"The Guardian" on Chess and Literature

Even without the backdrop of political schisms and the spectre of mutually assured destruction, chess is a transfixing game in its own right – especially for writers. It has been the inspiration for countless novels, plays and pieces of short fiction, many of which are collected in a wonderful anthology called The 64-Square Looking Glass. What is it that makes chess such a consistently fascinating subject?

Chess, by its very nature, is a battle between two different thought processes; it gives the novelist the opportunity to go into the players' minds, while retaining an element of plot at the same time.

Why chess is a perfect game for fiction