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Chess

by Stefan Zweig, Anthea Bell (translator)

4.21 of 5 stars 4.21 · rating details · 5,512 ratings · 284 reviews

On a cruiseship bound for Buenos Aires, a wealthy passenger challenges the world chess champion to a match. He accepts with a sneer. He will beat anyone, he says. But only if the stakes are high. Soon, the chess board is surrounded. At first, the challenger crumbles before the mind of the master. But then, a soft-spoken voice from the crowd begins to whisper nervous sugges...more

Paperback, Penguin Red Classic, 76 pages

Published 2006 by Penguin Books (first published 1941)

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Feb 20, 2013 s.penkevich rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to s.penkevich by: The review titled 'If suicidal, don't read this'

Shelves: europe, austrian, americana, crush-yo-soul

‘The more one limits oneself, the closer one is to the infinite; these people, as unworldly as they seem, burrow like termites into their own particular material to construct, in miniature, a strange and utterly individual image of the world.’

Chess, the ‘Royal Game’, ‘regally eschews the tyranny of chance and awards its palms of victory only to the intellect, or rather to a certain type of intellectual gift.’ Stefan Zweig plunges the reader into this cold, calculating world through a simple prem...more

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Apr 30, 2013 Richard rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Chess Story, also known as The Royal Game, is the Austrian master Stefan Zweig's final achievement, completed in Brazilian exile and sent off to his American publisher only days before his suicide in 1942. It is the only story in which Zweig looks at Nazism, and he does so with characteristic emphasis on the psychological.

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...more Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Chess Story, also known as The Royal Game, is the Austrian master Stefan Zweig's final achievement, completed in Brazilian exile and sent off to his American publisher only days before his suicide in 1942. It is the only story in which Zweig looks at Nazism, and he does so with characteristic emphasis on the psychological.

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. 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.

This new translation of Chess Story brings out the work's unusual mixture of high suspense and poignant reflection.

My Review: 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. 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.

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.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.(less)

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Jul 07, 2012 Lee rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A flowing, engaging, gripping, hefty, accessible, masterful novella. Effortless/seamless old-timey Austrian structure: a narrator tells a story that includes someone's third-person account about one major character and a longish first-person account by another major character. The two chess players are well drawn and absolutely differentiated: one's a stoic idiot-savant peasant, the other's an anxious intellectual from a highly regarded Viennese family. Really worth spending the hour or so it ta...more

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Sep 02, 2008 Eddie Watkins rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

If this weren't so short and breezy I might've given it 5 stars. Almost anything I could say about this would be giving something away, and with a work so short I wouldn't want to diminish any of the many pleasures available to a reader of this book.

But I will say there's a very interesting contrast set up between the two main characters, one of whom is seemingly autistic and can only understand what he can lay his actual hands on, while the other excels in understanding pure products of the min...more

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Mar 24, 2013 Aubrey rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nyrb-classic, translated, 1001-06-12, german, on-hand, reviewed, 5-star, cross-my-heart-and-hope-to-die

Yet how difficult, how impossible it is to imagine the life of an intellectually active person who reduces the world to a shuttle between black and white, who seeks fulfillment in a mere to-and-fro, forward-and-back of thirty-two pieces, someone for whom a new opening that allows the knight to be advanced instead of the pawn is in itself a great accomplished and a meager little piece of immortality in a corner of a chess book— someone, someone with a brain in his head, who, without going mad, c

...more

Yet how difficult, how impossible it is to imagine the life of an intellectually active person who reduces the world to a shuttle between black and white, who seeks fulfillment in a mere to-and-fro, forward-and-back of thirty-two pieces, someone for whom a new opening that allows the knight to be advanced instead of the pawn is in itself a great accomplished and a meager little piece of immortality in a corner of a chess book— someone, someone with a brain in his head, who, without going mad, continues over and over for ten, twenty, thirty, forty years to devote all the force of his thought to the ridiculous end of cornering a wooden king on a wooden board!

If I were kind, Reader, I would leave you with only this quote, and let you discover this piece of literature on your own with a minimum of preconceptions. If I were cruel, I would do the same.

I am not used to novellas. I am not used to speeding up at twenty pages, reaching a breakneck pace at forty, and before the one hundred mark is reached running right off the rails, thoughts not yet having caught up to and corralled the words leaving shreds of my mind in their wake. It is frightening, Reader, to lift your gaze from the last pages of a wisp of a book and finding your heart beating at a madcap dash beneath your breast. And yet, I would not have missed the thrill for the world.

