Isaac Asimov and chess

Christopher Kreuzer · Post by **Christopher Kreuzer** » Sat Sep 12, 2020 2:25 am

Came across some references to chess in the works of science-fiction writer Isaac Asimov, including the following two examples from 'Pebble in the Sky' (1950):

https://www.chessvariants.com/fiction.d ... simov.html

Chess, somehow, hadn't changed, except for the names of the pieces. It was as he remembered it, and therefore it was always a comfort to him. At least, in this one respect, his poor memory did not play him false. Grew told him of variations of chess. [...]

The plot involves a game of chess, and Asimov used a famous one, which I found here:

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1090575,

Boris Verlinsky vs Grigory Levenfish
USSR Championship (1924)

Asimov mentions in his 'Isaac Asimov's Treasury of Humor' that someone wrote to him saying that they had written in to a chess magazine about this game from 1924 being used by Asimov. Though you have to remember that Asimov was writing in 1950 and using a game from 26 years earlier. We are more distant from the era in which Asimov was writing than he was from the 1920s.

Rewan Demontay · Post by **Rewan Demontay** » Sun Sep 13, 2020 5:22 am

I find it funny that the king returns home in the diagrammed game, and an interesting post as well you have here.

Geoff Chandler · Post by **Geoff Chandler** » Sun Sep 13, 2020 12:23 pm

Chess pops up fairly frequently in Asimov stories, the most famous NOT being
2001 and HAL which won me a pint bet in Sandy Bells, that was A.C. Clarke.

""My failure at chess was really distressing. It seemed completely at odds with my "smartness."

Asimov in a 1994 Autobiography.

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Isaac Asimov and chess

Isaac Asimov and chess

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