I thought chess was an especially interesting choice as a game with sexual overtones. Rachel Kramer Bussel couldn't make it tonight, but here's what she told me about "Check, Mate" (a title that I really love.)


Rachel Kramer Bussel—“Check, Mate”

I played a lot of chess as a teenager, and that was a time when my hormones were going crazy and I had a lot of crushes. I was a virgin and never dated any of those chess players, but when I was thinking of an idea for the games anthology, the possibilities of the game’s erotic potential came to mind. I liked the idea of a story that wasn’t about overt flirting, but covert, while seemingly doing something else (playing chess), these characters were building on the sexual tension between them.

With chess specifically, you are spending so much time, sometimes hours, sitting across from a single opponent, trying to get inside their head and figure out what strategy they are concocting, and there’s a bit of exhibitionism because other people are watching you. It’s a test of wills as well as brainpower and to me there’s something very sexy about that. Chess isn’t about athleticism or brute force but about sly cunning and smarts, which I think are ho, so I wanted to maximize the sexual angle of the game. I hadn’t really thought about chess in a sexual way before writing this story, and as I wrote, a lot of possibilities came to mind, including the ay a person reaches for a piece, the way they sit in their chair, their mannerisms, as well as their looks. So in a way it works as a “game” on two levels—the game of chess and the “game” they are playing with each other. less

I thought chess was an especially interesting choice as a game with sexual overtones. Rachel Kramer Bussel couldn't make it tonight, but here's what she told me about "Check, Mate" (a title that I really love.)


Rachel Kramer Bussel—“Check, Mate”

I played a lot of chess as a teenager, and that was a time when my hormones were going crazy and I had a lot of crushes. I was a virgin and never dated any of those chess players, but when I was thinking of an idea for the games anthology, the possibilities of the game’s erotic potential came to mind. I liked the idea of a story that wasn’t about overt flirting, but covert, while seemingly doing something else (playing chess), these characters were building on the sexual tension between them.

With chess specifically, you are spending so much time, sometimes hours, sitting across from a single opponent, trying to get inside their head and figure out what strategy they are concocting, and there’s a bit of exhibitionism because other people are watching you. It’s a test of wills as well as brainpower and to me there’s something very sexy about that. Chess isn’t about athleticism or brute force but about sly cunning and smarts, which I think are ho, so I wanted to maximize the sexual angle of the game. I hadn’t really thought about chess in a sexual way before writing this story, and as I wrote, a lot of possibilities came to mind, including the ay a person reaches for a piece, the way they sit in their chair, their mannerisms, as well as their looks. So in a way it works as a “game” on two levels—the game of chess and the “game” they are playing with each other. less

I thought chess was an especially interesting choice as a game with sexual overtones. Rachel Kramer Bussel couldn't make it tonight, but here's what she told me about "Check, Mate" (a title that I really love.)


Rachel Kramer Bussel—“Check, Mate”

I played a lot of chess as a teenager, and that was a time when my hormones were going crazy and I had a lot of crushes. I was a virgin and never dated any of those chess players, but when I was thinking of an idea for the games anthology, the possibilities of the game’s erotic potential came to mind. I liked the idea of a story that wasn’t about overt flirting, but covert, while seemingly doing something else (playing chess), these characters were building on the sexual tension between them.

With chess specifically, you are spending so much time, sometimes hours, sitting across from a single opponent, trying to get inside their head and figure out what strategy they are concocting, and there’s a bit of exhibitionism because other people are watching you. It’s a test of wills as well as brainpower and to me there’s something very sexy about that. Chess isn’t about athleticism or brute force but about sly cunning and smarts, which I think are ho, so I wanted to maximize the sexual angle of the game. I hadn’t really thought about chess in a sexual way before writing this story, and as I wrote, a lot of possibilities came to mind, including the ay a person reaches for a piece, the way they sit in their chair, their mannerisms, as well as their looks. So in a way it works as a “game” on two levels—the game of chess and the “game” they are playing with each other. less