What do you think?
El peó
El peó situa el cor de la trama a Estocolm, l'hivern del 1962. Allà, sobre un tauler d'escacs, es disputa una partida entre dos homes de mons oposats. El mallorquí Arturo Pomar, l'Arturito, el nen prodigi que el No-Do va instrumentalitzar durant la postguerra fins a convertir-lo en la icona d'una Espanya en blanc i negre i un americà jove, excèntric i ambiciós: el gran mestre Bobby Fischer. Tots dos van servir el poder de manera indirecta. Tots dos van ser peons: un, del franquisme; l'altre, de la guerra freda.
Paco Cerdà basteix una història sobre el compromís polític, els escacs i el poder aixecada al voltant dels setanta-set moviments d'aquell enfrontament mític. A les seves pàgines s'hi traça la crònica de nombrosos «peons» que van sacrificar la vida per les seves idees arreu del món.
Paco Cerdà basteix una història sobre el compromís polític, els escacs i el poder aixecada al voltant dels setanta-set moviments d'aquell enfrontament mític. A les seves pàgines s'hi traça la crònica de nombrosos «peons» que van sacrificar la vida per les seves idees arreu del món.
280 pages, Paperback
Published August 7, 2023
About the author
Paco Cerdà
14 books68 followersPaco Cerdà nació en Genovés, Valencia, en 1985
Es periodista del diario Levante-EMV desde 2007.
Premio Extraordinario en Periodismo por la Universitat de València, es Máster en China y en Relaciones Internacionales por la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, razón por la que fue enviado especial del periódico a cubrir los Juegos Olímpicos de Pekín 2008.
Ha publicado dos libros periodísticos: 'La revolució va de bo! La modernització de la pilota valenciana' (Publicacions Universitat de València, 2009) y 'El cant socarrat' (Obra Social de Caixa Ontinyent, 2012), ambos escritos junto a Purificació Mascarell.
Trabaja en la sección Comunitat Valenciana de Levante-EMV, especializado en reportajes y entrevistas.
Es periodista del diario Levante-EMV desde 2007.
Premio Extraordinario en Periodismo por la Universitat de València, es Máster en China y en Relaciones Internacionales por la Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, razón por la que fue enviado especial del periódico a cubrir los Juegos Olímpicos de Pekín 2008.
Ha publicado dos libros periodísticos: 'La revolució va de bo! La modernització de la pilota valenciana' (Publicacions Universitat de València, 2009) y 'El cant socarrat' (Obra Social de Caixa Ontinyent, 2012), ambos escritos junto a Purificació Mascarell.
Trabaja en la sección Comunitat Valenciana de Levante-EMV, especializado en reportajes y entrevistas.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 105 reviews
January 31, 2026
The pawn is a chess piece, the most common piece on the board, and the one most easily given up for the sake of the game as a whole. Pawns can also be found walking the earth. They are people used for the sake of someone else's game, against their will and/or knowledge. There are a lot of these, too.
This novel by Spanish author Paco Cerdà, explores what it means to be a pawn off the chess board, but cleverly uses the story of two chess masters (Arturo Pomar and Bobby Fischer) to tie the novel together.
I just called this a novel, but I have a hard time with that term as it relates to Cerdà's book. It is so steeped in history, it doesn't feel like fiction, or even historical fiction. It reads like a patchwork quilt of stories tied together with two larger stories, but all of them historical. It actually strikes me to be less like a novel and more like a thesis. The thesis argues that pawns are people who are sacrificed and/or used for political purposes, that most people are pawns in the game of life, and Cerdà uses examples which only support his premise. Thankfully, his premise is fairly indisputable, and his examples are mainly convincing (not sure about Marilyn Monroe, but I'll take it...).
Chapters alternate between the chess stories of Pomar and Fischer (which are super interesting), and the stories of various historical "pawns" from the Cold War era, some well known, some less so. The effect is quite repetitious, even if the stories are interesting. After a while, it became a bit cynical, depressing - here we go again, another person or persons used terribly for another's gain - not to mention one-note (thus, dare I say, a bit simplistic?). I don't deny this is sadly often the way the world works. But the thesis structure of the book doesn't lend itself to a journey for the reader in which we learn something by inference or independent thought.
I am not saying that there's nothing to learn in the reading of this book. You, like me, may end up learning the stories of some lesser known figures, or see certain times in history that you weren't terribly familiar with. If you're like me, there's a learning to be had, there.
There are plenty of things I liked about this book. I was very taken with the metaphor of the pawn, that the piece moves inexorably forward, at the service of the king. I loved that each of the chapter names were chess moves from a famous match.
I also loved following the stories of Arturo Pomar, Spanish chess prodigy about whom I previously knew nothing, and Bobby Fischer, who remains such a figure of fascination. Pomar was a voracious chess player from a young age, and played throughout his life in many tournaments. He also worked for the Spanish post office, to support himself (chess can be lucrative for a few but it can also be exactly what you think it might be in terms of salary). He had nervous breakdowns and migraines in his 30s. And something crazy, like seven children. Fischer was also a child prodigy, a high school drop out after chess became all important, with Jewish parentage but who in his later life became outrageously anti-semitic, a fugitive from the US and eventually an Icelandic citizen.
Evidently, there's lots here to chew on. It's really not the type of book I tend to read, but I'm quite glad I read it. I'd recommend it to those who love Cold War history, and those taken with that male, suit-wearing, pipe-smoking, pressure-cooker, eccentric, genius, braniac world of World Chess Masters.
3.5 stars
This novel by Spanish author Paco Cerdà, explores what it means to be a pawn off the chess board, but cleverly uses the story of two chess masters (Arturo Pomar and Bobby Fischer) to tie the novel together.
I just called this a novel, but I have a hard time with that term as it relates to Cerdà's book. It is so steeped in history, it doesn't feel like fiction, or even historical fiction. It reads like a patchwork quilt of stories tied together with two larger stories, but all of them historical. It actually strikes me to be less like a novel and more like a thesis. The thesis argues that pawns are people who are sacrificed and/or used for political purposes, that most people are pawns in the game of life, and Cerdà uses examples which only support his premise. Thankfully, his premise is fairly indisputable, and his examples are mainly convincing (not sure about Marilyn Monroe, but I'll take it...).
Chapters alternate between the chess stories of Pomar and Fischer (which are super interesting), and the stories of various historical "pawns" from the Cold War era, some well known, some less so. The effect is quite repetitious, even if the stories are interesting. After a while, it became a bit cynical, depressing - here we go again, another person or persons used terribly for another's gain - not to mention one-note (thus, dare I say, a bit simplistic?). I don't deny this is sadly often the way the world works. But the thesis structure of the book doesn't lend itself to a journey for the reader in which we learn something by inference or independent thought.
