"The Last Checkmate" is an excellent new chess-themed novel!

[Frank Dixon]

"The Last Checkmate", from debut American novelist Gabriella Saab, is a first-rate chess-themed novel, published a couple of weeks ago by HarperCollins.

I got my copy yesterday, and couldn't put it down until completion!

Perhaps Ms. Saab noted the popularity of the recent Netflix show "The Queen's Gambit", with Beth Harmon the young chess prodigy, when she worked on her first novel. The setting here is the Nazi prison camp Auschwitz, Poland, during World War II. It is surely one of the grimmest settings in human history. Our young woman heroine here, the central character, is imprisoned, along with her family, being captured from the Polish Resistance organization. Very few people survived once incarcerated in the Nazi camps, with the death tolls into the millions. She is a talented chess player, and gets involved in a very nervy set of games with the camp commandant, a strong player, with her very life, and those of her family members, at stake.

I don't want to say more, to not spoil the plot for prospective readers. But is is clear that Ms. Saab is a very talented writer, who has invested significant effort to craft her work.

There is something of a connection to reality with the chess theme; Alexander Alekhine, who was under Nazi control during the war, and world champion at the time, played some consultation games with a camp commandant surnamed 'Frank', who was apparently close to Master strength. Some of these are on file at chessgames.com. I once saw a photo of Alekhine and Frank playing a game from that era; this may have been through Chess Notes, the very fine chess history site run by Edward Winter.

I would not be at all surprised if this book wounds up being made into a movie or TV series in the future!

[Amit R]

"The Last Checkmate", from debut American novelist Gabriella Saab, is a first-rate chess-themed novel, published a couple of weeks ago by HarperCollins.

I got my copy yesterday, and couldn't put it down until completion!

Perhaps Ms. Saab noted the popularity of the recent Netflix show "The Queen's Gambit", with Beth Harmon the young chess prodigy, when she worked on her first novel. The setting here is the Nazi prison camp Auschwitz, Poland, during World War II. It is surely one of the grimmest settings in human history. Our young woman heroine here, the central character, is imprisoned, along with her family, being captured from the Polish Resistance organization. Very few people survived once incarcerated in the Nazi camps, with the death tolls into the millions. She is a talented chess player, and gets involved in a very nervy set of games with the camp commandant, a strong player, with her very life, and those of her family members, at stake.

I don't want to say more, to not spoil the plot for prospective readers. But is is clear that Ms. Saab is a very talented writer, who has invested significant effort to craft her work.

There is something of a connection to reality with the chess theme; Alexander Alekhine, who was under Nazi control during the war, and world champion at the time, played some consultation games with a camp commandant surnamed 'Frank', who was apparently close to Master strength. Some of these are on file at chessgames.com. I once saw a photo of Alekhine and Frank playing a game from that era; this may have been through Chess Notes, the very fine chess history site run by Edward Winter.

I would not be at all surprised if this book wounds up being made into a movie or TV series in the future!

Thanks for sharing this, Sir.

Is it possibly this photo?




From : https://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/frank.html

[Frank Dixon]

Thanks so much for linking this! The photo I saw earlier is in this current version, expanded in May this year. The one you provide may be it; can't be totally sure. But this version provides much more information than earlier.

Frank had a significant legal career under way in Germany, before joining the Nazis. They were pretty much the only game in Germany at that time. If one was ambitious, in the early 1930s, one had to either join the Nazis, or leave Germany, as many did. During the war, Frank played an important role in organizing much of the Nazi chess, with some strong tournaments, featuring Paul Keres, an Estonian, who was also under Nazi control. Alekhine and Bogolyubow played as well.

It would be interesting to learn how closely Ms. Saab made use of this material in her research for the book.

The surname, an unfortunate one here, brings a very profound memory for me, from my visit to the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, 1983; this is one of the most important historical sites I have visited. She was a teenage Jewish girl who hid in the attic and cellar of her home, to avoid being apprehended by the invading Germans. She almost made it to the end of the war, but was caught, and imprisoned; she died a few days before the war in Europe ended, in May 1945.