The Chess Artist: Genius, Obsession, and the World's Oldest Game

Rating:
Summary: An overly dramatized mishmash
Review: I was eager to read this book, but it fell far short of my hopes and expectations.

Hallman uses a writing style I abhor, in which nearly everyone and everything is described with exaggerated importance and strained analogies. As a graduate of some big-time writing programs, he probably feels he needs to use grand statements and highfalutin language to show his skills as a wordsmith. But there needs to be a contrast; if everything sounds important, then nothing does. It's like music at a constant crescendo.

Here's an example:

"Like an idea of God, chess would not fully succumb to the petty influence of organized veneration. Its purity would occasionally resurface, like statues crying or bleeding in odd corners of the world, a school, a monastery, a throne room, a prison. Its grand metaphor was something beyond politics and certainly beyond war or simple melee, but it was also beyond that which language was yet able to describe, and it was malleable, immune, and immortal."

This type of florid prose might work in a brief essay, but a reader faced with page after page of it will soon tire.

I'm a chess master (as is at least one previous reviewer); I know the game well, and I'm acquainted with many of the chessplayers mentioned in this book. (I've even played Glenn, the protagonist, in a rated tournament.) Those are reasons for me to like The Chess Artist. However, the prose is too thick; odd sequencing of events seems unjustified; and I fail to see the value of many of Hallman's actions or conclusions.

If there was some grand point being made, I've missed it.

Rating:
Summary: An overly dramatized mishmash
Review: I was eager to read this book, but it fell far short of my hopes and expectations.

Hallman uses a writing style I find grating, in which nearly everyone and everything is described with exaggerated importance and strained analogies. As a graduate of some big-time writing programs, he probably feels he needs to use grand statements and highfalutin language to show his skills as a wordsmith. But there needs to be a contrast; if everything sounds important, then nothing does. It's like music at a constant crescendo.

Here's an example:

"Like an idea of God, chess would not fully succumb to the petty influence of organized veneration. Its purity would occasionally resurface, like statues crying or bleeding in odd corners of the world, a school, a monastery, a throne room, a prison. Its grand metaphor was something beyond politics and certainly beyond war or simple melee, but it was also beyond that which language was yet able to describe, and it was malleable, immune, and immortal."

This type of florid prose might work in a brief essay, but a reader faced with page after page of it will soon tire.

I'm a chess master (as is at least one previous reviewer); I know the game well, and I'm acquainted with many of the chessplayers mentioned in this book. (I've even played Glenn, the protagonist, in a rated tournament.) Those are reasons for me to like The Chess Artist. However, the prose is too thick; odd sequencing of events seems unjustified; and I fail to see the value of many of Hallman's actions or conclusions.

If there was some grand point being made, I've missed it.

Rating:
Summary: Brave performance art as literature
Review: I was unable to put this book down. It is a beautifully written account of Hallman's adventures in the chess world. His portrayal of Glenn, the passionate chess master who becomes his travel companion is a complicated, compassionate character study. The two make a brave,unlikely pair on their journey to Russia. In the USA, they often embark on hilarious stunts, like playing a chessmatch in the Duchamp room of the Philadelphia Museum of Art or crashing the Princeton chess club. As a chessplayer, I was thrilled to see our world portrayed by such a fine, creative writer.

Rating:
Summary: Stale, mate
Review: I'm fan of chess (albeit a poor player) but a bigger fan of writing. While there are some superbly crafted passages and some intriguing characters in The Chess Artist, I think, taken as a whole, the book falls short. This is primarily because it's all over the place. The author has chosen to take events and places out of chronological order so that chapters jump from setting to setting with no logical segue. What exactly is the book about? Kalmykia? It's leader? The alleged murder? Glenn? The author? The chess world? The preponderance of the book dwells on Kalmykia, which the author accurately describes as a bizarre, other-wordly place. Over and over and over. And yet, not a whole lot actually happens there. Then we're in Washington Square Park. Then we're in Las Vegas. Then we're back in Kalmykia. Then we're at Princeton. Then we're back in Kalmykia. Then we're in prison.Good travel writing should do three things: 1) introduce strange characters and exotic settings; 2) accurately convey a sense of place; 3) compel the reader to care about the first two items. The Chess Artist fails in this last part. I'm 50 pages from the end and really don't care if I finish or not. If you like chess and Keroauc a whole lot, you'll probably love The Chess Artist. I didn't.