I am not saying that there's nothing to learn in the reading of this book. You, like me, may end up learning the stories of some lesser known figures, or see certain times in history that you weren't terribly familiar with. If you're like me, there's a learning to be had, there.
There are plenty of things I liked about this book. I was very taken with the metaphor of the pawn, that the piece moves inexorably forward, at the service of the king. I loved that each of the chapter names were chess moves from a famous match.
I also loved following the stories of Arturo Pomar, Spanish chess prodigy about whom I previously knew nothing, and Bobby Fischer, who remains such a figure of fascination. Pomar was a voracious chess player from a young age, and played throughout his life in many tournaments. He also worked for the Spanish post office, to support himself (chess can be lucrative for a few but it can also be exactly what you think it might be in terms of salary). He had nervous breakdowns and migraines in his 30s. And something crazy, like seven children. Fischer was also a child prodigy, a high school drop out after chess became all important, with Jewish parentage but who in his later life became outrageously anti-semitic, a fugitive from the US and eventually an Icelandic citizen.
Evidently, there's lots here to chew on. It's really not the type of book I tend to read, but I'm quite glad I read it. I'd recommend it to those who love Cold War history, and those taken with that male, suit-wearing, pipe-smoking, pressure-cooker, eccentric, genius, braniac world of World Chess Masters.
3.5 stars
February 5, 2026
I'm adding a "revolution" shelf for this heart-on-its-sleeve politically minded book.
I should maybe also add a "journalism" shelf. Cerdà is one of a growing group of writers whose "novels," are more curated compilations of facts orbiting a central theme or metaphor. The most recent of these I read was The Twilight Zone, whose theme was "living under a dictatorship causes a cognitive dissonance similar to living in a science fiction universe." In that book, I mildly complained that the central metaphor was sometimes overwhelmed by individual metaphors for separate sections, and it all got a little poetic.
That was not the case here. The central metaphor reigns supreme, and it is "almost everyone is a pawn at the disposal of those more powerful." The book is built around a game of chess in 1962 between Arturito Pomar, representing Franco's fascist Spain, and Bobby Fischer, sent by the U.S. to "beat the Russians." It's interesting that we don't get a direct, Cold-War Soviet-U.S. showdown here, but instead focus almost exclusively on Spain and America, in 1962.
In between the plays of the game, we get snippets of other pawns--covert revolutionaries trying to undermine Franco, disgruntled members of his own team, the birth of the ETA Basque nationalist group, Catalan students fed up with censorship, on the Spanish side, and on the U.S. side McCarthyism, the Civil Rights movement and the birth of the American Indian Movement. There are also Americans who have been caught up in Russia, in Vietnam, in the Cuban missile crisis. "All pawns!" as the narrative says, more than once, indeed repeatedly.
We also flash back to learn about Pomar and Fischer's years as child prodigies, and forward to their very different endings.
It's a book with plenty of flaws: namely, that it is not a novel as it claims, and that there's a repetitive nature to the many, many depictions of pawns, with only Pomar and Fischer given any kind of depth and attention, at times it feels like a delirium of Wikipedia-hopping.
But it's also a passionate book, and I liked that about it. Late in the day there's a pawn that isn't found in any Wikipedia articles or history books, a pawn connected with the author's family, a reminder that all this treatment of human beings as pawns really does mean something, does ruin lives, isn't just a game of chess.
I should maybe also add a "journalism" shelf. Cerdà is one of a growing group of writers whose "novels," are more curated compilations of facts orbiting a central theme or metaphor. The most recent of these I read was The Twilight Zone, whose theme was "living under a dictatorship causes a cognitive dissonance similar to living in a science fiction universe." In that book, I mildly complained that the central metaphor was sometimes overwhelmed by individual metaphors for separate sections, and it all got a little poetic.
That was not the case here. The central metaphor reigns supreme, and it is "almost everyone is a pawn at the disposal of those more powerful." The book is built around a game of chess in 1962 between Arturito Pomar, representing Franco's fascist Spain, and Bobby Fischer, sent by the U.S. to "beat the Russians." It's interesting that we don't get a direct, Cold-War Soviet-U.S. showdown here, but instead focus almost exclusively on Spain and America, in 1962.
In between the plays of the game, we get snippets of other pawns--covert revolutionaries trying to undermine Franco, disgruntled members of his own team, the birth of the ETA Basque nationalist group, Catalan students fed up with censorship, on the Spanish side, and on the U.S. side McCarthyism, the Civil Rights movement and the birth of the American Indian Movement. There are also Americans who have been caught up in Russia, in Vietnam, in the Cuban missile crisis. "All pawns!" as the narrative says, more than once, indeed repeatedly.
We also flash back to learn about Pomar and Fischer's years as child prodigies, and forward to their very different endings.
It's a book with plenty of flaws: namely, that it is not a novel as it claims, and that there's a repetitive nature to the many, many depictions of pawns, with only Pomar and Fischer given any kind of depth and attention, at times it feels like a delirium of Wikipedia-hopping.
But it's also a passionate book, and I liked that about it. Late in the day there's a pawn that isn't found in any Wikipedia articles or history books, a pawn connected with the author's family, a reminder that all this treatment of human beings as pawns really does mean something, does ruin lives, isn't just a game of chess.
January 4, 2026
Historical fiction focused on the Cold War through the story of a legendary 1962 chess match between Spain's first grandmaster (and child prodigy) Arturito Pomar, and eighteen-year-old American master Bobby Fischer. The book moves between decades and locations in the United States, Spain, and the Soviet Union, and involves matches with other notable international chess players. I read the English translation from the original Spanish by Kevin Gerry Dunn.
The main concept is how individuals became pawns during the Cold War, with Arturo Pomar and Bobby Fischer serving as the main characters. I particularly liked the focus on Spain, and the interference of Franco in international events, as most of the books I’ve read about the Cold War have homed in on the US and the Soviet Union. I quite enjoyed this book. Recommended to readers interested in chess, Cold War politics, and personal struggles with historical forces.
The main concept is how individuals became pawns during the Cold War, with Arturo Pomar and Bobby Fischer serving as the main characters. I particularly liked the focus on Spain, and the interference of Franco in international events, as most of the books I’ve read about the Cold War have homed in on the US and the Soviet Union. I quite enjoyed this book. Recommended to readers interested in chess, Cold War politics, and personal struggles with historical forces.
