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Chess Story by Stefan Zweig

Like most of Zweig’s work, this is a novella. For those uninterested in chess, very little of the story has to do with the details of the actual games played.

The story is set on an ocean liner traveling from New York to Buenos Aires.



Our narrator has only a passing interest and limited ability at chess but he becomes intrigued when he learns that the world chess champion is on the ship headed to a grand master matchup. The world champion is a person who is called an ‘idiot savant� in the book, or more properly these days, an autistic savant. He has hardly any social skills and will only play if he is paid. The narrator finds that another man is interested in playing the master too; this other man is wealthy and puts up the money for matches.

Meanwhile a fourth main character appears on the scene, out of the crowd who has been watching the on-board games. (Pun intended.) He starts giving them advice and he seems to be some kind of chess master himself. (The savant plays against the group as a whole and lets them jointly discuss their moves.)



As that latest man tells his story to the narrator, he becomes the main focus of the book. I won’t say too much because it’s a short book and I don’t want to give it all away, but the man learned chess as a respite while he was being forced by the Nazis to reveal where wealth was hidden in the Catholic churches in Austria. The man had worked as the financial lawyer for the Church. He played chess against himself as he told half-truths to his tormentors, so his chess playing against himself becomes an extended metaphor for his dealings with the Nazis. (I had not known this, so I read on Wikipedia that Hitler confiscated money and art from the churches and closed many monasteries.)

After this ordeal, the man vowed to never play chess again but the grand master is impressed and wants to challenge him.



A good story with some psychological depth. This book is also published under the title The Royal Game. Zweig (1881-1942), was a prolific author with 25 or so books. He was at one time considered the most translated author in the world.

Top picture, postcard of a 1940's ocean liner from etsystatic.com
A 3-person chess set from mastersofgames.com
The author on an Austrian postage stamp from pinterest.co.uk