Synopses & Reviews
"
Counterplay explores the inner world of a chess player and examines how we attempt to make meaning from the game and the forms of life that surround it. Desjarlais's personal account skillfully illustrates the absorbing, enchanting, and exacting qualities of chess, while also highlighting the penury, disillusion and pettiness that regretfully permeate the game."and#151;Jonathan Rowson, PhD, Grandmaster and British Chess Champion (2004-2006)
"This book is replete with deeply researched and closely observed details, small dramas, intriguing insights, compelling anecdotes and potted biographiesand#151;all interwoven with great authorial skill and intelligence. This is a superb introduction to the 'lifeworld' of chess that affords glimpses into the psychology of players and touches on the social and political dimensions of competitive chess. In every chapter, Desjarlais offers alluring suggestions as to what kinds of satisfaction different people find in playing chess."and#151;Michael D. Jackson, author of The Palm at the End of the Mind
Review
and#8220;The subject of chess boasts more books than any other game, but this one is special, crafted for the general reader as well as the aficionado. . . . Like the game itself, Counterplay is an enjoyable mental exercise.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Desjarlais draws from his backgrounds in ethnographic research and amateur tournament chess to nimbly explore the gameand#8217;s social, philosophical, aesthetic, psychological, and technological quirks.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;An informative and penetrating survey of the game today.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Desjarlais brings to Counterplay a social scientistand#8217;s eye for broader themes and implications, a researcherand#8217;s exhaustive annotation, and a chess junkieand#8217;s passion and respect for the game.and#8221;
Review
“An informative and penetrating survey of the game today.” Will Wlizlo - Utne
Synopsis
and#147;Chess gets a hold of some people, like a virus or a drug,and#8221; 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 and#147;anthropology of passion.and#8221; Immersing us directly in chessand#8217;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.
About the Author
Robert Desjarlais is Professor of Anthropology at Sarah Lawrence College.
Table of Contents
1. Blitzkrieg Bop
2. Notes on a Swindle
3. Psych-Out
4. Sveshnikov Intrigues
5. Son of Sorrow
6. Ambivalence
7. Cyberchess
8. 24/7 on the ICC
Endgame
Appendix 1. Note on Chess Annotation
Appendix 2. and#147;Life is touch-moveand#8221;
Notes
Glossary
Acknowledgments
Index