The 64-square Madhouse

At an international chess tournament buzzing with egos, jargon, and political undertones, reporter Sandra Lea Grayling expects a routine assignment and instead steps into a world of intellectual combat. Guided by the witty, elderly "Doc" — soon revealed as the famed Dr. Krakatower — she learns the rules, rituals, and rivalries of elite chess, from clocks and blindfold play to the round-robin format and the prestige of the Soviet-heavy field. Behind the spectacle looms the tournament's strangest attraction: a mysterious chess-playing Machine funded by World Business Machines and guarded by the secretive psychologist Simon Great. As grandmasters like the boastful Igor Jandorf, swaggering ex-champion Willie Angler, Orthodox master Moses Sherevsky, and aging Bela Grabo circle the contest, Doc explains why the Machine is both brilliant and limited: too vast a game to solve perfectly, it relies instead on ruthless calculation and precise evaluation. Sandra watches the human drama deepen as fatigue, pride, superstition, and psychology shape every move. In the tense duel between Grabo and the Machine, the line between human genius and mechanical logic grows unsettlingly thin. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.