What is worse, Reader? The Void, or the Object? The lack of a single point to focus on, or the focusing on a single point forevermore? The wandering ship bereft of a single beacon to direct it on its course, or the pyre luring immortal souls into eternal immolation? A healthy Mind cannot stand either, but the latter makes for a lengthier disintegration.

And if the point is a game? A game requires two participants, and the Mind is only one. It knows this, and it will pace and it will fret. For it is either the game, or the Void. But how does a Mind combat itself? By splitting, of course. And then the switch. One reality, than the other, until practice makes perfect and the game shrinks into an infitesimal moment in an infinity of time and the spinning Ouroboros of thought is well satiated.

But this holds only so long as true Reality is kept far away from this abstract field of purely mental exertion. For Reality is so slow, and the Mind is so hungry. For it, there is no longer any Time to waste.

Chess does have its blessings. Thirty-two pieces, a concrete structure, and so many rules of play! Much like this writing of ours, with its twenty-six letters and smattering of punctuation marks and tried and true methodologies. Both require a certain level of obsession and mental meiosis and disconnection from reality, but hey, it's better than having nothing. Right?(less)

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Jan 22, 2009 David rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2009

In this well-crafted short novella (at 64 pages, you'll read it in a couple of hours), Zweig explores the mental state of a man incarcerated by the Nazis and subjected to psychological torture. The acuity with which he does this makes his subsequent suicide (together with his wife, in 1942, exiled in Brazil) all the more disturbing.

(first read in German, sometime in the 1980s; reread in English, January 2009)

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Dec 09, 2012 Quang Khuê rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

Kỳ thủ thực ra là một truyện ngắn của Stefan Zweig. Nó không đủ dài để tạo nên một thiên tiểu thuyết, nhưng đủ ý nghĩa để đứng một mình, bên cạnh những cuốn sách mỏng dày đủ kiểu khác của thời đại. Nó cũng khá quyến rũ để không bị kẻ khác ngó lơ, nhưng vẫn giữ chút kín đáo để không làm ai bội thực vì nghiến ngấu. Đơn giản đó là một cuốn sách vừa đủ.

Tất nhiên cuốn sách nói về chuyện chơi cờ, chuyện về một gã thiểu năng trí tuệ nhưng biết cách điều binh khiển tướng vi diệu, chuyện một luật sư với...more Kỳ thủ thực ra là một truyện ngắn của Stefan Zweig. Nó không đủ dài để tạo nên một thiên tiểu thuyết, nhưng đủ ý nghĩa để đứng một mình, bên cạnh những cuốn sách mỏng dày đủ kiểu khác của thời đại. Nó cũng khá quyến rũ để không bị kẻ khác ngó lơ, nhưng vẫn giữ chút kín đáo để không làm ai bội thực vì nghiến ngấu. Đơn giản đó là một cuốn sách vừa đủ.

Tất nhiên cuốn sách nói về chuyện chơi cờ, chuyện về một gã thiểu năng trí tuệ nhưng biết cách điều binh khiển tướng vi diệu, chuyện một luật sư với quá khứ đau buồn. Cả hai nhân vật đều xoay quanh những nước cờ của mình. Điểm mấu chốt ở đây là chuyện cả hai đều gắn bó với cờ vua như một lẽ tất yếu. Nghĩa là như chẳng còn được quyền lựa chọn nữa, cờ vua chọn họ, một kẻ nó trao cho món quà, kẻ khác nó làm cho rồ dại và hóa điên. Kịch tính hơn nữa (phải, cuốn sách này đầy những kịch tính) chính là khi hai con người đó gặp nhau trên chiến trường quen thuộc của họ: một bàn cờ. Nhiêu đó thôi là đủ để Stefan chạy nên câu chuyện của mình một cách trơn tru và trọn vẹn.

Cuốn sách còn một chỗ hay ho khác. Đó là việc bạn chẳng cần phải biết quá nhiều về cờ vua, hay những thứ đại loại vậy để có thể thưởng thức hoàn toàn. Cờ vua ở đây là một yếu tố bù đắp cho hai nhân vật mất mát cô đơn của chúng ta. Những ván cờ luôn đầy dẫy thắng thua nhưng không nhằm phán xét họ. Nơi đó là một giao thoa trong trẻo nhưng đầy thách thức để họ bộc lộ những ham muốn, cá tính, và cả một quá khứ không mấy dễ chịu. Những ván cờ, vừa là một cỗ máy chết chóc đầy tử khí, vừa là một chốn an bình, đôi khi lẫn lộn cả hai. Cách mà hai con người đó hành động trên một ván đầu cũng là một điều thú vị. Một kẻ với trí tuệ thiểu năng bỗng chốc trở nên đĩnh đạc, tự tin và lạnh lùng. Kẻ khác với đầu óc mẫn tiệp lại gần như điên dại, bốc đồng và tràn trề phấn khích. Cuộc đối đầu vì vậy dường như tách hẳn ra khỏi cuộc sống thực. Họ như sống trong một chiều kích không gian khác, được qui định bởi những dãy ô đen trắng.

