“A bravura performance…An entertaining book” (Kirkus Reviews) about the dramatic 2016 World Chess Tournament between Norway’s Magnus Carlsen and Russia’s Sergey Karjakin, which mirrored the world’s geopolitical unrest and rekindled a worldwide fascination with the sport.

The first week of November 2016, a huge selection of people descended on New York City’s South Street Seaport to watch the World Chess Championship between Norway’s Magnus Carlsen and Russia’s Sergey Karjakin. By the time it was over about The Grandmaster: Magnus Carlsen and the Match That Produced Chess Great Once again would be front-page information and believed by many the greatest end in chess background.

With both Carlsen and Karjakin just twenty-five years old, it was the first time the championship have been waged among those who grew up taking part in chess against computers. Originally from Crimea, Karjakin had recently repatriated to Russia under the immediate assistance of Putin. Carlsen, in the meantime, had portrayed admiration for Donald Trump, as well as the initial move from the competition he performed was known as a Trompowsky Assault. Then there was the Russian leader of the Globe Chess Federation being barred from going to because of US sanctions, and chess fanatic and Trump adviser Peter Thiel becoming called to make the honorary initial move in sudden death. The fact that tournament even required unexpected loss of life was a shock. Oddsmakers had provided Carlsen, the defending champion, an eighty percent chance of winning. It could take everything he had to maintain his title.

Author Brin-Jonathan Butler was granted exclusive access to the two-and-half-week competition and watched every move. The Grandmaster “is certainly not the usual chronicle of the world-championship chess match….Butler presents insight into what must be done to become the best chess player on the planet…A vibrant and provocative look at chess and its metaphorical fight for place and power” (Booklist).