Around the Year in 52 Books is a Goodreads group that creates a user-generated reading challenge each year. This listopia is dedicated to one of our 2023 prompts. Please do not vote on these lists unless you are participating in our reading challenge!

Prompt: A book related to a chess piece

The chess pieces are:
The Pawn
The Knight
The Bishop
The Rook
The Queen
The King
1

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4.18 avg rating — 135,058 ratings
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4.10 avg rating — 62,768 ratings
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3.99 avg rating — 114,160 ratings
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5

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3.97 avg rating — 42,501 ratings
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6

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4.33 avg rating — 1,341,009 ratings
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7

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3.68 avg rating — 12,877 ratings
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8

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3.85 avg rating — 155,810 ratings
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9

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4.32 avg rating — 1,005,063 ratings
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10

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3.91 avg rating — 234,590 ratings
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11

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3.98 avg rating — 1,147,906 ratings
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12

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3.99 avg rating — 57,147 ratings
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13

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4.02 avg rating — 548,763 ratings
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14

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4.25 avg rating — 197,114 ratings
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15

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4.16 avg rating — 79,299 ratings
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16

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3.75 avg rating — 1,849,570 ratings
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17

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4.58 avg rating — 1,019,694 ratings
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18

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3.66 avg rating — 14,795 ratings
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19

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4.35 avg rating — 629,598 ratings
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20

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4.62 avg rating — 1,326,055 ratings
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21

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4.35 avg rating — 823,051 ratings
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22

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4.27 avg rating — 164,698 ratings
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23

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3.91 avg rating — 14,201 ratings
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24

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4.01 avg rating — 46,825 ratings
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25

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3.76 avg rating — 76,103 ratings
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26

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4.29 avg rating — 435,408 ratings
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27

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4.03 avg rating — 1,031,797 ratings
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28

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4.31 avg rating — 54,151 ratings
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29

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3.82 avg rating — 129,944 ratings
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29

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4.45 avg rating — 2,698,389 ratings
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31

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3.78 avg rating — 39,959 ratings
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32

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4.01 avg rating — 142,499 ratings
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33

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4.24 avg rating — 3,096,941 ratings
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34

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4.14 avg rating — 10,055 ratings
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35

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4.34 avg rating — 933,753 ratings
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36

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 9,208 ratings
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37

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7,292 ratings
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38

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4.22 avg rating — 27,778 ratings
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39

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4.27 avg rating — 1,035,629 ratings
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40

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4.42 avg rating — 1,009,095 ratings
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41

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3.86 avg rating — 99,053 ratings
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42

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3.89 avg rating — 28,146 ratings
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43

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3.92 avg rating — 73,602 ratings
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44

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4.13 avg rating — 212,008 ratings
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45

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3.73 avg rating — 59,032 ratings
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46

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4.25 avg rating — 111,266 ratings
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47

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3.51 avg rating — 29,314 ratings
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48

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4.35 avg rating — 818,255 ratings
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49

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4.07 avg rating — 117,058 ratings
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50

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4.14 avg rating — 391,030 ratings
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51

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3.85 avg rating — 3,609 ratings
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52

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3.85 avg rating — 27,200 ratings
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53

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3.98 avg rating — 98,490 ratings
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54

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3.97 avg rating — 32,625 ratings
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55

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3.70 avg rating — 49,287 ratings
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56

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3.84 avg rating — 65,774 ratings
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56

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4.66 avg rating — 644,773 ratings
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58

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3.82 avg rating — 77,407 ratings
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58

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3.43 avg rating — 12,108 ratings
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60

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3.90 avg rating — 5,830 ratings
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61

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3.96 avg rating — 181,567 ratings
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62

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4.49 avg rating — 356,435 ratings
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63

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3.99 avg rating — 164,274 ratings
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64

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3.99 avg rating — 135,024 ratings
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65

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4.05 avg rating — 17,535 ratings
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66

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4.04 avg rating — 5,972 ratings
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67

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3.87 avg rating — 14,540 ratings
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68

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3.74 avg rating — 18,513 ratings
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69

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4.26 avg rating — 159,908 ratings
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70

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4.50 avg rating — 1,101,288 ratings
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71

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3.89 avg rating — 1,003,238 ratings
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72

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3.93 avg rating — 45,777 ratings
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72

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4.05 avg rating — 11,853 ratings
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74

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3.96 avg rating — 55,126 ratings
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74

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3.82 avg rating — 6,199 ratings
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76

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4.13 avg rating — 1,035,094 ratings
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76

