All the Wrong Moves

An enthralling journey into the world of chess--a story of heartbreak, obsession, failure, and the hunger for greatness

Sasha Chapin is a victim of chess. Like countless amateurs before him--Albert Einstein, Humphrey Bogart, and Marcel Duchamp among them--the game has consumed his life and his mind. First captivated by it as a member of his high school chess club, his passion is rekindled during an accidental encounter with chess hustlers on the streets of Kathmandu. In its aftermath, he forgets how to care about anything else. He plays at all hours, for weeks at a time. Like a spurned lover, he tries to move on, but finds the game more seductive the more he resists it.

And so, he reasons, if he can''t defeat his addiction, he can only succumb to it.

All the Wrong Moves traces Chapin''s two-year journey around the globe in search of glory. He travels to tournaments in Bangkok and Hyderabad. He seeks out a mentor in St. Louis, a grandmaster whose personality is half rabbi and half monk, and who offers cryptic wisdom and caustic insults ("you''re the best player in your chair"). His story builds toward the Los Angeles Open, where Chapin is outmatched and yet no less determined not to lose.

Along the way, he chronicles the highs and lows of his fixation, driven on this quest by lust, terror, and the elusive possibility of victory. More than a work of history or autobiography, All the Wrong Moves is a celebration of the purity, violence, and beauty of the game.