Interregnum: Inside the Gruelling and Glamorous Battle to Become the Next King of Chess by Jordan Himelfarb

My brother is an elite-level chess player. (hi Jason!) I feel like I need to get that out of the way before I get to the rest of the review. He’s not a master yet (it’s going to happen; it’s hard to get to the higher-level tournaments when you live in New Brunswick), but he has played at a very high level since he was a kid. Coincidentally, I haven’t touched a chessboard in more than twenty years.

But I know chess. When your brother plays chess that much and at that level, you absorb it whether you want to or not. I know a lot about chess, largely against my will. I have talked about chess a lot, because it’s a central part of our family life. And I have provided my brother a place to sleep and food to eat as he travels to my city to play chess. Because of all of this, I decided I would be a good candidate for reading and reviewing Interregnum by Jordan Himelfarb, a non-fiction book detailing what it takes to become the world champion of chess. Himelfarb follows the tournaments and the circuit to get to the Candidates, the tournament that decides who will challenge the reigning world champion. Through 2023 and into 2024, Himelfarb attends the tournaments, interviews the players, and traces the journeys to get to the highest level of the chess world.

Coming at this book from a slightly different lens than many people: this is a very comprehensive look at a dramatic year in the chess world, a very comprehensive study of elite chess, and also a book about a story I knew very well. In the prologue, Himelfarb describes how chess gets latched onto by prospective elite player in their childhood as

“when that talent is cultivated, others are revealed: monastic discipline, fierce competitiveness, myopic focus. Chess, for the child, becomes everything.” (p.1)

As a non-chess child, this is exactly what I saw in my brother.

For me, a reader slightly less interested in the mechanics of the game, it was an affirmation of the life you lead and the conversations you have when there’s an elite chess player in your life. I was surprised to realize exactly how much of the history of chess I knew, and the gods of the chess world – not just the Bobby Fischers and the Gary Kasparovs, but the lesser-known ones, and also the ways that chess can shape lives, as well as some of the things that weren’t addressed as head on, like the resources required to produce a chess player beyond a certain level.

Listen, I don’t play chess or enjoy it myself, and I still found this book engrossing. If you’re even a little bit interested in chess, this is a great read to understand more about the history of chess, the greatest players, the scandals and the politics of it all. Himelfarb leaves no stone unturned in his exploration of the world of elite chess, from chess moving to YouTube and streaming (Hikaru Nakamura, the top chess streamer, figures in these pages. I first heard of him because he popped up in Charlottetown this fall, playing at the Maritime Open Chess Championship). Himelfarb explores the gender dynamics, chess as a proxy for power during the Cold War, and what it’s like to be in a room where a chess tournament happens.

Interregnum is a strong work: compelling, tense, and deeply informative. But I think the real selling point is that I enjoyed myself while reading it.

Jordan Himelfarb is the opinion editor of the Toronto Star. His reporting on the 2024 world chess championship won a National Newspaper Award. He lives in Toronto with his wife, daughter, and dog.

Publisher: House of Anansi Press (April 21, 2026)
Paperback 8.5″ x 5.5″ | 320 pages
ISBN: 9781487012984

Alison Manley

Website

Alison Manley has ricocheted between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for most of her life. Now in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she is the Cataloguing and Metadata Librarian at Saint Mary's University. Her past life includes a long stint as a hospital librarian on the banks of the mighty Miramichi River. She has an honours BA in political science and English from St. Francis Xavier University, and a Master of Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University. While she's adamant that her love of reading has nothing to do with her work, her ability to consume large amounts of information very quickly sure is helpful. She is often identified by her very red lipstick, and lives with her partner Brett and cat, Toasted Marshmallow.