Bookpleasures is pleased to have as our guest Brad Buchanan. Brad is a distinguished author and lifelong chess enthusiast whose deep passion for chess history and culture informs his debut novel, Spy's Mate.

He holds advanced degrees in English Literature from McGill University, the University of Toronto, and Stanford University and enjoyed a long academic career teaching British and Postcolonial Literature as well as Creative Writing at Sacramento State University until 2016.

Brad's literary output is diverse, encompassing poetry, short fiction, scholarly articles, and three academic books, in addition to a medical memoir reflecting his powerful personal journey through cancer treatment.

His rich background as a scholar, cancer survivor, and devoted chess player uniquely positions him to craft a novel set in the late Cold War-era Soviet Union, delving into the life of a young chess prodigy navigating the dark intersection of sports, politics, and espionage.

Today, we will discuss with Brad Spy's Mate, a gripping Cold War thriller where the high-stakes world of Soviet chess becomes a battleground of espionage, power, and survival—an interview that will intrigue anyone fascinated by history, chess, and the human spirit under pressure.

Norm: Good day Brad and thanks for taking part in our interview:

What inspired you to set Spy's Mate during the late Cold War-era Soviet Union and focus on chess as the central theme? How do your personal experiences with chess influence the storytelling and character development?

Brad: The reason I set Spy's Mate during the last days of the Cold War is that chess had a geopolitical importance at that point in history that it had never had before, and that it has not had since.

Chess was a major propaganda tool for the Soviet Union, and they were desperate to show that their system produced the most intelligent strategic thinkers in the world. 

It was East versus West, Communism versus Capitalism, and the battle lines were very clear. Not only that, but the Soviets were willing to bend the rules to favor their own top players and managed to corrupt quite a few of chess's top officials. 

The American World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer was convinced that the Russians were all conspiring against him and other Western grandmasters, and it turns out that he was right. 

As far as my personal experience goes, when I was a little boy, my mother taught me how to play chess. She was a math whiz and professional accountant with a love for English Literature. 

Under her influence (though without her skill with numbers) I became fascinated with the way the chess pieces moved. I played imaginary games in my room where I was both White and Black, just like Yasha, the protagonist, does in Spy's Mate. 

After my mother's death in late 2021 from complications of blood cancer (an ailment that seems to run in our family, since I have survived two types of lymphoma myself) I wanted to pay tribute to the impulse that led her to teach me a game that would last me a lifetime. Thus, Spy's Mate  was born. 

I put myself into Yasha's shoes as he learns chess from his mother in an Armenian village on the fringes of the Soviet empire and ascends the perilous ladder to the very top of the game. 

In the novel, Yasha asks his mother, herself chronically and irreversibly ill, to promise him that she would live long enough to see him become World Chess Champion. 

Along the way, he must contend with, and indeed overcome, the sinister plotting of KGB agents, as well as tragedy and treachery in his own circle. 

It is a hero's journey that only chess can offer; a truly remarkable story of perseverance and pluck, with some amazing brilliancies built in. I think my mother would absolutely love it. 

Norm: The protagonist, Yasha Basmajian, is described as a chess prodigy of Armenian origin. How did you approach portraying his cultural background and identity within the Soviet chess establishment?

Were there historical or real-life figures who inspired Yasha's character?

Brad: I've been fascinated by the historical status of Armenians worldwide for many years; they were victims of a genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire, and they have a widespread diaspora as well as a homeland that suffered under Soviet domination for a long time. 

My own Irish heritage has given me an affinity with such groups, and I absorbed quite a bit of Armenian culture and religious iconography when I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

There I met Father Mesrop, an Armenian Orthodox priest who invited me to witness a traditional Armenian wedding, and who and discussed the finer points of Armenian Christianity with me over multiple lunches. 

I worked some of these details into Spy's Mate, partly to offer an alternative to the bleakness of Soviet life, and partly because I wanted Yasha to be an underdog and an outsider. 

As a non-Russian whose ascent into the Soviet chess elite would be made more difficult by his ethnicity, Yasha is very loosely modeled on former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov, who was of mixed Armenian and Jewish extraction.

Norm: Your novel intertwines the world of chess with espionage and political intrigue. How do you balance these elements to maintain suspense without compromising the authenticity of the chess scenes?

Can you share insights into your research process for accurately depicting the KGB and Soviet official pressures?

Brad: The chess games are based on real-life, often very famous, games from chess history that I have taken great care to reconstruct, dramatize, and illustrate with diagrams in the novel. 

These games have been checked by several chess experts to make sure they make sense, because the novel's credibility depends on their authenticity. 

As far as researching the role of the KGB in high level Soviet chess, I read quite a few chess biographies, including multiple books about Garry Kasparov's life and games. 

