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 — 138,480 ratings
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4.10 avg rating — 63,832 ratings
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3.98 avg rating — 115,920 ratings
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5

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3.97 avg rating — 43,594 ratings
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6

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4.33 avg rating — 1,371,387 ratings
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7

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3.67 avg rating — 13,208 ratings
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8

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3.85 avg rating — 157,579 ratings
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9

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4.33 avg rating — 1,032,998 ratings
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10

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3.91 avg rating — 238,642 ratings
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11

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3.98 avg rating — 1,179,931 ratings
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12

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3.99 avg rating — 57,583 ratings
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13

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4.02 avg rating — 559,330 ratings
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14

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4.24 avg rating — 209,333 ratings
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15

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4.16 avg rating — 81,167 ratings
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16

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3.76 avg rating — 1,881,890 ratings
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17

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4.58 avg rating — 1,050,242 ratings
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18

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3.65 avg rating — 15,054 ratings
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19

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4.35 avg rating — 663,926 ratings
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20

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4.62 avg rating — 1,433,565 ratings
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21

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4.35 avg rating — 840,241 ratings
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22

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4.26 avg rating — 176,496 ratings
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23

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3.91 avg rating — 14,508 ratings
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24

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4.01 avg rating — 47,672 ratings
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25

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3.76 avg rating — 78,382 ratings
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26

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4.28 avg rating — 452,073 ratings
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27

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4.03 avg rating — 1,059,296 ratings
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28

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4.31 avg rating — 57,227 ratings
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29

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3.81 avg rating — 131,554 ratings
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29

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4.45 avg rating — 2,749,228 ratings
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31

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3.78 avg rating — 40,318 ratings
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32

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4.01 avg rating — 144,016 ratings
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33

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4.24 avg rating — 3,166,953 ratings
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34

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4.14 avg rating — 10,129 ratings
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35

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4.33 avg rating — 978,694 ratings
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36

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 9,337 ratings
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37

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7,387 ratings
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38

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4.22 avg rating — 27,943 ratings
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39

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4.27 avg rating — 1,086,286 ratings
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40

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4.42 avg rating — 1,026,099 ratings
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41

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3.87 avg rating — 103,054 ratings
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42

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3.89 avg rating — 28,532 ratings
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43

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3.91 avg rating — 76,384 ratings
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44

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4.13 avg rating — 213,329 ratings
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45

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3.73 avg rating — 60,981 ratings
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46

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4.26 avg rating — 127,758 ratings
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47

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3.51 avg rating — 30,438 ratings
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48

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4.35 avg rating — 835,775 ratings
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49

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4.07 avg rating — 119,314 ratings
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50

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4.14 avg rating — 397,553 ratings
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51

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3.84 avg rating — 3,643 ratings
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52

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3.85 avg rating — 28,074 ratings
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53

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3.98 avg rating — 99,045 ratings
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54

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3.97 avg rating — 33,202 ratings
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55

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3.70 avg rating — 49,771 ratings
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56

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3.84 avg rating — 66,396 ratings
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56

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4.66 avg rating — 680,176 ratings
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58

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3.83 avg rating — 78,511 ratings
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58

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3.43 avg rating — 12,160 ratings
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60

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3.90 avg rating — 6,052 ratings
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61

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3.96 avg rating — 183,193 ratings
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62

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4.49 avg rating — 366,294 ratings
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63

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3.99 avg rating — 187,684 ratings
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64

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3.99 avg rating — 137,628 ratings
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65

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4.05 avg rating — 17,764 ratings
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66

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4.04 avg rating — 6,065 ratings
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67

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3.87 avg rating — 14,692 ratings
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68

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3.73 avg rating — 19,198 ratings
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69

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4.26 avg rating — 162,394 ratings
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70

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4.50 avg rating — 1,136,006 ratings
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71

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3.89 avg rating — 1,027,456 ratings
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72

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3.93 avg rating — 46,466 ratings
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72

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4.05 avg rating — 12,067 ratings
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74

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3.96 avg rating — 56,160 ratings
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74

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3.81 avg rating — 6,367 ratings
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76

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4.12 avg rating — 1,091,170 ratings
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76

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3.59 avg rating — 17,659 ratings
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76

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3.82 avg rating — 16,056 ratings
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79

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3.92 avg rating — 4,532 ratings
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79

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3.97 avg rating — 10,453 ratings
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79

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4.26 avg rating — 421 ratings
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79

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3.78 avg rating — 62,143 ratings
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79

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3.97 avg rating — 74,949 ratings
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84

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3.69 avg rating — 22,126 ratings
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84

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3.95 avg rating — 26,730 ratings
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84

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3.75 avg rating — 80,033 ratings
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84

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3.73 avg rating — 2,877 ratings
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88

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4.18 avg rating — 631,450 ratings
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88

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3.90 avg rating — 2,039 ratings
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90

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4.13 avg rating — 70,520 ratings
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91

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4.10 avg rating — 471,114 ratings
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91

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3.56 avg rating — 7,682 ratings
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93

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4.36 avg rating — 79,599 ratings
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94

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3.88 avg rating — 300,302 ratings
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94

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3.78 avg rating — 9,822 ratings
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94

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4.09 avg rating — 9,383 ratings
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94

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4.04 avg rating — 5,569 ratings
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98

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4.25 avg rating — 160,760 ratings
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98

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4.16 avg rating — 16,802 ratings
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100

by
3.65 avg rating — 4,385 ratings
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720 books · 101 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 4544 books
104 friends
NancyJ 13329 books
230 friends
Sydney 614 books
16 friends
Hélène 3019 books
35 friends
°~Amy~° 2646 books
66 friends
Pamela 2298 books
95 friends
Marie 3953 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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