June 14, 2020
Un libro apasionante de principio a fin. La partida de ajedrez que disputaron en 1962 Arturo Pomar, ex(plotado) niño prodigio del ajedrez español, y Bobby Fischer, futuro campeón mundial, ejerce de columna vertebral. Entremedias, Paco Cerdà nos cuenta a grandes rasgos (pero con un rigor y un lirismo que impresiona) la historia de otros muchos «peones», en España, en Estados Unidos, en el exilio, en el maquis, en la cárcel, en el episcopado, sobrevolando Cuba…
Magnífico.
Magnífico.
February 28, 2026
An interesting collage of world history, power politics and the interrelationship with chess players, who more often than not end their lives unhappily
The unpleasant truth is that you are a pawn &
A pawn is never just a pawn &
Following orders is also a decision
In The Pawn Paco Cerdà investigates in 70+ short chapters the lives of Arturo Pomar from Spain and Bobby Fischer from the USA. They are caught into the power politics of their respective regimes, as an emblem of Franco's regime send across the world as a child prodigy or as the first hope for a non-Soviet world champion in chess.
Reflecting the real world where pawns get sacrificed, the author mixes historical pivotal moments, mostly of resistance, often being squashed through the narrative. The style reminds me of Benjamín Labatut his works.
It is interesting how Bobby Fisher was just 14 when becoming US champion and also becoming youngest grandmaster ever, while later rabid anti-semitism and reclusiveness follow, culminating in a rescinding of US citizenship. Arturito similarly is spit out later by the Franco regime and ends up in mental health crisises as a postal employee.
The social topics incorporated into the narrative are wide ranging, with for instance shootings involving Malcom X, McCarthyism, a strike and a protest against Franco in Spain.
Politics is another chess board, sometimes the comparisons are a bit too on the nose, especially in the way that pawns can both be easily sacrificed but also become the most powerful piece on the board, but it is undeniable that necessary sacrifices pervade both personal lives and the wider arc of global politics that Cerda details in this novel. I found The Pawn a thought provoking book, if at times maybe a bit too scattered and fragmented to be fully immersed.
Quotes:
The war progresses, the war continues, the war never ends
A people prepared to die can never be enslaved
Silence is complicity
The unpleasant truth is that you are a pawn &
A pawn is never just a pawn &
Following orders is also a decision
In The Pawn Paco Cerdà investigates in 70+ short chapters the lives of Arturo Pomar from Spain and Bobby Fischer from the USA. They are caught into the power politics of their respective regimes, as an emblem of Franco's regime send across the world as a child prodigy or as the first hope for a non-Soviet world champion in chess.
Reflecting the real world where pawns get sacrificed, the author mixes historical pivotal moments, mostly of resistance, often being squashed through the narrative. The style reminds me of Benjamín Labatut his works.
It is interesting how Bobby Fisher was just 14 when becoming US champion and also becoming youngest grandmaster ever, while later rabid anti-semitism and reclusiveness follow, culminating in a rescinding of US citizenship. Arturito similarly is spit out later by the Franco regime and ends up in mental health crisises as a postal employee.
The social topics incorporated into the narrative are wide ranging, with for instance shootings involving Malcom X, McCarthyism, a strike and a protest against Franco in Spain.
Politics is another chess board, sometimes the comparisons are a bit too on the nose, especially in the way that pawns can both be easily sacrificed but also become the most powerful piece on the board, but it is undeniable that necessary sacrifices pervade both personal lives and the wider arc of global politics that Cerda details in this novel. I found The Pawn a thought provoking book, if at times maybe a bit too scattered and fragmented to be fully immersed.
Quotes:
The war progresses, the war continues, the war never ends
A people prepared to die can never be enslaved
Silence is complicity
November 23, 2025
If you like history, chess, politics, and ordinary people swept up by global events, this is a fantastic and fascinating book, which reminded me a lot of Benjamin Labatut's work.
The red thread is the 1962 chess match in Stockholm between former Spanish prodigy Arturito Pomar and up-and-coming Bobby Fischer of the USA. As the match progresses and chess pieces are exchanged, pawns play an increasingly important role in the match...
But The Pawn is not a chess novel. A 'novela-sin-ficcion' of sorts it explores the figure of the Pawn, serving their powerful masters, being sent ahead, with all their limitations and weaknesses.
Pawns can be used by their regimes - as Pomar and Fischer both were - and then discarded. But pawns can also resist and become crucially important when they near the eighth line on the board and may be converted into a Queen.
We get the stories of many small pawns that played a role in 1962, we get an image of the era. In Spain, scars of the Civil War are still everywhere in society and resistance against the Franco regime is slowly gaining pace. In the US, the Cold War is in full swing and Fischer is a useful pawn against Soviet dominance in the sport. But just as in Spain, pawns fuel the Civil Rights movement.
One of the best books I read this year, highly recommended!
The red thread is the 1962 chess match in Stockholm between former Spanish prodigy Arturito Pomar and up-and-coming Bobby Fischer of the USA. As the match progresses and chess pieces are exchanged, pawns play an increasingly important role in the match...
But The Pawn is not a chess novel. A 'novela-sin-ficcion' of sorts it explores the figure of the Pawn, serving their powerful masters, being sent ahead, with all their limitations and weaknesses.
Pawns can be used by their regimes - as Pomar and Fischer both were - and then discarded. But pawns can also resist and become crucially important when they near the eighth line on the board and may be converted into a Queen.
We get the stories of many small pawns that played a role in 1962, we get an image of the era. In Spain, scars of the Civil War are still everywhere in society and resistance against the Franco regime is slowly gaining pace. In the US, the Cold War is in full swing and Fischer is a useful pawn against Soviet dominance in the sport. But just as in Spain, pawns fuel the Civil Rights movement.
One of the best books I read this year, highly recommended!
July 19, 2021
De lo mejor que he leído este año.
February 6, 2021
3.5
Un libro interesante que se ahoga en sus propios hallazgos formales.
Está compuesto de brevísimas historias sobre personas que se opusieron, desde su posición insignificante o aislada -de ahí lo de "peones"- a situaciones políticas, o de racismo, o de injusticia. Eso, o bien que fueron utilizadas por fuerzas mayores que ellos en situaciones como Vietnam, la guerra fría, o, por qué no, la propaganda de un régimen fascista, y es ahí donde se enlaza con la famosa partida Fischer - Pomar.
