Novella degli scacchi

Di Stefan Zweig

Edizione integrale
Cura e traduzione di Silvia Montis

A bordo di una nave da crociera due contendenti si sfidano alla scacchiera. Da un lato Mirko Czentovič, campione mondiale in carica, rozzo, arrogante e venale; dall’altro l’enigmatico dottor B., colto, elegante e nervoso, dotato di un talento prodigioso e immaginifico...
Due destini lontanissimi e diversamente avvolti dal mistero, due storie affascinanti e distanti che il fato ha portato a convergere sulle 64 caselle bianche e nere, in una partita che non è soltanto un’occasione ludica ma una resa dei conti con la vita. Perché «Non ci si rende già colpevoli di una limitazione offensiva, definendo gli scacchi “un gioco”?». Scritta nel 1941, durante l’esilio brasiliano di Zweig, a pochi mesi dal suicidio, la Novella degli scacchi è considerata il capolavoro dello scrittore austriaco.
Stefan Zweig
(Vienna 1881–Petrópolis 1942) crebbe nella Vienna di fine Ottocento, ed esordì giovanissimo sulla scena letteraria. Autore di raffinata formazione culturale e artistica, scrisse novelle, romanzi, poesie, opere teatrali, saggi letterari e biografie storiche, e conobbe uno straordinario successo mondiale tra gli anni Venti e Trenta. Dopo l’ascesa al potere del nazismo, Zweig – le cui opere furono bruciate nei roghi dei libri del 1933 – dovette rifugiarsi, essendo di origine ebrea, in Inghilterra, poi a New York e infine in Brasile. Morì suicida nel febbraio del 1942. Delle sue opere la Newton Compton ha pubblicato Il mondo di ieri, Ricordi di un europeo, Novella degli scacchi - Paura - Lettera di una sconosciuta e Mendel dei libri - Amok - Bruciante segreto.

• Lingua: Italiano
• Editore: Newton Compton Editori
• Data di uscita: 27 giu 2014
• ISBN: 9788854172128

Stefan Zweig

Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) war ein österreichischer Schriftsteller, dessen Werke für ihre psychologische Raffinesse, emotionale Tiefe und stilistische Brillanz bekannt sind. Er wurde 1881 in Wien in eine jüdische Familie geboren. Seine Kindheit verbrachte er in einem intellektuellen Umfeld, das seine spätere Karriere als Schriftsteller prägte. Zweig zeigte früh eine Begabung für Literatur und begann zu schreiben. Nach seinem Studium der Philosophie, Germanistik und Romanistik an der Universität Wien begann er seine Karriere als Schriftsteller und Journalist. Er reiste durch Europa und pflegte Kontakte zu prominenten zeitgenössischen Schriftstellern und Intellektuellen wie Rainer Maria Rilke, Sigmund Freud, Thomas Mann und James Joyce. Zweigs literarisches Schaffen umfasst Romane, Novellen, Essays, Dramen und Biografien. Zu seinen bekanntesten Werken gehören "Die Welt von Gestern", eine autobiografische Darstellung seiner eigenen Lebensgeschichte und der Zeit vor dem Ersten Weltkrieg, sowie die "Schachnovelle", die die psychologischen Abgründe des menschlichen Geistes beschreibt. Mit dem Aufstieg des Nationalsozialismus in Deutschland wurde Zweig aufgrund seiner Herkunft und seiner liberalen Ansichten zunehmend zur Zielscheibe der Nazis. Er verließ Österreich im Jahr 1934 und lebte in verschiedenen europäischen Ländern, bevor er schließlich ins Exil nach Brasilien emigrierte. Trotz seines Erfolgs und seiner weltweiten Anerkennung litt Zweig unter dem Verlust seiner Heimat und der Zerstörung der europäischen Kultur. 1942 nahm er sich gemeinsam mit seiner Frau Lotte das Leben in Petrópolis, Brasilien. Zweigs literarisches Erbe lebt weiter und sein Werk wird auch heute noch von Lesern auf der ganzen Welt geschätzt und bewundert.

Anteprima del libro

501

Titolo originale:  Schachnovelle

Traduzione di Silvia Montis

Prima edizione ebook: luglio 2014

© 2013. 2014 Newton Compton editori s.r.l.

