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
101

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101

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4.31 avg rating — 10,034 ratings
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101

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4.19 avg rating — 67,571 ratings
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101

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3.62 avg rating — 55,186 ratings
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101

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4.05 avg rating — 1,198,274 ratings
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106

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4.08 avg rating — 8,778 ratings
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106

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4.02 avg rating — 467 ratings
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108

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3.96 avg rating — 44,039 ratings
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108

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4.24 avg rating — 37,827 ratings
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110

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3.94 avg rating — 16,105 ratings
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110

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4.09 avg rating — 66,208 ratings
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110

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4.15 avg rating — 14,456 ratings
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110

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4.04 avg rating — 23,788 ratings
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114

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4.29 avg rating — 127,466 ratings
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114

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4.07 avg rating — 11,805 ratings
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114

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3.98 avg rating — 478,009 ratings
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114

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4.10 avg rating — 18,762 ratings
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118

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4.35 avg rating — 9,731,330 ratings
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118

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4.10 avg rating — 347,495 ratings
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118

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3.99 avg rating — 14,373 ratings
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118

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4.05 avg rating — 189 ratings
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118

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4.16 avg rating — 6,372 ratings
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123

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3.71 avg rating — 2,795 ratings
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123

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3.78 avg rating — 469,181 ratings
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125

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4.14 avg rating — 19,584 ratings
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125

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3.81 avg rating — 251 ratings
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127

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4.08 avg rating — 59,481 ratings
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128

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4.04 avg rating — 476,097 ratings
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129

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4.22 avg rating — 175,679 ratings
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130

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3.81 avg rating — 33,831 ratings
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131

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4.04 avg rating — 87,168 ratings
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132

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4.08 avg rating — 4,964 ratings
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133

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3.85 avg rating — 5,570 ratings
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134

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4.25 avg rating — 4,799 ratings
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135

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4.31 avg rating — 1,461,231 ratings
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136

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4.15 avg rating — 9,432 ratings
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136

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4.06 avg rating — 31,993 ratings
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138

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3.99 avg rating — 17,402 ratings
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139

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4.34 avg rating — 313,981 ratings
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139

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4.06 avg rating — 445 ratings
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139

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3.70 avg rating — 25,145 ratings
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142

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4.14 avg rating — 81,101 ratings
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143

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4.40 avg rating — 95 ratings
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144

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3.80 avg rating — 32,916 ratings
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144

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4.18 avg rating — 7,994 ratings
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146

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4.03 avg rating — 47,232 ratings
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147

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3.86 avg rating — 55,123 ratings
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148

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3.92 avg rating — 5,341 ratings
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149

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3.38 avg rating — 6,982 ratings
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149

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4.07 avg rating — 47,367 ratings
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151

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3.61 avg rating — 2,397 ratings
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152

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4.01 avg rating — 88,885 ratings
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153

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4.09 avg rating — 14,908 ratings
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154

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4.26 avg rating — 28,784 ratings
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155

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3.61 avg rating — 8,209 ratings
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156

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3.78 avg rating — 107,448 ratings
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157

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3.88 avg rating — 266 ratings
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158

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4.21 avg rating — 836,907 ratings
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159

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3.94 avg rating — 971 ratings
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160

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3.62 avg rating — 311,468 ratings
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161

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4.20 avg rating — 75,320 ratings
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162

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3.52 avg rating — 236,111 ratings
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162

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 296,105 ratings
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164

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3.70 avg rating — 115,905 ratings
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165

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4.26 avg rating — 6,773,698 ratings
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166

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4.22 avg rating — 12,481 ratings
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167

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3.76 avg rating — 98,522 ratings
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168

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4.13 avg rating — 23 ratings
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168

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3.25 avg rating — 795 ratings
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168

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4.09 avg rating — 251 ratings
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168

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3.50 avg rating — 1,005 ratings
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168

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3.39 avg rating — 3,364 ratings
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168

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3.43 avg rating — 2,345 ratings
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168

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4.53 avg rating — 144 ratings
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168

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4.14 avg rating — 1,202 ratings
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168

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3.85 avg rating — 27,633 ratings
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168

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4.24 avg rating — 2,564 ratings
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168

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3.15 avg rating — 62 ratings
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168

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4.42 avg rating — 40,327 ratings
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168

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3.61 avg rating — 194 ratings
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168

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4.07 avg rating — 15,294 ratings
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168

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4.04 avg rating — 18,127 ratings
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168

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3.83 avg rating — 10,437 ratings
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168

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4.14 avg rating — 13,798 ratings
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168

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4.25 avg rating — 24,955 ratings
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168

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4.17 avg rating — 8,241 ratings
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168

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3.72 avg rating — 8,952 ratings
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168

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3.78 avg rating — 27,093 ratings
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168

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3.18 avg rating — 17 ratings
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168

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3.96 avg rating — 55,615 ratings
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168

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3.85 avg rating — 833,290 ratings
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192

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4.33 avg rating — 24 ratings
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192

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3.98 avg rating — 14,608 ratings
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192

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3.86 avg rating — 13,329 ratings
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192

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4.23 avg rating — 830,655 ratings
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192

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4.42 avg rating — 120,780 ratings
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192

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3.96 avg rating — 357 ratings
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192

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3.97 avg rating — 2,024 ratings
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192

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3.71 avg rating — 22,570 ratings
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192

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3.75 avg rating — 24 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 13168 books
230 friends
Sydney 594 books
14 friends
Hélène 2899 books
34 friends
°~Amy~° 2673 books
66 friends
Pamela 2181 books
93 friends
Marie 3937 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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