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Spy's Mate

Brad Buchanan
€19.99
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20th century
A01=Brad Buchanan
anti-establishment
armenian
Author_Brad Buchanan
Category=FHD
Category=FJMS
champion
chess prodigy
Cold war
coming of age
eq_bestseller
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_thrillers
espionage
fiction
forthcoming
high officials
historical
kgb operatives
life and death
match
psychological
queens gambit
rivals
soviet union
spy
strategy
thriller
tournaments

Product details

  • ISBN 9789083488240
  • Dimensions: 152 x 228mm
  • Publication Date: 01 Sep 2026
  • Publisher: Thinkers Publishing
  • Publication City/Country: BE
  • Product Form: Paperback
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Description

A CANREADS Awards Finalist!

"A highly recommended genre-blending novel, this is an ideal read for chess enthusiasts, Cold War history buffs, and those interested in technological thrillers. Smart and evocative,  Buchanan’s Spy’s Mate balances a thought-provoking game with cunning espionage and innovative technologies—an absorbing story that delivers on every front."—CANREADS Review Committee

FOR FANS OF THE QUEEN’S GAMBIT

Set in the late Cold War-era Soviet Union, SPY’S MATE: A NOVEL follows the coming of age of Yasha Basmajian, a young chess prodigy of Armenian origin who rises through the ranks of the Soviet chess establishment with dizzying rapidity. Along the way, however, he must contend with many pitfalls, including operatives who manipulate him, jealous rivals who try to humiliate him, and high officials who threaten him when he asserts his independence, or takes a principled stance. 

With help from a renegade coach and a team of anti-establishment grandmasters, Yasha manages to run the gauntlet of two Candidates Tournaments until eventually he faces the sinister, predatory World Chess Champion, Evgeny Volosin, in a match where the stakes are nothing less than life and death.
About Brad Buchanan
Brad Buchanan is a lifelong chess player, online chess addict, and avid follower of chess culture. In his other life, he holds degrees in English Literature from McGill University, the University of Toronto, and Stanford University. He taught twentieth-century literature and creative writing at Sacramento State University until his retirement in 2016. His poetry, fiction, and scholarly articles have appeared in more than 200 journals, including Canadian Literature, the Journal of Modern Literature, and Twentieth-Century Literature. He has also published four books of poetry, three scholarly books and a medical memoir. Spy’s Mate is his first novel. Brad lives in Sacramento, CA. 

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