Stefan Zweig is rather brilliant, isn’t he? A Chess Story [also published as Chess and A Royal Game], from 1941, is the third Zweig novella I’ve read and the best so far – a really astonishing achievement in so few pages. Translated by Alexander Starritt, I should say – someone at my book group had a very different translation, based on our comparison of the first few lines, but it hurts my head to think too much about the variations that are possible with different translators at work.
I didn’t know anything about A Chess Story when I started it, and I was very glad about that. It made the whole experience so much more surprising and revelatory – so part of me wants to tell you to stop reading this review and just get a copy. Preferably the gorgeous Pushkin Press edition I have. But I’ll keep going anyway.
The large steamship leaving New York for Buenos Aires at midnight was caught up in the usual bustle and commotion of the hour before sailing. Visitors from shore pressed past one another to take leave of their friends, telegraph boys in skew-whiff caps shot names through the lounges, cases and flowers were brought and inquisitive children ran up and down flights of stairs while the orchestra played imperturbably on deck. I was standing in conversation with a friend on the promenade deck, slightly apart from this turmoil, when flash-bulbs popped starkly two or three times beside us – it seemed that a few reporters had managed to hastily interview and photograph some celebrity just before our departure.
The narrator is an interested and friendly man, but we don’t learn all that much more about him. Rather, he is there to introduce us to other people – to be the intrigued onlooker, always ready to give backstory when necessary. Zweig breaks all sorts of narrative ‘best practice’ rules, or what we would now consider rules, and somehow gets away with it. For example, he jumps from this present moment into a full history of the celebrity in question: Mirko Czentovic, chess prodigy.
We learn that Czentovic came from poverty and was considered unusually stupid. He barely communicates, and doesn’t seem to take an interest in anything. Except one day he reveals himself to have a preternatural ability for chess. One thing leads to another – Zweig tells it very well – and Czentovic is now a big deal. He’s also a mercenary, and will only play chess if it’s monetarily worth his while.
A competitive man on board the ship, and the narrator, manage to get together a group who are willing to put together the price. And it looks like the hubris of the amateur and the arrogance of the professional will be the story here. It would have been a good story. But, in the middle of the second match, someone joins the crowd of spectators. And, diffidently, he calls through an instruction. It quickly becomes clear that he is brilliant at chess himself – but once the match is over, he doesn’t want to play again.
Dr B is his name – and the second half of the novella becomes about something completely different. I won’t say what, though it’s easy enough to discover online if you want to. It’s about how he became so talented at chess – and why he doesn’t want to play again. Frankly, it’s astonishing.
All the more astonishing is how vividly Zweig creates two worlds – the ship and this other world that I won’t say too much about – in only a hundred or so pages. He could have made it a novel of three times the length, but there is a great power in his brevity. It says more about its time than novels ten times as long; I suspect it will stay in my mind for a long time. I’ve seldom read a better portrayal of mental illness, and the final chess match in A Chess Story is one of only two times that a sport has held any interest for me – the other being the cricket match in The Go Between.
If you’ve never read Zweig before, this is a great place to start. And I’m keen to get as many more as I can.
I’ve read other novellas by Zweig — Burning Secret and Journey into the Past – but not this one. It does sound very good – definitely one for me to bear in mind for the future. What strikes me about this writer is his understanding of the psychological, our motivations and behaviours.
From Captain John M David
Attn,
May this mail find you well.
I am Captain John M David of the US Marine. I am currently in Iraq as an Advisory to the Iraq Military on fight against ISIL Terrorits.
During the fight to retake the Mosul Dam, we discovered the sum of USD$ 9.200.000.00 stocked in a box which I have moved to a secret location. I will like to move this money as quickly as possible to you for business purpose. Only if I can trust you.
any way I am willing to settle you with 30% of the total sum.You will advice me on the business to invest in since I am not business oriented. I want to move this money to your destination for you to safe keep it for me until am out of Iraq,
I believe I can trust you. Presently we can only communicate through our military communication facilities which are secured so nobody can monitor our emails,I will only reach you through email, because our calls might be monitored, I just have to be sure whom I am dealing with.
I wait for your response so we can proceed immediately because In less than 5 days the money should be in your safe custody.
Please get back to me so that we can discuss on the way forward.
Best Regards,
Captain John M David
john.david979@yahoo.com
I’ve only read Zweig’s Burning Secret and would definitely like to try more from him. I agree with Jacqui, he’s so psychologically astute.
Glad you liked it :)
It’s an incredible novella, isn’t it? Zweig writes so well. I read this back in 2014, translated by Anthea Bell, and was knocked out by it. If anyone tells me he’s lightweight, I’ll punch them….. ;D
This DOES sound interesting… Thanks!
From Captain John M David
Attn,
May this mail find you well.
I am Captain John M David of the US Marine. I am currently in Iraq as an Advisory to the Iraq Military on fight against ISIL Terrorits.
During the fight to retake the Mosul Dam, we discovered the sum of USD$ 9.200.000.00 stocked in a box which I have moved to a secret location. I will like to move this money as quickly as possible to you for business purpose. Only if I can trust you.
any way I am willing to settle you with 30% of the total sum.You will advice me on the business to invest in since I am not business oriented. I want to move this money to your destination for you to safe keep it for me until am out of Iraq,
I believe I can trust you. Presently we can only communicate through our military communication facilities which are secured so nobody can monitor our emails,I will only reach you through email, because our calls might be monitored, I just have to be sure whom I am dealing with.
I wait for your response so we can proceed immediately because In less than 5 days the money should be in your safe custody.
Please get back to me so that we can discuss on the way forward.
Best Regards,
Captain John M David
john.david979@yahoo.com
I haven’t read this one, though I feel as if I have because I’ve seen it reviewed many times. It has to be the most famous short story ever, I am sure!
I confess not having anything by Zweig yet! So this could be a nice way to start, thanks for presenting this novella.
I have just ordered a copy … the attractive edition you have … I know that I have one of his books here somewhere on the shelves of the unread but shall read this one when it arrives …
Haven’t read this one but The Post Office Girl absolutely blew me away, I’m sure you’d love it! I also have his complete short stories which are an ENORMOUS volume. I so want to read them but the sheer size of it is so daunting. I will have to look for this one.
I’m so glad to hear that Zweig is still appreciated, since I find him quite brilliant. Of course I live in Austria and can read him in German, so I can’t comment on the English versions of his writings.
Have you read any of his biographies (historic novels), they’re particularly mesmerizing. Zweig was a close friend of Freud’s, who said that Zweig’s passion was the scientific research of the mind and soul. This is apparent in all of his writing, but particularly so in his historic novels such as Marie Antoinette and Mary Stuart. I hope you have a chance of read them.
I read this some years ago, which means I had to refresh my memory on my own review (https://alittleteaalittlechat.wordpress.com/2018/11/07/chess-by-stephan-zweig/). But I had been meaning to update what I wrote there to mention that I saw it dramatised as a one person show recently by somebody who’s been taking it around the world for years, I gather.
And….it didn’t work. I’m not sure whether that’s because the novella itself can’t be done as theatre successfully, or because the actor himself was inadequate. For a start he took liberties with the story, adding a meta layer about the performance, which we found inappropriate and didn’t work. For another thing he was rather insulting to the chess. Imagine having performed this many, many times and yet describing knocking one’s king over as meaning a loss or a draw!!!
But the story itself stands up remarkably well, as you say.