A Chess Story

Stefan Zweig published this short story in 1941 as "Schachnovelle." It is set aboard an ocean liner sailing to Buenos Aires. The narrator, whose motivation is curiosity about the chess mind, sets out to entice the famous fellow passenger Czentovic to play a chess game. Czentovic, we are told, is a chess master who lacks both social and intellectual skills, but has an innate talent for chess. Cz's entire life story is revealed to the reader and then the narrator sets out to see Cz at play. This requires strategy but once Cz has been induced to play a game against the narrator and other passengers they lose the game. Then during the second game a mysterious man appears and suggests winning moves they can make. The group of amateurs win. The narrator, intrigued, follows the mystery man. Mystery man relays his story, as follows:

He, Dr. B, was a monarchist banker in Austria when the Nazis arrive. He was imprisoned, and interrogated for months. During this time he started to break down and was desperate for something to focus his mind on so as to withstand the interrogations and remain sane. He, luckily, steals a book of famous chess games from a jailers jacket. He studies this moves, until they are memorized then he makes up new games in his mind. He does this for months and finds it quite useful as a way to focus his mind and retain sanity. Then he decides to play both sides at once, white and black, and his mind  compartmentalizes. He suffers a breakdown, and a fever and finds himself in a hospital. His doctor diagnoses him with a chess mania and suggests he not play again. The doctor also diagnoses him as insane and so he escapes from the Nazis.

Back on the cruise ship Dr. B plays another game against Cz. This time Cz antagonizes Dr. B with slow play and Dr. B starts to regress into "chess madness." The narrator, tells Dr. B to not regress and Dr. B, losing the game exits.

It is a good story, psychologically accurate, and intense (compared to Stein it is dated though). The author Zweig and his wife, Lotte Altmann, committed suicide in February 1942 due to the dismal future prospects.

A little Stein

Gertrude Stein, writing in the first half of the last century, experimented with words, phrases, and sentences. In Three Lives the writing is not so different from the psychological modern style of writing, but Tender Buttons pushes the boundaries of word meanings to an extreme. To me Stein's writing seems less dated, and more contemporary, because elements of her style have come to be used widely.

"Three Lives" consists of three unconnected life portraits, "The Good Anna," "Melanctha," and "The Gentle Lena." "Melanctha" was the most interesting of these and the lengthiest. The woman portrayed is complicated, difficult and ends sadly (as do Anna and Lena). The conversational style is deceptively simple and much information is conveyed by the repetitive language.

"Tender Buttons" is what?

"This cloud does change with the movements of the moon and the narrow the quite narrow suggestion of the building. It does and then when it is settled and no sounds differ then comes the moment when cheerfulness is so assured that there is an occasion" (pg. 298).

I do not claim to understand. It is readable, but pointless, as far as I can understand it. Although, those with a background in literature probably have more interesting things to say about "Tender Buttons" than I do.