I'll admit, what drew me most to this novel was its chess elements, though I very much enjoyed the witty story that accompanied it. The characters were memorable, and aside from the late introduction of a major character, I felt things were solid. As a chess enthusiast though, I do feel there is a lot too be desired. There are some fine games in this, yes, but for others things are left vague, leaving readers to have to guess as to what moves were played out to reach a certain point in the game. In some of these cases, I was able to find viable lines for these games through my own research, but other times, things just didn't make sense or moves were deliberately skipped. To some this might not be too much of a nitpick, but to me, it's a pretty big deal. Still, that isn't enough to ruin the story for me. Overall, I'd say this is a solid 3.75/5 which could easily be higher if the nitpicks I have are refined. With how aware of some of the shortcomings of this novel the author is aware of, I'm highly optimistic a rewrite will make this an easy 5/5 story.