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 — 284,013 ratings
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4.18 avg rating — 135,257 ratings
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4.10 avg rating — 62,840 ratings
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3.99 avg rating — 114,263 ratings
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5

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3.97 avg rating — 42,572 ratings
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6

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4.33 avg rating — 1,342,484 ratings
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7

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3.68 avg rating — 12,893 ratings
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8

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3.85 avg rating — 155,918 ratings
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9

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4.32 avg rating — 1,006,318 ratings
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10

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3.91 avg rating — 234,829 ratings
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11

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3.98 avg rating — 1,149,540 ratings
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12

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3.99 avg rating — 57,173 ratings
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13

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4.02 avg rating — 549,571 ratings
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14

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4.24 avg rating — 197,896 ratings
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15

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4.16 avg rating — 79,432 ratings
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16

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3.75 avg rating — 1,851,269 ratings
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17

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4.58 avg rating — 1,021,272 ratings
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18

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3.66 avg rating — 14,809 ratings
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19

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4.35 avg rating — 631,330 ratings
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20

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4.62 avg rating — 1,332,339 ratings
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21

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4.35 avg rating — 823,992 ratings
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22

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4.27 avg rating — 165,290 ratings
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23

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3.91 avg rating — 14,218 ratings
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24

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4.01 avg rating — 46,900 ratings
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25

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3.76 avg rating — 76,268 ratings
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26

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4.29 avg rating — 436,554 ratings
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27

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4.03 avg rating — 1,033,159 ratings
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28

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4.31 avg rating — 54,294 ratings
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29

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3.82 avg rating — 130,035 ratings
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29

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4.45 avg rating — 2,700,970 ratings
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31

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3.78 avg rating — 39,977 ratings
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32

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4.01 avg rating — 142,577 ratings
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33

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4.24 avg rating — 3,100,626 ratings
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34

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4.14 avg rating — 10,061 ratings
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35

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4.34 avg rating — 936,146 ratings
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36

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 9,218 ratings
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37

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7,302 ratings
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38

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4.22 avg rating — 27,785 ratings
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39

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4.27 avg rating — 1,038,273 ratings
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40

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4.42 avg rating — 1,009,984 ratings
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41

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3.87 avg rating — 99,200 ratings
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42

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3.89 avg rating — 28,170 ratings
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43

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3.92 avg rating — 73,750 ratings
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44

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4.13 avg rating — 212,077 ratings
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45

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3.73 avg rating — 59,111 ratings
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46

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4.25 avg rating — 111,787 ratings
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47

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3.51 avg rating — 29,388 ratings
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48

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4.35 avg rating — 819,114 ratings
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49

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4.07 avg rating — 117,112 ratings
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50

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4.14 avg rating — 391,370 ratings
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51

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3.85 avg rating — 3,608 ratings
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52

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3.85 avg rating — 27,239 ratings
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53

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3.98 avg rating — 98,536 ratings
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54

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3.97 avg rating — 32,653 ratings
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55

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3.70 avg rating — 49,301 ratings
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56

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3.84 avg rating — 65,804 ratings
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56

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4.66 avg rating — 646,623 ratings
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58

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3.82 avg rating — 77,452 ratings
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58

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3.43 avg rating — 12,111 ratings
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60

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3.90 avg rating — 5,845 ratings
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61

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3.96 avg rating — 181,629 ratings
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62

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4.49 avg rating — 356,916 ratings
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63

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 164,880 ratings
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64

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3.98 avg rating — 135,193 ratings
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65

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4.05 avg rating — 17,550 ratings
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66

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4.04 avg rating — 5,975 ratings
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67

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3.87 avg rating — 14,548 ratings
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68

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3.74 avg rating — 18,523 ratings
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69

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4.26 avg rating — 160,037 ratings
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70

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4.50 avg rating — 1,103,099 ratings
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71

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3.89 avg rating — 1,004,398 ratings
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72

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3.93 avg rating — 45,805 ratings
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72

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4.05 avg rating — 11,869 ratings
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74

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3.96 avg rating — 55,171 ratings
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74

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3.82 avg rating — 6,206 ratings
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76

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4.13 avg rating — 1,038,502 ratings
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76

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3.59 avg rating — 17,536 ratings
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76

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3.83 avg rating — 15,684 ratings
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79

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3.92 avg rating — 4,444 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 — 411 ratings
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79

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3.78 avg rating — 61,307 ratings
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79

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3.97 avg rating — 73,195 ratings
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84

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3.68 avg rating — 21,703 ratings
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84

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3.96 avg rating — 26,424 ratings
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84

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3.75 avg rating — 79,082 ratings
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84

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3.73 avg rating — 2,864 ratings
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88

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4.19 avg rating — 599,101 ratings
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88

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3.89 avg rating — 1,988 ratings
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90

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4.13 avg rating — 68,972 ratings
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91

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4.10 avg rating — 444,639 ratings
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91

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3.56 avg rating — 7,642 ratings
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93

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4.35 avg rating — 78,472 ratings
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94

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3.88 avg rating — 292,332 ratings
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94

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3.78 avg rating — 9,757 ratings
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94

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4.09 avg rating — 9,216 ratings
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94

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4.04 avg rating — 5,542 ratings
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98

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4.25 avg rating — 158,569 ratings
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98

by
4.16 avg rating — 16,002 ratings
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100

by
3.66 avg rating — 4,226 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 560 books
52 friends
Louise 4428 books
105 friends
NancyJ 13157 books
230 friends
Sydney 594 books
14 friends
Hélène 2898 books
34 friends
°~Amy~° 2673 books
66 friends
Pamela 2181 books
93 friends
Marie 3938 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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