Schachnovelle
by Stefan Zweig · first published 1943
7mentions
2recommended by
3HN commenters
2020–2024first – last mentioned
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Auf einem Passagierdampfer, der von New York nach Buenos Aires unterwegs ist, fordert ein Millionär gegen Honorar den mit einer Art mechanischer Präzision spielenden Schachweltmeister Mirko Czentovic zu einer Partie heraus. Der mitreisende Dr. B., ein österreichischer Emigrant, greift beratend ein und erreicht so ein Remis für den Herausforderer. Er hat sich, von der Gestapo, die ihn verhaftete, in ein Hotelzimmer gesperrt und von der Außenwelt hermetisch abgeschlossen, monatelang mit dem blinden Spiel von 150 Partien beschäftigt, um sich so seine intellektuelle Widerstandskraft zu erhalten. D
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There is a book "Schachnovelle" by Stefan Zweig (don't know the English title) who starts to play against himself in while in prison. Good read.
on “When the prison banned board games, we played chess in our minds” ↗…frequency" to increase your vocabulary, and start reading children's books (Emil und die Detektive, Max und Moritz, u.s.w) then move onto slightly harder books like Kafka's Die Verwandlung and Zweig's Schachnovelle. Max und Moritz is hilarious btw, so don't skip it!
on “Show HN: Learn German with Short Stories” ↗…of the American attitude, is determined to press for unification of the entire German labor movement."" and more directly to your point (that overt identities may not even matter), I would say Zweig's Schachnovelle is an extended meditation on parties who continue politics by openly unlawful yet unopposed force.
on “The Digital Maginot Line (2018)” ↗…progress-and-civilisation of his corner of the nineteenth century to the fake-news[1]-and-senseless-violence[2] of the twentieth (Zweig hung on after the first barbaric shock, but gave up after the second. I think Schachnovelle pretty much captures the mood he must've been in.) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23777984 [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23895444 [2] we're all familiar with this; I had had better…
on “Ride through Wuppertal on ‘the flying train’ in clear footage from 1902” ↗True, a theme explored in Stefan Zweig's Schachnovelle ("The Royal Game") (a more literary exploration of the "playing chess with a pigeon" joke)
on “The ‘Smart’ Party Never Learns, if your views are by definition enlightened” ↗Just going by publication date alone, I think Das Glasperlenspiel (1943) will be concretely different from Demian (1919). Like Zweig's Schachnovelle (1942), the question of how should/could intellectuals share a world with power-seeking anti-intellectuals* was, in the early 1940s, far from an abstraction. (if you have a personality suitable to attempt…
on “F* – A Proof-Oriented Programming Language” ↗…way of contrast with mid-XX fascism (whose most extreme proponents didn't even bother tracing out their paths as concluders, who at least attempt to motivate their conclusions, would). Compare Zweig, Schachnovelle (1942).
on “Weavers and Concluders: Two communication styles (2021)” ↗