In The Flanders Panel a young art restoration expert uncovers a concealed inscription in a 15th century painting. The resulting investigation leads her through some of the seedier parts of the art world and involves both a historical mystery and the game of chess. The game pictured in the painting leads to an analysis (with diagrams of almost a dozen positions), which starts to mirror her own life...

There are some neat characters and ideas in The Flanders Panel, but it contained too much philosophising for my liking. And none of its ruminations on the nature of chess gelled with my own experience of the game.

August 1996

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