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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3.92 avg rating — 278,540 ratings
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4.18 avg rating — 134,438 ratings
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4.10 avg rating — 62,597 ratings
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3.99 avg rating — 113,870 ratings
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5

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3.97 avg rating — 42,278 ratings
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6

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4.32 avg rating — 1,336,501 ratings
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7

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3.68 avg rating — 12,814 ratings
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8

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3.85 avg rating — 155,475 ratings
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9

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4.32 avg rating — 1,001,205 ratings
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10

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3.91 avg rating — 234,004 ratings
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11

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3.98 avg rating — 1,143,216 ratings
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12

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3.99 avg rating — 57,073 ratings
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13

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4.02 avg rating — 546,362 ratings
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14

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4.25 avg rating — 194,823 ratings
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15

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4.17 avg rating — 78,859 ratings
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16

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3.75 avg rating — 1,844,296 ratings
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17

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4.58 avg rating — 1,014,991 ratings
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18

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3.66 avg rating — 14,738 ratings
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19

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4.35 avg rating — 622,493 ratings
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20

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4.62 avg rating — 1,306,099 ratings
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21

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4.35 avg rating — 820,248 ratings
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22

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4.27 avg rating — 162,966 ratings
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23

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3.91 avg rating — 14,145 ratings
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24

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4.01 avg rating — 46,637 ratings
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25

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3.76 avg rating — 75,739 ratings
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26

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4.29 avg rating — 432,420 ratings
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27

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4.03 avg rating — 1,027,787 ratings
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28

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4.31 avg rating — 53,652 ratings
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29

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3.82 avg rating — 129,652 ratings
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29

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4.45 avg rating — 2,690,865 ratings
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31

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3.78 avg rating — 39,890 ratings
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32

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4.01 avg rating — 142,263 ratings
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33

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4.24 avg rating — 3,085,616 ratings
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34

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4.14 avg rating — 10,029 ratings
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35

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4.34 avg rating — 926,136 ratings
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36

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 9,187 ratings
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37

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 7,276 ratings
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38

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4.22 avg rating — 27,751 ratings
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39

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4.27 avg rating — 1,027,178 ratings
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40

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4.42 avg rating — 1,006,351 ratings
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41

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3.86 avg rating — 98,668 ratings
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42

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3.89 avg rating — 28,084 ratings
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43

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3.92 avg rating — 73,109 ratings
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44

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4.13 avg rating — 211,771 ratings
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45

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3.73 avg rating — 58,811 ratings
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46

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4.25 avg rating — 110,120 ratings
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47

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3.51 avg rating — 29,086 ratings
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48

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4.35 avg rating — 815,594 ratings
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49

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4.07 avg rating — 116,874 ratings
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50

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4.14 avg rating — 389,936 ratings
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51

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3.85 avg rating — 3,598 ratings
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52

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3.85 avg rating — 27,058 ratings
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53

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3.98 avg rating — 98,363 ratings
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54

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3.96 avg rating — 32,522 ratings
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55

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3.70 avg rating — 49,208 ratings
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56

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3.84 avg rating — 65,654 ratings
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56

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4.66 avg rating — 638,964 ratings
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58

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3.82 avg rating — 77,268 ratings
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58

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3.43 avg rating — 12,104 ratings
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60

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3.90 avg rating — 5,791 ratings
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61

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3.96 avg rating — 181,293 ratings
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62

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4.49 avg rating — 354,794 ratings
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63

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 162,878 ratings
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64

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3.99 avg rating — 134,497 ratings
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65

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4.05 avg rating — 17,494 ratings
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66

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4.04 avg rating — 5,948 ratings
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67

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3.87 avg rating — 14,513 ratings
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68

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3.74 avg rating — 18,476 ratings
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69

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4.26 avg rating — 159,523 ratings
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70

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4.50 avg rating — 1,096,022 ratings
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71

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3.89 avg rating — 999,766 ratings
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72

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3.93 avg rating — 45,659 ratings
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72

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4.05 avg rating — 11,792 ratings
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74

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3.96 avg rating — 54,915 ratings
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74

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3.82 avg rating — 6,164 ratings
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76

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4.13 avg rating — 1,024,773 ratings
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76

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3.59 avg rating — 17,486 ratings
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76

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3.83 avg rating — 15,588 ratings
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79

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3.91 avg rating — 4,424 ratings
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79

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3.97 avg rating — 10,371 ratings
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79

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4.28 avg rating — 408 ratings
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79

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3.78 avg rating — 61,081 ratings
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79

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3.97 avg rating — 72,770 ratings
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84

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3.68 avg rating — 21,560 ratings
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84

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3.96 avg rating — 26,362 ratings
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84

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3.75 avg rating — 78,833 ratings
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84

by
3.73 avg rating — 2,858 ratings
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88

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4.19 avg rating — 591,635 ratings
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88

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3.89 avg rating — 1,976 ratings
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90

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4.13 avg rating — 68,762 ratings
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91

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4.10 avg rating — 438,450 ratings
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91

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3.56 avg rating — 7,630 ratings
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93

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4.35 avg rating — 78,203 ratings
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94

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3.88 avg rating — 290,546 ratings
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94

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3.78 avg rating — 9,749 ratings
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94

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4.09 avg rating — 9,194 ratings
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94

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4.04 avg rating — 5,532 ratings
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98

by
4.25 avg rating — 157,912 ratings
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98

by
4.16 avg rating — 15,804 ratings
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100

by
3.66 avg rating — 4,170 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 554 books
52 friends
Louise 4428 books
105 friends
NancyJ 13080 books
230 friends
Sydney 591 books
14 friends
Hélène 2883 books
34 friends
°~Amy~° 2646 books
66 friends
Pamela 2173 books
88 friends
Marie 3925 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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