Spanish Book Discussion: Una partida de ajedrez por Stefan Zweig

Una partida de ajedrez por Stefan Zweig

El campeón mundial de ajedrez, Mirko Czentovic, viaja en un buque de vapor desde Nueva York hacia Buenos Aires a disputar un torneo. McConnor, un obstinado pasajero aficionado, desde que se entera de su presencia no descansa hasta lograr jugar una partida con él, pero no le sale barato: doscientos cincuenta dólares por partida es el precio de Czentovic. El devenir de los acontecimientos cambia cuando entra en escena el Doctor B., un personaje extraño que ocasionalmente pasa por el lugar donde Czentovic se enfrentaba a McConnor. No puede evitar observar la partida y aconsejarle a McConnor las jugadas correctas para salvar la partida y obtener un empate.

Chess Story, also known as The Royal Game, tells the tale of travelers by ship from New York to Buenos Aires who find that on board with them is the world champion of chess, an arrogant and unfriendly man. They come together to try their skills against him and are soundly defeated. Then a mysterious passenger steps forward to advise them, and their fortunes change. How he came to possess his extraordinary grasp of the game of chess and at what cost lie at the heart of Zweig's story.

This novel is the Austrian master Stefan Zweig's final achievement, completed in Brazilian while in exile and sent off to his American publisher only days before his suicide in 1942. It is the only story in which Zweig looks at Nazism, and he does so with characteristic emphasis on the psychological.