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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3.91 avg rating — 293,279 ratings
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4.18 avg rating — 136,836 ratings
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4.10 avg rating — 63,324 ratings
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4

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3.99 avg rating — 115,064 ratings
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5

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3.97 avg rating — 43,084 ratings
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6

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4.33 avg rating — 1,355,678 ratings
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7

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3.67 avg rating — 13,089 ratings
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8

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3.85 avg rating — 156,700 ratings
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9

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4.32 avg rating — 1,018,572 ratings
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10

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3.91 avg rating — 236,842 ratings
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11

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3.98 avg rating — 1,163,563 ratings
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12

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3.99 avg rating — 57,373 ratings
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13

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4.02 avg rating — 554,818 ratings
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14

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4.24 avg rating — 203,382 ratings
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15

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4.16 avg rating — 80,333 ratings
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16

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3.76 avg rating — 1,865,918 ratings
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17

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4.58 avg rating — 1,034,977 ratings
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18

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3.65 avg rating — 14,915 ratings
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19

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4.35 avg rating — 646,183 ratings
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20

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4.62 avg rating — 1,380,902 ratings
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21

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4.35 avg rating — 832,040 ratings
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22

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4.27 avg rating — 170,760 ratings
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23

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3.91 avg rating — 14,339 ratings
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24

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4.01 avg rating — 47,311 ratings
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25

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3.76 avg rating — 77,670 ratings
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26

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4.28 avg rating — 444,891 ratings
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27

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4.03 avg rating — 1,045,729 ratings
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28

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4.31 avg rating — 55,594 ratings
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29

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3.82 avg rating — 130,820 ratings
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29

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4.45 avg rating — 2,723,487 ratings
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31

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3.78 avg rating — 40,158 ratings
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32

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4.01 avg rating — 143,279 ratings
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33

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4.24 avg rating — 3,137,016 ratings
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34

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4.14 avg rating — 10,094 ratings
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35

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4.33 avg rating — 956,366 ratings
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36

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 9,269 ratings
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37

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7,341 ratings
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38

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4.22 avg rating — 27,868 ratings
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39

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4.27 avg rating — 1,061,422 ratings
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40

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4.42 avg rating — 1,017,339 ratings
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41

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3.87 avg rating — 100,823 ratings
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42

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3.89 avg rating — 28,337 ratings
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43

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3.91 avg rating — 75,110 ratings
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44

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4.13 avg rating — 212,655 ratings
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45

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3.73 avg rating — 60,054 ratings
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46

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4.25 avg rating — 116,281 ratings
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47

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3.51 avg rating — 29,923 ratings
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48

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4.35 avg rating — 826,969 ratings
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49

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4.07 avg rating — 117,584 ratings
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50

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4.14 avg rating — 394,309 ratings
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51

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3.84 avg rating — 3,627 ratings
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52

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3.85 avg rating — 27,616 ratings
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53

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3.98 avg rating — 98,772 ratings
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54

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3.97 avg rating — 32,895 ratings
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55

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3.70 avg rating — 49,528 ratings
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56

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3.84 avg rating — 66,049 ratings
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56

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4.66 avg rating — 662,702 ratings
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58

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3.83 avg rating — 77,938 ratings
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58

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3.43 avg rating — 12,132 ratings
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60

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3.89 avg rating — 5,929 ratings
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61

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3.96 avg rating — 182,356 ratings
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62

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4.49 avg rating — 361,307 ratings
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63

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3.99 avg rating — 173,540 ratings
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64

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3.99 avg rating — 136,402 ratings
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65

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4.05 avg rating — 17,657 ratings
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66

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4.04 avg rating — 6,011 ratings
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67

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3.87 avg rating — 14,619 ratings
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68

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3.73 avg rating — 18,922 ratings
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69

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4.26 avg rating — 161,117 ratings
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70

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4.50 avg rating — 1,118,459 ratings
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71

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3.89 avg rating — 1,015,680 ratings
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72

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3.93 avg rating — 46,112 ratings
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72

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4.05 avg rating — 11,962 ratings
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74

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3.96 avg rating — 55,674 ratings
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74

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3.82 avg rating — 6,286 ratings
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76

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4.12 avg rating — 1,064,435 ratings
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76

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3.59 avg rating — 17,598 ratings
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76

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3.82 avg rating — 15,851 ratings
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79

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3.92 avg rating — 4,476 ratings
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79

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3.97 avg rating — 10,413 ratings
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79

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4.27 avg rating — 420 ratings
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79

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3.78 avg rating — 61,716 ratings
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79

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3.97 avg rating — 74,081 ratings
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84

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3.68 avg rating — 21,919 ratings
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84

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3.96 avg rating — 26,554 ratings
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84

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3.75 avg rating — 79,555 ratings
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84

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3.73 avg rating — 2,870 ratings
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88

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4.18 avg rating — 615,078 ratings
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88

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3.90 avg rating — 2,032 ratings
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90

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4.13 avg rating — 69,571 ratings
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91

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4.10 avg rating — 457,660 ratings
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91

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3.56 avg rating — 7,666 ratings
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93

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4.36 avg rating — 79,071 ratings
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94

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3.88 avg rating — 296,104 ratings
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94

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3.78 avg rating — 9,782 ratings
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94

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4.09 avg rating — 9,307 ratings
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94

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4.05 avg rating — 5,558 ratings
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98

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4.25 avg rating — 159,696 ratings
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98

by
4.16 avg rating — 16,413 ratings
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100

by
3.65 avg rating — 4,314 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 539 books
52 friends
Louise 4538 books
105 friends
NancyJ 13262 books
229 friends
Sydney 605 books
16 friends
Hélène 2965 books
35 friends
°~Amy~° 2689 books
66 friends
Pamela 2252 books
94 friends
Marie 3949 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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