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.