Interregnum: Inside the Grueling and Glamorous Battle to Become the Next King of Chess
Jordan Himelfarb/Pegasus Books/April 2026/240pp/IBSN: 9781639369911

 “After the elite London chess tournament of 1883, a local official … proposed a toast to the best player in the world. Two men, each believing the official meant him, stood up to receive the honor… Three years later, the two settled the debate in the first official world championship match.”

The winner, Wilhelm Steinitz, thus became the first World Chess Champion. In 2024, 18-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju of India sat in a glass booth across from the reigning champion, Ding Liren of China, vying to become the eighteenth.

Interregnum follows Gukesh, Ding, and a host of hopefuls aiming to be the first player in 10 years not named Magnus Carlsen to wear the champion’s wreath. The gripping narrative, filled with many twists and turns, is also an insightful investigation into the many personalities involved in the title chase. Like Ilie “Nasty” Nastase, the “Bad Boy” of tennis, or baseball’s Gentleman Jim Thome, the Russian Grand Master Ian “Nepo” Nepomniachtchi has “an Eeyore quality”; his favorite author is Anton Checkov, “and it shows.” Wesley So of the U.S. has “a glut of talent (but) a dearth of killer instinct.” Clearly chess, like any sport, is defined as much by its characters as its conventions.

THE SPORT OF CHESS

And chess is a sport, requiring as it does much physical as well as mental preparation. Competitions such as the Candidates Tournament span three to four weeks. Contestants play matches almost daily, each lasting six to seven hours or longer, burning 1,000 calories in each match—equal to a 10-mile run—and train for competitions on treadmills and weight machines. This is in addition to five to six hours a day of mental conditioning with their seconds, expert coaches who help them analyze games and develop strategies for each match.

Chess players have several paths to participate in the World Chess Championship, the ultimate competition held every two years. The top-ranked player by December 31 of the prior year wins a spot, as do players who finish in the top three at the World Cup or top two in the Grand Swiss competition. The FIDE Circuit Winner also claims a spot, and finally, the runner-up to the previous World Champion qualifies, for a total field of eight players.

As in tennis, different types of chess competitions favor different players. For example, the grass surfaces of the Wimbledon courts have little friction so it’s hard to maintain solid footing and balls bounce low and fast. Aggressive players and those who slice the ball to create a lot of spin are masters of the grass. Clay courts such as those at the French Open, where players have to grind out every point on the slow surface, favor players with strength and stamina.

Likewise, different chess tournament rules favor different styles of play. Interregnum points out that while many competitions use the round-robin format where every player plays every round, others, such as the World Cup, use knockouts. Players compete in two classical (long) matches, but if that ends in a tie, the winner is decided by speed chess games where each player is given just three minutes to make all their moves. Losers are eliminated. Positional players, who build up their advantage on the board through steady pressure that lets them spot small advantages and exploit them slowly, struggle with speed chess.

And what is a sport without idols? In America, we lionize Dollar Bill Bradley, the Say Hey Kid, and the Brown Bomber. Bullet Bob Feller, often considered the best pitcher in baseball history, began playing catch with his dad at age one, could throw a curve ball by age six, and at age 17 pitched in his first major league game, striking out a record 17 batters.

Similarly, chess players who reach the Grand Master level almost all begin playing very young. In Armenia, chess is a mandatory subject in elementary school. Children in Azerbaijan begin playing as toddlers, with the result that growing up in that small nation makes a child 41 times more likely to become a Grand Master than those raised anywhere else in the world. Gukesh Dommaraju, the 18-year-old prodigy from India, began training when he was five. At eight, his father took Gukesh out of school and quit his own medical practice to oversee the boy’s chess career full-time.

THE FINAL MATCH

Himelfarb skillfully weaves these background details about the game and its players into the engrossing events leading up to the 2024 World Chess Championship in Singapore. After weeks of intense competition, including thrilling victories and dramatic defeats, the tournament came down to a final round between Gukesh and the defending World Champion, Ding Liren of China. Ding had struggled mightily in the year after winning his title and had not played a single professional game in over 300 days when the championship began. Yet he rose to the challenge, and after 13 of 14 matches, the tournament was tied.

In the hallway outside the venue where the final match took place, Gukesh’s father paced, watching the game’s progress on his phone. Both players held brief advantages, then watched them disappear. After hours of grueling gamesmanship, Ding was down to under 10 minutes on the clock. And then … it was over. The contestants shook hands. Gukesh, as his father trained him to do, collected the pieces and set up the board.

***

Reviewer Jo Ann Zimmerman is a long-time educator, sports fan, and Philadelphia native. She has written for a variety of publications including Cleaver Magazine and Tupelo Quarterly Review. Her wedding song was Take Me out to the Ballgame and she will greet you in the Wawa with Go Birds.