Sinister Gambits

This book contains eighteen chess-themed short stories. It is subtitled "Murder and Mystery at the Chessboard". This subtitle is somewhat misleading. Although there are three or four mystery stories included in this book, the majority of the selections are psychological horror and ghost stories. Many of the selections are stories of chess obsession, such as "The Dreams of Albert Moreland,", "The Devil that Troubled the Chessboard" and Stefan Zweig's incomparable "Royal Game." There are a number of good chess fantasy stories, like Poul Anderson's "Immortal Game," and Lucretia Hale's "Queen of the Red Chessmen." There are two truly hair-raising, finely-crafted murder mysteries: Robert Barr's "A Game of Chess" and Frederic Brown's "The Cat from Siam." There are a number of good chess fiction anthologies available. I recommend Burt Hochberg's 64-Square Looking Glass and Marcello Truozzi's Chess in Literature in addition to this book. I must say that Sinister Gambits is my favorite chess fiction anthology for two reasons. This is one of the few chess fiction anthologies which contain complete works. Most of the other chess anthologies I've read offer excerpts, brief quotations and an occasional complete tale. Also, author Richard Peyton wrote five insightful essays for this book which shed much light on the selections and have led me to further research and reading. Don't miss his comments upon Poul Anderson's "Immortal Game." The story takes on a whole new meaning.