Nhưng một nửa không gian của cuốn sách không dành cho những ván đấu, mà là cho cuộc đời của hai nhân vật. Sự đối lập giữa họ là thứ đáng để lưu tâm. Nhưng không đáng lưu tâm bằng những tình huống mà họ đã gặp phải. Mỗi người đều có những khiếm khuyết nào đó đặc biệt trong cuộc đời. Và cuộc đấu sau này của họ, bỏ qua chuyện cạnh tranh khốc liệt, là việc phô bày ra chính những khiếm khuyết đó. Họ, một kẻ muốn khẳng định mình mãnh liệt, nhằm che giấu những hỏng hóc về trí tuệ thông thường, một kẻ luôn theo đuổi sự quên để từ bỏ quá khứ đau đớn, ai sẽ là người trụ lại cuối cùng trên ván cờ ?

Cuộc đời có thể giống như một ván cờ. Vâng, điều đó thì ai cũng nói được. Nhưng một ván cờ thì không có quá khứ, cũng chẳng hề có tương lại. Sáu mươi tư ô đen trắng là đủ chỗ cho một kết cục thắng bại, được mất. Thế nên kẻ chiến thắng thường là kẻ biết co cụm lại, một cách bản năng nhất trong giới hạn của chính trò chơi. Nhưng đã là một trò chơi thì có quan trọng lắm hay không chuyện thắng thua ? Tất nhiên, đó cũng lại là một câu hỏi nữa mà ai cũng có thể nghĩ tới.

Chỉ duy nhất những ô đen trắng của bàn cờ là luôn bình thản, với một cái nhếch mép ngạo nghễ và lạnh lùng.(less)

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Aug 06, 2011 Alex rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

1. Memorable 5
2. Social Relevance 5
3. Informative 2
4. Originality 5
5. Thought Provoking 5
6. Expressiveness 5
7. Entertaining 4
8. Visualization 1
9. Sparks Emotion 3
10. Life Changing (Pivotal, crucial, determining, defining, momentous, fateful, consequential, climacteric, transformational) 1

5, 5, 2, 5, 5, 5, 4, 1, 3, 1 ====> 36/10 = 3.6

http://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/51...

Мирко Чентович (Mirko Chentovich), as described in "Chess Story", would be called nowadays "autistic" - or so called "righ...more

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Alex Here is some idea / thoughts on writing the novella dedicated to last days of Stefan Zweig (Inspired by Zweig's Chess Story )

One very talented Western...more
Aug 06, 2011 06:07pm

s.penkevich Fantastic review. I'm blown away.
Feb 16, 2013 05:47pm

Sep 12, 2011 Yann rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: germanie

Efficace. C'est avec ce livre que j'ai réellement commencé à lire.

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Nov 13, 2009 Reinhold rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: belletristik, the-very-best

Stefan Zweigs Werk gehört aus meiner Sicht zu den besten literarischen Werken die jemals geschaffen wurden. Nur wenige Bücher reichen an dieses heran. Es stellt eine wunderbare Parabel dar und ist in unglaublich schöner und geschliffener Sprache gefasst. Dieses Werk muss keinen Vergleich scheuen, ist es doch ein sprachliches, stilistisches und inhaltliches Meisterwerk - ein Juwel wie man es nur selten findet.

Auf einer Schiffsreise trifft der Icherzähler auf zwei Schachgenies von unterschiedliche...more Stefan Zweigs Werk gehört aus meiner Sicht zu den besten literarischen Werken die jemals geschaffen wurden. Nur wenige Bücher reichen an dieses heran. Es stellt eine wunderbare Parabel dar und ist in unglaublich schöner und geschliffener Sprache gefasst. Dieses Werk muss keinen Vergleich scheuen, ist es doch ein sprachliches, stilistisches und inhaltliches Meisterwerk - ein Juwel wie man es nur selten findet.

