Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Frankfurt am Main: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verl.. 1996.
Description
Stefan Zweig's posthumously published Chess Story is the tale of a legendary chess match played on an ocean liner leaving Nazi-occupied Europe. The world champion and a man who attained mastery of chess during a harrowing ordeal are locked in a battle that becomes far more than merely a game. Gripping and visceral, this unforgettable novella powerfully renders a psychological condition nearly impossible to convey in words. Ulrich Baer's lively new translation beautifully captures Zweig's nuanced mix of introspection and suspense.
User reviews
LibraryThing member brenzi
Torture proponents pay attention! There is an effortless way to get information; much easier than the obvious and much debated waterboarding. Stefan Zweig reveals it in his 1942 novella, the disturbing "Chess Story." This is so much more than a tale of men playing a game. Think in terms of
During a ship’s voyage from New York City to Buenos Aires, it becomes known that one of the passengers is the well known chess master, Mirko Czentovik. A Scotsman decides to challenge him to a game of chess, even though Czentovic charges him $250 to play the game. As the game progresses, another passenger, Dr. B, notices the game in progress and sidles over to watch. He becomes excited at the action and quickly starts to give advice to the Scotsman that enables him to bring the game to a draw, an unheard of and totally unexpected result. Those watching the game breathlessly want Dr. B. to play Czentovik the next day. It is at this point that Dr. B reveals how he got to be such a knowledgeable chess player, even though he hasn’t played in 25 years.
Zweig has drawn an absolutely fascinating picture of psychological terror. By developing two very complicated characters in Dr. B and the withdrawn and lifeless Czentovic, the reader is immediately drawn into the story. But it is the frightening narrative described by Dr. B. that had me on the edge of my seat until the last word. A very short but extremely powerful story, one that I will not soon forget. Highly recommended.
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psychological warfare and the art of destroying a person's morale. During a ship’s voyage from New York City to Buenos Aires, it becomes known that one of the passengers is the well known chess master, Mirko Czentovik. A Scotsman decides to challenge him to a game of chess, even though Czentovic charges him $250 to play the game. As the game progresses, another passenger, Dr. B, notices the game in progress and sidles over to watch. He becomes excited at the action and quickly starts to give advice to the Scotsman that enables him to bring the game to a draw, an unheard of and totally unexpected result. Those watching the game breathlessly want Dr. B. to play Czentovik the next day. It is at this point that Dr. B reveals how he got to be such a knowledgeable chess player, even though he hasn’t played in 25 years.
Zweig has drawn an absolutely fascinating picture of psychological terror. By developing two very complicated characters in Dr. B and the withdrawn and lifeless Czentovic, the reader is immediately drawn into the story. But it is the frightening narrative described by Dr. B. that had me on the edge of my seat until the last word. A very short but extremely powerful story, one that I will not soon forget. Highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member cameling
On board a cruise ship to Argentina, a world chess champion is challenged to a game of chess by a group of amateurs. Despite his lowly background and reknown ignorance for all matters besides chess, this chess champion is arrogant and dismissive of the group, and plays only for a hefty fee.
A challenge is issued by the world chess champion to this pale stranger to a game the following day.
What unfolds before this game, is the stranger's story and in it, we are introduced to another form of torture during WWII - that of mental and emotional torture when one is placed in a void, bereft of any human contact, books or even a window to look out of for mental stimulation.
This is a story of the strength of one man who manages to devise a strategy to survive this mental torture, but in his triumph against his torturers he falls victim to his own device.
The final chess game provides the stage for one to show mental acuity and another, the scars that never heal.
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However, on a rematch, a whispering voice in the background suddenly advises the challenger on moves that take the chess champion by surprise and the 2nd game is a draw. A challenge is issued by the world chess champion to this pale stranger to a game the following day.
What unfolds before this game, is the stranger's story and in it, we are introduced to another form of torture during WWII - that of mental and emotional torture when one is placed in a void, bereft of any human contact, books or even a window to look out of for mental stimulation.
This is a story of the strength of one man who manages to devise a strategy to survive this mental torture, but in his triumph against his torturers he falls victim to his own device.
The final chess game provides the stage for one to show mental acuity and another, the scars that never heal.
