Chess Dreams (a "Sports Novel")

[greg-kennedy]

In 2017 I wrote "White to Play and Win", a novel in which a Chess engine narrates its thought process as it determines the best move to play. This year I intend to do something chess-themed again, but this time, in the reverse direction: rather than hyperfixation on a single move, it will tell the story of four players at a tournament competing for victory.

The tone will be similar to a "sports novel", with the players coming from different backgrounds and temperaments, and having different reasons for wanting to win the championship. Interspersed with their personal (simulated? Tracery?) stories of growing up, training, and accepting defeat or glory... will be actual simulated games. Chess engines are quite advanced now and many online services offer post-game analysis, identifying the significant moves, blunders, and alternate tactics for both players. The challenge will be to put a narrative spin on the analysis performed between the players.

For the past several months my time has been consumed by Blaseball, an online baseball simulation where 20 teams of randomly-generated players compete every week to win the Internet League Series championship. Over the sparse simulation mechanics an entire community of fans have grown, cheering on their favorite teams and building elaborate lore and fan work to tell stories from the rolled dice. Given a slight nudge, people are quite happy to identify their own patterns in the material and project much more into it than what is actually there. I hope I can translate some of that experience into this work.

[pjfpotter]

that's a fascinating angle. I look forward to following your project

[greg-kennedy]

No time to work on it this month, oh well.