However, the most memorable book I found was a non-fiction book called The KGB Plays Chess, by Boris Gulko, Vladimir Popov, Yuri Felshtinsky, and Viktor Kortchnoi, where the authors (all top chess players who lived in the USSR) relate many wild, improbable, and often hilarious stories of the various sneaky and largely ineffective ways that the KGB spied on, tried to sabotage, and subtly (or not so subtly) manipulated them. 

Basically, the Soviet elite wanted to promote loyal Communists, and Slavic (as opposed to Jewish, Armenian, or otherwise) players who could function as poster boys for their ideology. Less loyal players, or players who wanted to emigrate, were persecuted, marginalized, and often mistreated.

Norm: Yasha faces a "sinister, predatory" World Chess Champion, Evgeny Volosin. What does this character represent, and how does he challenge Yasha beyond the chessboard?

Did you draw from any real chess champions or political figures when creating Volosin?

Brad: On the surface, Volosin is a loyal Communist who represents the status quo in the Soviet Union, and as such is loosely modeled on Anatoly Karpov, a former World Chess Champion and Garry Kasparov's chief antagonist. 

However, he is also a narcissistic sexual predator and a paranoid behind-the-scenes manipulator who plots with the KGB to spy on, discredit, or indeed destroy his rivals. 

Volosin plants what he thinks is an informant in Yasha's camp and tries to disrupt Yasha emotionally and psychologically during their World Championship match by having Yasha's father arrested. 

Norm: Could you discuss the role of the renegade coach and anti-establishment grandmasters in the story?

How do these characters reflect broader themes of resistance and individuality within authoritarian regimes?

Brad: Yasha's rise within the world of Soviet chess is assisted by Alexander Mikeladze, a coach whose career Volosin has curtailed, as well as Jerzy Smolarek, one of Volosin's seconds who was tortured with cigarette burns by Volosin's minions. 

They, and other characters who have suffered at the hands of the authorities, assist Yasha as a way of expressing their broader dissatisfaction with the lack of freedom, lack of opportunity, and lack of justice in the USSR. 

So, when Yasha finally sits down at the board to play with Volosin for the World Chess Championship, we see that he represents the power of the individual to resist the power of authoritarianism.

Norm: Given your extensive academic background, how has your study of literature influenced your narrative style and thematic choices in Spy's Mate?

Did your previous work in poetry and scholarly texts shape how you crafted the novel's tone or structure?

Brad: Having taught fiction writing at the college level, I have learned a few tricks over the years, as well as some pitfalls to avoid. Besides that, however, I had to unlearn some of my own academic, analytical tendencies to write Spy's Mate. 

In fact, I've used a deliberately "unliterary" style to tell the story: there are no long psychological passages, for example, as well as minimal descriptions of the physical settings, and not much background for each character. 

I wanted the novel to read like a movie screenplay, i.e. to be driven by action and dialogue rather than by a unifying narrative voice. In fact, my first draft had a rather chatty first-person narrator who played a minor role in the story; however, I eventually realized that he was much more trouble than he was worth, so (like a spy master dealing with a double agent, I suppose) I quietly got rid of him. 

Norm: Spy's Mate is your first novel after a prolific career in other literary forms. What were the biggest challenges transitioning to novel writing?

How did you maintain engagement over the novel's 425 pages, especially given the detailed historical and chess content?

Brad: The biggest challenge in writing a novel was the daily routine of sitting down to write a complete scene—or between 700 and 1,000 words—every day, with only my own imagination to rely on. In other writing projects, I usually have lots of notes to work with, and primary or secondary sources to quote from, but with fiction I must create the entire thing from start to finish. 

When my inspiration flagged, or when different plot strands got complicated over multiple drafts, I would stay engaged with the project by tracing the different story lines with different colored markers on big sheets of paper, making lists of scenes on cue cards, creating charts showing different characters' development over time, noting places where missing scenes would need to be written, and using a white board to draw connections between characters. 

Norm: Chess culture can be quite niche. How did you ensure the novel remains accessible and engaging to readers who may not be familiar with chess?

Are there particular chess concepts or moments in the book you hope resonate beyond just chess enthusiasts?

Brad: I showed various drafts of Spy's Mate to friends who know very little about chess to make sure that they could follow the story as well as the games. 

After hearing their comments, I created diagrams in the text that show key positions in the chess games being played, as well as reminders about who is playing Black and who is playing White. 

There are also a couple of pages at the back of the book that explain the notation system used in chess, as well as the names of each of the board's 64 squares in algebraic notation. 

As far as moments that will resonate with non-chess enthusiasts, Yasha's strong bond with his mother is the emotional core of the novel, and I hope that his desire to keep faith with her is a very relatable and universal feeling. 

I was weeping as I wrote the final scene, at any rate, because I didn't get the chance to say goodbye to my own mother in the same way that he does.

Norm: Your medical memoir and experience living with graft-versus-host disease show your resilience. Did your personal health journey influence themes or characterizations in Spy's Mate?

