Stefan Zweig: Chess

Just curious if anyone else here has read this novella?

It was Zweig's last work before he killed himself, it was published poshumously in 1942.

At 83 pages you can rattle through it.......I thought it was very good indeed!

"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."

x

plus
The Luzhin Defense (Nabokov)

The book 'The Empire of Ice Cream'. by Jeffrey Ford.
It is a collection of short stories.

One is called: '"A Night at the Tropics"

The Tropics is bar and the story teller meets a hood who stole this cursed solid gold Chess Set.
The owner of the set can never lose no matter who he plays.

"You even beat f*****g Kasparov." is one line.

The trouble is owning the set brings you nothing but very bad luck, chronic
ill heath and a lingering death. Your soul is then sent straight to hell.

You can only lift the curse if it is stolen from you and you draw blood from the person who steals it.

The previous owner moved into this poor neighbourhood letting everyone
know he had a solid gold chess set and waited.....

The story is brilliantly written, especially the bit how the curse came about.
A wonderful piece of research and the characters appear so real you can practically smell them.

Thanks for the tip Greenpawn, sounds great I shall go track it down. 😀

The real life of Sebastian knight. Also by Nabokov.

I was deeply impressed by:

Icchokas Meras: Stalemate (I read the German version: remis für Sekunden).

...and yes I liked the Zweig novella.