knew was right and felt passionate about, I’d probably find a way.
What do you think? Would you buy any of the books I’ve described? Would they make you gag? Let me know!
