"The Grandmaster" is an intriguing book by a Canadian writer

[Frank Dixon]

I must admit I didn't expect much when I signed this book out of my local library after perusing it for a few seconds. But any book involving chess has to have value for a chess person, right!? It is worth reading, to be sure; I enjoyed it and even learned quite a bit! So, I am pleasantly surprised!

The book, with a somewhat confusing title, covers the 2016 World Championship match in New York, where champion GM Magnus Carlsen successfully defended his title against challenger GM Sergey Karjakin. Given that there are over 1,000 GMs in the world today, singling out one of them with "THE" is unfair to the others, somewhat. The author means GM Carlsen when he refers to "THE Grandmaster".

Author Brin-Jonathan Butler is a Canadian who loves chess, with previous non-chess published work to his credit. He spends quite a bit of the book on what one could call a 'stream of consciousness', perhaps telling us more than we really need to know about himself, his chess experiences, and personal episodes! I nearly put the book away for good while reading this stretch. He gets into live, on-site coverage of the Match, which he identifies as the event "which made chess great again". I am unsure if or when chess stopped being great.

The book is different, and targets the casual chess enthusiast, more so than the serious chess person. What he does write is very good; the book may need a second read to be appreciated in full, since much of the early material seems to be irrelevant to his theme. He does pull it all together quite well, in the end!

Simon & Schuster, 2018, 224 pages, ISBN 1501172603.

[Frank Dixon]

Mr. Butler probes the nature and extent of chess obsession as a central theme of his work, attempting to understand this as it applies to the 600 million or so chess players in the world today. He also seeks to ascertain and explain just what it is which makes GM Carlsen so great; he is less successful with that, but thousands of strong players are also seeking this answer!!

One episode I was unaware of, related by Butler: English King Charles II (1600-1649; King 1625-1649) was quite a chess fanatic; he was playing a game, and winning, when bad news came to him of Scottish betrayal of his location in late 1648, and this, with his subsequent capture, essentially closed the English Civil War, which had run for most of the 1640s. He was executed on January 30, 1649; giving his executioner a gift of his favorite amber-inlayed chess board!! On his public execution day, he also wore two shirts, to guard against the early cold morning; making sure to not show nervousness, which may have been falsely attributed to shivering by the gathered multitudes.

Butler, raised in Vancouver and now in his early 40s, had hardly played chess at all until age 19 when on a Hungarian visit to family; then he truly became obsessed for months at a time. He has played in at least one CFC event, with no particular distinction.

Although Butler covered the 2016 title match on-site in New York, the book lacks any photos from the action; nor are there any game scores or diagrams. He describes moves at certain important junctures; this leads to disconnection, and would have been an easy fix for an editor paying attention.

[Dilip Panjwani]

Mr. Butler probes the nature and extent of chess obsession as a central theme of his work, attempting to understand this as it applies to the 600 million or so chess players in the world today. He also seeks to ascertain and explain just what it is which makes GM Carlsen so great; he is less successful with that, but thousands of strong players are also seeking this answer!!

One episode I was unaware of, related by Butler: English King Charles II (1600-1649; King 1625-1649) was quite a chess fanatic; he was playing a game, and winning, when bad news came to him of Scottish betrayal of his location in late 1648, and this, with his subsequent capture, essentially closed the English Civil War, which had run for most of the 1640s. He was executed on January 30, 1649; giving his executioner a gift of his favorite amber-inlayed chess board!! On his public execution day, he also wore two shirts, to guard against the early cold morning; making sure to not show nervousness, which may have been falsely attributed to shivering by the gathered multitudes.

Butler, raised in Vancouver and now in his early 40s, had hardly played chess at all until age 19 when on a Hungarian visit to family; then he truly became obsessed for months at a time. He has played in at least one CFC event, with no particular distinction.

Although Butler covered the 2016 title match on-site in New York, the book lacks any photos from the action; nor are there any game scores or diagrams. He describes moves at certain important junctures; this leads to disconnection, and would have been an easy fix for an editor paying attention.

