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The Immortal Game, by David Shenk

By Steve | October 25, 2006

I just finished The Immortal Game by David Shenk. The book is an entertaining and informative read. It examines the origins and history of chess, as well as the game’s impact on human culture, thought, and technology.

It begins by tracing the early spread of chess through the spread of the Muslim culture, including the sometimes uneasy relationship between chess and Muslim religious strictures. It follows chess into the European middle ages, as the rules went through periods of wild variation before beginning to settle into the modern form. There is a discussion of the presence of chess in colonial America and in the cafes of Paris.

The book traces the evolution of styles of play in the 19th and 20th centuries, although this treatment is at a very light level. There are chapters on the influence of chess on the development of artificial intelligence, the impact of chess computers on human play, and even the modern educational system. Throughout the book, the author interweaves the story of the Immortal Game with well-illustrated diagrams.

There are lots of juicy treats, including a very amusing story about the chess obsession of the artist Marcel Duchamp, anecdotes of the Queens Elizabeth I of England and Isabella of Spain, and even an appendix containing Benjamin Franklin’s “The Morals of Chess.”

I think this book is very approachable to a general audience, and I plan to share it with several people I know who are not chess players.

Although it is not a detailed, hard-core historical treatise, it does seem to be well-researched, with an extensive sources and notes section at the end.

Highly recommended.

Book cover

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