With uncommon perception and wit, duBois explores the power of memory, the depths of human courage, and the endurance of love.In St. Petersburg, Russia, world chess champion Aleksandr Bezetov begins a quixotic quest: He launches a dissident presidential campaign against Vladimir Putin. He knows he will not win—and that he is risking his life in the process—but a deeper conviction propels him forward.   In Cambridge, Massachusetts, thirty-year-old English lecturer Irina Ellison struggles for a sense of purpose. Irina is certain she has inherited Huntington’s disease—the same cruel illness that ended her father’s life. When Irina finds an old, photocopied letter her father wrote to the young Aleksandr Bezetov, she makes a fateful decision. Her father asked the chess prodigy a profound question—How does one proceed in a lost cause?—but never received an adequate reply. Leaving everything behind, Irina travels to Russia to find Bezetov and get an answer for her father, and for herself.

    He was fully dressed and wearing an overcoat, slumped back in a chair, in front of a meal, a chessboard just out of reach. The doctor overseeing the autopsy certified that Alekhine died of asphyxiation due to a piece of meat stuck in his larynx and assured the world that there was absolutely no evidence of suicide or foul play.Some, of course, have commented that the photos of the corpse look suspiciously theatrical, as though staged. Others have wondered why Alekhine would have sat down to his dinner in a hot room while wearing a heavy overcoat. And what about all these rumors concerning Alekhine's activities during World War II? Did he really pen a series of articles on the inherent inferiority of Jewish chess players? Can he really be seen in photographs with high-ranking Nazi officials? And as for his own homeland, is it true that the Russians considered him a traitor, as well as a possible threat to the new generation of supposedly superior Soviet chess masters?With the atmosphere of a thriller, the insight of a poem, and a profound knowledge of the world of chess ("the most violent sport there is," according to the Russian world champion Garry Kasparov), Paolo Maurensig's Theory of Shadows leads us through the life and death of Alekhine: not so much trying to figure out whodunit as using the story of one infuriating and unapologetic genius to tease out "that which the novel alone can discover."

    But now, one year away from joining the Company, her mind begins to wander. To clear her head, she decides to visit her father, who lives in Switzerland. There, she meets Nikolai Kotalev, a teenage chess champion, who is looking for the legendary Stas Vlajnik, the teacher who will show him how to be a grand master capable of both grace and speed. Phebe organizes a search across Europe to help Nikolai find the elusive Stas. And all the while, Phebe and Nikolai study each others' obsessions to find the lives they want. What are they each willing to pay for perfection and beauty?

    All he knew was that when his parents told the family was going to America, Tani thought it was the start of a great adventure rather than an escape. In truth, his family’s journey to the United States was nothing short of miraculous—and the miracles were just beginning.Tani’s father, Kayode, became a dishwasher and Uber driver while Tani’s mother, Oluwatoyin, cleaned buildings, while the family lived in a homeless shelter. Eight-year-old Tani jumped into his new life with courage and perseverance—and an unusual mind for chess. After joining the chess club in his public school, Tani practiced his game for hours in the evenings at the shelter. Then he began competing in the ultra-exclusive chess clubs of New York City. And winning—again and again. And then, less than a year after he learned to play, Tani won the New York State chess championship.In My Name Is Tani . . . and I Believe in Miracles, Tani and his parents tell us their incredible true story of sacrificing everything for family, living with nothing but hope, and then sharing generously all they received to discover the greatest riches of all. Tani’s triumphant spirit reminds us of the power of kindness and the beauty of unity as we watch for the next miracle to begin.

    After being badly wounded he is fit only for administrative duty and his first and most pressing task is to improve flagging camp morale. He sets up a chess club which thrives, as the officers and enlisted men are allowed to gamble on the results of the games. However, when Meissner learns from a chance remark that chess is also played by the prisoners he hears of a Jewish watchmaker who is 'unbeatable'. Meissner sets out to discover the truth behind this rumour and what he finds will haunt him to his death..A deeply moving novel about an impossible friendship, The Death's Head Chess Club challenges us to consider what might be the very limits of forgiveness and what might be the cost of a lifetime of bitterness.

    Norse netsuke, each face individual, each full of quirks, the Lewis Chessmen are probably the most famous chess pieces in the world. Harry played Wizard's Chess with them in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Housed at the British Museum, they are among its most visited and beloved objects.Questions abounded: Who carved them? Where? Nancy Marie Brown's Ivory Vikings explores these mysteries by connecting medieval Icelandic sagas with modern archaeology, art history, forensics, and the history of board games. In the process, Ivory Vikings presents a vivid history of the 400 years when the Vikings ruled the North Atlantic, and the sea-road connected countries and islands we think of as far apart and culturally distinct: Norway and Scotland, Ireland and Iceland, and Greenland and North America. The story of the Lewis chessmen explains the economic lure behind the Viking voyages to the west in the 800s and 900s. And finally, it brings from the shadows an extraordinarily talented woman artist of the twelfth century: Margret the Adroit of Iceland.

    Today, go is becoming increasingly popular in the western world as more and more people discover its beauty, elegance, and strategic depth.This book is the best and most authorative introduction to this ancient and fascinating game. Written specifically for the western reader by one of the strongest players in the world, it presents the rules, tactics, and strategy of this unique game in a step-by-step, easy to understand way.Besides showing you how to play, it contains essays about the world of go which will broaden your knowledge and understanding as well as pique your interest. From history to modern tournament play, from traditional playing sets to computer go, you'll find it in these pages.

