(Kennet Eriksson) wrote in message . com...
(Marco) wrote in message . com...
Have any of you read this book? The original title is Schachnovelle,
or chess novella. If so, which "chess goofs" did you notice in it?

Marco

The "goof" I noticed was the inability of the world champion to
analyze without the help of a chess set.

I also wondered about that. But my main complaint was the fact that
at the end of the story, one has the impression that the author has
been left unbeaten. Earlier in the story the narrator says that if
a stranger managed to beat the world champion it would be a worldwide
sensation. Yet at the end it looks as though Czentovic, the champion,
is still unbeaten, even though he had previously resigned during a
game with Dr B. I had the impression that Zweig regarded a resignation
as something better than a checkmate.
Anyway, I have posted below a summary of the story, taken from a
website (I made a few corrections):

Stefan Zweig's "The Royal Game"

His last work, published after his death, was The Royal Game. It was
published in the March 1944 issue of the Woman's Home Companion. He
wrote it in Petroplis, Brazil in January 1942. He called it The Chess
Novel (Schachnovelle). Some consider this the finest novel about chess
ever written.

He used two chess games to illustrate the psychology of Nazism.
Czentovic, a semiliterate Yugoslav peasant who has become the chess
world championtravels on a luxury ship from New York to South America.
He plays a game of chess with a group of wealthy passengers for $250 a
game. He wins the first game. He is about to win the second game when
another passenger, Dr. B, suddenly joins the group and spots a forced
draw. Dr. B is a Viennese lawyer and refugee who recently escaped
from a German prison hospital. He was imprisoned and tortured by the
Nazis in an attempt to force disclosure of some trust funds. He had
started to play chess with himself while in solitary confinement after
being arrested by the Gestapo. He had stolen a chess book from one of
his jailors' pockets, a collection of 150 master chess games. He
learned all the games by heart. He then started to play chess games
against himself, which ultimately drove him to the brink of insanity
("chess poisoning").

After his escape and restoration to sanity, Dr B. had avoided chess to
prevent another breakdown. But the sight of the chess pieces and the
chance to play a real person proved too great a temptation. He could
not restrain himself from aiding the passengers.

Requested to play a game by Czentovic, Dr. B first refuses. But on
learning that he is the world champion, he decides to play. Dr. B
beats the world champion in the first game, Czentovic resigns. He
challenges Dr. B for a second game (10 minutes per move).

During his second game against Czentovic, Dr B. breaks down,
exasperated by Czentovic's extremely long pauses. Dr B. announces a
non-existent check to Czentovic's king. Dr. B is then advised by the
narrator to quit the game, and does so. Czentovic looks at the half
finished game and remarks, "Pity. The attack was quite well conceived.
That gentleman is really exceptionally able. For an amateur."

The story has a lot of opposites such as educated vs uneducated,
gentleman vs peasant, mania vs calmness, smart vs stupid, quick vs
slow.

In his story, Zweig observes that chess is "more lasting in its being
and presence than all books and achievements, the only game that
belongs to all peoples and all ages of which none knows the divinity
that bestowed it on the world to slay boredom, to sharpen the senses,
to exhilarate the spirit."

In 1960 a movie, Die Schachnovelle, was made based on Zweig's The
Royal Game.
--

Marco