The Immortal Game

The Immortal Game: A History of Chess, or How 32 Carved Pieces on a Board Illuminated Our Understanding of War, Art, Science, and the Human Brain (2006)

by David Shenk

The author is a descendent of Samuel Rosenthal, one of the legendary chess masters in France in the late 1800s.

This is a very interesting history of chess with a particular emphasis on The Immortal Game between Anderssen and Kieseritzky in 1851. It is somwhat ironic and tragic that it was Kieseritzky who made sure the results of the game were popularized, yet he never recovered from the loss.

The author discusses the origins of chess in India, the parallel development of chess and Islam, the spread of chess through the Middle East into Europe, and the evolution of chess through the four great eras: Romantic, Scientific, Hypermodern, and New Dynamism.

While playing chess improves the mind, an obsession with chess often ends badly. The author discusses many painful cases, including Marcel Duchamp, Paul Morphy and Bobby Fischer.

The author explores the development of computer chess AI, with special emphasis on Kasparov vs. Deep Junior in 2003.

The author discusses chess in schools, and the positive effects that chess can have on students.

There are appendices on the rules of chess, the six greatest games of chess in history, and Ben Franklin's "Morals of Chess."

The six greatest games are:

The Immortal Game (Anderssen vs. Kieserittzky, 1851)
The Game of the Century (Byrne vs. Fischer, 1956)
The Opera Game (Morphy vs. Brunswick/Isouard, 1858)
The Battle of Hastings (Steinitz vs. von Bardeleben, 1895)
Polish Brilliancy (Rotlewi vs. Rubinstein, 1907)
Karpov vs. Kasparov, 1993

This is a fascinating book, definitely worth reading, more than once. And probably worth buying.