Roma, Casella postale 6214

ISBN 978-88-541-7212-8

www.newtoncompton.com

Edizione digitale a cura di geco srl

Stefan Zweig

Novella degli scacchi

Cura e traduzione di Silvia Montis

Edizione integrale

Introduzione

Cercai di sapere se Erasmo da Rotterdam fosse

di quel partito. Ma un mercante mi rispose:

«Erasmo est homo pro se».

Epistolae obscurorum virorum,1515

Scrivere sulle valigie, su un treno in corsa, rannicchiati su un predellino in una notte di novembre, nelle orecchie il vento e il fischio della locomotiva. Scrivere in mezzo all’oceano, a bordo di un piroscafo, cullati dal beccheggio della prua che ara le onde come un vomere scuro, inondati dal fiume di luce che si riversa dal cielo dei mari del Sud. La scrittura di Stefan Zweig è anzitutto questo: un movimento. Non nel senso che Zweig fu uno scrittore di viaggio – benché egli sia stato, questo sì, un grande viaggiatore, per passione, per scelta e, verso la fine della sua vita, persino per necessità. Il viaggio nel suo caso si consuma nelle parole, quasi che quel costante essere in transito, quella perenne vibrazione dei sensi si siano trasmessi dalla penna alla pagina. La tessitura narrativa di Zweig – il modo in cui cuce e imbastisce le sue storie, in cui spiega i periodi sulla carta – ha un movimento sinuoso, sensuale, mai prevedibile. Eppure, la sua è una scrittura lucida, cristallina, impietosa, simile a un bisturi sapiente che seziona l’epidermide delle cose.

Tendendo l’orecchio a Freud, si potrebbe pensare che questo processo di dissezionamento proceda in maniera sistematica dalla superficie verso il profondo, scandagliando i confini dell’inconscio. La faccenda in realtà è un po’ più complessa. Perché Zweig – che di Freud fu un grande ammiratore e persino intimo amico – sapeva bene che la superficie stessa è per sua natura scabrosa e accidentata, e che una verità al cento per cento, a conti fatti, non esiste. Che le pulsioni del sottosuolo – le più segrete, le più inconfessabili – hanno un legame continuo, intimo e ineludibile, persino con la più inossidabile delle apparenze, perforandone il manto notturno come un tizzone ardente. Il movimento della scrittura di Zweig gioca più su un piano orizzontale: dal di fuori verso l’interno. È un rito di passaggio, un battesimo di fuoco.

Nella premessa al suo memoir autobiografico Il mondo di ieri. Ricordi di un europeo – scritto nel 1941 nell’esilio brasiliano, ormai bandito da un’Austria e da una Germania naziste che l’avevano ripudiato in quanto ebreo e scrittore –, Zweig racconta di avere l’impressione di «non aver vissuto una sola esistenza, ma tante, del tutto diverse l’una dall’altra». Se l’uomo ebbe molte vite, è indubbio che altrettante ne ebbe lo scrittore – e furono tutte vite parallele. È un autore instancabile, prolifico e soprattutto duttile: nato nella Vienna di fine Ottocento e formatosi alla severa scuola dello Jung Wien, si sperimenta nei generi più disparati: dalla poesia alle prime prove narrative – non immuni da un certo estetismo –, passando per le opere teatrali, la stesura di libretti operistici per Richard Strauss, fino ad approdare alle biografie storiche e letterarie e a una sconfinata produzione novellistica. Una produzione molto variegata, eclettica, forse diseguale per qualità e incisività (discorso che si potrebbe fare per molti scrittori) e tuttavia legata da una cifra comune, una linea melodica che in qualche modo accompagna tutti i suoi personaggi: un movimento, appunto. Nella postfazione a una delle raccolte di novelle ¹, Rüdiger Görner sintetizza questo passaggio con una bella espressione: i personaggi di Zweig vengono sempre colti in un momento fatale, critico, quasi borderline. Sono figure «an die Schwelle», cioè sulla soglia: non ancora dentro la verità – o una verità – della propria esistenza, eppure posti in qualche modo di fronte a un interrogativo irrinunciabile del proprio destino, a una paura antica, dissepolta e fumante, che è anche lo specchio più profondo della loro natura.

