Counterplay
An Anthropologist at the Chessboard
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- $16.99
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
"Chess gets a hold of some people, like a virus or a drug," writes Robert Desjarlais in this absorbing book. Drawing on his lifelong fascination with the game, Desjarlais guides readers into the world of twenty-first-century chess to help us understand its unique pleasures and challenges, and to advance a new "anthropology of passion." Immersing us directly in chess’s intricate culture, he interweaves small dramas, closely observed details, illuminating insights, colorful anecdotes, and unforgettable biographical sketches to elucidate the game and to reveal what goes on in the minds of experienced players when they face off over the board. Counterplay offers a compelling take on the intrigues of chess and shows how themes of play, beauty, competition, addiction, fanciful cognition, and intersubjective engagement shape the lives of those who take up this most captivating of games.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Desjarlais probes the many uses and forms of chess, with extensive research in the U.S. and abroad. Drawing on interviews with dozens of players, authors, and teachers, as well as on online journals, and blogs, Desjarlais finds "a sense of the sacred" in chess rituals. He contrasts the slow pace of correspondence and e-mail chess with high-speed "blitz chess." The book is packed with player profiles and anecdotes, along with a look at the use of chess in education to develop cognitive skills. He also probes the philosophical and psychological aspects of chess, noting that during "intersubjective encounters" of conflicting wills and intentions, a player "finds he grasps something of another's life." He looks at the impact of computers on the game, such as "analysis engines" that calculate the strengths of different moves. Chess clubs have lost members to online games, the author finds, and, as in other areas of life, chess on the Internet is "increasingly removed from flesh-and-blood encounters." Desjarlais, a professor of anthropology at Sarah Lawrence, adds a glossary of chess terms to this informative and penetrating survey of the game today.
