In fiction there is The Luzhin Defence, by Vladimir Nabokov, which has a chess grandmaster as its central character and countless symbolic references to chess.
Books About Chess or with Chess as a Theme
Sort:
I finished The Turk, a history of an 18th chess playing automaton. Very interesting. The author, Tom Standage, traces the 18th C mainia for automaton, through the creation of his machine, to its destruction in a fire in America in the 19th C and beyond to Charles Babbage, who witnessed the Turk in action, and his machine on down to Deep Blue the only computer to beat a world champion in a chess series. Great book for those interested in the subjects of chess and artificial intelligence.
Idiots Guide to Chess about 30.00 US dollars
I am interested in books about chess, but not about how to play or how to use an opening, nothing with chess annotation in it. I have read books like The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis (the best IMNSHO), Searching for Bobby Fischer, Paul Morphy: The Pride and Sorrow of Chess, Frank Brady's two biographies of Bobby Fischer, The Immortal Game: A History of Chess by Frank Shenk, The Birth of the Chess Queen by Marilyn Yalom, Chess for Success (which inspired me to start a chess club in the school where I teach and my local public library) by Mauric Ashley, Chess Rumble by Greg Neri, and that's about all I can think of right now. Does anyone have recommendations on other books I could read?
I'm sorry if someone has already started this topic. If this is true, please forgive me and direct me to it.