The Grandmaster

Magnus Carlsen and the Match That Made Chess Great Again

By: Brin-Jonathan Butler

Narrated by: Jacques Roy

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

The first week of November 2016, hundreds 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 would be front-page news and thought by many the greatest finish in chess history.

With both Carlsen and Karjakin just twenty-five years old, it was the first time the championship had been waged among those who grew up playing chess against computers. Originally from Crimea, Karjakin had recently repatriated to Russia under the direct assistance of Putin. Carlsen, meanwhile, had expressed admiration for Donald Trump, and the first move of the tournament he played was called a Trompowsky Attack. Then there was the Russian leader of the World Chess Federation being barred from attending due to US sanctions, and chess fanatic and Trump adviser Peter Thiel being called on to make the honorary first move in sudden death. That the tournament even required sudden death was a shock. Oddsmakers had given Carlsen, the defending champion, an eighty percent chance of winning. It would take everything he had to retain his title.

Author Brin-Jonathan Butler was granted unique access to the two-and-half-week tournament and watched every move. The Grandmaster “is not the usual chronicle of a world-championship chess match….Butler offers insight into what it takes to become the best chess player on the planet...A vibrant and provocative look at chess and its metaphorical battle for territory and power” (Booklist).

Beautifully sad and wonderful

I've listened to this several times every time the world championship comes around, and it gives such meaning to the game, the players, and Magnus. Thank you for weaving all that context and being courageous enough to show yourself. Absolute art.

great background and storytelling

as a non-chess player, I think this book is excellent at creating an engaging story and look into the history of chess. The context makes the final game much more interesting

Great book!!!!

From start to finish, it was just great!!! Along with the hardcover version. And the words jump off the page!!!!

A Beautiful Diversion

This book is about the 2016 World chess championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin. It attempts to do this from a variety of perspectives by delving into the lives of the participants as well as other child prodigies like Judit Polgar and Josh Waitzken as well as Former World Champions like Garry Kasparov, Bobby Fischer and José Raúl Capablanca. There are also accounts from journalists, friends, et cetera. The Author also draws parallels from other sports like boxing, deep sea diving and bull fighting to beautifully and poignantly describe the intensity of these long over-the-board battles. The book presents many significant aspects of chess history like: women in chess, the world chess championship itself, and little known enigmas like Peter Winston. One feels like rapidly visiting various strange countries under the auspices of an animated but informed tour guide. It is a beautiful diversion, much like chess itself.

The deliverance was very good with great inflection, tone and volume. The only thing that made me wince was 'irrevocable' with the emphasis on the 3rd syllable rather than the 2nd, but that pronunciation is also acceptable and may just be a personal idiosyncrasy.

The book can be enjoyed by people who know nothing of chess as well as the obsessed aficionado. I thank the author for this great work and plan on listening to it again soon.

keep politics out of it

got so tired of hearing Trump hate in this book, we get it, you don't like him, kept finding ways to incorporate negative talk about Trump into the story, at one point meeting Trump is compared to meeting Hitler, just keep it to yourself, this book it's supposed to be about chess