An Immortal Tale

This is my final (for now) chess history book evaluation.  I saved this for last because, possibly counterintuitively, it's my favorite.  Before getting into the book itself I feel I need to elaborate.  As a matter of disclosure, I should say that this is the only chess history book with which I have any personal connection. During the writing, Mr. Shenk and I exchanged dozens of emails, mostly concerning Anderssen and Kieseritsky upon whose off-hand game the book is analogically based.  I think that made me predisposed to liking it, but upon actually reading it for the first time (I had no idea what it would be about other than the Immortal Game itself), I was astounded by its careful connections between chess and seemingly otherwise dissociated elements and it's resonating  intellectual appeal.  Beyond that, I find it to be the most readable and captivating book that dabbles in the history of chess. 

Reading this book put me in mind of Marcel Duchamp's "Miles of String" exhibit from his "First Papers of Surrealism" exhibition New York 1942 with the tendrils of Chess snaking out across time, across cultures and across nations, somehow forming an underappreciated interconnection, both bonding and elevating everything it touches.

Miles of String

Now let's peel back the onion. 

The very title is suggestive. The Immortal Game immediately brings to mind Anderssen's gem from 1851, and indeed, Shenk utilized that game as a clever contrivance to tie together his personal story (his g-g-grandfather was the 19th century Café de la Régence champion, Samuel Rosenthal -his impetus for writing the book) and the seeming immortal persistence of chess to exert itself though the millenniums, the true implication of the title. 

The sub-title: "how 32 carved pieces on a board illuminated our understanding of war, art, science, and the human brain" reveals the author's main purpose.  While the book deals with the history of chess, it's not is any straightforward manner.  As the first chapter tells us form at start:

And that's part of the basis of this book.... finding the truth chess reveals or the truth about chess that history reveals.  

His prologue shines a light of the obsessiveness that Caïssa elicits by telling the story of Marcel Duchamp's (see my tie in?) infatuation with chess and how it destroyed his first marriage. 

But it's in the Introduction that Shenk grabs the reader by the short hairs and demands his attention:

Large rocks, severed heads, and flaming pots of oil rained down on Baghdad, capital of the vast Islamic Empire, as its weary defenders scrambled to reinforce gates, ditches, and the massive stone walls surrounding the fortress city’s many brick and teak palaces.

Above all this book tells a story.  And that's what chess is, a story, more complex than "The Iliad," deeper than "Ulysses,"  more powerful than Achilles and we, as chess players, are all bit players in this immortal tale. 

There are some glitches, such as the unquestioned relating of the highly questionable Steinitz-beating/challenging-G_d story but these type things as very few (which is remarkable since Mr. Shenk knew practically nothing about the history of chess before committing himself to this book) and easily forgiven (truth, not facts).  Mr. Shenk's "connections" are never stretches and always spot-on.   Its very hard to write about these things without revealing too much, but I will say there are only two books that have affected me in this way: "The Immortal Game" by David Shenk and "American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon" by Steven Rinella.  

In conclusion, if you want a book that gives you some chronological history of chess, this isn't for you.   If you want a book that challenges everything you thought you knew about chess from a sociological standpoint, there is no other book even comparable. 

 Thank you Samuel Rosenthal; thank you David Shenk.

see also:

History and Old Lace

"Chess: A History" —a Short Critique
The History of a Game
295 Pictures

An Averbakh Bookh
Murray the Great
Chess Encyclopedias

Immortality is the reality we’re to be only knowing, however there was a rebellious one that made that come undone, however not on an immortal basis, for everyone!

           
   Such ‘chess’ has its CHECKMATE One Glorious Glorious GLORIOUS Day ! 
                                                                    

Come again?

😂

I’m certainly for such a CHECKMATE !

Ahh ... the search for "truth."  I prefer the search for beauty ... perhaps because I am deficient in that area.

Not in such REALITY.

But, what is reality?

That, my friend is forbidden to discuss on any thread at chess.com.

But they can’t stop such discussed in pm messages. =)

I like this book and its companion, The Genius in All of Us. Shenk taught me a lot with these two books.

Both Shenk an the better known Malcolm Gladwell are popularizers of a lot of academic research. The principal difference that I see is that Shenk understands the research and summarizes it accurately. In contrast, Gladwell's misunderstanding and the resultant errors have given some very good research on development of expertise a very bad reputation. K. Anders Ericsson addressed Gladwell's distortions (mildly) in his last book, Peak.

Some points that Shenk makes in Immortal Game should be required reading for all those who persist in equating (incorrectly) excellent memory of patterns with "photographic" memory. They are very different and Shenk explains it well in plain English.

Thanks.
I received "the Classical Era of Modern Chess" in the mail yesterday and started reading it last night. I can already tell that I'll be spending a couple of dozen hours getting through it all. 

Picture above says read by Rick Adamson.

It seems to be a mp3 vesion for the book

So, where can I downlod it from?

Are you boasting about that??

Miles String

It also makes me remember a History Channel series

Mankind The Story of All of Us

Jules Verne

Best Works of Jules Verne (21 books) (goodreads.com)

This is the cover of the book I own, so I looked for this particular cover to use and this was the only one with reasonably high resolution making all the words readable (even a little posting like this takes a lot of time).
Amazon has an audiobook: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=The+immortal+game+audiobook&ref=nb_sb_noss 

I listened to the sample. The narrator has a good voice. 

I'm currently reading this book. Thanks for the posts batgirl.

Thank you for this short review series!