The Immortal Game: A History of Chess, or How 32 Carved Pieces on a Board Illuminated Our Understanding of War, Art, Science, and the Human Brain

Why has one game, alone among the thousands of games invented and played throughout human history, not only survived but thrived within every culture it has touched? What is it about its thirty-two figurative pieces, moving about its sixty-four black and white squares according to very simple rules, that has captivated people for nearly 1,500 years? Why has it driven some of its greatest players into paranoia and madness, and yet is hailed as a metaphor for society and influenced military strategy, mathematics, artificial intelligence, literature and the arts.

It has been condemned as the devil’s game by popes, rabbis, and imams, and lauded as a guide to proper living by other popes, rabbis, and imams.

In his wide-ranging and ever-fascinating examination of chess, David Shenk gleefully unearths the hidden history of the game that seems so simple yet contains infinity. From its invention somewhere in India around A.D. 500, to its twenty-first-century importance to the development of artificial intelligence, chess has been remarkably omnipresent factor in the development of civilization.

Indeed, as Shenk shows, some neuroscientists believe that playing chess may actually alter the structure of the brain, that it may be for individuals what it has been for civilizations: a “virus” that makes us smarter.