What is your favorite chess novel of all time? (if you have one) Mine definitely has to be 'The Queens Gambit' bye Walter Tevis.That was the book that after i read it i quickly got addicted to chess and you don't need to know chess to read it! Dose anyone know any other good ones?

(the queens gambit was supposed to be a movie directed bye Heath Ledger but he sadly died)

"The Defense" by Vladimir Nabokov

"Chess Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes: Fifty Tantalizing Problems of Chess Detection" by Raymond Smullyan.

A brilliant book about retrograde analysis.

The Eight

King's Gambit: A Son, A Father, and the World's Most Dangerous Game
by Paul Hoffman

http://www.amazon.com/Kings-Gambit-Father-Worlds-Dangerous/dp/B002FL5J7Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1280840151&sr=1-1

The Defence (aka The Luzhin Defence) is a great book. A novel which is more specifically about chess is Anthony Glyn's The Dragon Variation - long out of print now though.

Make that 'defense' for the Nabokov; he lived in the USA, so ...

'Chess Strategy' by Edward Lasker.  He was a German/American IM and a distant relative of Emmanuel.  The book is actually about chess strategy in part, but it's mostly an anecdotal autobiography of his chess-playing years.  Fascinating stories about Tchigorin, Capablanca, Reshevsky (as a child prodigy) and many more.  And beautifully written.

Oh, this I must read!

Hi Guys

You must read this one. It was written 20 years ago.  The new one called "The Fire" is the follow up for it.

The whole books is about a chess service that is hidden all over the world.

Bye for now

Any novel with little or no chess in it.

Seriously, playing the bloody game is bad enough without allowing it to seep into other areas of one's life.

The Royal Game by Zweig was not mentioned. Not as good as  The Queen's Gambit (which is my favorite, too) but still fun to read. The Luneburg Variation by Maurensig borrows a lot from Zweig's book, IMO.

My System by Aron Nimzovich

+ 1

 +1 !! Nabokov of course ! I never had the chance to read other books on chess. I will try The king's Gambit.

Life of Mikhail Tal

That's not a novel, but how is it like? Pure biography or is it life & games?

Just skip the games at the end of each chapter...

Queens Gambit by Walter Tevis. I agree with billyjoe it is a fantastic read. Not fiction but Fischer V The Russians and Red Queen White Queen are also excellent reads.