Counterplay - by Robert R Desjarlais (Paperback)

About the Book

""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."--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 biographies--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."--Michael D. Jackson, author of T"he Palm at the End of the Mind"

Book Synopsis

"Chess gets a hold of some people, like a virus or a drug," 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 "anthropology of passion." Immersing us directly in chess'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.

From the Back Cover

"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."--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 biographies--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."--Michael D. Jackson, author of The Palm at the End of the Mind

Review Quotes

"In addition to maintaining an engaging style of writing a crisp pace, the author consistently draws the reader's attention to how the formal and experiential dimensions of chess connect with one another sometimes in aesthetically thrilling ways, other times in a psychologically devastating matter."-- "American Anthropologist"

"An informative and penetrating survey of the game today."-- "Publishers Weekly"

"Brilliant . . . a rewarding read."-- "Journal of the Finnish Anthropological Society"

"Desjarlais draws from his backgrounds in ethnographic research and amateur tournament chess to nimbly explore the game's social, philosophical, aesthetic, psychological, and technological quirks."-- "Utne Reader"

"The chess aficionado will appreciate this book for how it sheds light on the game's history, its chief protagonists . . . and cutting-edge strategies. Nonplayers can take pleasure in the way Desjarlais places the grand game in social and cultural context through quotes from Bach, Faulkner, Nietzsche, David Letterman, and a wealth of other diverse observers. Counterplay makes a compelling argument in support of former world champion Garry Kasparov's claim that 'life imitates chess' and of Fischer's maxim 'chess is life.'"-- "Santa Fe New Mexican"

"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."-- "Foreword Reviews"

About the Author

Robert Desjarlais is Professor of Anthropology at Sarah Lawrence College.