Frank, this reminds me of a short story 'Shatranj ke khiladi' (Chess players) by the famous Indian writer Munshi Premchand...about a couple of Indian princes engrossed in a game of chess, while the British army was marching into their city....

[Peter McKillop]

.......
One episode I was unaware of, related by Butler: English King Charles II (1600-1649; King 1625-1649) was quite a chess fanatic; he was playing a game, and winning, when bad news came to him of Scottish betrayal of his location in late 1648, and this, with his subsequent capture, essentially closed the English Civil War, which had run for most of the 1640s. He was executed on January 30, 1649; giving his executioner a gift of his favorite amber-inlayed chess board!! .........

Thanks, Frank. Very interesting review. I was curious about Charles I's board and whether the story was apochryphal. Apparently a board believed to be Charles's was sold at auction a few years ago for £600,000.

[Frank Dixon]

Wonderful posts by Dilip and Peter! Thank you!

First to Dilip: In the book, the author discusses a similar story to the one you have cited; it apparently took place in present-day Iraq, prior to the year 1000!
Now to Peter: Amazing that this board still apparently exists some 400 years later! It sure is beautiful. King Charles I was known for his love of beautiful art and objects; that, and the high costs of obtaining them, were at the heart of many of his problems, leading to the Civil War and his eventual overthrow. His wishes to rule by 'divine right', and without Parliament's permission and approval, caused the system to break down, with financial struggles, high taxes, and quarrels with nobles.

Back to the book briefly: It was apparently listed for a Canadian writing excellence award; I am trying to find the details. In any case, I plan to order my own copy!

[Frank Dixon]

The book was long-listed for the 2020 RBC Taylor Prize, rewarding Canadian writing excellence, but did not win, or even make the short list.

The author ties chess encounter scenarios, which is something with which he is not so personally familiar, with boxing encounter scenarios, a topic on which he has written extensively and well. This may be the work's strongest theme; Butler has researched Cuban boxing extensively, and indeed extended this to Cuban-American relations in general. He has visited Cuba many times, and discusses this in the book. It makes him very controversial in the U.S., since those two countries don't get along so well after the 1959 revolution. But chess is a much deeper activity than boxing. The validity of the comparison is for the reader to judge. Certainly the argument can be made.

I was privileged to attend a fantastic lecture on GM Carlsen's play by Iranian GM Moradiabadi at the 2013 Canadian Open; IM Raja Panjwani was there with me, and we had breakfast together, joined by GM Moradiabadi; that was a memorable time! Both top players were competing in the Open; I was part of the arbiter / organizer staff.

My own assessment of GM Carlsen is that he has had fantastic support from his father Henrik throughout his career, even well into adulthood; the two are very close, and this allows GM Carlsen to relax, knowing his father is taking care of minor but necessary tasks, and then to reach his best or near-best levels to a high proportion and frequency, under exceptional pressure. Carlsen was struggling in 2018 in the title match; down a game and having missed some excellent possibilities. But he won when he absolutely had to, and pulled out the match in the rapid games, where he has a strength advantage over GM Karjakin. It is a bit of an unusual phenomenon for top-class chess, and the way the Carlsen's have developed this, it is a major advantage. For example, GM Bobby Fischer never met the man who was supposedly his father, and his real father was no more than an occasional presence in his life, never there once Fischer became a top player. Fischer was in constant conflict with his mother. GM Garry Kasparov received excellent support from his mother; his father had died when Garry was young; my view is that this was a vital aspect of his success, and very much under-estimated by everyone. I can't think of another world chess champion who has had quite the advantage GM Carlsen utilizes so well. I just look at other top sports people, for example in golf with Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus, and the very central role both their fathers had, first with development, and then helping to mentor and manage their sustained excellence. It comes out in their autobiographical works. Wayne Gretzky would be a Canadian superstar for whom parental guidance and support were very important; his father Walter gained major recognition as well. The WilIiams sisters in tennis -- Venus and Serena -- got enormous support from their father Richard -- as they tried to become the first African-American women to reach the very top in tennis. I saw Raja's very close relationship with his father Dilip, when I coached Raja from 2000 to 2003; this was impressive, and a major factor in their success.