Auf einer Schiffsreise trifft der Icherzähler auf zwei Schachgenies von unterschiedlicher Prägung, wie sie extremer nicht sein könnte. Der eine - Czentovic - ist der aktuelle Schachweltmeister. Ein absoluter Fachidiot, ein ungebildeter funktioneller Analphabet der nichts als Schachspielen kann. Er definiert sich ausschließlich über diese Fähigkeit, hält sich für den wichtigsten Menschen der je geboren wurde, ist dementsprechend präpotent und herablassend. Der andere - Dr. B. - ist ein Feingeist, ein liebenswerter Mensch, der aus politischen Gründen psychisch zu Grunde gerichtet wurde. Die beiden Personen werden in Subplots dem Leser näher gebracht. Insbesondere legt Zweig Wert auf die Geschichte des Dr. B. der von der Gestapo in einem Hotelzimmer in Einzelhaft genommen wurde und zufällig ein Buch mit Schachpartien in die Hand bekam. Dieses Buch rettete ihm über einige Zeit seine geistige Gesundheit, indem er begann die Partien im Kopf nachzuspielen, um wenigstens etwas tun zu können. Letztlich aber war sein Verfall unaufhaltsam und so wurde nach einem Nervenzusammenbruch entlassen. Diesen Zustand beschreibt er selbst als "Schachvergiftung". Auf dem Schiff treffen diese beiden Giganten aufeinander und Dr. B. gelingt es Czentovic zu besiegen. Bei der Revanchepartie jedoch fällt er in seine "Schachvergiftung" zurück.

Der Roman ist Zweigs literarisches Testament und hat daher auch große politisch-philosophische Aussage. Der Fachidiot Czentovic stellt das das von Zweig gezeichnete menschliche Ebenbild des puren Materialisten dar, dessen Ausgeburten letztlich Faschismus und Marxismus sind. Dr. B. andererseits steht für den aufgeklärten aber sozial orientierten Feingeist. In der Parabel gibt Zweig den Kampf verloren. Der Feingeist ist dem Materialisten unterlegen. "Die Schachnovelle" als Abschiedsbrief Stefan Zweigs zu bezeichnen ist nicht so verwegen, wie es zunächst klingen mag - beging er doch bald nach Fertigstellung des Werkes gemeinsam mit seiner Frau Selbstmord; er glaubte der deutsche Faschismus, vor dem er geflüchtet war, wäre nicht mehr aufzuhalten.

Sprachlich liegt ein großartiges Werk zur Besprechung vor. Zweigs Sätze fordern darin einzutauchen, ihrem wunderbaren Klang zu lauschen. Man möchte sie stundenlang betrachten und genießen. Stilistisch ist die Novelle sehr gut aufgebaut. Die beiden Subplots geben dem kurzen Büchlein zusätzliche Tiefe und erfüllen das Buch erst wirklich mit Leben; stünde die Geschichte auf dem Schiff alleine, wäre sie allzu trivial. Die Personen des Buches sind absolut glaubhaft gezeichnet und haben einen Tiefgang wie er nur von wenigen Autoren wiedergegeben werden kann.

Dieses Buch muss man einfach gelesen haben und es gibt keine Ausrede warum man das Lesen auf morgen verschieben sollte. Ich selbst habe den Fehler gemacht und habe es Jahre lang vor mir hergeschoben. Dabei erreicht man in zwei Stunden kurzweiligster Unterhaltung einen Gewinn für das ganze Leben. Ein Werk das man niemals vergessen wird und das man immer wieder zur Hand nehmen muss. Alle Amazon-Sterne dieser Welt reichen nicht, um es korrekt zu bewerten. Ein weiterer Beweis dafür, dass wirklich große Literatur nicht einer großen Seitenzahl bedarf. (less)

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Apr 05, 2008 Nora Dillonovich rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Chess... Nazis, excellent narration. This is a zippy little read. I wanted to play chess ten pages in and I don't really know how to play chess. i can play checkers... chinese checkers. I am medium at mah jong. But chess? Ech oh! It has been so long- but while reading I could see myself taking a rook and moving it to g-8! Though I know not where g-8 is on that 64 checkered square, nor can I honestly say I even know what a rook looks like. A pawn, a king, a queen- I recognize. The rooks- the hors...more

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Feb 24, 2008 Martine rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: continental-european, modern-fiction, psychological-drama, war, novellas

I tend not to care overly much for short stories and novellas, but this 100-page Austrian novella from 1942 is a classic, and deservedly so. A taut psychological drama, it tells the story of a short series of chess matches taking place on board a cruiseship. One of the passengers on board the ship is Mirko Czentovic, the world chess champion. Another is a millionaire who offers Czentovic good money for a match. Needless to say, the millionaire is about to get defeated handsomely when a mysteriou...more

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Jan 21, 2012 Ryan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Chess is a short novella by Stefan Zweig that describes a prisoner of war endlessly replaying chess with himself to pass the time. The concept is developed as well as it could be for a story of this length, but the amount of description of the character's past pushes most of the narrative to the sides, which feel rather empty in the beginning and abrupt in the end. Certainly not a bad story, and likely more enjoyable in the original language.