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3.59 avg rating — 17,525 ratings
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76

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3.83 avg rating — 15,655 ratings
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79

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3.92 avg rating — 4,441 ratings
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79

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3.97 avg rating — 10,382 ratings
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79

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4.28 avg rating — 409 ratings
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79

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3.78 avg rating — 61,252 ratings
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79

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3.97 avg rating — 73,072 ratings
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84

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3.68 avg rating — 21,671 ratings
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84

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3.96 avg rating — 26,403 ratings
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84

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3.75 avg rating — 79,028 ratings
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84

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3.73 avg rating — 2,863 ratings
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88

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4.19 avg rating — 597,296 ratings
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88

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3.89 avg rating — 1,987 ratings
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90

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4.13 avg rating — 68,917 ratings
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91

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4.10 avg rating — 443,099 ratings
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91

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3.56 avg rating — 7,640 ratings
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93

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4.35 avg rating — 78,414 ratings
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94

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3.88 avg rating — 291,859 ratings
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94

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3.78 avg rating — 9,758 ratings
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94

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4.09 avg rating — 9,208 ratings
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94

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4.04 avg rating — 5,538 ratings
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98

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4.25 avg rating — 158,413 ratings
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98

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4.16 avg rating — 15,960 ratings
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100

by
3.66 avg rating — 4,210 ratings
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720 books · 100 voters · list created August 29th, 2022 by Emily Bourque (votes) .
5 likes · 
Lists are re-scored approximately every 5 minutes.


dalex 557 books
52 friends
Louise 4428 books
105 friends
NancyJ 13052 books
230 friends
Sydney 593 books
14 friends
Hélène 2887 books
34 friends
°~Amy~° 2658 books
66 friends
Pamela 2182 books
93 friends
Marie 3930 books
8 friends

More voters…


Comments Showing 1-8 of 8 (8 new)

dateUp arrow    newest »

message 1: by Mandy (last edited Aug 29, 2022 09:47AM) (new)

Mandy here are some other names for pieces.

Minister, top, lady, tower, vizier, horse, officer

A link for finding international piece names. unfortunately, unless you can read the language, google translate will be your friend.

www. schach-chess. com / chess-pieces .htm


message 2: by NancyJ (last edited Aug 29, 2022 12:43PM) (new)

NancyJ I think it's too big a stretch to include words with "king" imbedded in a title word or author's name - eg. working, mockingbird, looking, Kingfisher, etc. This prompt is already very broad.


message 3: by Dubhease (new)

Dubhease Rooks are sometimes called a castle, a tower, and an elephant in various cultures.


message 4: by Emily (new)

Emily Bourque NancyJ wrote: "I think it's too big a stretch to include words with "king" imbedded in a title word or author's name - eg. working, mockingbird, looking, Kingfisher, etc. This prompt is already very broad."

Totally understand if you don't want to include those books in this prompt, NancyJ (I personally don't plan to) but I'll allow them to remain on the listopia for people who may want to broaden the prompt to that.


BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Dubhease wrote: "Rooks are sometimes called a castle ... in various cultures."

Agreed


BookLovingLady (deceased Jan. 25, 2023...) Mandy wrote: "here are some other names for pieces.

... horse ..."
I so agree


message 7: by Ketutar (new)

Ketutar Jensen OK... The Count of Monte Cristo?
A Discovery of Witches?
11/22/63?
Writers and Lovers?
Euphoria?
The Uncommon Reader?
Rosemary and Rue?
How are these related to chess pieces? People should be motivating their votes here, too.

And, no, words with -king on them shouldn't count. I know this is just a reading challenge and not serious or so, but why would people join a reading challenge if they don't plan to challenge themselves in any way? I mean, I can accept "royals", and "rookie", but there are TONS of books with "king", "queen", "horse" and "tower" to choose from, without needing to go that far out to fish. One could just as well select any 52 books and then come up with far-fetched motivations.

BTW, in Finnish the pieces are called the King, the Queen, the Messenger, the Horse (Steed), the Tower and the Soldier
in Swedish: king, lady, runner, horse, tower, peasant
in Estonian: king, flag, spear, horse, wagon, forerunner


message 8: by Emily (new)

Emily Bourque A reminder, Ketutar, that everyone approaches the challenge in a different way. We encourage people to put notes on their votes explaining how the book fits, but at the end of the day, it is up to each person using the listopia to decide if a book fits for them or not. We aren't here to judge how or why someone chooses to complete our challenge.

I appreciate your listing the different words used in different languages! That's very helpful!


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