DARK SQUARES
by chess but by alcohol and drugs. Rensch detours regularly to deliver a history of chess and the contemporary game largely controlled (i.e., financed) by the USSR until the 1990s, when even celebrity grandmasters barely earned travel expenses. Then came computers, the internet, and more media attention, which produced bigger prizes, plus the rise of cell phones, which facilitated cheating. Readers will sympathize with the author’s struggles but likely perk up when in 2008 he encounters two entrepreneurs operating an early internet chess site whose knowledge of serious competitive chess remained at the amateur level. He persuaded them to add features, programs, competitions, and the technology that ultimately promoted chess.com to its dominant position. During these years, the author writes of victories in his personal life, too, overcoming marital problems and escaping the influence of the cult."
Based on 53 Goodreads ratings
Book Details
Reading Info
About This Book
An online game called Dark Squares turns out to warp more than pixels on a screen: once high scores start translating into real-world consequences for the teens playing it, an ordinary night in front...
Our Review
An online game called Dark Squares turns out to warp more than pixels on a screen: once high scores start translating into real-world consequences for the teens playing it, an ordinary night in front of a monitor becomes something with actual stakes. At a lean 88 pages, this is built for a fast read rather than a sprawling one, aimed at ages 12 to 18, currently coming in at a 4.68 average across 53 Goodreads ratings.
The premise leans into a very current anxiety, that the algorithms and games teens already spend hours inside might be tracking or shaping more than anyone realizes, and the pacing is built to keep that unease climbing instead of letting a reader settle into the premise as just a fun what-if. The cast is described as morally complex rather than cleanly heroic, which keeps the stakes from feeling like a simple win-or-lose game even though the plot itself literally centers on one. A good match for a teen who's already a little skeptical of how much of their online life gets tracked, and a low-key prompt for a family conversation about digital habits that doesn't feel like a lecture.
Themes
Subjects
You Might Also Like
Looking for more books?
Visit our sister site BooksbyOrder.com