Engaging Pieces: Interviews and Prose for the Chess Fan (Paperback)

~ Howard Goldowsky (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

In the interviews of Engaging Pieces, Howard Goldowsky goes past the obvious questions and draws out the human and the unexpected from chess players. In the fiction, he gracefully combines his chess knowledge with literary ability. --WGM Jen Shahade

[Engaging Pieces] makes for fascinating reading... --Lubomir Kavalek (Washington Post)

Product Description

Engaging Pieces: Interviews and Prose for the Chess Fan contains interviews with some of the most fascinating personalities of the chess world, poignant short fiction that uses chess as a metaphor, and in-depth reviews and editorials. This is writing that entertains and makes you think. Michael de la Maza explains the importance of chess tactics and how he improved his USCF rating from Class-D to Expert in two years. Jen Shahade talks about her book, Chess Bitch, and the controversial topic of women's chess. Hikaru Nakamura confides what it's like to be a teenage chess star. Mig Greengard, arguably the world's most charismatic chess journalist, waxes philosophic on everything from the immaturity of professional chess players to promoting chess as a sport. Hydra's programmers, designers of the world's best chess computer, explain the computer science behind their monster. Mark Glickman demystifies every detail of the USCF rating system, and as the Boston Globe says, "It is the best summary...we have seen." Greg Shahade talks about the nascent United States Chess League. Plus interviews with Paul Hoffman (chess journalist and writer), Charles Katz (former Vice president of Edge TV), Joe Block (from Beauty and the Geek), David Shenk (author of The Immortal Game), and Michael Weinreb (author of The Kings of New York). The fiction is a poignant and entertaining collection of stories that consistantly develop chess as a metaphor. The book is rounded out with a thought provoking series of in-depth reviews and editorials covering a selection of topics relevant to the chess world today. An appendix lists every novel and fiction anthology published between 1932 and 2007 that uses chess as a major narrative element.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Daowood & Brighton; 1st edition (June 19, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979048826
• ISBN-13: 978-0979048821
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,490,259 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chess Potpourri!, June 19, 2007

By	Eskychesser (Michigan - USA) - See all my reviews

This was a very interesting book because nothing like it has been seen since Irving Chernev's "Chess Companion". There are 3 parts to the book: Interviews, Fiction, and Opinion (with reference). The interview section is reproductions from the author's published interviews from chess magazines such as 'Chess Life'. These were interviews I had already read in the magazine (and was very impressed at that time!) and I really didn't mind reading them a second time because they had quite interesting topics that varied from Super Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura to a gentleman that created a training system to gain mega rating points in a short period of time. What made the interviews even better in the book was the inclusion of postscripts that added a sort of 'where are they now' freshness and update to the writing. The fiction portion is short stories written by the author. Fiction is an area more to my expertise and I am happy to say that each story was original, some were quite humorous and they were well written. My only wish was that there was more! Chess fiction is in such little supply it was so nice to see the author create some nice stories for chess. The third section is opinion and the author presents some interesting and modern perspectives that range from tournaments to computers to chess writers. At the end of this section is one of my favorite parts of the book, chess literature references (you know basically the stuff you can read without a board or pieces)- wow! This is the most comprehensive list of chess literature I have ever seen. It is quite clear that Goldowsky did his homework because I found chess novels I had no clue existed. There are even works listed that are self published! If you love to read about chess, especially fiction - here you go, it's all there! Overall this work was polished quite well, it was original and I had an enjoyable time reading it. This is the type of book you can read again and again over the years. I highly recommend this book.

2 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Lightweight Fluff, October 18, 2007

By	Gordon Ritchie "Woodpusher" (Ottawa, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Disappointing. This collection of the author's articles for various publications is fluffy to a fault. Not value for the money.