Book Title:  The Immortal Game:  A History of Chess
Author: David Shenk
Publishing Company:  Anchor Canada
Year:  2007 (paperback)
# of Pages: 327
ISBN #:  978-0-385-66227-7
$22.00

4 Stars

Reviewer:  Deborah Ground Buckner

The Immortal Game  A History of Chess, or, How 32 Carved Pieces on a Board Illuminated Our Understanding of War, Science, and the Human Brain, by David Shenk, takes the reader on a trip through the ages to see how a board game was developed and changed by the people who played it and how the people who played it developed and changed.

The Immortal Game is a reference to a game of chess played in London on June 21, 1851, between Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky.  The two simply engaged in a simple game, for practice and recreation, but the moves that followed (all of which are set out with commentary in the book) led to a game that has been studied ever since and dubbed as "immortal."

Shenk offers the stories of his personal journey with the game of chess, but also traces the game from its development in the 600s, hand-in-hand with Islam.  Persian Muslims played a game called chatrang, a war game that relied on intelligence rather than force.  Ninth-century poet Ali ibn al-Jahm wrote:  "The [board] is placed between two friends of known friendship.  They recall the memories of war in an image of war, but without bloodshed.  This attacks, that defends, and the struggle between them never languishes."

Arab Muslims, without the ch and ng sounds in their language, called the game shatranj.  By the ninth century, the game had reached Constaninople.  By the tenth and eleventh centuries, the game had spread throughout Europe, and became known in English as chess. 

The fifteen and sixteenth centuries in Europe saw many powerful queens:  Isabella of Castile, Mary Tudor, and Elizabeth I, for example.  A powerful piece in the game, originally known as the Minister, transformed into the Queen.  As historian Marilyn Yalom wrote of Queen Isabella:  "A militant Queen more powerful than her husband had arisen in Castile; why not on the chessboard as well?"

Such anecdotes are found throughout the pages of The Immortal Game.  My favorite is a story of Benjamin Franklin, a chess fanatic, engaged in a game in France in 1774.  When his king was placed in check, Franklin ignored the situation and moved another, unrelated piece.  His opponent objected:  "Cannot you see, sir, that your King is in check?"  Franklin replied, "I see he is in check.  But I shall not defend him.  If he was a good King, like yours, he would deserve the protection of his subjects; but he is a tyrant and has cost them already more than he is worth.  Take him, if you please.  I can do without him, and will fight out the rest of the battle en republicain."

It is a story that illustrates the use of the game as a political tool, both for purposes of communication and competition.  Shenk writes of the monumental victory of American Bobby Fischer against Russian Boris Spassky.  The two faced each other in Reykjavik, Iceland, in July of 1972.  When Fischer was declared the winner after a 21-game match, he became an American hero.  Tragically, at the recent end of his life, Fischer had become better known for his erratic mental health, but the importance of that victory should never be forgotten.  (It was what turned me to the game, and I still have my copy of Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess to prove it.)

Shenk includes an interesting discussion of mental health issues affecting many of the great chess players of history.  The statistics are disturbing.  Tim Redman of the University of Chicago offers this insight:  "After all, what is a chess tournament?  A chess tournament is, by definition, an activity in which you spend many hours each day, using your best intellectual and imaginative abilities to figure out how the other player is out to get you.  [It is a] constant exercise of [the] 'paranoid faculty.'"

The play of chess, through the "four great eras" of Romantic, Scientific, Hypermodern and New Dynamism, is discussed, and the final chapters of the book address the question of artificial intelligence, the development of computer chess programs and the historic matches between Garry Kasparov and a program known as Deep Blue.

This is an enjoyable read for a chess buff, a history buff, a computer science buff, or anyone who likes a good story of relationships, intrigue, and fanaticism.

Appendices include:  The Rules of Chess; A recap of The Immortal Game along with five other great historic games; and Benjamin Franklin's delightful essay, "The Morals of Chess."  There are 27 pages of sources and notes, and an index.