I decided from the outset that with a title like The Chess Machine, the cover should be black and cream. Silhouettes would lend a sense of period, and cogs would give me some interesting shapes to play with. My favorite part is the chess-piece teeth on the central cog. Some would say I should have gone for the classic Sicilian Defense, but I’m with Kasparov: the Grünefeld wins every time.

Chess and machinery provide inspiration here. The cover feels part Alice in Wonderland, part marionette theater: enigmatic and darkly suspenseful.