Before chess became Brad Buchanan’s passion, therapy and obsession, it was simply a gift from his mother. Susan Buchanan taught her young son the game, never knowing that the lessons would outlast her own life — and eventually inspire his most ambitious book, Spy’s Mate.

“My mother was a remarkable person,” Buchanan reflected. “She taught me chess, but more importantly, she showed me how a game could be both discipline and joy, both strategy and story. When she passed away from complications of blood cancer in 2021, I wanted to honor that gift with a chess-inspired narrative in which a mother is central to the storyline. Thus, Spy’s Mate was born.”

Spy’s Mate by Brad Buchanan

In Spy’s Mate, readers are introduced to Yasha, a gifted chess prodigy whose life is upended when his chronically ill mother is hospitalized. Sent to live with an uncle in Armenia, Yasha finds solace — and obsession — in the game of chess and foolishly promises his mother that he will become World Chess Champion before her death.

Yasha suffers humiliating defeats before his chess prowess begins to develop, and his talents eventually draw the attention of powerful figures, including the crusty chess coach Churbanov and the manipulative KGB operative Vasily Ulyanov, who falsely claims to be Yasha’s father.

Churbanov turns Yasha into a world-famous phenomenon, and after his meteoric ascent to grandmaster status, Yasha is thrust into scandal when he is coerced into throwing a critical match, resulting in the suicide of a beloved dissident player.

Compelled to seek redemption, Yasha joins forces with Vadim Ibragimov, a Kazakh grandmaster with ties to the Mossad, and a new team of renegade coaches who aim to take down the reigning World Champion, Evgeny Volosin.

Through it all, Yasha must also navigate a Soviet Union in turmoil and anti-Armenian violence, which ultimately claims the lives of his close friend’s family and pushes Yasha into open defiance of Soviet authorities.

Spy’s Mate culminates in a spine-tingling, seesaw battle on the chessboard. In a stunning upset, Yasha becomes World Chess Champion. But victory comes at a price. Yasha must make a harrowing decision: flee the Soviet Union for his safety or return to Moscow and risk everything to pay one last visit to his dying mother.

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