When someone asks me what my favourite book is, I say it's 'Chess'. Because of this I was very scared to reread this one. However i loved it even more this time. The use of chess as a medium to talk about facism, torture, delusion and vulnerability makes this novella unique. When you start this book, you think it's about some amateurs playing chess against a world champion on a boat, but you also get to read this horrible experience of someone during the second world war. Particularly I enjoy Zweigs descriptions and analyses on human behaviour.

This second read heightened the experience because you notice how there are references to what happens later in the novella. I can't recommend this book enough and I will bother my friends about this book until they get it.


review from 2023 - first time reading

This was an surprisingly good book. It was an intriguing story about chess, of which I know very little. But during the whole book I was captivated by it and I could not put it down. It reads fast, has a tad of sadness and also tries to convey a message. Even during the chess games, you can feel the tension between the players. I would totally recommend this to anyone.