Did writing the novel serve as a form of healing or a new creative challenge during or after your treatment?

Brad: My health problems have been a huge reason for my rediscovery of chess over the past 10 years. The story began when I was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma, a form of malignant blood cancer, in early 2015, and a cancerous tumor in my left lung burst, sending me to the ER. 

My life was immediately turned upside down: over the next year I underwent 7 cycles of chemotherapy, total body irradiation, and a stem cell transplant that nearly proved fatal. 

My body was badly damaged by all this, and I lost any athletic ability I had once possessed. I was left not just disabled but saddled with a chronic illness that I still live with today: graft-versus-host disease. 

Then chess rescued me: unable to play more physically active sports, I became obsessed with the game. 

Even when I was legally blind for 18 months (an unexpected side effect of my transplant) I managed to peer at my iPad out of the corners of my eyes and practice against the computer. 

Although I couldn't yet play real games again, I found a new chess-related hobby: making personalized wooden chess sets for friends and family. 

I bought square wooden boards from a local wood shop and painted them (with some help from my daughters). To make the pieces, I glued together wooden shapes and figures I found at craft stores. 

When I recovered my eyesight (four eye surgeries later), I started to read chess books, to play online and in-person games once again, and to think seriously about writing a book about chess.

By this time, I had published three books of poetry, three academic books, and a medical memoir, and I felt I was ready to write something about the game that had become the only outlet for my competitive energies.

During the pandemic, like so many others, I watched and read The Queen's Gambit with fascination and admiration. I also realized that chess had become a worldwide cultural phenomenon for the same reasons it had inspired me after my medical catastrophe. 

Chess was not just a training ground for strategic and tactical thinking; it was also a treasure trove of mythic stories, archetypes, and memorable personalities, all united in a visually striking contest between opposing forces. Chess was Star Wars and John LeCarré Cold War novels all combined into one.

Norm: The novel features rivalry, manipulation, and principled stands. Which of these themes do you find personally most compelling and why?

How do these themes manifest themselves in Yasha's growth throughout the story?

Brad: Personally, I identify strongly with Yasha's principled stands against injustice, intellectual dishonesty, and unchecked power, even though these stands are clearly the result of his youthful naïveté. His idealism and faith in himself are challenged at every turn, by people pretending to be his friend, or even his father, and he is badly hurt and even betrayed by people he once loved and trusted. His growth, both as a chess player and as a human being, is painful and hard-won, which I hope will make him a sympathetic figure for the reader. 

Norm: The novel involves high-stakes matches with life-or-death implications. How do you portray the psychological pressure and mental endurance required in competitive chess?

Are there moments in the novel that parallel your own experiences dealing with intense pressure?

Brad: Spy's Mate shows that chess is a deadly serious game, since some defeated grandmasters are disgraced, imprisoned, and in one instance killed. 

These pressures come across as Yasha fights to the bitter end against older, more experienced players, refusing to resign even in hopeless positions. The passionate responses of the live audiences also amplify the tension of these contests and (I hope) make them into high drama.

My own modest background as a hockey player and soccer goalkeeper, as well as a chess player, have given me some experience with high-pressure situations. 

Playing goal forces you to think ahead, prepare yourself for the unexpected, and to react instinctively when a threat poses itself. 

Many of the chess games in Spy's Mate come to a crisis point when one or both players are in serious time trouble, with only seconds remaining on their clocks. 

Since running out of time means an instant defeat, they must scramble and think on their feet in the same way that I, facing an opposing player coming in on a breakaway, had to decide whether to dive at his feet, spread my arms and legs wide, or try to poke the ball away before he could get off a shot. 

Norm: Where can our readers find out more about you and Spy's Mate?

Brad: My PERSONAL WEBSITE 

Spy's Mate is available for pre-ordering on Amazon.com and through Bookshop.org. 

Norm: As we wrap up our interview, Finally, can you share any upcoming projects or whether you plan to continue exploring chess or Cold War themes in your future writing?

Are there any lessons or insights from Spy's Mate that you will carry forward into your next works?

Brad: Since the advance orders for Spy's Mate have been so robust, I'm happy to report that I am already under contract to write a sequel! I can't share too many details about that project, but I certainly have learned a lot from writing Spy's Mate—both about chess and about the history of the Soviet Union in its last days— that will contribute to the sequel. 

Although I am old enough to remember Gorbachev and Yeltsin and the fall of the Berlin Wall, I have been reading a lot of background material to help explain how Putin's rise came about, as well as how chess's political importance has changed since the days of Bobby Fischer and, later, Garry Kasparov. 

I have some other writing projects in the works too: a book about the health benefits of expressive writing, for example, is under consideration with a reputable publisher. Finally, my fifth book of poetry, The Birds of Poverty Ridge, will be published in early 2026 by Finishing Line Press.