I'm Michael Weinreb, a journalist and the author of Game of Kings: A Year Among the Oddballs and Geniuses Who Make Up America's Top High-School Chess Team (hardcover title: The Kings of New York)

(The paperback edition has been published with a new cover, a new afterword AND the new title. The story between the covers will remain unchanged.)

Contact me here. Also, I have a MySpace page, and a Facebook page.

Read a selection of my work from ESPN.com and other outlets here.

Read an excerpt of Kings from ESPN.com's Page 2. (Bill Simmons, The Sports Guy on ESPN.com, recommends Kings as "a really good read.")

Read an excerpt of Kings in the London Telegraph Saturday magazine.

Kings has been named one of the best books of 2007 by:
--Publishers Weekly (Best Breakout Book of 2007)
--Amazon.com (No. 3 on the list of 10 best non-fiction books of 2007)
--The Christian Science Monitor
--Metro (UK)
--The Sunday Tribune (Ireland)
--Bostonist
--PBS Frontline/World (staff pick)
--Bookgasm
--Pop Syndicate
--Mighty Godking
--BoringPerson.com

And a BookSense notable pick for January, 2008

Kings also won the Quill Award for best sports book of the year. Details here. The awards ceremony was held on October 22, 2007, and was televised on October 27 on NBC affiliates. You can watch my (very brief) acceptance speech here.

In this thrilling, vigorously reported, deeply empathic book, Michael Weinreb... brings to vivid life a contemporary chess world suffused with its own updated version of nerd machismo. The author has a gift for getting into the skin of his characters-moving in with them in effect-and making them completely sympathetic. The book vibrates with the energy of the outer boroughs.
-James Kaplan, The New York Times Book Review
Read the full review of Kings from the March 4 edition of The New York Times Book Review.

Fascinating...does for high school chess what Buzz Bissinger's 1991 best seller, Friday Night Lights, did for high school football.
-Bob Minsezheimer, USA Today

A terrific read...Weinreb melds history lessons with thumbnail sketches of an unusual cast of characters: the young players themselves, the adult talent who nurtured their love of chess, and the different donors who – for various reasons of their own – have kept these programs afloat. The result is a book that reads like a Robert Altman film – quick cuts of quirky, intertwined story lines. Odd characters step in and out of a narrative that's taut and energetic and eschews any easy sentiment. Don't imagine, however, that as a reader this will prevent you from feeling for these kids. On the contrary, you'll be surprised by the degree to which you'll find yourself perched on the edge of your chair, aching to see one of the most winning young chess teams in America pull it off yet again. Chess can seem a remote and esoteric pursuit – but not when glimpsed through these eager young eyes.
-Marjorie Kehe, The Christian Science Monitor

Word for sentence, sentence for paragraph, paragraph for page, (Kings) is one of the most readable books about chess ever written....The author is an extremely facile writer...But it is not Weinreb as a wordsmith that makes this book so intriguing. It is his ability as a researcher, interviewer and observer that gives the book depth and importance....a gripping and insightful look into the world of competitive high school chess, and how it came to be through the vision and energy of just a few teachers, coaches and benefactors. Anyone interested in the future of chess in this country, as it is now being developed in our schools, must read this book.
-Dr. Frank Brady, Chess Life magazine

Weinreb, whose work has appeared three times in The Best American Sports Writing, offers the story of a year spent with Brooklyn's Edward R. Murrow High School chess team as it strives for a national championship. Weinreb makes several choices that work well for a year-in-the-life account. For one, he eschews unnecessary speculation about the teen chess prodigies' psychology, a strategy that taken with his deft reporting of how they view themselves and one another renders them more accessible, more natural and consequently more interesting. Weinreb also expands his arena by investigating the cultural milieu of the modern chess world. He describes what it takes to be a successful high-level chess player, the difficulties women have in this world, the very nature of the game and the phenomenon of the chess prodigy, using the experience of Josh Waitzkin, who has now retired from competitive chess and was the subject of the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. All this is supported by well-chosen detail, intelligence and terrific writing. Weinreb clearly develops an affection for the eclectic members of the team, and because of the skill he brings to his project, so will his readers.
Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Read more about the book here.

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