From award-winning author James Bass comes a brutally honest memoir that rips the veil off a shattered life. Some lives are wrecked by chaos. Some are reforged by it. He thought he was just surviving... He was wrong. Every heartbreak was a calculated strike. Every silence, a sacred breath. Every betrayal, every breakdown, every dark night was the hand of God, chiseling him from the wreckage of addiction, abuse, and madness into a warrior with purpose. God doesn't just rescue you. He remakes you... He ...
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From award-winning author James Bass comes a brutally honest memoir that rips the veil off a shattered life. Some lives are wrecked by chaos. Some are reforged by it. He thought he was just surviving... He was wrong. Every heartbreak was a calculated strike. Every silence, a sacred breath. Every betrayal, every breakdown, every dark night was the hand of God, chiseling him from the wreckage of addiction, abuse, and madness into a warrior with purpose. God doesn't just rescue you. He remakes you... He doesn't just save you. He sends you... Bass's journey is not just a memoir. It's a manifesto for the broken, a battle cry for the desperate, and a defiant shout against the darkness. He was carried by a grandmother's unshakeable faith, lifted by a wife's unwavering love, and pursued by the relentless mercy of Jesus Christ. If you've ever screamed into the void, begging for a sign... this is your answer. If you've ever felt lost in the wreckage... this is your roadmap to redemption. If you've ever wondered if God still moves... this is your proof. He sees you. He's moving. And He's not just fighting for you-He's fighting through you. Rise from the ashes. Stand in your purpose. Reclaim your story.
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Add this copy of I Was Playing Checkers While God Was Playing Chess: The to cart. $14.59, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2025 by Clarice Jefferies Publishing.
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James Bassâ��s I Was Playing Checkers While God Was Playing Chess is a raw and vulnerable memoir that chronicles the author's journey from deep childhood trauma to spiritual awakening and redemption. Drawing on vivid metaphors from the game of chess, Bass uses each chapter to map out pivotal "moves" in his lifeâ�"moments of heartbreak, divine intervention, and personal growth. Through the lens of abuse, addiction, love, and faith, Bass tells the story of how Godâ��s unseen hand was guiding his lifeâ��s trajectory, even when he could barely keep his own head above water.
Bassâ��s writing isnâ��t polished in the traditional senseâ�"itâ��s honest. Honest like a wound still healing. Thereâ��s power in that. His voice jumps off the page, not like a preacher, but like a man whoâ��s been through the worst and is just grateful to be alive. The early chapters, especially those about his Abuelita and the horrifying abuse he endured as a child, were painful to read. But that pain is the point. You can feel his desperation and confusion, and thenâ�"slowlyâ�"his transformation. The chess metaphor couldâ��ve easily been gimmicky, but here itâ��s brilliant. It gives shape to his suffering and makes it feel like maybe all our worst days arenâ��t just random punches from life.
Where the book really shines, though, is in the sections about Crystalâ�"his wife, his partner, his mirror. Their love is not a fairy tale. Itâ��s messy, cracked, and sometimes brutal. But itâ��s also real. Bassâ��s depiction of being a caregiver to someone with a severe mental illness is unflinching and brave. He doesnâ��t sugarcoat it. And thatâ��s why it works. His sacrifices donâ��t feel like grand gestures. They feel like daily choices to love someone no matter what. That kind of loveâ�"resilient, imperfect, relentlessâ�"feels holy. And when he finally connects his childhood reading struggles to his ability to advocate for Crystal later in life? It was powerful. You canâ��t make that stuff up.
This isnââ?¬â?¢t a book for people looking for tidy answers or happy endings wrapped in bows. But if youââ?¬â?¢ve ever asked God ââ?¬Å"why?ââ?¬Â?, if youââ?¬â?¢ve ever looked at your life and felt like nothing made sense, or if youââ?¬â?¢ve ever wondered whether your pain had a pointââ?¬"this book is for you. Itââ?¬â?¢s a reminder that you donââ?¬â?¢t have to know the next move. You just have to trust that the board is in the hands of a Master. Iââ?¬â?¢d recommend it to anyone navigating trauma, caregiving, broken family dynamics, or just plain soul exhaustion.
Literary Titan
Jun 15, 2025
Full of heart -- a must-read
I Was Playing Checkers While God Was Playing Chess is part memoir, part testimony, and all heart. It�s the story of a man who lived through a mountain of trauma. Abuse, racism, addiction, marital struggles, and found God moving in places he didn�t expect. Every chapter uses a chess move to explain a turning point in his life, like how his grandmother giving him an encyclopedia set as a boy set the stage for him to one day decode complex psychiatric info and care for his wife. It�s deeply personal, packed with emotion, and reads like someone sitting across the table, telling you their truth.
One chapter that really hit me was ââ?¬Å"The Forkââ?¬Â? about his abuelita. She steps in during his horrible childhood, gives him love, and literally hands him books when no one else believed in him. That whole section had me teary-eyed. It reminded me how sometimes the smallest gestures change everything. And the way he ties it back later, like decades later, to how he understood medical texts to help his wife, was amazing. Thatââ?¬â?¢s not just a good story. Thatââ?¬â?¢s fate with a plan. I could feel how much those books meant to him. It wasnââ?¬â?¢t just about reading. It was about survival.
Then thereââ?¬â?¢s Crystal. Sheââ?¬â?¢s not just his wife. Sheââ?¬â?¢s a whole force of nature. That part where she tells him, ââ?¬Å"I love you for the man youââ?¬â?¢re going to become,ââ?¬Â? after heââ?¬â?¢s cheated and blown up their marriage? I had to put the book down for a second. That line wrecked me. You feel the weight of what theyââ?¬â?¢ve been through, but you also feel the hope. The love between them isnââ?¬â?¢t pretty or easy, but itââ?¬â?¢s real. The mental health stuff is raw, too. He talks about psychosis, ER visits, and disappearing acts. And yet thereââ?¬â?¢s faith threaded through it all, like a lifeline.
Later on, when he talks about writing his first book and speaking publicly, it�s a total shift. That�s when you realize the guy who used to think he was worthless is now lifting other people up. There�s this full-circle moment when he reconnects with an old boss who turns out to be a pastor. The way it all lines up? It�s wild. It feels earned. I could see the gears turning in his life even when he couldn�t. That made me look at my own life differently. Like maybe all this chaos has some kind of pattern.
If you�ve ever felt like you were getting hit from all sides and couldn�t see the bigger picture, this book is for you. If you�ve ever loved someone who was hard to love, or were that person yourself, this book is for you. It�s not fancy or polished. But it�s real and full of heart.