Rating:
Summary: Better for its digressions than its story
Review: I've recently started a chess club at the school where I teach and I picked this book up to get some stories and tales about how chess exists in the world. The prose is very readable and there were several great stories. I enjoyed the one where they crash a games party at Princeton University especially. I also liked the vignettes on the history of each of the pieces. Many chess players play the game, but it's nice to have some background on how the modern game arrived at where it is today. This book is also unique in that most chess histories tend to focus on the major charismatic figures of the game. Yeah, Fischer is mentioned a little bit the travelogue aspects place a greater emphasis on how chess is experienced in the present.

This book falters a little big in its big theme, a visit to the Republic of Kalmykia, which is organized around a dictator's desire to make chess the driving theme of his republic. This was an interesting idea but I feel the author didn't focus enough of my attention on this story. An even greater flaw was the emphasis on the official version of Kalmykia's chess story. He spent a lot of time walking around Kalymykia and waiting for the dictator to grant him an official interview, but far less interviewing the experience of the everyday Kalmykian. I learned a little bit about FIDE, the international chess organization that Kirstan [the dictator] heads, however.

There aren't that many readable chess books out on the market so this has the advantage of squatter's rights to me. I'd recommend "Searching for Bobby Fischer" before this and this book as a follow up to getting a flavor of some of how chess is experienced today.

3.5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Playing chess is more exciting than reading about it.
Review: If it had been story about amateur pugilist traveling to Kalmykia to fight locals, it would have been more interesting read. Instead we have a story about American chess player Glenn playing locals and waiting to meet republic's controversial leader, and at the same time the president of FIDE, leader who wants to introduce chess into politics and economy. The most interesting are parts where Glenn plays Washington Square Park's hustlers, travels to Princeton University Math Department to discuss relation between chess and mathematics, participates in Chess Open tournament and visits prisoners willing to challenge him across the board. There is one (and only one in the entire book) good combination to solve (page 208) and two meaningful sayings (p.211 and 215). The rest of the text is unfortunately boring, though graced by high quality prose; "dog barked viciously at a man who had probably kicked her once, each vicious yelp causing her to recoil slightly". No doubt, Hallman (what is his first name?) took a full advantage of the attended Writers' Workshops and Seminars. And no doubt he wrote his book out of his passion for chess.
What have I learned from the book?
· Existence of Internet Chess Club (ICC).
· Importance of speed (blitz) chess.
· Chess game we observe today is a result of mutation throughout the ages (for example, once in the past, queen was allowed to jump like the knight).
· Analog clocks are able to register moves faster than a second.
· General rule of opening with black pawns (I hope it works).
"The Chess Artist" is for readers who like chess game. If you have not played this game and are indifferent to it, do not bother.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting but too self conscious
Review: JC Hallman writes about his foray into the world of chess. The Chess Artist referred to is Glenn Umstead whom he met while the two were black jack dealers. The book attempts to be many things - it tries to thrust you into the current chess environment in the US and expose you to the many different facets of chess around the world and on the Internet. The low status of chess in general in the US, the obsessiveness of many of its players who are quite obviously addicted to the game, and the ability of the game to bridge social, economic and racial boundaries are well explained. Hallman does a very good job in capturing especially the powerful hold Chess has on many people. Where he seems less successful is in his efforts to delve into the world of international grandmaster level chess. In part it is because his guide into the chess world, Glenn Umstead, while a master level player, is not an international caliber, and so isn't part of the international chess scene with its own set of nuances and idiosyncracies. This lack of access to the highest level of players and tournaments made the trip to Kalmykia an interesting sidelight but too self focused. Many modern writers choose a style which emphasizes relating the physical feelings and emotions of each experience with the notion that it would somehow bring the reader 'to the moment.' We are therefore told about how hung over or bleary eyed the author is on the long trek - and yet despite knowing all of these details, there isn't conveyed an impression of what these sensations meant.
In general, an interesting work. It would have probably been better if it just focused on Glenn and his efforts to improve his play and his experiences at various tournaments in the US. For readers who are interested in the world of chess, I would suggest Sarah Hurst's "Curse of Kirsan" who covers the same ground with a more accessible reporting style. For those who are already serious chess fan but want to know more about the behind the scenes events, try Gennadi Sosonko's "Russian Silhouettes" and "The Reliable Past".

