A Chess Story - Stefan Zweig

Author: Stefan Zweig 

Books Name: A Chess Story

Stefan Zweig’s novella Chess is also a farewell note. In February 1942, a short while after he had finished the novella, Zweig, who was born in Austria but at that time lived in exile in Brazil, committed a double suicide with his wife Lotte. He did not live to see the success of the book. It was translated into several languages, sold millions of copies, and is considered as one of the best literary representations of chess. But the novella still causes ambiguous feelings. Though it is easy to see why it is so popular. It is the only story in which Zweig looks at Nazism, and he does so with characteristic emphasis on the psychological. Zweig once again demonstrates his great art of tightening a tale, and the reader breathlessly follows the fate of Dr. B., the main character of the Chess novella: the Nazis torture him with solitary confinement, he flees into the world of chess, playing thousands of games against himself, falls mad, is released, and on the ship that is to bring him into exile he encounters chess world champion Mirko Czentovic – and plays against him to check whether he can play real chess.

Travelers by ship from New York to Buenos Aires find that on board with them is the world champion of chess, an arrogant and unfriendly man. They come together to try their skills against him and are soundly defeated. Then a mysterious passenger steps forward to advise them and their fortunes change. A moving portrait of one man's madness. A Chess Story is a searing examination of the power of the mind and the evil it can do. How he came to possess his extraordinary grasp of the game of chess and at what cost lie at the heart of Zweig's story.

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Prepared by: Duygu Söbe