An American chess grandmaster gets involved with a Russian defector in the exciting debut novel from the author of the Mongo Mysteries. Highly focused and arrogant, John Butler has little time for anything other than achieving his ultimate goal: to become a world champion chess player. He already knows he's the best player in the world, but he needs the title to prove it. Now, with the most important competition of his life about to take place in Venice, John's carefully regimented existence is suddenly thrown into chaos when the CIA asks him to take part in a different sort of match. John's opponent, Russian world champion Yevgeny Petroff, plans to defect, and the CIA wants John to be their point of contact. John would never willingly agree to such a distraction, but when he's paid an unexpected visit by Petroff's sister, he finds himself a pawn in a complex, dangerous game of deception-and only the greatest player can win.