The Bottom Line
(July 2007) 'Engaging Pieces: Interviews and Prose for the Chess Fan' by Howard Goldowsky; Daowood & Brighton; June 2007; 240 pages.
• 'Interviews with some of the most fascinating personalities of the chess world, poignant short-fiction that uses chess as a metaphor, and in-depth book reviews and editorials.' [from the back cover]
• Contains no games or annotations.
Pros
- An entertaining collection of essays on the contemporary chess scene in the USA.
- Goldowsky is a good interviewer, a good writer, and a good journalist.
- Interviews have introductions for each subject and follow-up comments ('Postscripts').
Cons
- Most of the book is already available elsewhere; each essay mentions the original.
- Top-heavy concentration of chess personalities living on the East Coast of the USA.
- Unfortunate that the book doesn't cover more players who are active today.
Description
- Part 1: Profiles and Interviews; 12 interviews, all previously published.
- - Michael de la Maza, Mig Greengard, Paul Hoffman, Hikaru Nakamura, the Shahades, more++.
- - Small black & white photos introduce the subject of the interview.
- - Half of the interviews are with other chess writers.
- - 6 interviews originally published on ChessCafe.com; 5 in Chess Life.
- Part 2: Fiction; 6 short stories, some previously published.
- Part 3: Opinion; 4 editorials, all previously published.
- Appendix: A Bibliography of Contemporary Chess Fiction; more than 80 titles.
- The essays cover the period 2002 (de la Maza, Greengard) through 2007 (Michael Weinreb).
Guide Review - Engaging Pieces
If you are a regular vistor to ChessCafe.com or a subscriber to the USCF's Chess Life, you have seen Howard Goldowsky's interviews and essays. Even if you haven't taken note of the interviewer's name, you have certainly taken note of his subjects. His interviews are as lively and as topical as their subjects.
• Goldowsky isn't a hard hitting, muckraking journalist. He isn't interested in uncovering the dirt in the chess world. He is interested in showing us the human side of his subjects : why they are attracted to chess and what the game means to them as people. Unless you are up-to-date with everything that has happened in the chess world -- in particular, the USA -- since the year 2000, you will find a new angle in several of the nearly two dozen essays.
• The appendix -- 'a bibliography containing every novel or literary anthology with chess as a significant theme running between its covers, published in English from 1933 to 2007' -- is worth special note (but why 1933?). This genre interests many players who have no ambition to advance beyond average club strength and who have little inclination to amass a library of technical books aiming to improve their game.
• Recommended, especially if you are interested in the sociology and the literature of chess.
