Describing a chess game in a novel?

Question

I have a scene in a upcoming novel where two people play a game of chess, and I realized how difficult it was to describe it. The problem is due to the fact that there are many pieces and you can't really tell your readers where every pieces are at a certain point, and you also need to make sure that the location of the piece is possible.Anyway, here's an excerpt:> Due to the exchange in the centre, Black was in a difficult situation.> White had a comfortable situation against the isolated pawn. White> placed his rook on c1, the usual in this situation, waiting for the> opponent to make a move with his queen. Was this the right move? White> thought for a moment. He realized he would need to move the rook to b1> in case he would need to revert back to the Carlsbad structure.The problem is it's very hard to understand where the pieces are exactly, and I can't just describe where every pieces are in a particular situation. It would take way too long, so I will probably lose my reader. It's a sort of lose-lose situation and I can't think of any good way to get out of this situation.

Answer 1

There is a well known novel by the Spanish novelist Arturo Perez-Reverte called The Flanders Panel. It is a mystery/thriller, and although originally written in Spanish (as all his novels were) there is an excellent English translation that was a bestseller, and it is relatively easy to find a copy. This novel describes a game of chess that is played out from a middle game position in a painting. The game is played episodically, which may or may not help you, but you may wish to have a look at this novel to see how Perez-Reverte describes the moves. Perhaps less helpful to a novelist, there is also a famous play called A Game at Chess by Thomas Middleton (who was a contemporary of Shakespeare's). The characters in the play are named as chess pieces (the White King and so on), and some actual chess moves are described in the play. This satirical play closed after only nine days on the stage in 1624 (presumably because it was critical of the King), and it effectively ended Middleton's career. I wish you the best of luck in your writing.