Gli esempi sono innumerevoli. Da Edgar, giovane protagonista di Bruciante segreto, ritratto in un cupo, violento rito di passaggio dall’infanzia all’età adulta, che paga un prezzo altissimo per la perdita della propria innocenza; alla cruda e penetrante Lettera di una sconosciuta, rievocazione di un amore dolente e feroce, nutrito nel buio, la passione totale di una bambina che si scopre donna; a Paura, racconto dai ritmi serratissimi di un’adultera, ricca e viziata borghese che, perseguitata da un’inafferrabile ricattatrice, è costretta a spogliarsi poco a poco delle illusioni di un’intera esistenza; a Mendel dei libri, l’opera più struggente di Zweig, nella quale a celebrare un rito di passaggio è forse il prodigio della memoria, cui è affidato il compito più arduo: salvare un mondo (quello del primo dopoguerra) che sembra aver smarrito le proprie radici. E, infine, Amok e la splendida prova della Novella degli scacchi, due novelle ambientate – non a caso – nel non luogo per eccellenza: una traversata per mare, in cui due uomini fanno i conti col proprio passato, in bilico tra la dannazione e la possibilità di un riscatto, di una salvezza. Potremmo continuare, e molto a lungo. Citando, ad esempio, i protagonisti di Sovvertimento dei sensi, nature impetuose celate sotto un’apparente mitezza, l’ossessione messa a nudo (per l’amore e per il gioco) in Ventiquattr’ore nella vita di una donna, o l’intenso ritratto psicologico nei tre racconti de L’amore di Erika Ewald (che procurarono all’allora giovane scrittore il lusinghiero giudizio di Hermann Hesse quale raffinato «lettore di anime»). O potremmo ricordare, infine, una delle raccolte di novelle più famose di Zweig, intitolata non a caso Momenti fatali (in originale Sternstunden der Menschheit, ovvero Ore stellari dell’umanità), – quattordici miniature storiche in cui si tratteggiano alcuni passaggi cruciali nella storia dell’uomo: la caduta di Bisanzio, Händel ritratto nelle ore decisive della composizione del Messiah, incapace di mangiare e di dormire, e un treno piombato che, nel pieno della Grande Guerra, sfreccia attraverso le pianure della Germania, con a bordo Lenin diretto verso la Russia e la sua Rivoluzione.

È forse bene precisare, tuttavia, che non tutti i personaggi di Zweig escono vincitori da questa personalissima lotta col dèmone. Molti di essi assaporano il gusto acre della polvere, lo smarrimento del piede che affonda nel vuoto, aggrappandovisi come a un ultimo, rovente brandello di verità.

Questo discorso vale più che mai per le biografie storiche (pubblicate negli anni irrequieti tra il 1929 e il 1938), in cui lo scrittore austriaco affinò – forse con più libertà che altrove – le sue doti di svelatore di enigmi psicologici². Anche i personaggi su cui Zweig concentra il suo occhio di biografo sono in qualche modo figure sulla soglia: persone non eccezionali, eroi involontari a confronto con un interrogativo epocale, sui quali si è abbattuto il pesante sigillo della Storia. Che, precisa lo scrittore, è spesso ingiusta nei confronti degli sconfitti.

Zweig non è uno storico. Ma, da consumato narratore, sa bene che il grosso del suo lavoro parte in fondo da un unico punto nevralgico: porre delle domande. E riapre i casi, presenta i dati, riallinea le prospettive. In un’epoca che reclamava eroi a suon di fanfare e rulli di tamburi, sceglie di restituire una voce agli sconfitti, veri vincitori morali. Da Maria Antonietta, donna che non era «né fuoco né ghiaccio», non particolarmente incline al bene né tantomeno votata al male, alla tragica regina Maria Stuarda, scaraventata nel cuore delle lotte di religione che segnarono il passaggio dal Medioevo all’Età moderna; da Magellano, folle o sognatore, che per primo compì il prodigioso giro della Terra, dimostrando la veridicità della teoria del

Recensioni su Novella degli scacchi

[bookomaniac-1 · Valutazione: 3 su 5 stelle]

Leuke, intens geschreven novelle over een ultiem schaakspel tussen de Hongaarse lichtautistische wereldkampioen, en een toevallige passant op een pakketboot, die de schaakmeester 1 keer verslaat maar dan bezwijkt onder de druk. "Onschuldig" verbonden met de Gestapopraktijken van het Naziregime. Gaat eigenlijk over obsessie.

