A year with the boy geniuses of the nation's top high school chess team, now in paperback with a new afterword

Edward R. Murrow High School has long been one of New York's public-education success stories, a school where there are no varsity sports, and the closest thing to jocks is found on the powerhouse chess team.

Award-winning sportswriter Michael Weinreb follows the members of the Murrow chess team through an entire season. Weinreb delves into the history of chess in America, following the stories of greats such as Bobby Fischer, for whom the world within the chessboard...

A mesmerizing look at sports in the 1980s - when athletes became superstars, mavericks replaced heroes, and sports moved to the forefront of American culture.
In the 1980s America sent to the White House an actor and ex-jock who fervently believed in the power of personal mythology, and Americans turned to sports to find their heroes. There was Bo Jackson, the man so strong he could break a baseball bat over his knee, the man whose athletic talents ran so deep that he starred in two sports while becoming a marketing pioneer. There was Jim McMahon, the Punky QB leading his Chicago...

From an award-winning sports journalist and college football expert: "A beautifully written mix of memoir and reportage that tracks college ball through fourteen key games, giving depth and meaning to all" (Sports Illustrated), now with a new Afterword about the first ever College Football Playoff.

Every Saturday in the fall, it happens: On college campuses, in bars, at gatherings of fervent alumni, millions come together to watch a sport that inspires a uniquely American brand of passion and outrage. This is college football. Since the first contest in 1869, the game has grown...