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The Pawn
- Author
- Paco Cerdà
- Narrator
- Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Publisher
- Tantor Media, Inc
- Publish Date
- 16 December 2025
- Run Time
- 7 hours 53 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
In this gripping historical saga, award-winning Spanish writer Paco Cerdà explores simmering Cold War anxieties through the lens of a legendary chess match.
Stockholm, 1962. Spain's first chess grandmaster, Arturito Pomar, faces off against eighteen-year-old American prodigy Bobby Fischer in a match destined for legend, celebrated more for its symbolism than for its outcome. Shuttling across decades and between the United States, Spain, the Soviet Union, and beyond, The Pawn chronicles the contentious careers of the two chess masters, expertly examining the geopolitical anxieties of the 1960s that went on to shape not just the lives of these men, but the modern world.
Perfect for fans of The Storm We Made and The Queen's Gambit, The Pawn explores the intricate shadow layers between gameplay and warfare, strategy and sedition, pawn and puppet. In this incisive and timely rendering, Cerdà presents a devastatingly human portrait of "the many exceptional people whose lives were sacrificed on the altar of Cold War interests" (The New York Times).
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Details
- Author
- Paco Cerdà
- Narrator
- Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Duration
- 7 hours 53 minutes
- Release Date
- 16 December 2025
- ISBN
- 9798318527890
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Tantor Media, Inc
- Genre
- Fiction: general and literary
Synopsis
In this gripping historical saga, award-winning Spanish writer Paco Cerdà explores simmering Cold War anxieties through the lens of a legendary chess match.Stockholm, 1962. Spain's first chess grandmaster, Arturito Pomar, faces off against eighteen-year-old American prodigy Bobby Fischer in a match destined for legend, celebrated more for its symbolism than for its outcome. Shuttling across decades and between the United States, Spain, the Soviet Union, and beyond, The Pawn chronicles the contentious careers of the two chess masters, expertly examining the geopolitical anxieties of the 1960s that went on to shape not just the lives of these men, but the modern world.Perfect for fans of The Storm We Made and The Queen's Gambit, The Pawn explores the intricate shadow layers between gameplay and warfare, strategy and sedition, pawn and puppet. In this incisive and timely rendering, Cerdà presents a devastatingly human portrait of "the many exceptional people whose lives were sacrificed on the altar of Cold War interests" (The New York Times).
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