King's Gambit: A Son, a Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game

Front Cover
Hyperion Books, Sep 11, 2007 - Biography & Autobiography - 448 pages
As a young man, Paul Hoffman was a brilliant chess player . . . until the pressures of competition drove him to the brink of madness.

In King's Gambit, he interweaves a gripping overview of the history of the game and an in-depth look at the state of modern chess into the story of his own attempt to get his game back up to master level--without losing his mind. It's also a father and son story, as Hoffman grapples with the bizarre legacy of his own dad, who haunts Hoffman's game and life.

About the author (2007)

Paul Hoffman is an American intellectual who has devoted much of his professional life to making the work of serious scholars available to the general public. Hoffman has served as editor of Discover magazine and publisher of Encyclopaedia Brittanica. He has also contributed to such television programs as CBS Sunday Morning and PBS' News Hour with Jim Lehrer. Hoffman's books include Archimedes' Revenge and The Man who Loved Only Numbers, a popular biography of the mathematician Paul Erdos.

Bibliographic information