Excerpt from the book;

-(For World Chess Champion Czentovic, whom Dr.B. saw on a cruise) ...behaving with a professional DRY. ...Like all UNCHILLED beings, he had a RIDICULOUS HATE. ...it's actually SO EASY for someone who doesn't have the slightest idea about a Rembrandt, a Beethoven, a Dante, a Napoleon to think he's a GREAT PERSON.

 

About the Author;

The most important feature of Stefan ZWEIG's best-known novel, CHESS, is that it is the last novel of the author before his suicide. When I analyze the book, it is almost like a suicide letter containing important clues about his own life.

Stefan ZWEIG was born in Austria in 1881 to a wealthy and respected Jewish family. He received a very good education. He grew up in an elite environment and has been to many countries in Europe. ZWEIG, which had a difficult time with the German occupation of Austria in 1932, could not stand the pressures it faced and was forced to emigrate, which would end in Switzerland, England, then the USA and Brazil. Unable to stand the fact that the impositions of fascism and the totalitarian regime destroyed all the values he believed in throughout his life, Zweig committed suicide with his wife in 1942.

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Evaluation;

Mirko Czentovic, the protagonist of chess; He is an arrogant rude man who is ignorant, does not understand culture and art, boasts about the success he has achieved by chance and defeats the person in front of him with psychological pressure. This man represents the Nazis. The fact that he defeated each and every one of his opponents from different cultures, who were extremely cultured, devoted to chess, and understood the intricacies of the game, tells that absolute power focuses only on overwhelming victory, regardless of any qualifications. On the ship, everyone's hope is his last rival, Dr. With the character B, Stefan ZWEIG is telling himself. Coming from a good family, he is cultured, fine-spirited and kind. Like him, he is in exile. You can learn the result of his encounter with Dr.B, who knows all the subtleties of chess, after reading the summary.

 

 

I wish you good reading…

 

 

The news spread that there was a world champion named Mirco Czentovic on a passenger ferry departing from New York to Buenos Aires, and Czentovic had suddenly become the center of attention. One of the reasons why Czentovic is the center of attention is that besides being a world chess champion, he is someone who cannot put two sentences together in his life, has no intellectual knowledge, and therefore never speaks. Journalists and all other people are struggling to get a few sentences out of his mouth. According to his opponents, Czentovic is a universal monument of culturelessness and he keeps silent in order not to make mistakes.

After Mirko Czentovic's father died when he was fourteen, the pastor of the church took possession of him, he tried to teach him everything he could not learn in the village school, but Mirko was staring at the letters meaninglessly, whatever he did. The little boy had trouble understanding. However, he was a docile child, doing physical tasks, doing whatever the priest said, and in the evenings he watched the priest playing chess with the Gendarmerie sergeant. One evening, a relative of the Gendarmerie sergeant could not come because he passed away. Mirko stared at the black and white board so much that the priest called him over and let him play. At that moment, a miracle happened and Mirko was making incredible moves and pinching his opponent. King lost that hand and then every other game. He was delighted to discover this one-sided talent of Pastor Mirko and began to wonder how long this success would last. Having defeated all his opponents in the small town, Mirko's fame soon covered the whole city. Thanks to a scholarship they found, he would be trained by Vienna's most famous chess master and prepare for tournaments. With good luck, Mirko sharpened his talent and soon defeated all the champions to become the World Champion. He was participating in all the tournaments and collecting his wages. There was arrogance in him, as in all non-chiseled beings. Such a swift success had stunned such an empty mind.

This interesting man, who attracted the attention of the narrator and his friends, was worth getting to know more closely during the 12 days until Rio. However, it was difficult to greet him despite all his efforts, avoiding people and especially trying not to make eye contact. A few days passed like this. Just as the narrator was beginning to think that his efforts were in vain, he thought of playing chess on deck with his friend Oil merchant MC Cocconor. He would inevitably come to them while playing chess, so that it would be possible to talk to him. Who did that? While MC Cocconor was making his move, he came up to them, watched a few moves, and quickly left with a facial expression, finding this game very simple. This behavior made the narrator and MC Cocconor more ambitious by sending a news story and demanding a game in return for a fee. Czentovic immediately accepted the offer. Journalists and passengers showed interest in this chess match. Confidently, Czentovic confronted them, confident that he could defeat these recruits on deck in a few moves. Despite realizing that they had a very advantageous position against Czentovic in the seventeenth move, the two friends, who were afraid to make a move, could not even guess whether this would really turn into an advantage or if it was a trap that they could not foresee by Czentovic. Just as they were about to make a move, they were startled by the "no, don't play" voice of one of the passengers. The man whispered in their ears not to play and what would happen after this hand, and told them what moves they should take, and after that moment the game got locked and Czentovic dealt the pieces and said in a trader's fashion, “Gentlemen, would you like another hand?” asked. Mc Cocconor and the narrator of the game

turning to the gentleman who changed his destiny, they said, "You must play." The man shrugged, "No, no." He said I can't play, I haven't played for a long time, and he thanked him and left.

