A year among the geeks, oddballs, and geniuses who make up America's top high school chess team
Award-winning sportswrite Michael Weinreb follows the members of the Edward R. Murrow High School chess team through an entire season, from tournaments at private clubs to cash games at Washington Square Park to the Supernationals in Nashville, where this eclectic bunch competes against private schoolers and suburbanites in search of its second straight national championship.
Weinreb explores the peculiar genius of chess prodigies, and describes the pressures faced by these players who are alternately exalted and exasperated by the sixty-four squares that delineate their obsession. Along the way, Weinreb delves into the history of chess in America.
Chuck Klosterman, author of 'Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs' : "Writing with the deft, propulsive style of a young Frank Deford, Michael Weinreb has captured both the intellectual insanity-and the curious normalcy-of what it's like to be a teenaged super-genius. 'The Kings of New York' is the Friday Night Lights of high school chess."
Mark Kriegel, author of 'Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich' : "The Kings of New York is about chess in the same way that Darcy Frey's The Last Shot was about basketball. Michael Weinreb's real subjects are the nature of talent, the onset of adolescence, and the kingdom of Brooklyn. This is a wonderful book."
L. Jon Wertheim, author of 'Transition Game and Venus Envy': "Michael Weinreb has done something once thought impossible-he's made an eminently readable topic out of chess. Part Word Freak, part A Season on the Brink, The Kings of New York is a gripping inside look at an endearingly quirky subculture."
Adrian Wojnarowski, author of 'The Miracle of St. Anthony': "The Kings of New York isn't so much a book about high school chess as it is an unforgettable journey into the blessing and curse of adolescent genius. With a narrative rich in voice -a gathering of intoxicating charactersMichael Weinreb has delivered nothing short of a generational classic. This is a stunning book. You won't soon forget it."
