All the Wrong Moves: A Memoir About Chess, Love and Ruining Everything by Sasha Chapin

On page 159 of All the Wrong Moves author Sasha Chaplin quotes an eccentric chess grandmaster who said, “The ability to play chess is the sign of a gentleman. The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life.” These lines could have served as this book’s epigraph.

Twenty-something Canadian journalist Sasha Chapin is overtaken by a sudden obsession with chess. When online games no longer satisfy him, he takes lessons from a low-level grandmaster and travels the world to play in face-to-face tournaments (he seems to have an unlimited travel budget for his all-consuming hobby). Along the way he finds love, meets colorful characters, and indulges in mind-altering substances. All the Wrong Moves is Chapin’s entertaining memoir of this pivotal year and a half of his life. Recommended by Amy B.

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