The chess players (in German Schachnovelle) is a novel by Stefan Zweig published posthumously in 1943.
On a cruise ship will oppose two chess champions with nothing in common: the defending champion, a humble background but formidable tactician, and an aristocrat who has been practicing and mentally, isolated in a private jail during the crackdown Nazi.
The narrator, an Austrian departing for Argentina, is informed of the presence on the world chess champion, Mirko Czentovic.
Czentovic
Childhood is the latter we detail: orphan raised by the village priest, the boy is silent, apathetic and fails to learn what he teaches. Although slow and soft, however it performs its tasks. One evening, the priest and a friend, Sergeant, competing for their daily chess games where the priest is urgently required for a dying woman. The sergeant, who was without a playing partner, ask not without malice to Mirko, which sets the scene, he wants to finish the game. He agrees and, surprise, beating his opponent with a few strokes twice. In return, the priest of ecstatic wonder and notes that neither he nor his friend were able to beat Mirko. They decided to present it to other players, stronger. The prodigy finally beat them all. This leads players excited and an old lover of his failure to procure the means to continue his training in Vienna. At twenty, he is world champion.
Plot
Returning to the main narrative, the biography of Czentovic masked some time. On board, the narrator, who, out of curiosity, although some would dispute against the great master, gradually attracts many enthusiasts around a chessboard. They eventually attract the attention of a few seconds Czentovic which, weighing in at a glance the quality of play, just passes by far. But one of the players to accept requests play a game against them. He agrees, for compensation, and of course fighting its modest opponents. But during a hand, a mysterious stranger to the aid of those who would break the cold arrogance of a champion, and endowed with remarkable abilities, he won the draw. Here, awkward and contrite for having interfered in the game, it also indicates that he has not touched a board for over twenty years before retiring, leaving an incredulous public, but whose curiosity is stoked. We discover that it is Austrian, as the narrator, so it is the latter which is responsible for the “cooking”, with him playing the role of psychoanalyst.
The unknown
The story of the unknown, “Mr. B …”, is very troubling. Lawyer in Austria, he hid a long time large sums to the Nazis who, eager to take them over, were still long. So they ended by imprisoning the notary, but in a particular way: indeed, it is housed in a room of a luxury hotel (the Hotel Metropole in Vienna) but he has no contact with the outside world ( the window to pay, it has no other companions that silent guardian, …). This left several days later he underwent the first interrogation by the Gestapo. As and when he spends time alone in his room, his answers are less conservative, he lost control of himself because his mind “running on empty” with nothing tangible.
But one day, while awaiting questioning in an anteroom, he saw, in a jacket hanging on a peg, a book. Wonder of wonders in his eyes, he must seize to overcome loneliness and the madness that awaits him. “Steal it!”, He is ordered. Using a risky ploy, he succeeded and, back in his cell, he realizes that he is disappointed a chess book. He dreamed that the prose of Goethe or of an epic of Homer, he was furious before incomprehensible formulas, sequences of “a1, c4, h2 …” which he grasps the meaning. But he finally understand the meaning of these codes: they correspond to the position of pieces on a chessboard, and the book is a collection of the greatest games played by international masters. After trying to get a physical chess with balls of bread, he gave almost, but insists, learning by heart a few games. It actually goes to divest itself of such support improvised playing mentally parties. He familiarized himself with the subtleties and the game, tactics, etc.. The interrogations are going better and he believes he surprised his captors and guess barrier traps.
However, after a few months, the attractiveness of 150 parts of the book since it knows them all disappear and become an automatic without any interest. So he had to try something else: playing games against itself. Is it possible though? It does indeed. But after a short time, his mind split “allow [s] up. The guard, who heard screaming, ran, thinking he quarreled with another person. But in fact it is against himself … Mr. B fever: “Play! But plays coward … Coward!” … Whites and blacks s’invectivent in him and, having lost consciousness, he wakes up in hospital. The doctor, compassionate, able to get him released, posing as the crazy or irresponsible and therefore irrelevant to the Nazis. He still recommends not to replay chess, otherwise he could relapse in schizophrenia.
Plot
The story ends in a logical quoiqu’inattendue. … Mr B is applied on the ship to face the arrogant Czentovic. A first part and the latter surrendered to not being entirely vanquished. Despite the warning the doctor, “the unknown” can not resist the temptation of a second party and then he “lost his footing” again: Czentovic, who understood that his tardiness infuriates his rival, plays on this idea . After some time, Mr. B … seems to lose track of the game probably did have much time to anticipate during the endless shots Czentovic he has in mind a different part of the one he plays. Pressed by the narrator, he retired again contrite and penitent.
“Bad,” said Czentovic, magnanimous. The offensive was not so bad. For an amateur, this gentleman is actually remarkably gifted. “
The novel has been a film adaptation in 1960 made in Germany and faithfully reproduces the history of the novel