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LibraryThing member John
Stefan Zweig came to my attention through an article by Theodore Dalrymple about books that deal with the loss of freedom, or the horror of unfreedom. He mentioned Sebastian Hafner's Defying Hitler (excellent book; reviewed separately), and Ann Funder's Stasiland (also very good and reviewed
Zweig was Austrian, born in 1881, and described by Peter Gay in the introduction to this edition of the book, as one of "Hitler's posthumous victims". He was a writer of novellas, novels, biographical profiles, and at least one volume of lyrical verse. In 1935, anticipating the Nazi takeover of Austria, he fled to England and then moved, in 1940, to Brazil.
Chess Story is a novella and the story is fairly simple: the reigning world chess champion (who is a dolt in anything except chess) is beaten by an unknown Dr.B who perfected his chess during the war as a prisoner of the Gestapo. Dr.B was subject to an invidious torture based on nothingness: he was held in a hotel-like but spartan room with absolutely nothing to do or read or watch, no human contact expect his jailer for meals and eventually his interrogators. After weeks and months of this, he started to lose his ability to focus, to concentrate. He was saved by managing to steal a book on chess games which he memorizes and plays over and over in his mind. But from being an intellectual saviour, the chess becomes a nemesis because he starts to play against himself, mentally, and this schizophrenic split drives him mad. He escapes the clutches of the Gestapo through the help of a sympathetic doctor, but is warned that his mental health cannot stand a return to the chess sickness. He keeps this vow for many years until he gets involved with the chess champion on a cruise ship, with dire results.
Chess Story has been described as a metaphor for Europe under the Nazis, and there is something to that, all the more interesting given that Zweig did not live to learn the full extent of the Nazi horrors. The success of the two protagonists at chess is a metaphor for the reversal of common order: the world champion, who comes from a tiny village in Yugoslavia, is functionally illiterate and cannot engage with the world except through chess which he learned just by watching his guardian play; Dr.B achieves an equivalent level of mastery by memorizing games, but then drives himself crazy by playing against himself; in Dr.B's world, the chess is first life-saving, as an antidote to his isolation, and then life-destroying as it dominates every aspect of his life. Not unlike the initial support for the Nazis by great numbers of people in all classes, but it was the welcoming of a force that would eventually destroy itself, many countries, and millions of people. The schizophrenia that Dr.B experiences mirrors life under totalitarian regimes (whether Nazi or Communist) where public obeisance must be paid to the system that everyone knows it is a tissue of lies and deceits where the "real" world is vastly different. Finally, one can see a further metaphor in the idea that chess, a game of beautiful precision based on logic and analysis and intellectual rigour can be a source of inspiration and joy, but it can also lead to obsession and madness; not unlike the image of the German nation, home to countless contributions to western civilization through the arts, literature, music, science but also originator and implementor of the horror of the Holocaust whereby intelligent people honed and focused vast organizational and mechanical skills for the systematic murder and elimination of millions of human beings for no other reason than that they existed. And this was a priority that was maintained and continued to drain resources even when the war had turned against Germany. Can there be any better definition of madness?
A short, but very entertaining read.
(April/06)
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separately). His third book listed was Zweig's The Right to Heresy: Castellio Against Calvin, which I have, but have not yet read. This was my introduction to Zweig (about whom I had not heard before), and that led me to his Beware of Pity (purchased but not yet read), and Chess Story which was Zweig's last book before he and his wife committed suicide in 1942 in Brazil.Zweig was Austrian, born in 1881, and described by Peter Gay in the introduction to this edition of the book, as one of "Hitler's posthumous victims". He was a writer of novellas, novels, biographical profiles, and at least one volume of lyrical verse. In 1935, anticipating the Nazi takeover of Austria, he fled to England and then moved, in 1940, to Brazil.
Chess Story is a novella and the story is fairly simple: the reigning world chess champion (who is a dolt in anything except chess) is beaten by an unknown Dr.B who perfected his chess during the war as a prisoner of the Gestapo. Dr.B was subject to an invidious torture based on nothingness: he was held in a hotel-like but spartan room with absolutely nothing to do or read or watch, no human contact expect his jailer for meals and eventually his interrogators. After weeks and months of this, he started to lose his ability to focus, to concentrate. He was saved by managing to steal a book on chess games which he memorizes and plays over and over in his mind. But from being an intellectual saviour, the chess becomes a nemesis because he starts to play against himself, mentally, and this schizophrenic split drives him mad. He escapes the clutches of the Gestapo through the help of a sympathetic doctor, but is warned that his mental health cannot stand a return to the chess sickness. He keeps this vow for many years until he gets involved with the chess champion on a cruise ship, with dire results.
