Pushing Pawns

Book excerpt: Urban high school kid Moses Middleton hoped that organizing a chess club could be a ticket out of mediocrity, but everything goes pear-shaped after a disastrous tournament. That's when he meets Viktor, a mad Russian grandmaster who agrees to coach the team by revealing the secrets of Soviet chess. Together with his crew -- charismatic psychopath P.D. Morales, gifted violinist and expert fencer Esther Toussaint, shy anime fan Maggie Wang, and the new boy, Albanian chess wizard Zamir Hoxha -- Moses vows to take the world of New York City scholastic chess by storm. But trouble's on the way, in the form of neighborhood bullies, a vengeful vice principal, racist gentrifiers, the snooty rich kids from Galton Prep, and, worst of all, a sexual predator who could destroy a young woman's life and the team's newfound solidarity.