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Nov 17, 2011 Duesterwald-Online rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: belle-Österreich

Inhalt:
Man befindet sich auf einem Schiff nach New York von Buenos Aires.
Der Ich-Erzähler der Geschichte sucht Kontakt zum arroganten Schachweltmeister Mirko Czentovic. Dieser erklärt sich bereits gegen alle Hobbyspieler gemeinsam eine Partie zu spielen. Man glaubt das Spiel ist verloren, bis ein Dr. B. eingreift und ein Remis heraus holt.
Nun will der Ich-Erzähler mehr über diesen geheimnisvollen Spieler erfahren.

Meinung:
Die Schachnovelle ist bis heute häufig noch Pflichtlektüre in der Schule...more

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Apr 16, 2013 Cam'Ron Asgari'an rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In the movie 'A Dangerous Method' Carl Jung is portrayed as a brilliant psychologist but completely inept in social situations (other than philandering). This is most notable when he treats Freud like a second-class citizen on the boat to America, calmly telling him that he has reserved an upstairs compartment while Freud languishes in coach.

The narrator of Chess Story is just as offensively oblivious. He's also racist and belittling to everyone around him. He talks like a psychologist, noting h...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Katia added it · review of another edition

J'ai emprunté ce livre au Médiabus, et je l'ai choisi parce que je voulais découvrir cet auteur dont j'avais entendu beaucoup de bien. J'ai beaucoup de chance en ce moment car j'enchaîne les coups de coeur ! Je n'ai tout simplement pas pu le lâcher avant la fin tant l'histoire m'a happée. Et c'est d'autant plus étonnant que je ne suis vraiment pas attirée par les échecs ! Le narrateur nous fait d'abord découvrir Mirko Czentovic, un jeune homme très simple d'esprit, et son ascension fulgurante au...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Jason rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, novella

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 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 c...more

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Sep 01, 2012 Piperitapitta rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autori-austriaci, letteratura-austriaca

Ho sentito la voce di Zweig.

Era imbarcato su una nave passeggeri diretta da New York a Buenos Aires, nel 1942.
Giocava a scacchi con Czentovic, povero contadino slavo, privo di qualsiasi talento, ma campione mondiale di scacchi.
Era seduto sul ponte con il Professor B., austriaco come lui, come lui esule.
Era il Professor B., mentre giocava contro se stesso la partita della vita.
Ho sentito forte la sua voce rimpiangere un mondo che non c'era più, un'epoca svanita sotto i suoi occhi, mentre la folli...more

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Jul 13, 2012 Melies Buchlounge rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

>>Das Unwarscheinliche hatte sich ereignet, der Weltmeister, der Champion zahlloser Tuniere hatte die Fahne gestrichen vor einem Unbekannten, einem Manne, der zwanzig oder fünfundzwanzig Jahre kein Schachbrett angerührt. Unser Freund, der Anonymus, der Ignotus, hatte den stärksten Schachspieler der Erde in offenem Kampf besiegt!<<
Das Erstaunen ist groß, als der unscheinbare Dr. B., österreichischer Emigrant auf einen Passagierdampfer von New York nach Buenos Aires, eher zufällig gege...more >>Das Unwarscheinliche hatte sich ereignet, der Weltmeister, der Champion zahlloser Tuniere hatte die Fahne gestrichen vor einem Unbekannten, einem Manne, der zwanzig oder fünfundzwanzig Jahre kein Schachbrett angerührt. Unser Freund, der Anonymus, der Ignotus, hatte den stärksten Schachspieler der Erde in offenem Kampf besiegt!<<
Das Erstaunen ist groß, als der unscheinbare Dr. B., österreichischer Emigrant auf einen Passagierdampfer von New York nach Buenos Aires, eher zufällig gegen den amtierenden Schachweltmeister Mirko Czentovic antritt und seinen mechanisch routinierten Gegner mit verspielter Leichtigkeit besiegt. Doch das Schachspiel fördert Erinnerungen an den Terror seiner Inhaftierung im Nationalsozialismus zutage und den reißt eine seelische Wunrung im Nationalsozialismus zutage und reißt eine seelische Wunde wieder auf, die erneut Dr. B.s geistige Gesundheit bedroht.