Las historias son muy cortas -excepto la de los dos ajedrecistas que se extiende a lo largo de varios mini capítulos- y llegan a hacerse un poco repetitivas y en algunas ocasiones anodinas, si bien hay algunas muy curiosas, como la del Falangista Ridruejo.
Cerdá escribe muy bien, pero a veces carga un poco el tono fatalista y tremendista, cayendo en ciertos barroquismos innecesarios, además de explotar una y otra vez la analogía y metáfora ajedrecística, a la que tampoco saca demasiado jugo, más allá del evidente.
Es un libro que, pasado por la mano de un buen editor que hubiera recortado y contenido, hubiera sido muy bueno.
Como está se queda sólo en bueno tirando a normalito, un curioso pasatiempo que no descubre nada que no sepamos todos.
Un libro interesante que se ahoga en sus propios hallazgos formales.
Está compuesto de brevísimas historias sobre personas que se opusieron, desde su posición insignificante o aislada -de ahí lo de "peones"- a situaciones políticas, o de racismo, o de injusticia. Eso, o bien que fueron utilizadas por fuerzas mayores que ellos en situaciones como Vietnam, la guerra fría, o, por qué no, la propaganda de un régimen fascista, y es ahí donde se enlaza con la famosa partida Fischer - Pomar.
Las historias son muy cortas -excepto la de los dos ajedrecistas que se extiende a lo largo de varios mini capítulos- y llegan a hacerse un poco repetitivas y en algunas ocasiones anodinas, si bien hay algunas muy curiosas, como la del Falangista Ridruejo.
Cerdá escribe muy bien, pero a veces carga un poco el tono fatalista y tremendista, cayendo en ciertos barroquismos innecesarios, además de explotar una y otra vez la analogía y metáfora ajedrecística, a la que tampoco saca demasiado jugo, más allá del evidente.
Es un libro que, pasado por la mano de un buen editor que hubiera recortado y contenido, hubiera sido muy bueno.
Como está se queda sólo en bueno tirando a normalito, un curioso pasatiempo que no descubre nada que no sepamos todos.
December 3, 2025
Otro gran libro de Paco Cerdà, un autor que ha recibido hace poco el merecido reconocimiento con el libro "Presentes" y al que tuve la oportunidad de conocer y felicitar durante la feria del libro de Valencia del año pasado. Igual de humilde que de buen escritor, Cerdá en este primer libro ya nuestra sus cartas de manera excepcional.
Centrando la historia en dos personajes tan enigmáticos como interesantes: Arturo Pomar, niño prodigio del ajedrez durante la dictadura en España y Bobby Fisher, el excéntrico ajedrecista estadounidense que acabo exiliado en Islandia odiando su país.
Ambos fueron peones de sus países que los usaron para enaltecer sus propias políticas para después dejarlos tirados como muñecos de trapo.
Entremedias de esta historia podemos ver otros pequeños retales referentes a otros peones de la historia como Julian Grimau, dirigente comunista asesinado o Dionisio Ridruejo, falangista traicionado por el regimen al renegar sobre hacia donde iba la dictadura y la influencia de EEUU sobre el país.
Paco Cerdá da lecciones de historia de manera amena y los chavales de hoy en dia se enterarian de muchas cosas a través de estos libros. No me extraña que paises como Alemania ya esten publicandolo. Esperando el siguiente paso de este autor con ansias
Centrando la historia en dos personajes tan enigmáticos como interesantes: Arturo Pomar, niño prodigio del ajedrez durante la dictadura en España y Bobby Fisher, el excéntrico ajedrecista estadounidense que acabo exiliado en Islandia odiando su país.
Ambos fueron peones de sus países que los usaron para enaltecer sus propias políticas para después dejarlos tirados como muñecos de trapo.
Entremedias de esta historia podemos ver otros pequeños retales referentes a otros peones de la historia como Julian Grimau, dirigente comunista asesinado o Dionisio Ridruejo, falangista traicionado por el regimen al renegar sobre hacia donde iba la dictadura y la influencia de EEUU sobre el país.
Paco Cerdá da lecciones de historia de manera amena y los chavales de hoy en dia se enterarian de muchas cosas a través de estos libros. No me extraña que paises como Alemania ya esten publicandolo. Esperando el siguiente paso de este autor con ansias
October 5, 2026
‘Silence is complicity, he never stops writing. He won’t shut up, he is one of the few men—who refuses to fall silent in this bellicose climate—with its bombs and its money and its death wish. The colossal sense of failure in the midst of success that is characteristic—we are destroying everything in the world because we are destroying ourselves, spiritually, morally & in every way. It is all part of the same sickness—A sickness he doesn’t name.’
rtc later
‘That’s how it started—the Barcelona School of Medicine—Tomorrow, Tuesday, February 20, 1962, a poetry recital will be held in this same auditorium, featuring five poets: José Agustín Goytisolo, author of the famous line “tú no puedes volver atrás”; Jaime Gil de Biedma, “de qué sirve, Quisiera yo saber”; Pere Quart, “una esperança desfeta, una recança infinita”; Gabriel Ferraté, “ya ves, Tonet, cómo nos hemos de ver”; and J.V. Foix, “és quan dormo que hi veig clar.” But tonight, the hallways are silent, see you tomorrow, says the janitor. A student finds a way in: a square that enables the knight to leap—Salvador Barluenga, a twenty-four-year-old medical student—he doesn’t walk alone—in place of the oil painting of—, a dummy now hangs with a noose around its neck. Check.’
‘A life framed in black and white. And it’s strange: he was always a man who opted for shades of gray—A pawn-gray color, despite the periods where they wanted him to be an all-powerful queen. The gray of a winter in Stockholm three thousand kilometers from home. The gray of the post office where he kept his mind occupied on gray afternoons. One can believe that life is black and white until the paradox emerges: essences exist only in shades of gray. One can believe that the chessboard has sixty-four squares before discovering himself shackled, imprisoned in a cave where he sees only shadows of the true board. There is not just one board, and there are not just sixty-four squares. Not even the squares were truly black and white. The unpleasant truth is that you are a pawn. God moves the player—Borges writes, but what god behind God plots the advent of dust and time and sleep and agonies?’
‘Yes, he considers himself the best player who ever lived—the most talented—But his gloating feels emptier than usual. Mere footnotes at the bottom of a great story, at the end of the scene—Thirty-three years ago, he arrived—as a young man with a dream and a mission: to be crowned champion—That dream veered into a feverish nightmare—he’s a pawn in someone else’s hands. The camera keeps rolling. It’s worth muting the video—What if the amaurosis wasn’t momentary? What if those eyes were never capable of clear sight? Velkominn,—You have three years left to live.’
