Michael W. Raphael

Michael W. Raphael is in the Sociology Department at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of An Academic Expedition to Northern Ireland: The Ethnographic Report (2010), a piece of photo-ethnography that attempts to capture historical sites relevant to the ongoing sectarian conflict. Raphael is also the author of the internationally best-selling 231 volume chess series, ReViewing Chess (2011-2011). Its distinction from standard chess books is that the series aims to be an operationalization of studies in done in the cognitive sociology of memory and pedagogy; each volume contains a slightly varied introduction and 125 games of chess in the specified opening variation presented in diagram form. The series was intended to enable beginners to try and simulate tournament conditions; a feature not available in other books at the time of publication. His general research interests revolve around the interplay of issues in the sociology of law, security and cognitive sociology.

The "ReViewing Chess" series includes 4 books that made the Amazon/Kindle/Chess Top 20 Best Seller's List and a total of 20 books in the Top 100 Best Selling Kindle Chess Books.