Chess Story has been described as a metaphor for Europe under the Nazis, and there is something to that, all the more interesting given that Zweig did not live to learn the full extent of the Nazi horrors. The success of the two protagonists at chess is a metaphor for the reversal of common order: the world champion, who comes from a tiny village in Yugoslavia, is functionally illiterate and cannot engage with the world except through chess which he learned just by watching his guardian play; Dr.B achieves an equivalent level of mastery by memorizing games, but then drives himself crazy by playing against himself; in Dr.B's world, the chess is first life-saving, as an antidote to his isolation, and then life-destroying as it dominates every aspect of his life. Not unlike the initial support for the Nazis by great numbers of people in all classes, but it was the welcoming of a force that would eventually destroy itself, many countries, and millions of people. The schizophrenia that Dr.B experiences mirrors life under totalitarian regimes (whether Nazi or Communist) where public obeisance must be paid to the system that everyone knows it is a tissue of lies and deceits where the "real" world is vastly different. Finally, one can see a further metaphor in the idea that chess, a game of beautiful precision based on logic and analysis and intellectual rigour can be a source of inspiration and joy, but it can also lead to obsession and madness; not unlike the image of the German nation, home to countless contributions to western civilization through the arts, literature, music, science but also originator and implementor of the horror of the Holocaust whereby intelligent people honed and focused vast organizational and mechanical skills for the systematic murder and elimination of millions of human beings for no other reason than that they existed. And this was a priority that was maintained and continued to drain resources even when the war had turned against Germany. Can there be any better definition of madness?
A short, but very entertaining read.
(April/06)
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LibraryThing member richardderus
The Book Report: Lumpenproletarian chess prodigy Czentovic, a boorish and unsympathetic figure, meets noble Jewish Dr. B. on a cruise. The good doctor is escaping the Nazis after a horrific torture-by-isolation. Czentovic is off to new triumphs as the world's greatest living chess master. Dr. B.
My Review: Zweig committed suicide after completing this book. I see why. It's the least optimistic, most hopeless, depressing, and horrifyingly bleak thing I've read in years. Four hankies won't do to stanch the helpless, hopeless weeping induced by reading the book, and a pistol is too heavy to hold in fingers gone too numb to clench even slightly.
It's one long flashback. The "action" of the chess match takes on an almost lurid and pornographic tinge after the grim tale Dr. B. tells of his time with the Nazis. It's dreadful. It's downbeat. It stinks of freshly-opened coffins and crematory ovens. If there is a redeeming value in having read it, it's that one need never, ever, ever touch it again, and I ASSURE you I will not.
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survived his horrible isolation by reading and re-reading and memorizing and repeatedly playing in his mind great chess games from a book he stole from one of his torturers. The stage is set...the grisly Grand Master meets the gruesomely treated noble spirit in a chess battle for the ages, and is defeated. The doctor retires from the scene, completely unmanned by reliving his horrible confinement through his victory over the taciturn, unintelligent idiot savant Czentovic.My Review: Zweig committed suicide after completing this book. I see why. It's the least optimistic, most hopeless, depressing, and horrifyingly bleak thing I've read in years. Four hankies won't do to stanch the helpless, hopeless weeping induced by reading the book, and a pistol is too heavy to hold in fingers gone too numb to clench even slightly.
It's one long flashback. The "action" of the chess match takes on an almost lurid and pornographic tinge after the grim tale Dr. B. tells of his time with the Nazis. It's dreadful. It's downbeat. It stinks of freshly-opened coffins and crematory ovens. If there is a redeeming value in having read it, it's that one need never, ever, ever touch it again, and I ASSURE you I will not.
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LibraryThing member kidzdoc
The action in this novella takes place during World War II, on a cruise ship heading from NYC to Buenos Aires. On board is the world chess champion Mirko Czentovic, who is on tour to play the best chessmasters of South America. The nameless narrator is intrigued by Czentovic, a monomaniac whose
Unfortunately this was the last published complete work by Zweig, a Jew who fled his native Austria before the Nazi occupation, and committed suicide with his wife in 1942, due to his despair with the demise of European culture under the Nazis. It is a brilliant work, and is highly recommended.
