(Most of this information comes from the Publishers Weekly interview.)
Katherine Neville started researching and writing The Eight in 1977.
She read over 200 (another source says 300) books, cover to cover, for The Eight. They included The Arabian Nights, Carlyle's French Revolution, the Koran, the New Testament Apocalyse, and autobiographies of chess masters.
The original manuscript was about 1200 pages long. (And I'd love to know what was cut out. I also wonder if she'll use any of this material for future books.)
According to the review in the St. Paul Pioneer Press-Dispatch, the Game in The Eight is based on a real chess game which was played in a world championship. Katherine Neville won't tell people which game it is, but she says she "chose one that had the most moves in it and tailored the plot to that game. If you understand chess, you can figure
out what game it is, what grand master played it and in what year." (I don't know a lot about chess, but I'm sure many of you do. If someone could help me figure out which game this is, I'd really appreciate it.)
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