Chess Story
Ratings61
Average rating4.3
15
Ratings61
Average rating4.3
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.
Reviews with the most likes.
Great short story about the fragility of the human mind and well, the fragility of pre-WW II Europe.
Fiction.
Chess is merely a character, it isn't a story about chess.
There is Czentovic, there is Mr. B and then there is Chess. Chess did something to Czentovic. Chess made him the man he is. Chess also did something to Mr. B. Probably saved his life by almost killing him.
A story about two people with entirely different personalities, both of whom had their life massively altered by chess; playing a game against each other on a cruise.
Intriguing characters and excellent storytelling.
Un profundo análisis del ajedrez como como vehículo de la expresión y la demostración absoluta de las capacidades latentes en nuestro cerebro, al cual siempre le podemos pedir más, siempre y cuando no nos perdamos en los confusos senderos de la locura. Los personajes antagónicos de esta historia demuestran tener habilidades equivalentes en este territorio de batalla estratégico de piezas negras y blancas, pero cada uno ha llegado a su exquisito nivel de destreza por caminos muy diferentes.
Uno, un genio pero cuya habilidad de limita al tablero, siendo incapaz del resto de tareas más cotidianas como hablar y escribir adecuadamente, o ser capaz de interactuar con otros seres humanos; su contrincante, un prisionero de guerra que abordó el juego de forma teórica como medio de escape de la locura que produce el vacío sensorial de la cárcel, solo para adentrarse en una locura aún más profunda y abstracta.
Genio versus genio, ambos se verán la cara en un duelo que tendrá a los lectores atrapados durante cada página de este libro.
this has been so difficult to rate and review since I was so conflicted about what my actual feeling about this book was. In short words, I liked this book but some minor (??) things bugged me a lot namely the practicality of Dr B's chess excellence and the demonstration of his skill in the match. The second thing would be skipping any exploration of Czentovic's character and the things that I really liked the exploration of the aftermath of torture in the theme of chess, the description of Dr B's gradual descent into monomania and ptsd books that have the depiction of war crimes and human suffering occupy a special place in my heart although it's not on my top tier, its certainly on a high place.
