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 — 135,078 ratings
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4.10 avg rating — 62,778 ratings
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3.99 avg rating — 114,167 ratings
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5

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3.97 avg rating — 42,510 ratings
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6

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4.33 avg rating — 1,341,246 ratings
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7

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3.68 avg rating — 12,878 ratings
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8

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3.85 avg rating — 155,830 ratings
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9

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4.32 avg rating — 1,005,219 ratings
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10

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3.91 avg rating — 234,612 ratings
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11

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3.98 avg rating — 1,148,113 ratings
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12

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3.99 avg rating — 57,149 ratings
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13

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4.02 avg rating — 548,897 ratings
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14

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4.25 avg rating — 197,244 ratings
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15

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4.16 avg rating — 79,323 ratings
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16

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3.75 avg rating — 1,849,802 ratings
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17

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4.58 avg rating — 1,019,882 ratings
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18

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3.66 avg rating — 14,796 ratings
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19

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4.35 avg rating — 629,872 ratings
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20

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4.62 avg rating — 1,326,966 ratings
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21

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4.35 avg rating — 823,197 ratings
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22

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4.27 avg rating — 164,792 ratings
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23

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3.91 avg rating — 14,204 ratings
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24

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4.01 avg rating — 46,837 ratings
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25

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3.76 avg rating — 76,116 ratings
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26

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4.29 avg rating — 435,571 ratings
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27

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4.03 avg rating — 1,031,990 ratings
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28

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4.31 avg rating — 54,170 ratings
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29

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3.82 avg rating — 129,958 ratings
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29

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4.45 avg rating — 2,698,755 ratings
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31

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3.78 avg rating — 39,962 ratings
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32

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4.01 avg rating — 142,512 ratings
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33

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4.24 avg rating — 3,097,419 ratings
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34

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4.14 avg rating — 10,056 ratings
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35

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4.34 avg rating — 934,098 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 — 7,294 ratings
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38

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4.22 avg rating — 27,777 ratings
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39

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4.27 avg rating — 1,035,973 ratings
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40

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4.42 avg rating — 1,009,206 ratings
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41

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3.86 avg rating — 99,079 ratings
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42

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3.89 avg rating — 28,149 ratings
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43

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3.92 avg rating — 73,609 ratings
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44

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4.13 avg rating — 212,015 ratings
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45

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3.73 avg rating — 59,045 ratings
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46

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4.25 avg rating — 111,330 ratings
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47

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3.51 avg rating — 29,322 ratings
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48

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4.35 avg rating — 818,397 ratings
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49

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4.07 avg rating — 117,065 ratings
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50

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4.14 avg rating — 391,080 ratings
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51

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3.85 avg rating — 3,610 ratings
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52

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3.85 avg rating — 27,204 ratings
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53

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3.98 avg rating — 98,497 ratings
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54

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3.97 avg rating — 32,628 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 — 65,782 ratings
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56

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4.66 avg rating — 645,014 ratings
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58

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3.82 avg rating — 77,410 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 — 5,831 ratings
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61

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3.96 avg rating — 181,576 ratings
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62

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4.49 avg rating — 356,498 ratings
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63

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3.99 avg rating — 164,354 ratings
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64

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3.99 avg rating — 135,047 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 — 14,541 ratings
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68

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3.74 avg rating — 18,517 ratings
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69

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4.26 avg rating — 159,929 ratings
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70

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4.50 avg rating — 1,101,524 ratings
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71

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3.89 avg rating — 1,003,399 ratings
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72

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3.93 avg rating — 45,788 ratings
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72

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4.05 avg rating — 11,856 ratings
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74

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3.96 avg rating — 55,129 ratings
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74

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3.82 avg rating — 6,200 ratings
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76

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4.13 avg rating — 1,035,538 ratings
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76

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3.59 avg rating — 17,529 ratings
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76

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3.83 avg rating — 15,661 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 — 10,383 ratings
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79

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4.28 avg rating — 410 ratings
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79

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3.78 avg rating — 61,258 ratings
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79

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3.97 avg rating — 73,085 ratings
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84

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3.68 avg rating — 21,673 ratings
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84

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3.96 avg rating — 26,407 ratings
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84

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3.75 avg rating — 79,035 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 — 597,513 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 — 68,922 ratings
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91

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4.10 avg rating — 443,280 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 — 78,416 ratings
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94

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3.88 avg rating — 291,916 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 — 9,210 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 — 158,443 ratings
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98

by
4.16 avg rating — 15,967 ratings
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100

by
3.66 avg rating — 4,213 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 13064 books
230 friends
Sydney 594 books
14 friends
Hélène 2890 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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