Review of Pushing Pawns

[Sam Ibeh]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Pushing Pawns" by Dima Novak.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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One thing's for sure: Pushing Pawns by Dima Novak took me unawares. I thought I was in for a boring read when I saw that it had to do with chess. I thought to myself, why write a novel on chess? If you wanted to teach chess, just teach it; it would be better that way. I was so wrong. I guess my interest was low at first because I'm not a great chess player. But this book taught a whole lot more than chess. From it, I've learned the power of team spirit, seeing the good in others, looking out for others, strategies for winning, how to get your team together to look beyond individual differences and achieve a common goal, etc. I learned that much and more in less than two hundred pages of a book that was seemingly meant for young adults.

Moses, a fourteen-year-old, created a team of chess players with his friends, who mainly were engrossed in their worlds and had little in common. Though they got some excitement from competing with other teams, they didn't win as they wanted. All that changed when Moses' mum planted an idea in his head, and a new kid in the school joined their team. A change had come to the chess team. However, it didn't affect only their chess games but also their lives. The change also affected their families and school. What started as a boy's attempt to get the attention of his crush snowballed into a movement that went beyond what he imagined he could do.

I was set to dig many holes in this book, especially when I saw it was riddled with profanity and gangster kind of language. But here again, the author caught me off guard. The mix of gangster talk, 'Britspeak' and 'Austening,' as he put it (Jane Austen's form of refined English), was theatrical, and the effect was top-notch. The author succeeded in making me want to go deeper into chess. He also got me desiring to dig more into literature and classical movies due to the names, lines, and scenes of authors, characters, and actors with which he enriched this book. The author displayed his knowledge and expertise by making it so simple that it could appeal to teenagers and still be very interesting to older folks. I found myself chuckling a lot as I read the book. Was I impressed? Yes! Considering there was nothing I disliked, I'd rate this book 4 out of 4 stars. Though there were some errors, I'd reckon the book was professionally edited.

If the author had decided to write a self-help book on playing chess, I doubt if it would have made this much impact. The lessons embedded in it are not only for chess players but for anyone who has a team and aims to rise to the top.

I recommend this book to chess players, especially teenagers because the language is more attuned to them. But it's also for team leaders and team members who desire to see their teams perform their best and win. This book also has the wisdom for people management. If this is your field, go for it; you'll indeed find a couple of ideas to help you, and you won't look too hard to find it.

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Pushing Pawns
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[Mildred Echesa]

I like this books cover, it all makes the person in the image look like a bad boy

[ibrahim bishar]

I agree with the author that when you want to impart a message, it's better to present it in the form of a story than just statements and instructions that seem to preach.

[Umesh Bhatt]

Seems to be a good book giving us ideas on teamwork and leadership. Would go through it at a later time. Thanks for the excellent review.

[GNerd]

I'm a chess lover. And I think I'm going to absolutely love this book. Great review.

[Tim Toby]

This front cover speaks volume to me as a chess lover