This is what Chess Story can give some insight into. A lot of people find themselves struggling so much mentally that it will have repercussions on their mental health for the remainder of their lives.

This is why I feel the novel is especially hard hitting during this pandemic.Īs we are locked down, asked not to see anyone and with poor visibility to the future of regulations, we have to wonder how people are able to mentally cope. We learn the immense value of a distraction, the value of having something to do. With this book, he has some way to keep his mind preoccupied, first by reading it, then by playing each game and all the moves against himself, through splitting his psyche into black and white. As he is on the brink of collapse, he manages to steal a small book from one of the guards, containing the moves from the 150 greatest games of chess. B is left with no distractions and the reader starts to see his mind slowly unravels as the moths go on. B in a concentration camp, he is placed in a hotel room in Vienna where he is to stay until he shares the whereabouts of the wealth with the Nazi regime. His status as the guardian of the wealth of Austrian nobility, means that rather than place Dr. B was captured in the early years of the war. However, unlike Zweig, the reader learns that Dr. The novels protagonist is, much like Stefan Zweig was, an Austrian Jew fleeing the Nazi regime. However, what the novel offers, especially during corona, is much more than kindling an interest in chess. Jørgensen’s message was that reading about the intense chess matches in the novel would motivate the reader to try and learn the myriad of strategies that can be applied in the game. To motivate them to dive into the game that has been unchanged for literally centuries, he promoted the 1943 novel by Austrian author Stefan Zweig. At the beginning of the pandemic, whilst people were trying to make their sourdoughs whilst knitting a sweater and trying to find space in the cupboard for their excess toilet paper, Frederik Cilius Jørgensen encouraged people to play chess.

Stefan zweig chess novel