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aloof manner hides the fact that he is an otherwise ignorant and uneducated peasant. In an effort to meet Czentovic, the narrator plays chess with an arrogant and wealthy businessman, who ultimately persuades Czentovic to play him for money. The game is witnessed by many of the passengers, and Czentovic handily trounces the businessman in several games. However, a stranger provides tactical advice to the businessman, who manages to battle the champion to a draw. Czentovic challenges the stranger, Dr. B., to a game the following day, and the narrator is able to learn more about Dr. B's dark secret, and how he was able to match the champion even though he had not played chess in over two decades. The battle royale takes place the next afternoon, and is both a tactical and psychological battle of wills.Unfortunately this was the last published complete work by Zweig, a Jew who fled his native Austria before the Nazi occupation, and committed suicide with his wife in 1942, due to his despair with the demise of European culture under the Nazis. It is a brilliant work, and is highly recommended.
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LibraryThing member hemlokgang
Another stellar psychological treatise by Stefan Zweig! This novella offers the reader a powerful glimpse into the world of obsession and monomania. The manuscript was found in 1942 in the author's home in Brazil after he and his wife committed suicide, and the reader cannot help but wonder if this
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insightful interior scrutiny reflected some of the suffering of Zweig prior to his death. The primary themes include: the power of obsession, the power of solitude, and the ability of both to destroy the psyche. Clearly there is a treatise on Hitler and his monomania in this story as well. All in 84 pages! Show Less
LibraryThing member arubabookwoman
"Anyone who has suffered from a mania remains at risk forever, and with chess sickness (even if cured) it would be better not to go near a chess board."
World chess champion Mirko Czentovic has "the vacant look of a sheep at pasture," but as a monomaniac with no peer at chess, he considers himself
Czentovic is embarking on a voyage from New York to Buenos Aires to engage in some chess games. One of his fellow passengers is McConnor, a wealthy Scottish engineer, a "self-obsessed big wheel." When McConnor learns that a chess champion is on board, he wants to play, and Czentovic agrees to play McConnor for $250 per game. Our narrator knows that "regardless of the stakes, this fanatically proud man would go on playing Czentovic until he won at least once, even if it cost him his entire fortune."
During the game a third man we know only as Dr. B appears, pale and strange, and very knowledgeable about chess. The heart of the book relates the story of the circumstances under which Dr. B became such an expert in chess.
I'm not a chess player, but there was nothing too technical about chess in this book. Nevertheless, despite the excellent quality of the writing, it was not a book that grabbed me and compelled me to keep reading, which was disappointing since I so loved The Post Office Girl. This is the only book by Zweig in which he directly confronts Nazism (in response to which he and his wife committed suicide in 1942).
3 stars
First line: "On the great passenger liner due to depart New York for Buenos Aires at midnight, there was the usual last minute bustle and commotion."
Last line: "For an amateur, this gentleman is really extraordinarily talented."
World chess champion Mirko Czentovic has "the vacant look of a sheep at pasture," but as a monomaniac with no peer at chess, he considers himself
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the most important person in the world. After all, "isn't it damn easy to think you're a great man if you aren't troubled by the slightest notion that a Rembrandt, Beethoven, Dante, or Napoleon ever existed?"Czentovic is embarking on a voyage from New York to Buenos Aires to engage in some chess games. One of his fellow passengers is McConnor, a wealthy Scottish engineer, a "self-obsessed big wheel." When McConnor learns that a chess champion is on board, he wants to play, and Czentovic agrees to play McConnor for $250 per game. Our narrator knows that "regardless of the stakes, this fanatically proud man would go on playing Czentovic until he won at least once, even if it cost him his entire fortune."
During the game a third man we know only as Dr. B appears, pale and strange, and very knowledgeable about chess. The heart of the book relates the story of the circumstances under which Dr. B became such an expert in chess.
I'm not a chess player, but there was nothing too technical about chess in this book. Nevertheless, despite the excellent quality of the writing, it was not a book that grabbed me and compelled me to keep reading, which was disappointing since I so loved The Post Office Girl. This is the only book by Zweig in which he directly confronts Nazism (in response to which he and his wife committed suicide in 1942).
3 stars
First line: "On the great passenger liner due to depart New York for Buenos Aires at midnight, there was the usual last minute bustle and commotion."
Last line: "For an amateur, this gentleman is really extraordinarily talented."
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LibraryThing member deebee1
during world war II, passengers on a ship en route to Argentina discover that on board with them is a world chess champion. he is taciturn, haughty, and unfriendly but for a price, allowed himself to be challenged to a game against a wealthy passenger and some amateur chess lovers. with nary an
Dr. B, the mysterious man, reveals his identity to the narrator and tells him how he came to possess his extraordinary ability in the game, and the price he had to pay to gain it. therein lies the heart of this short but powerful work -- the resistance as well as the vulnerability of the human mind in the face of extreme ordeal, and how tyranny scars forever those it manages to avoid killing.
spare in prose, the effect is visceral as the intense psychological drama builds up to an almost painful end. stunning and unforgettable, i highly recommend this!
