Today I had coffee with my wife and brother in the Central West End, not far from the World Chess Hall of Fame. It got me thinking about what would have happened if Gateway Arch designer Eero Saarinen had been a chess enthusiast. Maybe instead of a 630-foot-high croquet wicket, we might have had a 630-foot chess piece on the riverfront. Maybe even a complete board of 630-foot chess pieces. Who’s to say Thomas Jefferson didn’t play chess. Instead of The Making of an Icon, my book might have been called The Making of a Giant Chess Board.
Jim Merkel the Writer 