‘—Nevada, Alaska, and New Mexico so they can witness the power—up close, so they can study their effects on the atmosphere. What better way to prepare for annihilating the enemy, or to prepare for your own annihilation, than by launching an up-front act of self-sabotage, so you can personally feel the blow to your flesh, the depth of the wound, the shape of the scar—time-shifted deaths, making Chernobyl look like a minor anecdote jazzed up by shortsighted propagandists.’
‘Movement is the foundation of chess, of life. But what if, after your chair and side were decided—after destiny confined you to black or white—the only thing that moved were your eyes. If there were no mediation beyond observation of the player and the board. No intervention, no engagement, no action. No motion. No openings or traps. No sacrifices or ambushes. No tactic or strategy beyond observation of the pieces, the squares, your adversary as time slowly passes. Only restraint—static or errant restraint. Until the clock’s flag is defeated by the passage of the last, definitive second. The belief that such a nihilistic game—an anti-game by definition—must necessarily conclude with the player’s defeat is merely a question of perspective.’
‘—you do your work, I give you your wages, and that’s that. With this simple formula, which is no less than the terrible trade of labour—attempts to justify its belief that capital is the only thing doing the producing, that the worker is no more than a secondary element in the production process; he sells his labour just as others sell raw materials or the tools of labour—after being paid, the worker has no say in what’s done with the product of his labour; thus, the worker, the labour-seller, after receiving his salary, cannot retain any right to what could not have been produced without him, and he must remain, therefore, excluded from all profit. As you can see—that created the social problem by believing that production is merely a financial issue, and that financial issues have nothing to do with human problems. And this tremendous materialist error was what brought us those two evils, which we will never successfully evade if we do not cease to view the economy through—1962. Hypocrites. The game is entering a new phase.’
‘A society—creating a new kind of blindness about poverty. The poor are increasingly slipping out of the very experience and consciousness of the nation—doesn’t live alongside the visible—The poor—the unskilled workers, the migrant farmhands, the aged, the minorities, and all the others who live in the economic underworld—are pushed into marginal city neighbourhoods and remote rural areas. No one sees—the double poverty of a race-class condemned by heredity to be poor; the alcoholic poverty of the intellectuals, bohemians, beats who have more street than home; the eight million elderly poor for whom old age becomes the basis for a structure—A system designed to be impervious to hope.’
‘Poverty disguised as drug addiction, family breakdown, crime—There is, in short, a language of the poor, a psychology of the poor, a worldview of the poor—existing at levels beneath those necessary for human decency. If these people are not starving, they are hungry, and sometimes fat with hunger, for that is what cheap foods do. Victims of a poverty that twists and deforms the spirit, that heightens mental suffering, that plants the seeds of defeatism. Faceless, voiceless, atomised.’
‘Losing. It seems like it’s simply the flipside of winning; one of the three possibilities that every life offers when the clock starts ticking and the game begins. Winning is the hoped-for, childishly idealised, single-mindedly pursued outcome, until relentless time proves that an insipid, stultifying tie—a result reviled, often ignored, scarcely considered when the dimensions of the theatre are confused with the true plot of the play—But no one is taught to lose, because nobody wants to learn to lose—One small step at a time—back on an old cliché: resistir es vencer. By endurance—The best offense is a good defense.’
‘There are no teachers or students in the school of Raymond Poulidor, with his eight second-or third-place trophies from the Tour de France, a dusty Parisian Sisyphus who never once wore the yellow jersey despite his status as universally beloved; he was a kindly, unsung loser without laurels, the epic face of admirable tragedy, the sweet poetry of missed opportunity, of dangerous relaxation, of false delight. Losing is taught only by life, the singular teacher who gives instruction on the supreme value of a timely draw, an outcome that is cold and useless, but also soothing and analgesic.’
‘Poor mailman. That could be the phrase—says to all those who defy the interests of the empire of money as the ultimate and supreme ideology—Small people willing to sacrifice themselves in a collective fight. Poor mailmen, poor pawns. Slow, small, weak, insignificant, often manipulated, easily instrumentalised. Poor playthings of destiny who never surrendered or abandoned the board—They knew they were pawns—But they all knew that a pawn is never just a pawn.’
‘Coincidence? The biographers ask. Coincidence, of course, they say in answer to their own question.’
January 6, 2022
Buenísimo tanto en la forma como en el contenido. Un "artefacto" que se suele decir. Es una especie de collage en torno al año 62 sobre una serie de "peones" que se sacrifican por las luchas más amplias que hoy llamamos "historia". ¿Qué hace la Historia con sus peones?¿Cuántos llegan al final del tablero para convertirse en dama? Todo ello con un foco especial en Arturito Pomar, genio desconocido del ajedrez, Bobby Fisher, las luchas antiracistas en USA, la crisis de los misiles de Cuba, el cambio de dirección del franquismo en España, y un largo etcétera. Hay partes que me han conmovido y dejaba de leer para volver al ratillo. Empática y dignificante. Da la sensación de que captura un instante único en la historia con una prosa precisa, poética en su justa medida, pero a la vez pulida y recortada. Una gozada de leer.
Venía sin expectativas y me encuentro una joya. Lo recomendaré y lo regalaré. Felicidades al autor. Jaque mate.
Lentos, pequeños, débiles, insignificantes; tantas veces manipulados, instrumentalizados. pobres juguetes del destino que no se entregaron ni se apartaron junto al camino, no puedo más y aquí me quedo. Todos se sabían peón. Algunos quizás soñándose dama. Pero sabiendo, todos, que nunca un peón es solo un peón.
Venía sin expectativas y me encuentro una joya. Lo recomendaré y lo regalaré. Felicidades al autor. Jaque mate.
Lentos, pequeños, débiles, insignificantes; tantas veces manipulados, instrumentalizados. pobres juguetes del destino que no se entregaron ni se apartaron junto al camino, no puedo más y aquí me quedo. Todos se sabían peón. Algunos quizás soñándose dama. Pero sabiendo, todos, que nunca un peón es solo un peón.
March 2, 2024
Me’l vaig llegir fa quasi 3 anys i ja em va semblar una meravella. Esta vegada la lectura ha sigut per refrescar-la perquè al centre on treballe he(m) muntat un club de lectura i esta és la primera de totes.
Per a mi, el millor llibre de l’autor, tot i que seria difícil elegir una obra. Com a aficionat als escacs que soc, m’ha semblat un gran llibre. Esta vegada l’he llegit amb la partida Pomar-Fischer a una app d’escacs.