Meine Meinung zum Buch:
Das Buch mussten wir im Deutschunterricht lesen und natülich war fast jeder skeptisch gegen dieses Buch. Am Anfang ist das Buch überhaupt nicht spannend. Man langweilt sich nur beim lesen. Erst als die ersten Schachspiele beginnen steigt die spannung. Als dann Dr. B. in die Geschichte kam und über seine Vergangenheit redet wurde die Geschichte richtig spannend. Es wird richtig gut beschrieben wie Dr. B. in der Gefangenschaft war und man möchte nur eins wissen was weiter mit ihm passiert. Jedenfalls wurde er wegen der Gefangenschaft verrückt und das liest man auch als Dr. B. mit Mirko Czentovic die zweite Schachpartie spielt. Leider muss ich sagen, das das Buch nur für Leser geeignet ist der sich mit Schach ein bisschen auskennt was in meinem Fall ich mich nicht auskenne.

Das Cover:
Finde ich nicht so aufregend jedenfalls weiß man sofort das es in dem Buch um Schach geht.

Die Personen:
Mirko Czentovic: Wurde von einem Pfarrer großgezogen weil sein Vater bei einem Schiffsunglück stirbt. Er ist als kleiner Junge nicht besonders klug gewesen. Erst bei einer Schachpartie mit einem Freund vom Pfarrer kam sein Talent zum vorschau.

McConner: Spielt gegen Czentovic eine Schachpartie. Beim ersten mal spielen gegen ihn verliert er und möchte eine Revanche. Erst beim zweiten Spiel und dank der Hilfe von Dr. B. gelang ihm eine Remis.

Dr. B.: Er ist der genaue gegenstück von Czentovic. Beim erzählen seiner Vergangenheit ist er sehr offen mit dem Ich-Erzähler.

Der Autor:
Stefan Zweig wurde am 28.11.1881 in Wien geboren, lebte von 1919 bis 1934 in Salzburg, emigrierte danach nach England und 1941 über die USA nach Brasilien. Früh als Übersetzter Verlaines, Baudelairs und vor allem Verhaerens hervorgetreten, veröffentlichte er 1901 seine ersten Gedichte unter dem Titel >>Silberne Saiten<<. Sein episches Werk machte ihn ebenso berühmt wie seine historischen Miniaturen und die biographischen Arbeiten. Im Februar 1942 schied er in Petrópolis Brasilien, freiwillig aus dem Leben. Seine Erinnerungen erschienen unter dem Titel >>Die Welt von Gestern<< postum 1944. (less)

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Jul 02, 2012 Nadia rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Etude sur la folie monomaniaque des hommes ... dans le cas présent un joueur d'échec ne vivant que par et pour l'échiquier, un autre personnage cherchant au contraire à ne pas s'en approcher pour éviter de retomber dans son addcition ... l'opposition entre un illettré slave et antipathique ayant appris les echecs par l'observation et celle d'un intellectuel allemand arrêté dans les premières heures du nazisme qui se sauvera de la folie de l'isolement et des interrogatoires en apprenant par coeur...more

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May 25, 2012 Brian rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Coming to Zweig by way of chums Proustitute and Jacob (thank you!) is one of the so many reasons why I love Goodreads. It's possible that I would have come across Zweig at some point in the future, but it's so much better to read him now. Delayed gratification in the world of the written word is a premise I prefer to leave unexplored.

Knowing that this novella was written during the last years of Zweig's life only make the austere, humanistic style of writing more profound. In 1942, Zweig and his...more

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Nov 30, 2011 Maurice Conchis rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

God start hvor vi tager med på et krydstogtskib og fortælleren bliver belært om den store skakmester Mirko Czentovic' opvækst.

Fortælleren vil gerne i kontakt med ham, men da Mirko er sky, arrangerer fortælleren et skakstævne, med blandt andet en millionær. Dette trækker Mirko til, og han afklapser dem let. Indtil en stemme hjælper dem med geniale træk.

Fortælleren snakker med stemmen, som viser sig at have været i Gestapo-hænder tortur, indtil han fik fat på en bog der gennemgik verdens største...more

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Mar 02, 2011 Annabelle rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A short novella by one of the world’s most famous writers of the 1930’s. It is sad to me that Zweig is mainly remembered for committing suicide with his wife in Brazil, after he left Austria during Hitler, then went to the London, the US and Brazil. Published after his death, it is said to be a psychological thriller and it does remind me of Kafka. It is engagingly written and uses the conceit of an observer of the events on a steam ship. A boorish peasant, probably an idion savant is the World’...more

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Apr 02, 2010 Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Mirko Czentovic, at age 20, is the world chess champion. He had humble beginnings, an orphan who was cared for by a priest after his impoverished father, a boatman, died in an accident. At an early age he had shown signs of stupidity. He failed at school, couldn't write sentences in any language without committing mistakes and spoke very little. Then, by accident, his talent for chess was discovered.

