Agree
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Ha, makes me wonder what Abrams own Harlequin romances read like. Speaking of such things, this book was very clean â just the purest of kisses between Jared and Avery at the end. Kind of unusual for any grownup novel these days.
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I seem to be the only one with a screen name with â chess mom â so I guess Iâll weigh in on the chess references. Iâm a lousy chess player, but help teach beginners in chess program for about 16 years, all the way up through the high school years, when son was playing first board. We knew he had unusual âgiftsâ when at four years old he played both sides of chessboard, so I found a chess master who turtored him,helped organize blindfold matches and exhibitions and tournaments, our womanâs club sponsored summer chess program which I ran, sometimes with 100 kids in it. So Iâve been around the chess world, but I didnât know the famous Lasker /Bauer game, like everyone here I had to see if it was real, and itâs importance.
( I read this book weeks ago, and struggling to remember names, details I will review)
I think this is how Stacey ( Brilliant) Abrams set up the chess analogy
justice Wynn- all powerful King
Queen - Avery
Here is reason why, at the end of the Lasker Game the Queen is most powerful, nimble, executing brilliant moves leading to checkmate.
From the book, page 56 ( kindle version )
The longest conversation Avery has with Wynn when heâs really setting up the end game - mentions Voltaire, the book where the Presidentâs fingerprints will be found.
They speak about chess, poker, loyaltyâŠâŠâŠjustice
Blockquote
âThatâs when the queen became the most powerful piece, but still in service to the king.
âWhat do you think of that?â
âOf what sirâ
Of the Queen being responsible for saving the King, but that only his life is sacred.â
Avery Grinned, â my feminist sensibilities are not offended. In a game of strategy , the King is the figurehead, unable to save his own life without the aid of others. THE QUEEN IS POWERFUL AND DYNAMIC. She will protect the king, but not because of weakness. ITS BECAUSE THATS WHAT SHES SUPPOSED TO DOâ
She added, âIt was in the tenth century that the queen replaced the vizier on the chessboard. vizier meant leader, and in the next five hundred years , she became the most powerful piece on the boardâŠâŠâŠ.â
When teaching beginning chess -
The King can only move one space ( very limiting right )
The Queen, ( combines the moves of the Rook ( straight line as many squares as needed ) and
The bishop ( diagonal moves, a black and white bishop limited to diagonal as many squares as needed )
The queen, moves straight line, moves diagonal, as many squares as needed.
Often it is strategic to â trade queens â in a game, to clean out the game, for end game,
In Lasker Bauer the black loses their queen, and white ( Lasker) keeps his queen for end game.
In chess point value is given to the relative importance of the pieces. Itâs just a reference number, and the points arenât used to calculate anything other than as a quide to exchanges and worth of exchanges, but chess is all about position on the board. /
Blockquote
Queen 9 points
Rook 5 points
Bishop and knight 3 points
Pawn 1 point, but when a pawn gets across the board it can be promoted, to any piece ( not the king of course ) and hence the pawn structure, and âpromoted pawnsâ are very valuable. Yes, you often can have two queens on the board, because most players will promote the pawn to a QUEEN.
( Lasker Bauer game no pawns are promoted FYI )
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Now to identify the Bishops in Abrams complicated novel.
When teaching new players how to set up the board, Kids would confuse where to put the Knights and Bishops. So to simplify I would tell them, the Bishops are like the counselors, to the King and Queen so they must be placed right next to the King and Queen. ( they have to whisper their advice to them so must be close )
In this book, who are the close confidantes who are also âsacrificed â ?
I think, the scientist clearly is one, he had critical evidence, was part of the â found in the square â clue , and his life ruined,
And, perhaps Wynnâs son?
Was he the Bishop who would reveal himself - Wynn knew he would be involved. He was critical to finding the evidence under the bed at the cabin? Wasnât his life sacrificed in a way, having a father like Wynn ?
Just guessing here.
Abram used the structure of a chess game, but I donât think anyone had to know anything about chess to enjoy this book.
