something you start reading in an airport bookstore and leave on the shelf, but because I’m a pervert, I read the whole thing.

As much a history book as a chess book it features a rich history of the game and it’s effects on human thought and society. I was especially interested in the parallels between chess style of an age an the society of that era as a whole. Ex. Philidor revolutionizing the game with the power of pawn play in the same decade that Locke wrote all men are created equal. The choice of the immortal game was good as well as it can be enjoyed by anyone who knows the rules of chess.

I couldn't put this down! The history of chess wrapped up in the story of one of the most important games ever played.

This was a great book that I waited way too long to listen to because I was afraid it would be dull or hard to follow.  As an audiobook it was difficult to follow the notation he used as he described a match between Adolf Anderson and Lionel Kieseritzky known as The Immortal Game.  I did however take a moment to read the Wikipedia article about it and watch a quick YouTube animation of the game.  The game is an amazing one as Anderson (white) sacrifices a bishop, both rooks, and a queen to establish check with a bishop and two knights while almost the whole game looking like he was down.  The author interwove their match within the text of the book, which leads to my biggest complaint with the book- it is not in chronological order which made it more difficult for me to follow.  However, he mostly arranged it by topic.

     He started with a history of the game itself including its predecessors from China and India, but essentially the game has been around in its modern form for 1500 years.  Furthermore, it was always meant as a symbolic game, but Islam forced the pieces to be symbolic as well since pictorial representations were seen as idols.

    The game has severed not only military and strategy purposes though, it also has assisted researchers in computers and artificial intelligence, brain research and psychology, the arts and humanities, and been a staple of much of human history.  The author, maybe at times, puts too much importance on chess and its actual influenced versus its simultaneous presence to actual events, but I think he tried very hard to be fair and balanced and to point out that although the presence of chess may have been influential it certainly was not the sole instrument.

     The author also happens to be a 5th or 6th generation descendant of a famous Chess Master and became interested in the game in adulthood as well as how to learn the game.  For me, he reinforced my interest in learning the game and how to best teach it to others.  He also finished by looking at some efforts in New York City and elsewhere that attempt to use chess as an instructional tool for at-risk youth and the benefits it has bestowed.  Chess can be all-consuming or it can be fun and social; either way it can teach useful cross-over skills and benefit those who learn to play this complex game of simple pieces.

I loved this book. The Immortal Game is a fascinating history of chess, interspersed with an explanation and analysis of a game (the titular Immortal Game) played between two masters during a break in the first international tournament in London in 1851. The winner, Adolf Anderssen, sacrificed a bishop, both rooks and his queen before checkmating his opponent, Lionel Kieseritzky. The game was thrilling to read about and the history of chess was written in a really breezy, engaging way by Shenk.

There were lots of fun anecdotes about historical figures. I particularly loved hearing about how Thomas Jefferson thought he was really good at chess until he went to Paris and everyone beat him. Then he flounced off in a huff.

This book also made me feel better about how terrible I am at chess.

Incredibly fun

This was fun. It alternates between chapters about the history of chess, and chapters dissecting a very specific chess game known as the "immortal game".

I did enjoy the game analysis chapters more, and kept getting disappointed when they were over. The author did a great job of breaking down the game in a digestible and exciting way, but I do wish these chapters were longer. I know the game was only twenty-something moves long, but he could have gone into way more detail and I would have been very happy.

The history section of this book was also interesting. It includes a lot of anecdotes about important moments in history where chess played a surprising role (example: apparently the king of Spain had just won a chess game when Christopher Columbus proposed his trip across the Atlantic. Also apparently while Napoleon was in exile, he played chess on a special chessboard that contained secret instructions about a plan to free him, but he never knew because the guy who was supposed to tell him about the plan died in transit??? crazy).

However, the author is very upfront about the fact that he doesn't actually like chess very much. One of his ancestors was a famous chess player, but the author ultimately decided that the game wasn't for him and he'd rather write a book about chess than actually play the game. It isn't until the very last chapter, when he describes watching a middle school chess club, where he decides to himself that he could actually learn to like the game. The moment with the middle schoolers was cute, but I think I would have liked the book more if it was told by someone with actual passion for chess.

That being said, this book did inspire me to start playing again after a month-long break following my tournament in June, so it gets kudos for that.

A well written history on chess and how and why it has endured through countless generations.

it was pretty interesting.

This is the first non-fiction book that has kept me up half the night because I had to know how it ended. Fascinating, insightful, and entertaining. Made me love chess even more.