Even when he was already world champion his character remained the same. He was still the same "c...more Mirko Czentovic, at age 20, is the world chess champion. He had humble beginnings, an orphan who was cared for by a priest after his impoverished father, a boatman, died in an accident. At an early age he had shown signs of stupidity. He failed at school, couldn't write sentences in any language without committing mistakes and spoke very little. Then, by accident, his talent for chess was discovered.

Even when he was already world champion his character remained the same. He was still the same "complete stranger to the world of the mind, a stolid, taciturn, rustic youth from whom even the wiliest of journalists never succeeded in coaxing a single word that was the least use for publicity purposes." But the novel's narrator, a passenger in a cruiseship bound for Buenos Aires where Mirko Czentovic was also aboard on his way to play at some tournaments in Argentina, still found the latter interesting as he:

"has always been interested in any kind of monomaniac obsessed by a single idea, for the more a man restricts himself the closer he is, conversely, to infinity; characters like this, apparently remote from reality, are like termites using their own material to build a remarkable and unique small-scale version of the world."

During the trip a wealthy passenger manages to persuade the reclusive chess champion to play against him (for a fee of $250 per game). The first game was easily won by Mirko Czentovic. During the second game, a stranger named Dr. B whispered suggested moves and strategies to the businessman, after preventing him from committing a blunder he was about to make, and this led to the game being drawn. This man said he hasn't played chess for more than 20 years. Mirko Czentovic, correctly sensing that this man was the one who thought of those strong saving moves which drew the second game, challenged him (and anybody interested) to a match the next day.

Before the next match, Dr. B told the narrator that he will accept the challenge to play only on condition that it will only be for one game. Then he told the story of how he came to play good chess. I leave something here now for future readers of this novel but suffice it to say here that Dr. B's story is itself interesting but its meaning only came out the next day when he was playing already their second game, after beating the chess champion in their first game.
The author, with this ending, was in his elements as he definitely knew what he was writing about. By the time this book was published in 1944, he and his wife had been dead, having committed double suicide in Petropolis, near Rio de Janeiro, on 23 February 1942. This, after rhetorically asking in this book:

"Is (chess) not also a science and an art, hovering between those categories as Muhammad's coffin hovered between heaven and earth, a unique link between pairs of opposites: ancient yet eternally new; mechanical in structure, yet made effective only by the imagination; limited to a geometrically fixed space, yet with unlimited combinations; constantly developing, yet sterile; thought that leads nowhere; mathematics calculating nothing; art without works of art; architecture without substance--but nonetheless shown to be more durable in its entity and existence than all the books and works of art; the only game that belongs to all nations and all eras, although no one knows what god brought it down to earth to vanquish boredom, sharpen the senses and stretch the mind. Where does it begin and where does it end? Every child can learn its basic rules, every bungler can try his luck at it, yet within that immutable little square it is able to bring forth a particular species of masters who cannot be compared to anyone else, people with a gift solely designed for chess, geniuses in their specific field who unite vision, patience and technique in just the same proportions as do mathematicians, poets, musicians, but in different stratifications and combinations. In the old days of the enthusiasm for physiognomy, a physician like Gall might perhaps have dissected a chess champion's brain to find out whether some particular twist or turn in the grey matter, a kind of chess muscle or chess bump, is more developed in such chess geniuses than in the skulls of other mortals. And how intrigued such a physiognomist would have been by the case of Czentovic, where that specific genius appeared in a setting of absolute intellectual lethargy, like a single vein of gold in a hundredweight of dull stone. In principle, I had always realized that such a unique, brilliant game must create its own matadors, but how difficult and indeed impossible it is to imagine the life of an intellectually active human being whose world is reduced entirely to the narrow one-way traffic between black and white, who seeks the triumphs of his life in the mere movement to and fro, forward and back of thirty-two chessmen, someone to whom a new opening, moving knight rather than pawn, is a great deed, and his little corner of immortality is tucked away in a book about chess--a human being, an intellectual human being who constantly bends the entire force of his mind on the ridiculous task of forcing a wooden king into the corner of a wooden board, and does it without going mad!"

Touche! I'm so glad this novel has been included in the latest updated list of the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die!(less)

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Apr 24, 2013 Jos rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book

Boardgames are my primary hobby and Schachnovelle is the best game -related story I've come across. Although this doesn't say too much as I haven't come across many stories about games and as a further disclaimer, chess is only a metaphor in this novella, not the content itself.