Everyone knows chess is about â thinking ahead, planning, strategy, execution, and played well by brilliant people.
The final word Wynn said to President was â checkmateâ as he shook his hand, when we thought is this man having a breakdown, or as it turned out he was playing his end game. The fingerprints.
How many moves had Wynn thought aheadâŠâŠâŠâŠway more than Iâm able to calculate 
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@ignatius I think Abrams cleverly, made us believe Wynn and Avery would be the sacrificed Bishops, to throw us off.
Avery certainly, looked cornered and sacrificed when her mother was kidnapped and she had to make that public statement, hence fulfilling the sacrificed bishop role,
But, oh clever, Abrams had a way out for our heroine, or our Queen
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Iâve never been able to play chess well because I canât see both in space and time far enough ahead. Both my kids played tournament chess in elementary school. Their school had quite a good team at the time. Some alumni actually donated chess lessons for second graders and persuaded the powers that be that it helps develop thinking for math and logic. They also had after school lessons sponsored by the PTA. My math guy was good enough that we certainly considered tutors, he went to chess camp one year, but in the end he got beguiled by computers and was quite clear he was happy to remain a casual player. Thanks for the analysis of the pieces.
I agree Wynn might be the King and Avery is definitely Queen. I think the scientist is the bishop. If Wynn is a bishop (since he does seem to have sacrificed himself), maybe itâs the office of the presidency thatâs the King. Thatâs what he is trying to save. OTOH the inability of the King to physically move much does seem like Wynn. Hmm.
BTW the one and only Stacey Abrams I have read (Deception) is also more thriller than romance. But thereâs a lot of hot and heavy kissing. Iâve already forgotten, but for plot reasons the two protagonists are trying not to get involved with each other for the moment. So also very clean to use Maryâs words. 
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How about Jared as king? Wynn wants to save his son. In fact, the research saving Jared is mentioned more than once.
Avery - queen
Wynn and Dr. Ramji - bishops. Both obviously gave their lives. Plus I feel the book answered this question - twice.
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Well-said. I was waiting for our chess mom to speak. 
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Wow, thank you for that explanation @jerseysouthmomchess. That was helpful for a non-chess player like myself.
I agree. Thatâs what I felt about âThe Queenâs Gambit,â too â I was able to really enjoy it while barely understanding even the basics of the game.
To extend the analogy in While Justice Sleeps, I would say that Ling and Noah are pawns. The more familiar use of the word gives it a negative connotation, as if a person is being used in a bad way (e.g., âyouâre nothing but a pawn in his gameâŠâ).
However, I read this description of a pawnâs purpose on a chess site, and it fits Noah and Lingâs roles â seemingly minor, but absolutely essential to the outcome:
Pawns are extremely important in chess. The idea that pawns are weak because of their constrained movement is completely inaccurate. Together, pawns form an army and their strength is in numbers and formations. They are absolutely vital to the defence of the most important chess piece, the king!
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@ignatius
Mmmmmm, you may be right about Jared. Interesting, Jared was who Wynn ultimately wanted to protect. Jared as King works for me, answering the other bishop question
I just looked at the last couple paragraphs of the book. Wynn is still alive, right, Jared and Avery are hugging at his bedside, Avery just informed â Justice Wynn, you WONâ ( his name strikes me as very funny right now )
âYour father wanted to save his family and save his country. I think heâs always been torn, sacrificing his family for his version of patriotism.For once, he found a way to do it all.
To expose the corruption, preserve the science, save you, and protect America.
Convoluted and complicated strategy, just like Justice Wynn, but ultimately, it worked.â âIt wouldnât have if you didnât share just a little bit of his mad genius.â â
Hmm. The Court made the decision, and he put it all in motion,â she demurred, wiping at the damp at her cheeks. She reminded Jared wryly, âIâm just a law clerk.â
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Wow, @jerseysouthmomchess that explanation was fantastic! Almost made me want to play chess again.
I just had a thought, if the bishops are sacrificed in the game, the only things that come to mind that were conceded are 1) the swing (supposedly) vote of the Court and 2) the merger between the two pharma companies (by giving up the one vote that would likely give them the desired verdict). Of course the queenâs moves later save the game.
