The Moves that Matter
A Chess Grandmaster on the Game of Life
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- 11,99 €
Descrizione dell’editore
'A nuanced and witty meditation on confronting the challenges life throws at us all' Oliver Burkeman
Jonathan Rowson's competitive success as a chess Grandmaster and work as an applied philosopher have given him a unique perspective on why the great game is more important than ever for understanding the conflicts and uncertainties of the modern world.
In sixty-four witty and addictive vignettes, Rowson takes us on an exhilarating tour of the game of life, from the psychology of gang violence, to the aesthetics of cyborgs, the beauty of technical details, and the endgame of death. Chess emerges as a singularly powerful metaphor for the thrills and set-backs that invest our daily lives with meaning and complexity.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Chess grandmaster Rowson (The Seven Deadly Chess Sins) draws on an incredibly deep well of knowledge in history, philosophy, and the humanities to posit chess as a "meta-metaphor" for life in this insightful work. Believing chess to be "the best kind of freedom" because it involves "choosing your constraints wisely and claiming them as your own," Rowson ably translates many complex concepts into easily understood principles. Organized according to the chessboard's 64-square layout, his persuasive analysis is broken into eight chapters of eight vignettes, such as "Thinking and Feeling," "Winning and Losing," "Learning and Unlearning," and "Cyborgs and Civilians." Each chapter begins with an illustrative memory; for instance, in "Power and Love," Rowson recalls how comparing himself to his profiler, journalist Hugo Rifkind, caused him to reflect on his own insignificance with happy acceptance: "Success, after all, is not what one has achieved in life, but what one has overcome to achieve it." For Rowson, having combativeness to what he considers the universal "status anxiety" provides the deep satisfaction of "successful underachievement." Mining the "meaningful insignificance" and "insignificant meaningfulness" of chess, Rowson's charming work will provide a pleasing structure for any reader looking for self-help advice, and will particularly appeal to chess players.