Me’l llegiria una vegada a l’any.
Per a mi, el millor llibre de l’autor, tot i que seria difícil elegir una obra. Com a aficionat als escacs que soc, m’ha semblat un gran llibre. Esta vegada l’he llegit amb la partida Pomar-Fischer a una app d’escacs.
Me’l llegiria una vegada a l’any.
March 10, 2021
"Pobres carteros, pobres peones. Lentos, pequeños, débiles, insignificantes; tantas veces manipulados, instrumentalizados. Pobres juguetes del destino que no se entregaron ni se apartaron junto al camino, no puedo más y aquí me quedo. Todos se sabían peón. Algunos quizá soñándose dama. Pero sabiendo, todos, que nunca un peón es solo un peón."
June 20, 2023
Cuesta pensar, al menos por un instante, que El peón no sea un libro de literatura, o como se dice ahora, de ficción. Su prosa exquisita y su gusto por contar historias hacen pensar en una obra de pura invención. Pero todo en ella es mera historia, resultado de un trabajo periodístico cuidado. Cerdà nos describe la partida de ajedrez entre Arturo (exArturito) Pomar y un Bobby Fischer que aún no había llegado a la cúspide. A través de esta historia y de otras historias del año 62, el año de la partida, Cerdà nos pinta un paisaje de peones al servicio de sus respectivas potencias dominadoras. Historia triste, en general trágica, del mundo en que vivimos.
December 7, 2022
Un libro muy bien escrito y documentado, que nos va relatando de modo apasionando la biografía tanto de Arturito Pomar, el niño prodigio del ajedrez, como del genio Bobby Fischer, alternándolo con la narración de una partida en la que se enfrentaron cuando Arturo Pomar ya era adulto y funcionario de Correos. El libro está salpicado además con diversas historias y anécdotas de diversos "peones" de la dictadura franquista y de Estados Unidos (comunistas detenidos, activistas civiles afroamericanos, espías, políticos en el exilio...). Súper interesante lectura.
February 12, 2026
Bobby Fischer's game against the Spanish grandmaster Arturo Pomar is not famous. Chess aficionados and cold-war historians will, doubtlessly, know something about Fischer's famous 21-game match in Reykjavik against the reigning world champion, Boris Spassky. It was a match both geopolitical and egomaniacal: here an American upstart and a Russian titan faced off in a game that would, by proxy, determine which empire was the intellectual superior; Bobby Fischer, however, made it all about himself, insisting on idiosyncratic rules for the match, repeatedly asking for a higher prize, losing the first game after an amateurish error, refusing to show up for the second game and losing by default, and then demanding that all subsequent games be played in a separate backroom without spectators—to then win seven games in a row in a convincing demonstration of chess genius.
But Paco Cerdà sees another nordic match, in the city of Stockholm, as significant perhaps precisely because of its total insignificance: the 1962 match between Arturo Pomar and Bobby Fischer, a full decade before Fischer would claim the world title. Here were two pawns, two once-upon-a-time child prodigies, whose feats in chess were celebrated as national triumphs (one a point of pride for the Franco regime, the other a perfect allegory of US opportunity and individualism), and who were subsequently cast aside. Despite his adolescent promise, Pomar rose to become a post master rather than a world master, and would be arrested for failing to sign up for military service; Bobby Fischer became increasingly paranoid, anti-Social, and anti-Semitic, and after a spectacle game in the US-sanctioned Yugoslavia, would become an internationally wanted criminal, living out the rest of his days in the Philippines and then Iceland. For all his putative genius, he was just a boy from Chicago raised by a single-mother, whom Kissinger strong-armed into the symbolic role as ambassador of US capitalism. The two players were just pawns, able to move up, sideways, or be captured, but never really become the all-powerful queen.
Paco Cerdà narration of the game interleaves stories of other political pawns: an American spy who crash-landed in Russian territory, was imprisoned, tortured, and then publicly ostracized in the US as a traitor and a madman; a member of the Falangism movement who backtracked from the Franco regime and was killed; a black school teacher gunned down in California. There are stories of genocide, assassination, political reprisal, suppression of communists, and surveillance of black activists, feminists, teachers using unapproved curricula. Even Pope John XXIII is more a pawn than a bishop—a village boy born of provincial sharecroppers who as pope would question the power of the state and of the church to curb personal and religious freedoms.
Chess makes battle seem simple: a board of eight-by-eight squares with alternating black and white, and six pieces that move according to preordained rules. But the game is mathematically infinite (there are more possible games of chess than atoms in the universe). Cerdà's book zooms out from.a single match to show not a 64-square board divided black and white but a globe fractured by political, imperial, ideological and class conflicts in which unimportant pawns are meaninglessly sacrificed. But as Cerdà points out: while pawns might be the weakest piece, they are the most numerous, and they are strongest when joined file-by-file: they are metaphors of expendability but also of collective power.
Overall, a fascinating book.
But Paco Cerdà sees another nordic match, in the city of Stockholm, as significant perhaps precisely because of its total insignificance: the 1962 match between Arturo Pomar and Bobby Fischer, a full decade before Fischer would claim the world title. Here were two pawns, two once-upon-a-time child prodigies, whose feats in chess were celebrated as national triumphs (one a point of pride for the Franco regime, the other a perfect allegory of US opportunity and individualism), and who were subsequently cast aside. Despite his adolescent promise, Pomar rose to become a post master rather than a world master, and would be arrested for failing to sign up for military service; Bobby Fischer became increasingly paranoid, anti-Social, and anti-Semitic, and after a spectacle game in the US-sanctioned Yugoslavia, would become an internationally wanted criminal, living out the rest of his days in the Philippines and then Iceland. For all his putative genius, he was just a boy from Chicago raised by a single-mother, whom Kissinger strong-armed into the symbolic role as ambassador of US capitalism. The two players were just pawns, able to move up, sideways, or be captured, but never really become the all-powerful queen.
Paco Cerdà narration of the game interleaves stories of other political pawns: an American spy who crash-landed in Russian territory, was imprisoned, tortured, and then publicly ostracized in the US as a traitor and a madman; a member of the Falangism movement who backtracked from the Franco regime and was killed; a black school teacher gunned down in California. There are stories of genocide, assassination, political reprisal, suppression of communists, and surveillance of black activists, feminists, teachers using unapproved curricula. Even Pope John XXIII is more a pawn than a bishop—a village boy born of provincial sharecroppers who as pope would question the power of the state and of the church to curb personal and religious freedoms.
