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Stefan Zweig

Chess Story (New York Review Books Classics) Paperback – December 9, 2005

by Stefan Zweig (Author), Joel Rotenberg (Translator), Peter Gay (Introduction)

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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.

Print length

104 pages
Language

English
Publisher

NYRB Classics
Publication date

December 9, 2005
Dimensions

5.01 x 0.32 x 8.01 inches
ISBN-10

1590171691
ISBN-13

978-1590171691
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From the Publisher


	Beware of Pity	Chess Story	Confusion	Journey into the Past	The Post Office Girl
About this book	In the only novel Zweig published during his lifetime, an Austro-Hungarian cavalry officer wracked with guilt and pity becomes implicated in a well-meaning but tragically wrongheaded plot to restore the daughter of a wealthy landowner to health.	This psychological thriller set on board a ship traveling from New York to Buenos Aires was the last work Zweig wrote before he committed suicide.	A young man is packed off by his father to a university in a sleepy provincial town where a brilliant lecture awakens in him a wild passion for learning—and for the professor who gave the talk.	Found among Zweig’s papers after his death, this psychological novel investigates the stage ways in which love can last, in spite of everything.	Zweig’s posthumously discovered novel is about the rise and fall of a provincial Austrian girl invited to the Swiss Alps by her wealthy American aunt.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[Zweig is a] writer who understands perfectly the life he is describing, and who has great analytic gifts . . . . He has achieved the very considerable feat of inventing, in his description of the game of chess, a metaphor for the terribly grim game he is playing with his Nazi tormentors . . . the case history here is no longer that of individuals; it is the case history of Europe." —Stephen Spender, The New York Review of Books

"Always [Zweig] remains essentially the same, revealing in all . . . mediums his subtlety of style, his profound psychological knowledge and his inherent humaneness." —Barthold Fles, The New Republic

"Zweig possesses a dogged psychological curiosity, a brutal frankness, a supreme impartiality . . . [a] concentration of talents." —Herbert Gorman, The New York Times Book Review

"His writing reveals his sympathy for fellow human beings." —Ruth Franklin, London Review of Books

About the Author

Stefan Zweig (1881-1942), novelist, biographer, poet, and translator, was born in Vienna into a wealthy Austrian Jewish family. During the 1930s, he was one of the best-selling writers in Europe, and was among the most translated German-language writers before the Second World War. With the rise of Nazism, he moved from Salzburg to London (taking British citizenship), to New York, and finally to Brazil, where he committed suicide with his wife. New York Review Books has published Zweig’s novels The Post-Office Girl and Beware of Pity as well as the novella Chess Story.

Peter Gay is Director of the Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. He wrote Schnitzler’s Century: The Making of Middle-Class Culture, 1815–1914.

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Product details

Publisher : NYRB Classics (December 9, 2005)
Language : English
Paperback : 104 pages
ISBN-10 : 1590171691
ISBN-13 : 978-1590171691
Item Weight : 4.3 ounces
Dimensions : 5.01 x 0.32 x 8.01 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #54,666 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,457 in Psychological Fiction (Books)
- #4,912 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- #6,490 in Historical Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
254 ratings

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3 star		6%
2 star		1%
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Top reviews from the United States

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L. Nery

The dispute for Europe and the minds of its people

Reviewed in the United States on March 28, 2017

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Poignant, in that the ending of the novel - which I won't spoil - most likely reveals Zweig's rationale for his own suicide.

This novella is fast-paced and even frantic at times, and yet it is interspersed with the seeming apathy of the champion chess player, whose sole motivation in an otherwise colorless life is to win at the chess board.

All the other characters, apart from the chess champion, are more nuanced, have feelings and imagination. I cannot help but see a very clear analogy to Liberalism and Fascism, and the despair of Zweig upon witnessing it helplessly. In the final matches the reader can identify so much of what preceded WWII: apathy vs ambition; disdain vs fear; vanity vs humility. Isn't the chess board a proxy for Europe itself?

And the finale, which to the story is suitable, if not slightly predictable. It is also very symbolic of the author's ultimate defeat, a check mate to his hopes followed by a discreet exit from life.

12 people found this helpful

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Nomad

A chess lover must!

Reviewed in the United States on March 22, 2021

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This is a classic book for the chess enthusiast. Most chess players when they buy books regarding chess are buying books that discuss items in the opening, middle game, or ending. However, there is a small but rich handful of books out there that make chess central to the story-line and become a tool for great literature.

On a fun note, the book is rich with early to mid-century stereotypes regarding chess players; some still exist, others were just that - stereotypes- and others have morphed into new stereotypes.

The main thread as I read it relates to the transition into Anschlus Austria and the continuing rise of fascism. There are not many "popular" works in English that relate from the Austrian perspective how the standard Conservatives (Monarchists, conservative Christians) resisted and were eventually overwhelmed by the fascists.