Rating:
Summary: A surprising 'Novel'
Review: The book was simply great. It works sort of like a novel and mainly it's about a friendship between a guy who doesn't know anything at all about chess and another guy who doesn't know anthing except chess. I know the world of chess a little bit and the author hits it right on the head but really it's a book that can be enjoyed by anyone for it's adventure and insights. I enjoyed it very much.

Rating:
Summary: An elegant tale of friendship and passion
Review: This book explores a friendship between two men, unlikely comrades: a talented writer and a gifted chess player. Their mutual passions take them on a riveting journey to, among other places, the Russian republic of Kalmykia. There is also a thoughtful account of their inner journeys -- into the worlds of their friendship and passions. I came to this book as a lover of good writing, and it delivered completely. Like Laura Hillenbrand's Seabiscuit, the book is partly documentary --it reveals a history and an adventure. And like Seabiscuit, it succeeds because it is more than history, it explores the depths of a language and culture all its own. It is a vivid portrait indeed. The opening paragraph draws you in immediately: "It was the fly that woke me, a Kalmyk housefly as big as a grape. Bigger in the blur of myopia. I mistook it at first for something much larger near my feet, then it landed on the blanket in front of my nose and ascended again when I jolted. My eyes focused as best they were able, and the lazy swim of a fat fly offered diagnosis of the churning flush of my brain. I was drunk in Russia." I highly recommend this book: it is absorbing, funny, poetic and honest.

Rating:
Summary: Fear and Loathing in Kalmykia
Review: This book is an interesting melange of chess history, personality, relationships and politics. Unfortunately the mix doesn't quite work out as well as you'd hope.

The main portion of the book is the trip the author takes to Russia, and then Kalmykia to investigate Kalmykian president/dictator and FIDE president/dictator Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. As in Heart of Darkness, things get more and more chaotic as they grow closer to their goal with the chess master falling apart from the stresses of being in an unfamiliar environment. The squalor of both Russia, and more so Kalmykia is well described and heart-breaking.

Really though nothing much comes of the trip despite the author's somewhat Don Quixotish quest to find something about a murdered Kalmykian journalist. The total surreality of Chess City just overwhelms everything else.

The interludes the author provides on the history and development of the game of chess are particularly well done.

The other portion of the book, modern chess in the USA is more about Hallman's relationship with both Glenn the chess master, and chess itself. Hallman becomes infatuated with chess, just as becoming infatuated with a girl but never really gets to know chess first-hand. Like admiring the girl from afar he gets his chess impressions through the characters found in the chess world particularly his friend Glenn.

Realizing he will never win the attentions of his new infatuation he becomes ambivalent, even hostile to both chess and Glenn, his attitude swings back and forth as he ponders the useful, or uselessness of chess while seeing what it has done to some people. This was quite interesting, his internalized love/hate relationship with both the game of chess and the chess world is familiar to many chess players.

The chess world is full of great characters and stories, and I think the book would have been stronger if he had followed Glenn throughout a few more tournaments rather than devoting so much to a fruitless quest ending in a very brief, but very scary, interview with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

The prose is quite readable, though at times a bit over the top. Hallman is even-handed, though not altogether sympathetic to his friend Glenn, and the world of chess and chess players.

On the whole, this work is very interesting, but very flawed. Like a chess game it was as interesting for what might have happened as for what was put down on paper. It is worth a look for the personal interrelationships on the dysfunctional Kalmykia road trip and the sequences about chess history as well as the US tournament scenes. Similar to Searching for Bobby Fischer the book is strongest when in the midst of the tension of a tournament and shows weakness when going overseas.