It does seem like Jared is the King, while Ling and Noah are pawns, limited in their function but powerful in their own spheres.
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For you @AnAsmom , and others who would like to see this famous game. Click on the plus sign and it starts the game,
The opening 10 moves, will look confusing, donât over think those, they are playing a game many moves in ahead and those moves are to develop their pieces, open diagnonals for the bishops ! In this case,
The âexcitementâ happens 15 th move when the bishop takes the pawn in front of the king, as @Mary13 , those pawns are critical and that castled king ( which lasker anticipated early on,of course) lost his two pawns.
Pawns surround the king are the fortress, the wall of protection, pawn play is absolutely critical in advanced chess.
Those bishops destroyed the pawn wall of protection. ( Iâm looking at you Mr homeland Vance, evil pawn)
Noticed how exposed that king becomes is when second bishop is sacrificed, move 17.
Just posting for those who may want to see this, not critical to discussion, Emanuel Lasker vs Johann Hermann Bauer (1889) Emanuel Labor
ttps://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1026352
More interesting facts about lasker- escaped Nazis in Germany 1933,
Lasker and his wife Martha Kohn had to leave Germany because of the Nazis. They went to England and, after a subsequent short stay in the USSR they settled in New York.
http://academickids.com/encyclopedia/index.php/Emanuel_Lasker
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@jerseysouthmomchess, great links! I see that Emanuel Lasker was also a mathematician, and looking at this in the Lasker-Bauer link gave me the same kind of anxiety that algebra always did:
Would you say math and chess go hand-in-hand? Was your son also a math whiz?
If I hadnât read the Acknowledgments, I would have been sure that Stacey Abrams chose the name âWynnâ as a nod to game play (and a foreshadowing of the ending). However, she actually named her characters of Judge Wynn and Chief Roseborough after a jurist (and friend) whom she greatly admires, Teresa Wynn Roseborough: Teresa Wynn Roseborough - Wikipedia
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I think President Stokes is king on the opposite side. The DHS (?) agent who kidnapped Averyâs mother and then died rather than be questioned is a bishop for the opposite side. Vance - can I call him queen rather than bishop? He defiantly refused to give his life for Stokes and is, in fact, responsible for that last bit of information that will finish off President Stokes (un-bishop-like behavior).
If Jared isnât king, then the research itself is.
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Wow! Great discussion. Tip of my hat to @jerseysouthmomchess ! Iâm not ready to give up Justice Wynn as a bishop, but I also like him as King. Would he give himself 2 positions. The Kingâs ego is pretty large.
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I admit I read the book a while ago and my memory basically is that Stacy Abrams spins a good yarn. But are you discussing this book or The Queenâs Gambit? 
Greetings @Caraid so Iâm leaning towards @ignatius proposition that Jared, is king to be protected,
Wynn bishop and scientist, sacrificed for the victory,
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Yes, I would say that Math/ chess abilities linked, ( which might explain why Iâm a pathetic chess player but can appreciate clever moves, and basic info), and yes, son was top math student. In high school he decided chess wasnât cool enough, although he stayed on chess team, and I continued to run chess programs years after he bowed out.
Those notated games are headache producing, and I know players who can retain the info, memorize hundreds of chess patterns, can find the beauty and â artistryâ in brilliant chess strategy. Zachâs chess master tutor was that kind of player, itâs astounding to me, another language.
But, want to be dazzled, watch a blindfold chess game, the master plays blindfolded, against his opponent,
Or an exhibition when the master, plays many people walking quickly up to the boards assembled around a room.
And, then thereâs that blitz (speed) chessâŠâŠtotal games played lightening fast, in minutes,
Here is three minute chess game,meaning the player has to make all his moves in three minutes, by clicking on clock he is timed.
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That was a fun chess match! I liked the moment of levity when the pieces tumbled over â but the players didnât miss a beat. Itâs funny that these masters seem to be playing with pieces that came from the dollar store.