The 64-Square Looking Glass: Great Games of Chess in World Literature

Even a quick look at the table of contents reveals the breadth and vigor of this anthology. Entries progress with ease from the reverent (Charles Krauthammer's) to the celebratory (Ezra Pound's), the nonsensical (Lewis Carroll's) to the ruminatory (Stefan Zweig's) to the comedic (Woody Allen's) to the poignant (Julian Barnes's). The chess-playing scene from Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall depicts an erotically charged Victorian battle of the sexes, while Kurt Vonnegut's 1953 short story ``All the King's Horses'' is a Cold War allegory that vivifies the mental stresses and ruthlessness of the game. Other distinctive contributions come from Vladimir Nabokov, Samuel Beckett and less likely writers, among them Ian Fleming, Sholem Aleichem and Harry Kemelmen. In brief introductions Hochberg (coauthor of Winning with Chess Psychology ) affords even the uninitiated a proper sense of perspective, and his 44 selections cover a variety of genres (poems, stories, drama, excerpts from novels) and geographical range as well (Russia, Spain, Argentina, Poland). Like all thematic anthologies, this volume is obsessional--all the more so because it reflects an obsessional game. Avid chess players may devour this whole; others will need to partake of it in measured helpings. (Dec.)