DOT CHESS - The Cricket in Between
ISBN 8175258241; ISBN-13: 978-81-7525-824-2
Author: Saumil (saumilzx.com), Mumbai India
language: English, details: paperback; 290 pages (b/w, text matter);
availability: Buy now at amazon.com US$15.99
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DOT CHESS is about all that goes on in a game of cricket, in between runs and wickets; in between the intention and execution of play; and in between changing eras of cricket. The book begins with why dot balls exist in cricket and establishes why they are the underlying basis of cricket- 'skill-wise' and 'chess-wise'.

Moreover, there is an attempt to use chess theories to explain and explore possible approaches in cricket and various other sports. Chess players are masters at recognizing, creating, and exploiting imbalance in arrangement of pieces, in a position which is otherwise equal. In cricket, can we convert every 'peculiar instance of imbalance' - arising due to a collective combination of factors latent in the format, as well as during match play - into an execution advantage?

This 'diary' asks more questions than it answers, but is based on 'watch-it-as-if-you-are-playing-it' observations as well as an abstract axiomatic approach, when needed. It is intended to be a prelude to a system of assessment to credit the effort of a team and its players in positional as well material sense, as they do in chess. The objective is to try to ultimately translate every cricket expression in terms of runs, wickets, and balls.

For whom is the book:
1. For every cricket enthusiast, fan and for players as well. It is a book about cricket, and all the interesting things that go on, based on approaches from Sir Don Bradman, Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Shane Warne, McGrath and other great players. There are applications of chess theories to cricket, and how the greats have used them, knowingly or instinctively. Although the book may interest chess players, this book has no new concepts in chess. But then chess players are brilliant at deriving ideas from elsewhere, so they may take a look at the book.

2. For those who want to apply chess theories to other sports or disciplines but are not very familiar with chess. If they understand cricket, this book will perhaps help them to understand chess applications, since the examples are from cricket, not complex chess puzzles (which I am myself not proficient at).

3. For philosophy students, game inventors and sports developers, interested in defining a sport using axiomatic abstractions. As mentioned I am working on an abstract system of expression, applicable to every sport, not just cricket. There are shades of what I am addressing, in the first part of the book. A comparative study on the format of cricket in relation to various other sports- chess, cue-sports, tennis, table tennis, basketball, soccer, athletics, leads us to certain abstract terminology, which I hope will be useful to 'sports, as such'.