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effort on his part, his opponents lose one game to the next -- that is, until a mysterious passenger spoke up in the middle of one game telling the amateurs what moves they had to make. the game resulted in a draw -- and there the story begins. Dr. B, the mysterious man, reveals his identity to the narrator and tells him how he came to possess his extraordinary ability in the game, and the price he had to pay to gain it. therein lies the heart of this short but powerful work -- the resistance as well as the vulnerability of the human mind in the face of extreme ordeal, and how tyranny scars forever those it manages to avoid killing.
spare in prose, the effect is visceral as the intense psychological drama builds up to an almost painful end. stunning and unforgettable, i highly recommend this!
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LibraryThing member Crazymamie
"But is it not already an insult to call chess anything so narrow as a game? Is it not also a science, an art, hovering between these categories like Mohammad's coffin between heaven and earth, a unique yoking of opposites, ancient and yet eternally new, mechanically constituted and yet an activity
A world champion chess player is among the passengers on a ship traveling from New York to Buenos Aires. One of the passengers hopes to learn more about this enigmatic champion but soon discovers that the only way to observe him up close is to challenge him to a game of chess - for a price of $250 per game. Another passenger is willing to pay the fee and thus the champion, Czentovic, agrees to play against the rest of the passengers - they will be allowed ten minutes to confer for each move. After losing the first game, the passenger team is interrupted during a move in the second game by a mysterious man who appears to be just what they need - a chess master.
Between the second and third games, the narrator of the story learns the backstory of the mysterious man who knows so much about chess. It turns out that he was once a prisoner of the Third Reich. How does he know so much about chess and why is he so hesitant to face the champion alone for the third game?
At a mere 84 pages, this book is small, but its story is not. The writing is beautiful and will draw you in from the very first pages and keep you entranced until the last. I had not read anything by this author before, but I will be reading him again.
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of imagination alone, limited to a fixed geometric area but unlimited in its permutations, constantly evolving and yet sterile, a cogitation producing nothing, a mathematics calculating nothing, an art without an artwork, an architecture without substance and yet demonstrably more durable in its essence and actual form than all books and works, the only game that belongs to all peoples and all eras, while no one knows what god put it on earth to deaden boredom, sharpen the mind, and fortify the spirit?"A world champion chess player is among the passengers on a ship traveling from New York to Buenos Aires. One of the passengers hopes to learn more about this enigmatic champion but soon discovers that the only way to observe him up close is to challenge him to a game of chess - for a price of $250 per game. Another passenger is willing to pay the fee and thus the champion, Czentovic, agrees to play against the rest of the passengers - they will be allowed ten minutes to confer for each move. After losing the first game, the passenger team is interrupted during a move in the second game by a mysterious man who appears to be just what they need - a chess master.
Between the second and third games, the narrator of the story learns the backstory of the mysterious man who knows so much about chess. It turns out that he was once a prisoner of the Third Reich. How does he know so much about chess and why is he so hesitant to face the champion alone for the third game?
At a mere 84 pages, this book is small, but its story is not. The writing is beautiful and will draw you in from the very first pages and keep you entranced until the last. I had not read anything by this author before, but I will be reading him again.
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LibraryThing member gbill
Beware ‘chess poisoning’! :)
This is a strong novella which starts with those on a cruise ship to Buenos Aires recognizing that the world chess champion is on board, and the narrator so curious to talk to him that he lures him into a game of chess. Zweig does a great job of painting an
This is a strong novella which starts with those on a cruise ship to Buenos Aires recognizing that the world chess champion is on board, and the narrator so curious to talk to him that he lures him into a game of chess. Zweig does a great job of painting an
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interesting portrait of this champion, who is not all that bright in other aspects of life, but is somehow a prodigy in chess. He then completely surprised me with the background of another person on board who begins playing him, but I won’t say anything more. There is a mania to the story, the mania perhaps necessary to excel in such a cerebral game. Aside from an interesting little story, it probes what genius is made of, and how it can be flawed. It’s interesting that it was written the year before Zweig committed suicide, after he had fled Hitler, and it seems to underscore his own mental torture, and ultimate resignation. Show Less
LibraryThing member japaul22
This is a short novella about two chess masters who meet on a boat and play each other. One is the world champion of chess and has come from an obscure upbringing. It was discovered in his teenage years that though he had seemingly no other talents or intellectual capacity, he was a master at
The comparison between these two men and their road to chess is interesting and thoughtfully written. I read this book in an hour and want to read more. There were many layers to the story and writing that keep it very interesting and make you keep pondering the story after finishing. I'm intrigued by Stefan Zweig.
