The Eight

The Eight is a novel by American author Katherine Neville. Amateur chess player Catherine becomes involved in the search for a legendary chess set, the Montglane Service, once owned by Charlemagne. Split into double narratives, the novel also tells the story of eighteenth-century nun Mirellie and her attempts to protect the set.

Tropes:

• Action Girl: Catherine and Lily, but the most amazing one is Mirelle.
• Artistic License History: Of course. Just a few: Basque people were never a menace for the Carolingian Empire. The rules for the Mad-Queen Chess, or modern chess, are from the XIV century, making it impossible to have a Chess Master associated with Charlemagne. In fact, in that era, there was no queen at all, but a piece named Vizier.
• Babies Ever After: Cat and Solarin had a daughter named Alexandra Solarin also is the whole reason the sequel exist.
• Big Beautiful Woman: Lily starts as this.
• Big Brother Mentor: Nim to Cat
• Big Brother Is Watching: Nim could fit into this since he is always one step ahead.
• Character Development: A lot! Lily starts as a Spoiled Brat and changes to Action Girl / Spoiled Sweet.
• Chess Motifs: the whole plot of the book.
• Crazy People Play Chess: one minor player insists that, when he captures a piece, a spectator be kicked out of the room so that the room's 'symmetry' is maintained.
• Doorstopper: 624 pages in the paperback edition.
• Glorious Mother Russia: The book is set on the Cold War and in Catherine the Great's Russia.
• Immortality Seeker Mirelle and the whole cast at the end.
• It Got Worse: It is true with the dead of sweet Valentine and It Got Worse because the Magnificent Bastard makes Mirelle is Forced to Watch.
• Nerds Are Sexy: Again Alexander Solarin and Lily by the end.
• Nuns Are Funny: Valentine
• Rule of Sexy: Solarin and how specially when thay are traveling back to New York.
• Significant Birth Date: The main character was born on April 4, which ties in with a lot of the book's numerology and is also said to be an Islamic holy day.
• Smart People Play Chess
• Spoiled Brat: Lily is this at the beginning. It Gets Better.
• Soviet Russia Ukraine and So On: Solarin is the Soviet Grand Master of chess.
• Talking Through Technique
• The French Revolution: parts of the narrative are set during the revolution.