The Royal Game (1943)
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The Royal Game Book Review
The Royal Game is a 1943 novella by the Austrian author Stefan Zweig. It ranks among his best novellas.
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“The more one limits oneself,
the closer one is to the infinite“
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It is the story of a man who outwits the Gestapo and finds the courage to go on living. Whilst in prison, he finds sanctuary in chess, but later on engages in a confrontation with the chess prodigy of the day. This work showcases the power of novellas and how often they are neglected as a literary format, but in actuality they can be more potent than novels or short stories when executed correctly as this one was.
The narrative begins with an almost biographical account of a chess prodigy named Czentovic. He is an idiot savant and a lot of humor and insightful commentary about the sport itself could be found in these passages. This first half of the novella was so engaging and memorable that it came as a surprise when the second half introduced an entirely different character and was all the better for it.
Dr B. is the protagonist of the novella, a man who endured torture at the hands of Gestapo, but found purpose in the game of chess through a book manual. This is where the best part of the novella lies as we witness not just how this game works, but also the monomaniac obsession of this character. The story hints at how obsessive and fixated we can become with our hobbies and getting into the mind of Dr B. was exhilarating. This psychological exploration was both potent and quite intriguing as his mind almost seemed to be operating in an entirely different realm. The author also made a great point that those people who are limited to just one hobby will undoubtedly become more adept at said hobby.
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The Royal Game was wonderfully written. Stefan Zweig’s writing style is confident and concise while still being meaningful and deep. A lot of thematic resonance and even emotional engagement was mined from such a short book, which is a testament to the storytelling prowess of this author. While the second half’s power did negatively impact the first half of the story (Dr B. also was more interesting than Czentovic at the end of the day), the entirety of the novella still made for an excellent read. The dialogue was terrific, the pacing was just right and the flashback was immaculately structured within the larger narrative.