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chess. The other player learned chess in a cell where he was being held and interrogated by the Nazis. He is unknown to the chess world. The comparison between these two men and their road to chess is interesting and thoughtfully written. I read this book in an hour and want to read more. There were many layers to the story and writing that keep it very interesting and make you keep pondering the story after finishing. I'm intrigued by Stefan Zweig.
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LibraryThing member LizaHa
This book kind of makes you go, oh shit man! So if you like that kind of thing, I would guess you might like it. It is very suspenseful and mysterious and WEIGHTY. The central action is around a match-off between two characters one of whom (peasant, generally dull but sly like a fox!) is a chess
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master but can only play with the physical pieces in front of him for some weird idiot-savant reason. The other (relic of the currently-being-decimated European aristocracy, sensitive, cultured, anxious, tortured) has (for HORRIFIC reasons) only played chess in his own mind, against himself, and never on an actual board against another opponent. Look out when these two face off, because it might be an allegory or something. Anyway, I actually really liked this book. I'll probably regret saying this when I'm not drunk, but it is kind of like The Magic Mountain if that were more of a thriller. Show Less
LibraryThing member Deinonychus
This is short. Very short: I read it in about an hour. Yet Zweig packs the story with detail without revealing too much, and keeps the suspense flowing right until the end. The story is set on a liner, making a journey from New York to Buenos Aires, and runs at a fast pace from the start. The
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protraits of the two main characters are sketched in detail building up to the climactic encounter between them at the end of the book. These two character sketches are no mere interludes, though, and form in many ways the meat of the work, particularly the second, in which the enigmatically named Dr. B recounts his history to the narrator. The tension and psychological dramas built up in this way provide the impetus for the final scene and a brilliant ending for the work as a whole Show Less
LibraryThing member HadriantheBlind
A little piece of brain candy. There's some shadowy allegory of fascism and totalitarianism in here, although the mental drama and the battlefields of chess are exciting reads.
LibraryThing member BayardUS
I read this and Kawabata's The Master of Go back-to-back, and was very happy that I did. Both deal with the psychological effects of obsessing over complex boardgames, and explore a central character whose life has been consumed by such obsession. Despite the fact that Chess Story takes a fictional
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approach, while Kawabata's book is based on an actual person, there were many parallels between the two works, and each highlighted aspects of the other that otherwise I might have missed. While both books on their own are probably only worth three stars, the resonance created by reading them one after the other magnified my enjoyment so much that I'm giving both four stars. Show Less
LibraryThing member DeltaQueen50
The novella Chess Story was Stefan Zweig’s last piece of work, written in Brazil and sent to his publisher only days before he and his wife committed suicide in 1942. This is the only story in which Zweig looks at Nazism.
Travellers on a ship from New York to Buenos Aires find that a fellow
In 1938 the Nazis had taken over Austria, Zweig’s home country forcing him into exile and by using chess as a metaphor for political oppression, Zweig expresses his opinion of fascism and the war on freedom that was currently raging in Europe. It is also obvious from the story that Zweig wasn’t confident of the outcome and although the connection is rather oblique, his true feelings of despair were more openly expressed by his and his wife’s suicides.
Travellers on a ship from New York to Buenos Aires find that a fellow
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passenger is the world champion of chess. He is an arrogant and unfriendly man. The passengers band together to try their chess skills against him and are soundly beaten. Then a mysterious passenger steps forward to advise them and the tables are turned. He reveals how he came into his chess knowledge to the narrator and it turns out he was held prisoner in total isolation by the Nazis but did manage to steal a book about chess and he memorized 150 master chess games. Unfortunately the isolation and the chess drove him mad so he could not manage more than one game against the chess master.In 1938 the Nazis had taken over Austria, Zweig’s home country forcing him into exile and by using chess as a metaphor for political oppression, Zweig expresses his opinion of fascism and the war on freedom that was currently raging in Europe. It is also obvious from the story that Zweig wasn’t confident of the outcome and although the connection is rather oblique, his true feelings of despair were more openly expressed by his and his wife’s suicides.
