A review by dianapharah
Chess Story by Stefan Zweig

dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

'There was nothing to do, nothing to hear, nothing to see, nothingness was everywhere around me all the time, a completely dimensionless and timeless void. You walked up and down, you and your thoughts, up and down, over and over. But even thoughts, insubstantial as they seem, need a footing, or they begin to spin, to run in frenzied circles; they can't bear nothingness either.'


4.25? 4.5? — I absolutely love exploring the human condition via more abstract means, and the royal's game of chess is an unexpected yet fascinating way of depicting the extents to which the mind will go when severely deprived of all other stimuli, both the external and the internal. What starts as a method to ascend from madness becomes the very gateway to descend into it once more; salvation through obsession, and damnation through over-indulgence.

‘My only interest, the only attraction for me, is a postmortem curiosity to know whether that was chess or madness in the cell, whether at that time I was just on the brink or already over the edge—that's all, nothing else.’