Stockholm, 1962. Spain’s first chess grandmaster, Arturito Pomar, faced the young American prodigy Bobby Fischer in a match remembered less for its result than for its symbolism. In The Pawn, Cerdà follows the careers of both men across shifting decades and continents—Spain, the U.S., the Soviet Union—casting light on how geopolitics infiltrated every corner of cultural life. The book is a haunting portrait of personal ambition entangled with global power struggles, revealing “the many exceptional people whose lives were sacrificed on the altar of Cold War interests” (The New York Times).

Perfect for readers of The Storm We Made and The Queen’s Gambit, The Pawn blurs the lines between strategy and survival, pawn and puppet, war and play.

Cerdà will be joined in conversation by Kevin Gerry Dunn, the book’s translator. Dunn is an acclaimed Spanish-English translator and ghostwriter, recipient of awards and fellowships from English PEN, PEN/Heim, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Paco Cerdà is a journalist and writer. He is the author of multiple award-winning books. The Pawn is the first book of his to be translated into English.

Kevin Gerry Dunn is a Spanish/English translator and a ghostwriter. His translations include The Tyranny of Flies by Elaine Vilar Madruga, Easy Reading by Cristina Morales, and works by Paul B. Preciado, María Bastarós, Daniela Tarazona, and Ousman Umar. He has received an English PEN Award, a PEN/Heim Grant, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship.

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