The Royal Game: A Chess Story (Paperback)
Stefan Zweig (author), Alexander Starritt (translator)Published: 04/11/2021
Chess world champion Mirko Czentovic is travelling on an ocean liner to Buenos Aires. Dull-witted in all but chess, he entertains himself on board by allowing others to challenge him in the game, before beating each of them and taking their money. But there is another passenger with a passion for chess: Dr B, previously driven to insanity during Nazi imprisonment by the chess games in his imagination. But in agreeing to take on Czentovic, what price will Dr B ultimately pay?
A moving portrait of one man's madness, The Royal Game: a chess story is a searing examination of the power of the mind and the evil it can do.
Publisher: Pushkin Press
ISBN: 9781782278269
Number of pages: 112
Dimensions: 198 x 129 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
Perhaps the best chess story ever written, perhaps the best about any game. Never mind that you may have never moved a pawn to King four; the story will grip you. - Economist
The novella is one of Zweig's most horrifying investigations into monomania and at the same time a parable of the dangers inherent in engaging with Nazism. - Ruth Franklin, London Review of Books
A Chess Story by Stefan Zweig; the games our minds play. - Candia McWilliam, Glasgow Herald
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