
RELATED BOOKS Nearby on shelf Chess Fine, Gary Alan Games & Activities Players Tournaments Wander... NEW SEARCH BROWSE BOOKS by TOPIC by TITLE by AUTHOR by PUBLISHER ABOUT BIBLIOVAULT ABOUT US EBOOK FULFILLMENT PARTICIPATING PRESSES ACCESSIBILITY FILES MORE INFORMATION TECH SUPPORT
BUY FROM PUBLISHER Available as an ebook at: Amazon Kindle Apple iBooks Barnes & Noble Nook CafeScribe Chegg Inc ebrary EBSCO eBooks Google Play Kno Kobo	Players and Pawns: How Chess Builds Community and Culture by Gary Alan Fine University of Chicago Press, 2015 Paper: 978-0-226-63986-4 \| eISBN: 978-0-226-26503-2 \| Cloth: 978-0-226-26498-1 Library of Congress Classification GV1448.F55 2015 Dewey Decimal Classification 794.1019 ABOUT THIS BOOK \| AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY \| REVIEWS \| TOC \| REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE ABOUT THIS BOOK A chess match seems as solitary an endeavor as there is in sports: two minds, on their own, in fierce opposition. In contrast, Gary Alan Fine argues that chess is a social duet: two players in silent dialogue who always take each other into account in their play. Surrounding that one-on-one contest is a community life that can be nearly as dramatic and intense as the across-the-board confrontation. Fine has spent years immersed in the communities of amateur and professional chess players, and with Players and Pawns he takes readers deep inside them, revealing a complex, brilliant, feisty world of commitment and conflict. Within their community, chess players find both support and challenges, all amid a shared interest in and love of the long-standing traditions of the game, traditions that help chess players build a communal identity. Full of idiosyncratic characters and dramatic gameplay, Players and Pawns is a celebration of the fascinating world of serious chess. AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Gary Alan Fine is professor of sociology at Northwestern University and the author of numerous books. REVIEWS "Fine demonstrates above all that chess is not an individualized activity, but rather a communal one. The logic of chess is not impersonal, but embodied and social. It is not merely a game, but an important part of the way that many people make their lives together. It is a significant and masterful achievement." — Mark Jacobs, George Mason University "Whether you are a casual player or a grandmaster you will find something of interest in this book, which takes a bemused look at the extensive activity that goes into making chess communities. Even if you have never played chess, you will still learn a lot about social life from this book, the best yet by this prolific author." — James M. Jasper, author of The Art of Moral Protest “A traditional ethnography, Players and Pawns combines rigor with a wry lightness of touch. Even those for whom chess has always seemed a bizarre mixture of obsession, paranoia, and sublime mastery, will see it revealed as a wondrously diverse landscape of contrasting temperaments, climates, and folkways.” — Les Gofton, teaching fellow in sociology, Durham University, Times Higher Education “A rich account of community norms, values, boundaries, status systems, and organization.” — American Journal of Sociology “Players and Pawns would make an excellent addition to a game studies course at either the undergraduate or graduate level. . . .That said, the concepts Fine develops are useful to folklorists working with other subcultural groups, and the book should be of interest far beyond game studies.” — Journal of American Folklore TABLE OF CONTENTS Prologue: A Tournament Revealed Introduction: First Moves Chapter One: The Mind, the Body, and the Soul of Chess Chapter Two: Doing Chess Chapter Three: Temporal Tapestries Chapter Four: Shared Pasts and Sticky Culture Chapter Five: The Worlds of Chess Chapter Six: Status Games and Soft Community Chapter Seven: Chess in the World Conclusion: Piece Work Acknowledgments Notes Index REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE If you are a student who has a disability that prevents you from using this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you with an electronic file for alternative access. Please have the disability coordinator at your school fill out this form. It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled. See other books on: Chess \| Fine, Gary Alan \| Games & Activities \| Players \| Tournaments See other titles from University of Chicago Press

Reference metadata exposed for Zotero via unAPI.

REVIEWS

"Fine demonstrates above all that chess is not an individualized activity, but rather a communal one. The logic of chess is not impersonal, but embodied and social. It is not merely a game, but an important part of the way that many people make their lives together. It is a significant and masterful achievement."

— Mark Jacobs, George Mason University

"Whether you are a casual player or a grandmaster you will find something of interest in this book, which takes a bemused look at the extensive activity that goes into making chess communities. Even if you have never played chess, you will still learn a lot about social life from this book, the best yet by this prolific author."

— James M. Jasper, author of The Art of Moral Protest

“A traditional ethnography, Players and Pawns combines rigor with a wry lightness of touch. Even those for whom chess has always seemed a bizarre mixture of obsession, paranoia, and sublime mastery, will see it revealed as a wondrously diverse landscape of contrasting temperaments, climates, and folkways.”

— Les Gofton, teaching fellow in sociology, Durham University, Times Higher Education

“A rich account of community norms, values, boundaries, status systems, and organization.”

— American Journal of Sociology

“Players and Pawns would make an excellent addition to a game studies course at either the undergraduate or graduate level. . . .That said, the concepts Fine develops are useful to folklorists working with other subcultural groups, and the book should be of interest far beyond game studies.”

— Journal of American Folklore