Far across the eastern seas in India more then 2000 years ago the game of chess was created, and for some it's the meaning of life itself.
If taken too edgy, chess may thrust ones soul into the deepest depths of insanity and loneliness. High school tournament chess at Loon Lake Academy is taken extremely serious with possible deadly consequences when the Loon Lake chess team enters a tournament in New York state.
The February release of David Klass's novel "Grandmaster" sheds some intriguing light on the history of chess and its major champions while birthing an originally riveting story. This afternoon read starts out simple enough when a father and son chess tournament arises in New York state. Each team has six players, one of them a dad.
The Mind Cripplers senior chess players get Daniel Pratzer, their freshman team member to convince his father to join the Loon Lake team. Daniel's father, unknown to him was once a grandmaster of chess, the highest ranking any chess player can achieve, just above master. Daniel's father hasn't played a game of chess in 30 years, but joins his sons team, the Mind Cripplers.
Eric Chisolm and Brad Kinney, both seniors on the Mind Cripplers chess team know of Mr. Pratzer's past chess prowess because Chisolm's father, Dr. Chisolm played against Mr. Pratzer decades ago. The top five players on the tournament scores are counted while the 6th player or lowest scoring one is discarded.
"Grandmaster" at first is nothing more than a typical tale of white suburban high school woes and routine family issues. "Grandmaster" suddenly grips its reader(s) when Mr. Pratzer gets drastically annoyed with Dr. Chisolm's better than thou attitude and constant badgering of why he quit playing chess. Mr. Pratzer, as he's walking away from Mr. Chisolm says;
"I quit because I almost killed a rude asshole with my bare hands at a chess tournament."
Incidentally, that is the only profanity in the book. As the tournament in New York state continues, the million dollar question is not whether or not the Mind Cripplers win the tourney, but will Mr. Pratzer snap and kill himself or someone else.
I also liked the secondary story line of how Daniel developed a crush on two girls, and as I was reading, hoped he'd go for Lui, the only female high school student in the tournament.
"Grandmaster" is a fast easy read with interesting chess facts, complete with rich characters, both to love and loath interlaced in a cool story; a three star read.