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LibraryThing member nosajeel
The entire action of this brief, taut novella takes place over the course of a few days a cruise ship from New York to Buenos Aires. Ultimately, it portrays the battle of two very different types of character and genius facing off against each other in a game of chess.
The first to be introduced is
At first he is playing against a collections of passengers from the ship, when a mysterious man comes along who helps them fight to a draw. The mystery is deepened when the man states that he has not played chess for twenty years and even then was a mediocre player. Eventually his story comes out, but suffice it to say that it entails becoming increasingly focused on visualizing chess games without the help of a board or pieces--a deeply cerebral approach that is the opposite of the more crude and natural style of the Slavonian player.
Eventually the two of them meet for a solo match and the book depicts a fascinating and respectful clash between these two titans.
An underappreciated modern classic.
The first to be introduced is
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a wily Slavonian peasant who was discovered as an instant and natural chess genius when he completed a game left by a priest despite never having been taught anything. He is mostly focused on playing chess for money and, secondarily, glory and despite being defeating all of the world's champions cannot play blind chess--he needs to see the actual pieces.At first he is playing against a collections of passengers from the ship, when a mysterious man comes along who helps them fight to a draw. The mystery is deepened when the man states that he has not played chess for twenty years and even then was a mediocre player. Eventually his story comes out, but suffice it to say that it entails becoming increasingly focused on visualizing chess games without the help of a board or pieces--a deeply cerebral approach that is the opposite of the more crude and natural style of the Slavonian player.
Eventually the two of them meet for a solo match and the book depicts a fascinating and respectful clash between these two titans.
An underappreciated modern classic.
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LibraryThing member DeusXMachina
This little novella is a lot of things - a study of torture and PTSD, a confrontation between very different characters with a shared interest, a masterpiece of prose. Two masters of chess meet each other, and although one of them - the Austrian Dr. B who achieved his mastery by studying famous
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matches in order to deal with his solitary confinement - gets much more page time, these characters have some striking similarities in the way they're damaged and are unable to function well in society. How obsessed does one have to be to achieve that kind of mastery, what is lost during the process, and how aware can one be of this loss? Not much is happening in this story, and still it's an amazing read. Show Less
LibraryThing member freelancer_frank
This is a book about totalitarianism, strategy and the control of the mind. The story is plotted like a game of chess, with moves and counter moves, resolving into a formal check mate. It is a tale of high melodrama on the high seas. The idea of chess itself does not fare well in the story - it is
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portrayed as a somewhat pointless source of madness and escape that even the most dull human being can grasp.The book is full of sharp, incisive ideas. Show Less
LibraryThing member janerawoof
Powerful psychological novella about a man, Dr. B. and the nature of obsession or mania. The action takes place on board a ship heading for Buenos Aires. Dr. B. plays two games against a savant, a world chess champion, Mirko Czentovic. Dr. B. hasn't played chess for 20-25 years. Aires, Dr. B. tells
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his story to the unnamed narrator when the narrator has cornered him on deck. The tension was exquisite and this novella was a masterpiece of short fiction. I am no chess player [or a very bad one] but I feel anyone can enjoy this story. Show Less
LibraryThing member fuzzy_patters
I would rather not go into too many details about the book because I would hate to ruin it for someone else. I will merely say that it is a meandering psychological story, reminiscent of Dostoevsky, that pits two brilliant foes against each other in a game of chess.
Zweig uses the back stories of
Zweig uses the back stories of
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these two foes as a metaphor for his overall theme that the infinite can best be discovered by one who limits himself. This theme is also carried out through the chess board itself, which has just sixty-four squares and sixteen pieces, but has infinite permutations. Show Less
LibraryThing member Berly
This one was snagged from Kidzdoc’s thread (Darryl) and sent to me by Stasia for Mark’s Christmas Secret Santa book swap. I loved it!! Thanks guys. : )
This is a very short story (84 pages), but the story is big. Two chess champions meet on a boat. They have wildly differing stories as to how
An excerpt of Zweig's description of chess: "...mechanically constituted and yet an activity of the imagination alone, limited to a fixed geometric area but unlimited in its permutations, constantly evolving and yet sterile, a cogitation producing nothing, a mathematics calculating nothing, an art without an artwork...and yet demonstrably more durable in its essence and actual form than all books and works, the only game that belongs to all people and eras, while no one knows what god put it on earth to deaden boredom, sharpen the mind, and fortify the spirit?"
