Sally Rooney’s new novel is entitled Intermezzo — the old chess term for an unexpected move.
The board game is a significant element in the plot — Ivan, one of the main protagonists, is a chess master. We asked Mark Watkins of the Cork Chess Club to appraise its chess bona fides.
“I was very impressed from the word go, I thought the chess was very well depicted in the book,” said Watkins.
“There’s a scene with the chess-playing character taking on 10 club players in a simultaneous exhibition, and it’s very accurate, just as it would be in real life. The way the master wins the 10 games, with no draws and no losses, is just how it would be.
“So is the player’s obsession with his chess rating throughout the book — that’s very accurate. It’s something common to all players, anyone who plays chess seriously would certainly recognise that part.
“The description of the chess player’s career arc is also very good — the discussion about whether he can become Ireland’s first home-grown Grandmaster when he’s aiming for the level just below that, and the process of trying to become an International Master are described very well in the book.
“The part where he says if he doesn’t reach that level he’ll just quit chess is accurate, too.”
Watkins says it is a tough job being a chess professional, so the description of what it’s like if you’re not being invited to top tournaments rings true.
“As does his feeling that there’s no point in continuing with the career if he can’t get up to those heights.”
A success all round, then?
“It all rang true. I was very impressed with how the chess came across.
“My only quibble would be with the part where he’s preparing for a tournament and he does so by reading a book — nowadays a top player wouldn’t do that, he or she would use a computer, because everything you’d want to research would be on a database.
“But in fairness the writer may have had a specific reason in the plot for doing that.”
Chess got a bounce from the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit a couple of years back, says Watkins.
“It would be great if people became more interested in chess as a result of this book as well, which does focus on the Irish chess scene.”
Intermezzo isn’t all serious stuff either, he added.
“The book has a couple of chess in-jokes. It refers to a 19th-century chess player one of the characters thinks is named Murphy, perhaps of Irish descent.
“The real player was Paul Morphy, who was American, but as a chess player I appreciated the nod — it wasn’t spelt out but it was a nice touch.”
Read More
- Cork Chess Club meets on Friday nights at 36 St Patrick’s Quay, new members welcome; the Cork Chess Congress is October 4-6. For more see corkchess.ie.
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