In fact, one can read the story as a metaphor for the world at that time - the "vulgar" chess champion (Czentovic) represents the fascists, Dr B represents the Old World, and McConner represents New World capitalism. While the fascists are working on taking over Old Europe, the Anglo/Capitalistic world is simply trying to profit off of the situation, irrespective of who wins. This book was written when fascism was ostensibly going to win and so provides an interesting snapshot of a time that people are no longer attached to since history has taken a different course.

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S. Fan

Captivated and poetic prose

Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2019

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The story was captivated and much unlike the other book of Zweig that I like - 24 hours in the Life of a Woman. But the inner portrait of the character and elegant prose, remains the same.

Fun fact. I happened to re-read Frankl's 'Men's search for meaning" wile reading "chess game". So the Dr.B's narrative about "tortured by nothingness" in the "hotel" painted an interesting (not sure that is a proper word here) contrast to those was physically tortured in the concentration camp. But further prove out Frankl's point "“A man's concern, even his despair, over the worthwhileness of life is an existential distress but by no means a mental disease.”

2 people found this helpful

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R Parreira

Is Victory Worth It?

Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2015

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Two opposite characters. One is a peasant with no family, the other, a rich Austrian aristocrat. One is almost illiterate, the other a well educated man, one of the most famous lawyers in Vienna. One dominates chess, the other is dominated by the game, the "nullifier of nullities". Black and white. Opposite sides of the board. The boiling prewar European scenario generates both of them, and they are destined to meet on board of a ship that will take both to South America for very different reasons. Confrontation is inevitable. Pragmatism against idealism. Only one will end up victorious. The only one with a clear grasp of reality and how we should adapt and behave even in the most unfavorable situations. But is victory worth it?

11 people found this helpful

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Arona K Henderson

No escape from pain

Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2008

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As summarized by another reviewer, the story takes place on a cruise ship en route from New York to Buenos Aires in 1941. The world chess champion, Mirko Czentovic, is on board. Czentovic is a chess prodigy who is singularly ungifted in other areas of the intellect and social graces. Also on board is Dr. B, a former solicitor for the Austrian imperial family who is traveling to South America as a refugee from the Nazi regime.
At the outset, considering Czentovic's isolated and emotionally deprived childhood, I was prepared to allow him his arrogance and conceit. Acknowledged, he was a master at chess and his boorish behavior could be excused. When Dr. B becomes peripherally involved in the chess match and exhibits a mastery of moves, it becomes clear that this man has somehow or other been absorbed into the exalted realm of chess. As his story unfolds, the reader enters the world of isolation and solitary that Dr. B endured at the hands of his Nazi tormenters. Zweig is so masterful at the depiction of the incarceration and the man's mental salvation through the game of chess that we as readers are carried along so forcibly that we leave the confines of our homes for the world of Dr. B. Every emotion he experienced, every racing of his pulse, every fearful moment, his ultimate dissociation of his personality and his breakdown are experienced by the reader. The descriptions are powerful and cause a visceral reaction that is astonishing. As I was reading, I started to note a racing pulse and sweating and a sense of uncontrollable foreboding. As the story raced to its conclusion, I had the urge to shout, "Halt! Don't play again!" I wept when I set the book down. The tears were for Dr. B, all of the victims of the Nazi carnage and perhaps also a reaction to what came to pass, the suicide of the author. This gem of a small book explores and disturbs the human psyche like no other.

36 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Tim Coleman

A masterpiece

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 15, 2017

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I admit that I find the oeuvre of Stefan Zweig variable. The first thing I read was Beware of Pity, and it excited me so much, I purchased translations of several other novels by the Austrian writer. Nothing inspired the same awe and I was frankly disappointed. Until I picked up this lucid and elegant translation. It is more of a short story than a novel but the depth of this tale is not weighed by the number of pages bit by the way it resonates in your mind after you have put it down

5 people found this helpful

Lotta Continua

Excellent short story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 17, 2021

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Terse focused prose develops a fascinating tale of conflict between a chess genius with no imagination and a complex former prisoner. Delightful story

David Bisset

A complex novella with a chess theme

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 22, 2018

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I knew about Stefan Zweig and his huge reputation, but this is the first of his works which I have read. It is brilliant writing, and certainly must rank at the summit of literature with a chess theme. The translation is particularly well done.

One person found this helpful

Tim

Brilliant

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2021

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A short finely crafted story and nothing is lost in translation. It is not necessary to be a chess fan to enjoy this book.

Arthur Koestler

Brilliant

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 18, 2019

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A really intensively written short story that probes some wonderful themes surrounding chess and it's intellectual battle of will etc

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