Decoding Genius
The Unexpected Lessons of After-School Chess Clubby Dan Shapiro
USA Today Bestseller For the child who thinks differently, chess may be the arena that finally fits. In Decoding Genius, Dan Shapiro shows how chess helps kids build focus, confidence, resilience, creativity, and decision-making beyond the board.
But the lessons go far beyond childhood. Decoding Genius is also for readers chasing a mental edge — people who want to think more clearly, perform under pressure, stay sharp, and understand how memory, strategy, patience, and preparation shape better decisions.
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What you'll learn
Focus
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Confidence
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Resilience
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Creativity
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Decision-making
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From the book
"I remember sitting in the dorm room with my fellow students watching the James Bond movie From Russia with Love. That movie has a scene where an assassin from Bond's nemesis criminal organization, SPECTRE, played a tense, methodical game of chess in an opulent setting among numerous spectators, and it hit me square in the face.
If you want to show someone is highly intelligent, you show them playing chess. Everyone understands this or believes it on an almost instinctual level. Chess has this reputation that it produces geniuses and that geniuses are drawn to chess. The assassin was an evil genius, to be sure, but that didn't change the basic concept: aptitude at chess equals a brilliant mind.
I was no chess player, but I was fascinated by the idea of chess as a litmus test for brilliance. Why were chess players considered to be so smart? Where did that idea come from? And was it even true?"
— Dan Shapiro, Decoding Genius
Praise for Decoding Genius
"Decoding Genius intriguingly takes the positive effect that chess has had on the author's son and uses it as a catalyst to find ways in which the game could help others."
"A deeply personal, historically grounded introduction to the allure of chess."
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