Manila Gambit

Paul Snell is a green reporter at the Hane Tribune, given a weekly chess column largely because he has a quasi-son's bond with the paper's owner, Waldo Turner. Snell's side of the arrangement is to look after Waldo's niece, Pamela Snow, a delicate and erratic young woman, and he will likely end up marrying her. Before long the odd pair attach themselves to Mikey Spendip, an American chess prodigy, and his mother, Vera, as the boy climbs the ranks of competitive tournament play. At the 1980 Interzonal Finals in Manila, Philippines, Spendip is talked into helping an uprising against the dictator Ferdinand Marcos by throwing a decisive game. The act spirals into a bloody and absurd fiasco. Throughout, the novel satirizes chess, luck and romance under the pressures of revolution.