“The Eight” by Katherine Neville

For any chess player….”The Eight” by Katherine Neville. Awesome historical fiction based on chess. This book is so good that I use it to teach the French Revolution in my world history class. I have read it with thousands of high school students, who aren’t too fond of reading or history, and they love it. We learned more about Napoleon, Robespierre, Marat, and even Katherine the Great of Russia than we did from the boring ol’ textbook. Friends and co-workers, and winners of my table-top chess tournaments in the good old days, that I give it to love it. Back and forth in time you’ll go, from the present to the French Revolution, with a female grandmaster and other historical chess greats. Just a couple of dollars, used on eBay, for a great read!

Ooops, I forgot to mention Charlotte Corday. She is an amazing story tucked in amongst all the others. 

I've just found it in my town's library, thank you!

Thank you for the tip, @surfsnook! Will look into it. Who knows, I might even learn something useful for my waning chess game from Napoleon! Oui, oui!!! 😉

Hope all is well with you and your chess club dynamos! Don’t forget, our open invitation to become Chexx Pistols club members still stands… our doors are always open.  - Reggie 🙂

I'll search for that title ; thanks friend!

Do you know if a french version is available?

I don’t know. I hope so as much of the story takes place in your beautiful country, beginning high in the Pyrenees before moving on to Paris. 

I'm not from France, je suis québécois.

There are 32 historical characters in the story’s thrilling twists and turns, going back to Charlemagne in the ninth century,  and 32 modern characters, for a total of 64………hmmmmm, the same number as squares on a chess board ! 

I lived in Quebec for a year and a half as a missionary.

Cool. Was Congressman  Wayne Owens Mission President then?

I just got the hard cover . . .

i purchased most book at thrifty . Com they are reasonably priced

i paid $3.99 for the hard back cover . . .  I read this i September 2019 . . .

I just finished this and really enjoyed. There is a sequel that I need to check out.

The next book by Neville is not very good . . .

You'll be disappointed . . .

Lemme guess: "9", right?  

I found this one, also about chess, by Miss Neville :

They have both, in french version, "Le Huit" and "Le Feu Sacré" at the public librairy ; I'll take both tomorrow, if the snowstorm is over.

The Eight. Great book!

I heard of Owens. I think he came to Montreal after I left. I was under Wynder. I think he recently past away.

I read, a few years ago, this other novel, by Jennifer Dubois, no doubt partly inspired by Kasparov's attempt to oppose the current political regime in Russia :

                                        L

Critics were divided, probably because the author also abords another difficult subject (genetic disease), but I enjoyed the book.