Fernand Gobet has a new book out that, as a (very rusty) chess player, has piqued my interest. As a cognitive scientist and a highly skilled player himself, there are few (if any) better placed than Fernand to write on this topic. Visitors to this site might recall Fernand’s excellent essay on Herb Simon. Here is Fernand’s interview with Chess Life. I’d say that the greatest treatment of chess in literature still falls to Zweig’s The Royal Game (the title translation that I’m most familiar with) which deserves another read in tandem with Fernand’s new book: Zweig is mentioned in Fernand’s book below. I especially appreciated Fernand’s devoting some time to New Orleans’ very own Paul Morphy.
manwithoutqualities 