[stef7sa-1 · Valutazione: 4 su 5 stelle]

Well told entertaining story with some interesting information on pre-war nazist methods and torture technique.

[msarki_3 · Valutazione: 4 su 5 stelle]

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. I read a different translation than this book, a collection of his shorter works, and titled The Royal Game.

[freelancer_frank · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

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 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.

[lizaha_1 · Valutazione: 4 su 5 stelle]

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 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.

[hadriantheblind · Valutazione: 3 su 5 stelle]

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.

[suesbooks · Valutazione: 4 su 5 stelle]

Well written story about man obsessed with chess. Previously saw a play based on this book, and that made the story more vivid for me.

[ameise1 · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

The psychological game between the inhuman chess automaton Czentovic and the fragile Dr. B., who was imprisoned by the Gestapo for months in solitary confinement and still feels the psychological effects of torture and suffers from it, makes it clear how important human consciousness is for our lives and what dangers it poses is. The main themes of the chess novella are: "Chess as a war", "Hitler and the Nazi period", "Dr. B.'s fate "," Dr. B. against Czentovic "," The Psychological Game "and" Isolation and Chess Poisoning ".Even though the book does not have many pages, there is a linguistic variety of sentence structure and vocabulary in which one can not find his own again so quickly. [[Stefan Zweig]] was a virtuoso in terms of language.This is a must-read for me.

[gbill_7 · Valutazione: 4 su 5 stelle]

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 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.

[berthirsch · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

a fast moving novella about a chess match between 2 unlikely masters. One is an idiot savant who has an inate ability to learn chess while being almost illiterate about all else. He becomes the world champion and soon develops an air of supremacy and conceit. All is good for him until he takes a fateful ship cruise on its way to Buenos Aires. Aboard the ship is another chess master who learned the game while imprisoned in solitary confinement and all he had to maintain his sanity was a chess manual he memorized and the games within played out in his mind with no chess board nor peices.the ensuing match betwenn these two is compelling, narrated quickly with good pace and characterization. this is the 1st Zweig piece i have read and i am sure to look at his other stories.

[nerdfighters-1 · Valutazione: 3 su 5 stelle]

This book is intended for adults but would be suitable for teens to read. The novella deals with literary tropes and ideas that would be discussed in any high school English class.

[msaari_8 · Valutazione: 4 su 5 stelle]

Beautiful novella. I'm always interested in stories that feature games, and Chess Story is definitely a good example of that. Two different men - a chess grandmaster and a nobody - meet at a chess board and the results are... explosive. Much of the book is devoted to the extraordinary background of the Dr. B, his experiences in the Nazi-occupied Austria. Magical book.

[bayardus-1 · Valutazione: 4 su 5 stelle]

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 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.

[nosajeel · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

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 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.

[richardderus · Valutazione: 4 su 5 stelle]

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. 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.

[hemlokgang · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

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 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!

[fuzzy_patters · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

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 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.

[brenzi_3 · Valutazione: 4 su 5 stelle]

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 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.

[cameling_2 · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

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. 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.

[booksfordinner · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

A wonderful novella, a commentary on the Nazi occupation of Austria and a discussion on how there is no one way to achieve a goal, which of course is a commentary on Nazism itself, no? And chess, of course. The chess is well done, which it often isn't in novels. Great characters. .

[deebee1_1 · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

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 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!

[kidzdoc_1 · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

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 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.

[deusxmachina-1 · Valutazione: 4 su 5 stelle]

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 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.

[eadieb-1 · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

This fascinating book is about a business man who was arrested by the Gestapo for a period of one year. While imprisoned, he taught himself chess which serves him well when he comes up against a bona fide grand master. The final twist, upon reflection, digs quite deep into the characters' psyche. I highly recommend this last book by Stefan Zweig before he and his wife committed suicide.

[janerawoof · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

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 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.

[rajivc_18 · Valutazione: 4 su 5 stelle]

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 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

[jasonlf · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

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 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.

[crazymamie · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

"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 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.

[berly_4 · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

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 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."

[deinonychus_1 · Valutazione: 5 su 5 stelle]

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 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