Grandmaster

Starred review from December 2, 2013
Like Searching for Bobby Fischer, this novel about competitive chess encapsulates the intensity of the game and the players who become obsessed with it. After joining the chess club at his private school, freshman Daniel Pratzer is surprised when his super-achiever co-captains invite him to participate in a New York City father-son tournament. An even bigger shock is their claim that Daniel’s father was once a famous grandmaster of the game. When confronted with this information, Daniel’s father admits the rumor is true but remains secretive about his past; reluctantly, he agrees to come out of retirement for the event. The tale of his playing years and why he quit dramatically unfurls at the three-day tournament, where Daniel watches in awe as his father transforms from a mild-mannered man into a cutthroat competitor. Klass (Stuck on Earth) builds significant tension as Daniel’s father begins to unravel, and the nobility of the team’s members is tested. Daniel learns something about the nature of competition and the values he and his father need to hold dearest in this emotionally taut story. Ages 12–up. Agent: Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency.

December 1, 2013
A mediocre high school chess player discovers his perfectly ordinary father is a former grandmaster in this standard-issue father-son relationship story. Daniel Pratzer has always been a jack-of-all-trades, master of none when it comes to athletics. "I had worked hard to become a decent baseball player...an acceptable soccer player...but I had never been great at any of them." When he takes up chess as a way to make friends at his New Jersey private school, he is informed by his teammates that his accountant father, Morris W. Pratzer, used to be an internationally known chess champion. They urge Daniel to convince Morris to take part in a high-stakes New York City tournament along with them and their fathers. Stung by the fact that Morris never revealed his "checkered" past, Daniel angrily confronts him only to learn that his dad quit the game because the competition had released his incendiary temper and nearly cost him his life. But Morris decides to play the tournament anyway, and his famous rage re-emerges when he faces an old rival. In the predictable end, father and son learn valuable lessons about teamwork, honor and acceptance. Check. Checkmate. The paint-by-numbers plot and unimaginative dialogue are unlikely to encourage anyone but the most die-hard chess aficionado to finish this rote problem novel. (Fiction. 11-15)

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February 1, 2014

Gr 7 Up-Freshman Daniel Pratzer has managed "to fly under the radar of the cool-and-cruel crowd." To break out of mediocrity, he joins the school's prestigious chess team. Daniel is a novice; in fact, the two team captains call him "Patzer-face" (a "patzer" meaning someone whose chess abilities are minimal). Daniel is shocked when he is asked to join the team at an important, weekend-long father-son tournament, and then he learns the truth. They want him for his father, a former prodigy who became a grandmaster at 16 but gave up the game due to stress. Daniel didn't even know his father could play. At his son's urging, Mr. Pratzer agrees to compete, and Daniel is surprised to see such a killer instinct in this meek, pot-bellied accountant. As the tournament begins to take a toll on his father's health and well-being, he begins to think that maybe skeletons are better left in the closet. Like a well-played chess game, drama unfolds deliberately as things progressively get worse, building up to an exciting, climactic endgame. Daniel is a likable, dorky kid, the underrated everyman with whom readers can empathize and cheer on. The characters reflect on what it means to be a winner, successful, or popular and to lose one's self to pressures from peers, parents, or competition. This book is smart, real, and full of feeling.-June Shimonishi, Torrance Public Library, CA

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2014
Grades 7-10 Chess is a mind sport, one that is all-consuming, both mentally and emotionally. Daniel Pratzer is about to find out what that means, but not in a way he expects. A freshman and a newbie to chessor patzer in chess lingoDaniel is approached by the senior chess club cocaptains of his exclusive high school. A father-son weekend tournament is coming up, and Daniel and his father are more required than requested to be there. First prize is $10,000, but Daniel's father doesn't play chess. At least, that's what Daniel thinks. In truth, his father is a Grandmaster who walked away from the game before his life became unbearable. Now 30 years later, he breaks his own vow so he can spend time with his son. Mr. Pratzer soon finds himself competing against an old rival who knows every demon that can destroy him, and Daniel learns that family is more important than acceptance or glory. Fast-paced, inspired writing makes this perfect for fans of John Feinstein's The Sports Beat series.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)