After this mysterious abandonment, the curiosity of all focused on this new chess prodigy. Would this interesting coincidence reveal a new genius? Maybe this man could have taken away the championship from Czentovic. Why had he swept away this opportunity? Finding answers to all these questions in their minds and defeating the arrogant Czentovic had turned into an all-encompassing ambition. This man's defeat of Czentovic turned into an irresistible ambition of his two friends. McOcconor asked his friend to persuade the man.

***

The narrator found this stranger who had fled in a hurry while reading the newspaper, and the man, embarrassed by his departure, began to tell his story.

Dr.B was a lawyer. Together with his father, they ran a law firm in Viya. They began to run some of the political affairs of the Church and the Palace, but were arrested after Hitler's administration dominated Germany and captured Austria. Dr.B was put in a cell, and in that cell there was nothing but a bed. There were no objects. He was imprisoned in nothingness. He was beginning to disappear into this endless nothingness. He didn't talk to anyone except being questioned. Caught between the psychological pressure of the SS officers and the endless loneliness, his soul was now approaching the line of madness. One day, in the interrogation room, an officer discovered that he had a book in his parka pocket and took it. It was a chess book, with more than one hundred and fifty types of games, pieces and directions. He immediately took it and put it in his pocket. When he got to his room, he quickly read it. He folded the checkered pattern of his sheet to get 64 squares. He studies games by making chess pieces from bread. He plays a different game at any moment, and eventually plays every game in the book over and over again, which gives him boredom and returns to the same empty routine every day. It needs a rival. Can he be his own rival? The question comes to mind, but how will he manage to think of moves and predictions like an opponent in this game? If he can train his brain like he's splitting it in two, he can do it. This is how he starts playing. He is now his own competitor. He hides his moves even from himself. He can no longer eat. Every second he calculates the game and how he will beat himself with different moves…

One day he opens his eyes in a different place. He has a bandage in his hand and it hurts when he moves it. He has no clue what's going on. When the doctor arrives, he tells a little about what happened. He had a nervous breakdown. A guard who heard her screaming in his room came to his room and tried to strangle the guard. The man saved himself at the last moment and while they were trying to take control with the other guards, he escaped from their hands and when he hit the glass with his hand, the glass passed into his arm. Dr.B, who listens to what the doctor tells with amazement, meets the events with astonishment. He says he doesn't remember anything. The doctor says he has chess poisoning and says he will do everything in his power to get him out of there. He reports mental imbalance and lets him get out of there. His doctor warns him not to play this passionate game that has become an obsession for him, or else the tantrum will recur.

***

That's why Dr.B tells that he ran away from them, so as not to experience the same thing... On the other hand, the opportunity to take part in a real tournament for the first time and to play with a real opponent makes the game he will play with Czentovic irresistible for him. Yes, he would play the game and then forever mention chess. He agrees to play the game.

The next day, the game started and after the fast opening moves, Czentovic started to take his moves very slowly. This made Dr.B visibly angry, and the game was getting unnecessarily long. As soon as Czentovic plays the knight, Dr.B sets the queen forward and shouts "OK". Upon this move, Czentovic is withdrawn from the game. Yes, Dr. B won. In the end, he faced a real opponent and defeated a world champion.

Czentovic wants to play another hand. Dr.B immediately agrees with a euphoria of victory. Despite the narrator's warnings and all the promises he has made to himself, he cannot stop his greed and once again falls into the desire to win. After the game starts, Czentovic makes his long moves again, which again angers Dr.B. He starts tapping his feet on the table. He begins to be unable to control himself. He shouts Checkmate, but there is no checkmate situation. He shouts that all the stones are in the wrong place. He realizes that the same syndrome is repeating again and walks away from there.

McOcconor “damn man”

“If the gentleman thought he was an amateur, his moves were not bad at all,” Czentovic said arrogantly.