by David Klass
Freshman Daniel Pratzer gets a chance to prove himself when the chess team invites him and his father to a weekend-long parent-child tournament. Daniel, thinking that his father is a novice, can't understand why his teammates want so badly for them to participate. Then he finds out the truth: as a teen, his father was one of the most promising young players in America, but the pressures of the game pushed him too far, and he had to give up chess to save his own life and sanity.
Now, thirty years later, Mr. Pratzer returns to the game to face down an old competitor and the same dark demons that lurk in the corners of a mind stretched by the demands of the game. Daniel was looking for acceptance - but the secrets he uncovers about his father will force him to make some surprising moves himself, in Grandmaster by David Klass.
"Starred Review. Daniel learns something about the nature of competition and the values he and his father need to hold dearest in this emotionally taut story. Ages 12up." - Publishers Weekly
"This book is smart, real, and full of feeling." - School Library Journal
"The paint-by-numbers plot and unimaginative dialogue are unlikely to encourage anyone but the most die-hard chess aficionado to finish this rote problem novel. Fiction. 11-15." - Kirkus
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David Klass, an acclaimed screenwriter and the author of many popular YA novels, was a competitive chess tournament player in the postBobby Fischer era. He gave up the game at nineteen and only returned to it decades later, when his two children began to play in school tournaments. He lives in New York City.
Life is the garment we continually alter, but which never seems to fit.
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