    Before she goes, a mysterious fortune teller warns her of danger, and an antique dealer asks her to search for pieces to a valuable chess set that has been missing for years...In the South of France in 1790 two convent girls hide valuable pieces of a chess set all over the world, because the game that can be played with them is too powerful....

    Unlike other solutions, this solution is both easy to follow and is deliberately presented without reference to the colors on the faces of the cube. (Take a closer look, all cubes are not colored alike!) Try it with just a few hints or with the quick and complete, step-by-step solution which follows. Amaze your friends! master that infernal cube once and for all!

    The novel recounts the hilarious but tragic life of Murphy in London as he attempts to establish a home and to amass sufficient fortune for his intended bride to join him.

    Contenders Elias Tarsis and Marc Amary take their places at the board. The judges' implacable clock begins to tick, and a hush falls over the capacity crowd in Paris's Beaubourg Center Theater.But before the players can make their first moves, they are distracted by news of the kidnapping of a high-ranking Soviet diplomat. Tarsis—an artist and an intuitive genius—is convinced that his despised opponent—a world-renowned physicist—is behind the kidnapping. So begins the game, and so begins this darkly comic, metaphysical mystery novel—a European best-seller—by renowned avant-garde playwright Fernando Arrabal.As the players make their moves (diagrams of which are provided), and we learn how their lives have led them to this climactic moment, the chess match becomes a fierce, seriocomic contest of egos and ideologies. It is a struggle between a man of God and an anarchist, between art and science, between sex and spirit, between two powerful men and two brilliant chess players. It is also an opportunity for the irrepressible Arrabal to lead us on a hundred hilarious riffs—on leftist politics, Freudian psychology, religious philosophy, modern European history, and, of course, the game of chess. In the end, the players' lives, the hostage crisis, and the World Chess Championship climax in a series of twists and surprises that challenge our sympathies and our intellects.

    In the West, many have learned of its pleasures, especially after the game appeared in a number of hit movies, TV series, and books, and was included on major Internet game sites. By eliciting the highest powers of rational thought, the game draws players, not just for the thrills of competition, but because they feel it enhances their mental, artistic, and even spiritual lives.Go! More Than a Game uses the most modern methods of teaching, so that, in a few minutes, anyone can understand the two basic rules that generate the game. The object of Go is surrounding territory, but the problem is that while you are doing this, the opponent may be surrounding you! In a series of exciting teaching games, you will watch as Go's beautiful complexities begin to unfold in intertwining patterns of black and white stones. These games progress from small 9x9 boards to 13x13 and then to the traditional 19x19 size.Go! More Than a Game has been completely revised by the author based on new data about the history of early go and the Confucians who wrote about it. This popular book includes updated information such as the impact of computer versions on the game, the mysterious new developments of Go combininatroics, advances in Combinatorial Game Theory and a look at the current international professional playing scene.

    Gustav Uyterhoeven left the chess garden that he and his wife, Sonja, had created together in Dayton, Ohio, and journeyed to South Africa to serve as a doctor in the British concentration camps of the Boer War. Over the next ten months he sent twelve chess pieces and twelve letters back to Sonja. She set out her husband's gifts as they arrived and welcomed all the most faithful guests of the garden to come and hear what he had written - letters which told nothing of his experience of the camps but described an imagined land called the Antipodes, where all the game pieces that cluttered the sets and drawers of the garden collection came to life to guide the doctor through his fateful and wondrous last adventure. Brooks Hansen offers a tale of spiritual progress disguised in the most exotic visions of the imagination. And yet The Chess Garden encompasses a very real world, too. Alongside the doctor's visions of the Antipodes, the story of his life gradually unfolds as well. History and allegory are expertly woven until finally both lead back to the chess garden itself, a place where ideas give way to vision, reason meets faith, and fact and figment are finally reconciled.

    From the first lesson to the last, each chapter introduces games of increasing complexity and then teaches the game theoretical tools necessary to solve them. Inside, you will find: All the basics fully explained, including pure strategy Nash equilibrium, mixed strategy Nash equilibrium, the mixed strategy algorithm, how to calculate payoffs, strict dominance, weak dominance, iterated elimination of strictly dominated strategies, iterated elimination of weakly dominated strategies, and more! Dozens of games solved, including the prisoner's dilemma, stag hunt, matching pennies, zero sum games, battle of the sexes/Bach or Stravinsky, chicken/snowdrift, pure coordination, deadlock, and safety in numbers! Crystal clear, line-by-line calculations of every step, with more than 200 images so you don't miss a thing! Tons of applications: war, trade, game shows, and duopolistic competition. Quick, efficient, and to the point, Game Theory 101: The Basics is perfect for introductory game theory, intermediate microeconomics, and political science.

    The same old moves won't cut it any more.In Chess Not Checkers, Mark Miller tells the story of Blake Brown, newly appointed CEO of a company troubled by poor performance and low morale. Nothing Blake learned from his previous roles seems to help him deal with the issues he now faces. The problem, his new mentor points out, is Blake is playing the wrong game.The early days of an organization are like checkers: a quickly played game with mostly interchangeable pieces. Everybody, the leader included, does a little bit of everything; the pace is frenetic. But as the organization expands, you can't just keep jumping from activity to activity. You have to think strategically, plan ahead, and leverage every employee's specific talents—that's chess. Leaders who continue to play checkers when the name of the game is chess lose.On his journey, Blake learns four essential strategies from the game of chess that transform his leadership and his organization. The result: unprecedented performance!Chess Not Checkers is an accessible and easily applied guide to help leaders deviate their own leadership and the performance of their entire organization.