The plot: The narrator is crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Brazil on a passenger ship. By coincidence he's put in the position to arrange an extraordinary chess match between the world champion Centovich, an idiot-savant li...more Boardgames are my primary hobby and Schachnovelle is the best game -related story I've come across. Although this doesn't say too much as I haven't come across many stories about games and as a further disclaimer, chess is only a metaphor in this novella, not the content itself.

The plot: The narrator is crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Brazil on a passenger ship. By coincidence he's put in the position to arrange an extraordinary chess match between the world champion Centovich, an idiot-savant like socially inept son of a simple Serbian ferryman who is inable to visualize chess positions in his mind, and a mysterious passenger, we only get to know by the name Herr von B. who contrary to Centovich primarily plays in his mind.
It turns out, that Herr von B. was an advocate for influential representatives of the church and the former monarchy in Vienna who was internated by the Nazis for months in absolute silence as they wanted to find out where the wealth of his clients is hidden. Only in interrogations his keepers talked to him. During one of these occasions he managed to snag a chess book from the pocket of a guard's coat. First, he was playing through the example games in this book in his mind, while later he started to play against himself. While Chess enabled him to bear his isolation, the schizophrenic games against himself finally were driving him crazy - chess poisoning he calls it himself. He's transferred to the hospital which after his recovery releases him as the Nazis in the meantime have lost interest in any information he could have given them. He's only forced to leave Austria.
Not wanting to spoil the details, he manages to win the first game against Centovich but it becomes clear that he suffered permanent damage and continuing to play chess would destroy his mind.

Schachnovelle is an ode to the power of the human mind and will but at the same time a warning to its limits. It's Zweig's personal statement against National Socialism, which - while not killing him as a Jew - destroyed his mental Heimat as the story of his personal life reveals. Shortly after the publication, he committed suicide together with his second wife in his exile in Brazil. And it's much more beyond this as other readily available interpretations show.(less)

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Apr 19, 2012 BoekenTrol rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: marsala

Recommended to BoekenTrol by: LiniP

Shelves: 1001-listed, bookcrossing_ringbook, english_language, literature_and_fiction, 2012

A fellow bookcrosser's favorite in a roundabout I'm taking part in. Unexpectedly it is also on the 1001-list :-)

I had mixed feelings when I received this book in a ring. Doubted if a book about chess could be interesting at all, knowing from personal experience that watching a chess game when not playing (when not really having a clue about what is going on) is VERY dull.

I must say, that my expectations didn't come true. I liked the book. The reason for that is, that I did not consider it a book...more

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Oct 11, 2011 Roberta rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2009

Sconvolto dall'avvento del nazismo, l'autore di questo breve romanzo cadde in depressione, trasferendosi poi in Brasile dove scrisse questo romanzo breve, pubblicato appena prima del suo suicidio.

Il campione di scacchi Czentovic, una specie di automa privo della scintilla dell'intelligenza, si confronta per puro caso con il devastato Dottor B. uomo intelligente e sensibile ma segnato dalla prigiona a opera dei nazisti, per cui gli scacchi rappresentarono un'ancora di salvezza proprio dalla tort...more

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Dec 20, 2010 Bettie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Bettie by: Laura

Shelves: published-1942, winter-20102011, translation, play-dramatisation, wwii

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 20, 2010 Laura rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Bettie

Shelves: audio-books, contemporary-fiction, read-2010

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Aug 03, 2010 Emir Never rated it 5 of 5 stars

In Christopher Nolan’s mind-blowing film Inception, the characters operate in layers of reality-dream, creative flights and variations that leave one in awe and amazement. In Inception, I thought Nolan was playing chess and having a grand time out of it.

In 1944, Stefan Zweig’s novella Chess (Chess Story in some copies; mine’s a Penguin Books edition) was posthumously published. He committed suicide with his wife in Petropolis, near Rio de Janeiro on February 23, 1942. In 2010, 68 years after Zw...more

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About Stefan Zweig

Stefan Zweig was one of the world's most famous writers during the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the U.S., South America and Europe. He produced novels, plays, biographies and journalist pieces. Among his most famous works are Beware of Pity, Letter from and Unknown Woman and Mary, Queen of Scotland and the Isles. He and his second wife committed suicide in 1942.

Zweig studied in Austria, France,...more

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Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman

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Quotes from Chess Story

“In chess, as a purely intellectual game, where randomness is excluded, - for someone to play against himself is absurd ...
It is as paradoxical, as attempting to jump over his own shadow.” — 15 people liked it

“Besides, isn't it confoundedly easy to think you're a great man if you aren't burdened with the slightest idea that Rembrandt, Beethoven, Dante or Napoleon ever lived?” — 9 people liked it

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