And one more: "And that was exactly what they wanted--that I should go on gagging on my thoughts until I choked on them and had no choice but to spit them out, to inform, to tell everything, to finally hand over the evidence and the people they wanted."
This is a very short story (84 pages), but the story is big. Two chess champions meet on a boat. They have wildly differing stories as to how
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they became masters of the game. One is the World Champion and the other an unknown. Their histories come to light through the voice of a secondary narrator. One tale involves the holocaust under Hitler. This is not a tale of violence, but rather of psychology. In fact, Zweig was a huge fan of Freud (and vice versa) so this comes as no surprise. Zweig writes beautifully: I love his sentence construction, word choice, and narrator point of view. I longed to follow one of the characters past the ending of the book! I am so taken with this author that I need to find "Twenty-Four Hours in the Life of a Woman", one that Freud called a “little masterpiece.” Highly recommended.An excerpt of Zweig's description of chess: "...mechanically constituted and yet an activity of the imagination alone, limited to a fixed geometric area but unlimited in its permutations, constantly evolving and yet sterile, a cogitation producing nothing, a mathematics calculating nothing, an art without an artwork...and yet demonstrably more durable in its essence and actual form than all books and works, the only game that belongs to all people and eras, while no one knows what god put it on earth to deaden boredom, sharpen the mind, and fortify the spirit?"
And one more: "And that was exactly what they wanted--that I should go on gagging on my thoughts until I choked on them and had no choice but to spit them out, to inform, to tell everything, to finally hand over the evidence and the people they wanted."
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LibraryThing member jasonlf
The entire action of this brief, taut novella takes place over the course of a few days a cruise ship from New York to Buenos Aires. Ultimately, it portrays the battle of two very different types of character and genius facing off against each other in a game of chess.
The first to be introduced is
At first he is playing against a collections of passengers from the ship, when a mysterious man comes along who helps them fight to a draw. The mystery is deepened when the man states that he has not played chess for twenty years and even then was a mediocre player. Eventually his story comes out, but suffice it to say that it entails becoming increasingly focused on visualizing chess games without the help of a board or pieces--a deeply cerebral approach that is the opposite of the more crude and natural style of the Slavonian player.
Eventually the two of them meet for a solo match and the book depicts a fascinating and respectful clash between these two titans.
An underappreciated modern classic.
The first to be introduced is
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a wily Slavonian peasant who was discovered as an instant and natural chess genius when he completed a game left by a priest despite never having been taught anything. He is mostly focused on playing chess for money and, secondarily, glory and despite being defeating all of the world's champions cannot play blind chess--he needs to see the actual pieces.At first he is playing against a collections of passengers from the ship, when a mysterious man comes along who helps them fight to a draw. The mystery is deepened when the man states that he has not played chess for twenty years and even then was a mediocre player. Eventually his story comes out, but suffice it to say that it entails becoming increasingly focused on visualizing chess games without the help of a board or pieces--a deeply cerebral approach that is the opposite of the more crude and natural style of the Slavonian player.
Eventually the two of them meet for a solo match and the book depicts a fascinating and respectful clash between these two titans.
An underappreciated modern classic.
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LibraryThing member RajivC
This is a fascinating book. It starts off innocently enough with a description of the Chess champion. It starts innocently enough with a description of the first game, and the history of the bystander. Then, when the duel between the champion and the bystander starts, the book gets really
The mental duel has been described brilliantly, and the manner in which the champion wears down his opponent is brilliant. The moves that his opponent studied while in jail are brilliant in their execution, yet theoretical knowledge cannot by itself compete with mental toughness and mind games of the real world.
The book captures the tension and the ultimate breakdown brilliantly.
Highly recommended
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fascinatingThe mental duel has been described brilliantly, and the manner in which the champion wears down his opponent is brilliant. The moves that his opponent studied while in jail are brilliant in their execution, yet theoretical knowledge cannot by itself compete with mental toughness and mind games of the real world.
The book captures the tension and the ultimate breakdown brilliantly.
Highly recommended
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LibraryThing member MSarki
A quick read and one that is riveting from the get-go. Zweig can certainly relate a good story. His tone, always for me, is one as if a very close and trusted friend is sitting in a chair in front of me and letting me into something important I may not have known or heard of lately. Quite a talent.
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I read a different translation than this book, a collection of his shorter works, and titled The Royal Game. Show Less
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1943
ISBN
3596215226 / 9783596215225