Chess makes battle seem simple: a board of eight-by-eight squares with alternating black and white, and six pieces that move according to preordained rules. But the game is mathematically infinite (there are more possible games of chess than atoms in the universe). Cerdà's book zooms out from.a single match to show not a 64-square board divided black and white but a globe fractured by political, imperial, ideological and class conflicts in which unimportant pawns are meaninglessly sacrificed. But as Cerdà points out: while pawns might be the weakest piece, they are the most numerous, and they are strongest when joined file-by-file: they are metaphors of expendability but also of collective power.
Overall, a fascinating book.
May 6, 2026
‘Sabe bien que, a pesar de la teoría, ningún peón se transforma jamás en dama’
‘A su rastro, el olor del dinero es más empalagoso y nauseabundo que el del pescado ‘
‘Si sale mal, será un meteoro fugaz, pero brillante, que un día se encendió en el firmamento para apagarse en el olvido’
‘El ayer sigue instalado en su mente’
‘Lentos, pequeños, débiles, insignificantes; tantas veces manipulados, instrumentalizados. Pobres juguetes del destino que no se entregaron ni se apartaron junto al camino, no puedo más y aquí me quedo. Todos se sabían peón. Algunos quizá soñándose dama. Pero sabiendo, todos, que nunca un peón es solo un peón.’
‘A su rastro, el olor del dinero es más empalagoso y nauseabundo que el del pescado ‘
‘Si sale mal, será un meteoro fugaz, pero brillante, que un día se encendió en el firmamento para apagarse en el olvido’
‘El ayer sigue instalado en su mente’
‘Lentos, pequeños, débiles, insignificantes; tantas veces manipulados, instrumentalizados. Pobres juguetes del destino que no se entregaron ni se apartaron junto al camino, no puedo más y aquí me quedo. Todos se sabían peón. Algunos quizá soñándose dama. Pero sabiendo, todos, que nunca un peón es solo un peón.’
July 22, 2026
“El general sonríe. Sabe bien que, a pesar de la teoría, ningún peón se transforma jamás en dama. Que su destino no es otro que servir al bando. Que peones y reyes son como los alfiles de distinto color: sus caminos —siempre blancos, siempre negros-nunca se cruzan pese a compartir tablero o bando.”
Acabo el libro con nostalgia y tristeza. El paso del tiempo nos reduce a todas las personas a piezas de ajedrez guardadas en su caja. Da igual la capacidad de movimiento que tuvimos o no en algún momento.
Acabo el libro con nostalgia y tristeza. El paso del tiempo nos reduce a todas las personas a piezas de ajedrez guardadas en su caja. Da igual la capacidad de movimiento que tuvimos o no en algún momento.
August 12, 2026
jamás pensé que un libro basado en una partida de ajedrez pudiera ser tam absolutamente increíble
April 5, 2021
Did I like to read this book? No.
And still, why then the four stars? Conceptually the book highlights the lives of Bobby Fisher and Arturito Pomar who will play chess against each other in Stockholm. Pomar loses in 77 movements. The book counts 77 chapters and shows that not only Fisher (USA versus USSR)and Pomar ( Spain of Franco), both grandmasters, were simply pawns in a bigger game but many other humans were just pawns in Vietnam, Korea, Moscow, Italy,....
The book is not really a novel it is too historically correct for that but it brings a peculiar part of history alive and that has its great merits.
And still, why then the four stars? Conceptually the book highlights the lives of Bobby Fisher and Arturito Pomar who will play chess against each other in Stockholm. Pomar loses in 77 movements. The book counts 77 chapters and shows that not only Fisher (USA versus USSR)and Pomar ( Spain of Franco), both grandmasters, were simply pawns in a bigger game but many other humans were just pawns in Vietnam, Korea, Moscow, Italy,....
The book is not really a novel it is too historically correct for that but it brings a peculiar part of history alive and that has its great merits.
September 28, 2023
Un puzzle de relatos muy bien hilado en el que el tema central es la vida de dos ajedrecistas pero el tema subyacente es la vida de muchas personas que se vieron castigadas y sacrificadas por causas que podían compartir o no, pero de las que estaban a merced.
Una excelente puerta de entrada a temas como las resistencias antifranquista o antiimperialista a partir de la personalización en ciertas personas, relevantes o anónimas, que aportan sentimientos y empatía a lo que en otros textos se relata solo con la frialdad de los números y la objetividad de los hechos.
Un libro muy emocionante que he devorado como hacía tiempo que no hacía con ningún otro.
Una excelente puerta de entrada a temas como las resistencias antifranquista o antiimperialista a partir de la personalización en ciertas personas, relevantes o anónimas, que aportan sentimientos y empatía a lo que en otros textos se relata solo con la frialdad de los números y la objetividad de los hechos.
Un libro muy emocionante que he devorado como hacía tiempo que no hacía con ningún otro.
March 4, 2026
«El peó» és un recordatori silenciós que, darrere de cada gran relat, hi ha una vida que mai surt al tauler. Paco Cerdà converteix la figura del peó —aquest peça menystinguda, destinada a avançar sola i a desaparèixer sense soroll— en un símbol de totes les persones que sostenen el món sense que ningú els miri. El llibre camina amb la mateixa humilitat que el seu protagonista: pas a pas, sense pressa, revelant la bellesa i la tragèdia de les existències que no ocupen titulars. Una lectura que et fa aixecar la vista i preguntar-te quants peons passen pel teu costat cada dia sense que te n’adonis.
April 13, 2020
3.5
Interesante
Interesante
Read
August 5, 2020te gustará si te gustó: Los últimos, A sangre y fuego, Invierno
no te gustará si te gustó Franco
no te gustará si te gustó Franco
December 24, 2025
El Peón is trademark Paco Cerdà. His very clever non-fiction '14 April' offered an anatomy of the day the Spanish Second Republic was declared in 1931 by scouring the records for the details of the lives of ordinary and not-s0-ordinary people on that very day, and devoting a brief chapter to each of them. El Peón is organised around a chess match between the American tyro Bobby Fischer and Spanish grandmaster Arturo Pomar - one-time prodigy and far and away the best-ever Spanish chess-player.
This time the book is a collage of 72 reflections (the number of moves in the Fischer-Pomar chess match) on the lives of the two opponents and the geopolitical events of the time. Each of these events is illustrated by individuals who lived them, some of whom we've heard of and some of whom we probably haven't. The result is a richly textured account of what the world was like in 1962, as lived by those regarded by the people in power as pawns on the chessboard of history. Sometimes the pawn metaphor/analogy is stretched near breaking point, but there's definitely enough credibility here to illustrate Cerdà's principal point: that pawns have more power then we might think.
This time the book is a collage of 72 reflections (the number of moves in the Fischer-Pomar chess match) on the lives of the two opponents and the geopolitical events of the time. Each of these events is illustrated by individuals who lived them, some of whom we've heard of and some of whom we probably haven't. The result is a richly textured account of what the world was like in 1962, as lived by those regarded by the people in power as pawns on the chessboard of history. Sometimes the pawn metaphor/analogy is stretched near breaking point, but there's definitely enough credibility here to illustrate Cerdà's principal point: that pawns have more power then we might think.
Read
February 23, 2026Pawns are the soul of chess.
—François-André Danican Philidor
If the game has any destiny,
they are the playthings of destiny;
even if sometimes, ironically,
it's on them that destiny depends.
—Ezequiel Martinez Estrada, Lirica social amarga
first lines:
1. e4 c5
A pawn is never just a pawn. Confined to the board and the limited moves its lowly status allows, it nevertheless forms a bloc, serves a king, obeys a hand.
Behind the white pawn that advances two squares at the start of this game—a pawn that dreams of reaching the eighth row and becoming a queen, that dreams it and no other piece will deliver checkmate, that dreams of breaking free from all pawns' hand-carved destiny—sits a lanky eighteen-year-old from Brooklyn, with Brooklyn clothes and Brooklyn affectations. His reputation precedes him: arrogant, witty, unpredictable. Obsessive, eccentric. Ambitious. To his left, beside the chessboard, a small star-spangled flag rests atop a sign bearing seven uppercase letters: FISCHER.
=============
so good. I did keep revisiting as was sent on side deep dives to learn more about the history & etc inside… but this novel is not only focused on chess. that is a thread in it, but also examines the individual in global events, what a “pawn” truly is, & much more.
definitely recommend this, especially if you enjoy books by Benjamin Labatut, as there’s some wonderful similarities!!
—François-André Danican Philidor
If the game has any destiny,
they are the playthings of destiny;
even if sometimes, ironically,
it's on them that destiny depends.
—Ezequiel Martinez Estrada, Lirica social amarga
first lines:
1. e4 c5
A pawn is never just a pawn. Confined to the board and the limited moves its lowly status allows, it nevertheless forms a bloc, serves a king, obeys a hand.
Behind the white pawn that advances two squares at the start of this game—a pawn that dreams of reaching the eighth row and becoming a queen, that dreams it and no other piece will deliver checkmate, that dreams of breaking free from all pawns' hand-carved destiny—sits a lanky eighteen-year-old from Brooklyn, with Brooklyn clothes and Brooklyn affectations. His reputation precedes him: arrogant, witty, unpredictable. Obsessive, eccentric. Ambitious. To his left, beside the chessboard, a small star-spangled flag rests atop a sign bearing seven uppercase letters: FISCHER.
=============
so good. I did keep revisiting as was sent on side deep dives to learn more about the history & etc inside… but this novel is not only focused on chess. that is a thread in it, but also examines the individual in global events, what a “pawn” truly is, & much more.
definitely recommend this, especially if you enjoy books by Benjamin Labatut, as there’s some wonderful similarities!!
September 8, 2026
Edte libro retrata con maestría «las miserias y grandezas» de los dos bloques de la Guerra Fría a través de Arturo Pomar y Bobby Fischer. El suplemento subraya cómo ambos genios fueron encumbrados por la propaganda de sus respectivos gobiernos para ser posteriormente «abandonados cuando necesitaban ayuda», reflejando de forma impecable el papel del ser humano ante la maquinaria estatal.
Una audaz idea de estructurar el libro cronológicamente en 77 capítulos a través de los movimientos técnicos reales de la partida (que fueron 77). A pesar de que el orden de los acontecimientos históricos alternos pueda parecer fragmentado, la tensión ajedrecística funciona como un engranaje literario perfecto.
Una prosa con la tensión propia de la mejor ficción (pese a ser un libro enteramente periodístico e histórico) y una gran sensibilidad para rescatar la dignidad de los olvidados.
Una audaz idea de estructurar el libro cronológicamente en 77 capítulos a través de los movimientos técnicos reales de la partida (que fueron 77). A pesar de que el orden de los acontecimientos históricos alternos pueda parecer fragmentado, la tensión ajedrecística funciona como un engranaje literario perfecto.
Una prosa con la tensión propia de la mejor ficción (pese a ser un libro enteramente periodístico e histórico) y una gran sensibilidad para rescatar la dignidad de los olvidados.
September 13, 2020
Me ha parecido un libro brillante tanto en la estructura como en la forma. Una crónica que abarca pequeñas grandes historias que nos ayudan a comprender el todo de un tiempo pasado. Otro ejemplo de la importancia de la memoria histórica para comprender el ahora. No conocía la interesante historia de Arturo Pomar y me ha parecido un punto de partida excelente que conduce al lector a reflexionar sobre temas de mucho interés. La crónica es un género apasionante pero muy difícil, y el autor ha hecho un fantástico trabajo de documentación y de redacción. Muy recomendable.
July 15, 2023
Paco Cerdà es mi crush literario de este año. Me encantó 14 de abril y me dijeron en Cálamo, mi librería de confianza, que este era mejor. Yo no podría decir cuál me ha gustado más, solo que espero leer mucho de este autor en el futuro, y que tiene una forma de conmoverme como pocos. Me deja tocada y blandita, y eso lo aprecio por encima, incluso, de lo mucho que aprendo con sus libros (es una maravilla cómo se documenta).
November 7, 2023
Un libro de 10.
Usa la metáfora del peón para contar historias que sucedieron en la España franquista y los Estados Unidos en la misma época, protagonizadas por "peones", gente sacrificada, luchadora que acaba olvidada... Mientras, va intercalando capítulos sobre la vida de los ajedrecistas Arturo Pomar y Bobby Fischer, además de relatar la partida que jugaron en Estocolmo.
Es un libro maravilloso, con el que aprendes muchísimo y puedes llegar a emocionarte.
Usa la metáfora del peón para contar historias que sucedieron en la España franquista y los Estados Unidos en la misma época, protagonizadas por "peones", gente sacrificada, luchadora que acaba olvidada... Mientras, va intercalando capítulos sobre la vida de los ajedrecistas Arturo Pomar y Bobby Fischer, además de relatar la partida que jugaron en Estocolmo.
Es un libro maravilloso, con el que aprendes muchísimo y puedes llegar a emocionarte.
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