Chess in Literature

The Royal Game (Chess Story - Schachnovelle)

Novella by Stefan Zweig with woodcuts by Elke Rehder

Some years ago, I got some original drawings by Hans Fronius from Erich Fitzbauer in Vienna. Fronius illustrated the "Schachnovelle" for the publishing house Bermann Fischer 1949 in Stockholm. The small book contains 7 illustrations. The pictures show the young Czentovic in front of the chessboard, a cafe house scene, a steamer accompanied by sea gulls in the foreground, Dr. B. laying in a deckchair, a sea gull catching a big fish, three sitting and two standing people around a table and Dr. B. leaving Czentovic after the last game. I like the kind of art by Hans Fronius very much, but I had other ideas and I was looking behind the action to understand the meaning. Consciously I avoided to illustrate the book again. My request was to represent the idea behind it. In 1996 I published a portfolio with 6 woodcuts on Dosabiki Masashi Japanese paper.

The 1942 published "Schachnovelle" is such a multilayered novella that repetitive reading points out new aspects again and again. Stefan Zweig described masterfully the psychological procedures of people. This novella was published in countless editions and was translated into nearly all languages of the world, but I like to describe the contents here very briefly:

On a steamer on the journey from New York to Buenos Aires plays the Austrian emigrant Dr. B. (a certain soul relationship to Stefan Zweig is to assume here), an intelligent, creative and sensitive man, against the chess world champion Czentovic. In this framework novella there is the story of Dr. B., who was held in prison by the Gestapo in the Nazi regime. By coincidence he catched a book with master games of chess. Without a chess board he trained the combinations. In his jail cell he began to play against himself, which caused a personality splitting and this manifested itself in a "chess poisoning". This kind of the "poisoning" caused a "nerve fever".


Stefan Zweig chess story The Royal Game woodcut 1	Stefan Zweig chess story The Royal Game woodcut 2


Stefan Zweig chess story The Royal Game woodcut 3	Stefan Zweig chess story The Royal Game woodcut 4


Stefan Zweig chess story The Royal Game woodcut 5	Stefan Zweig chess story The Royal Game woodcut 6

On the steamer Dr. B. gets a "Remis" against the chess world champion Czentovic. The world champion is playing like a robot but is not able to think abstract. He needs the optical perception of the chessboard.

Against his will Dr. B. is forced to a second game. Czentovic uses the psychological weakness of his opponent by using his time limit. In the waiting periods Dr. B. begins to simulate in his spirit imaginary game situations. The consequence is a "chess poisoning" as in his earlier solitary confinement. Before an arising "chess fever" can cause his collapse, Dr. B. gives up the game. Czentovic, whose mental horizon does not seem to go beyond the 64 squares of the chessboard, triumphed in his statement: "The attack was not so badly disposed at all. For a dilettante this gentleman is actually unusually talented".

Sensitivity and differentiated intelligence are lost. This is also the fate of many intellectuals in that time, who could save themselves from the destruction only by escape into the emigration.

Stefan Zweig warns with his story against the endangerment of the liberally humanistic spirit by the political force. Zweig thought that his novella was too abstract "for the large public". Perhaps this was also the reason for the fact that the novella was published by Pigmalion in Buenos Aires first only in an edition of 250 copies, and/or by Kramer in an edition of only 50 copies.

For Stefan Zweig the emigration was a large psychological load. In end of the novella Dr. B. will not be able to play the royal game. Zweig believed that he will never see again the liberal Europe. The game is over and always settled. For Dr. B. as for Stefan Zweig there will be no way out, both are victims.

In 1942 Stefan Zweig and his wife Lotte commited suicide. In his farewell letter Zweig wrote: "After the sixtieth year of life it requires special forces, to begin completely new. And mine are exhausted by the long years of homeless walking. Thus I hold it for better to end in time and in upright attitude a life for that mental work always has been the greatest joy and personal freedom has been the highest property on the earth." Despite his security in the emigration Zweig could not get over the loss of the liberal Europe.

Not only under the chess players the "Royal Game" enjoys a large popularity as literary masterpiece. When I published 1996 during the international Frankfurt book fair my artistic interpretation of this novella, I could not foresee that the edition of 36 copies was out of print in a very short time.

The woodcuts were printed from two blocks on Japanese paper. Dosabiki Masashi is a fine, handmade paper. The prints were individually pressed by hand.

(Excerpt from the exhibition catalog of "artist books and graphic printmaking by Elke Rehder in the collection of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Library in Hannover" 2006)

The symbolism in the short story "Chess" by Slawomir Mrozek

With the symbolism in the game of chess I already argued as an artist for many years. In my fantasy the chessmen lead an independent existence. It became clear to me by observing an open air chess game in a city park. In that kind of game, the players themselves stood on the black and white squares.

Chess - is also the title of a short story by the Polish writer Slawomir Mrozek. Mrozek belongs together with Samuel Beckett and Friedrich Dürrenmatt to the most important dramatists of our time. The German literary critic Marcel Reich-Ranicki describes it with the following words: "Mrozek is an committed writer - thus he regards the literature not for a noble play with words, but as a medium to affect people. He is humorist - thus he means it particularly serious. He is satirist - thus he lampoons the world, in order to improve it. He is surrealist - thus he cares about the reality, which he alienate with unrealistic motives, in order to clarify it. He is a man of the absurd one - thus he shows the paradoxical to provoke the sense."

These ideas conform with my point of view and so I illustrated the story. This story shows the analogy between the game of chess and the valid rules in our life. The chessmen in my paintings develop an independent existence similarly to Mrozeks short story.

The strategic thinking in a game of chess is comparable with the procedure in our working world and environment. For goal attainment the strategically important positions on the squares must be set by suitable people. The possibilities of action are limited by the rules. The relations between the chessmen are unlimited like the relations in our everyday life. Often a "small pawn" decides the development of a whole game, like in the short story by Slawomir Mrozek.


Chess - "The crucial step" colour etching by Elke Rehder	Chess - "Under guidance of the knight" colour etching by Elke Rehder


Chess - "Let us not deceive ourselves" colour etching by Elke Rehder	Chess - "The hollow strokes of a knife" colour etching by Elke Rehder

artists book by Elke Rehder on Slawomir Mrozek short story Chess

Hand bound goat leather bookbinding for the artist's book by Elke Rehder.

For the book I created six colour etchings, which were printed on thick mould-made paper. Text printed by letterpress printing. In the face of a constantly growing number of carelessly mass productions on the book market, I decided to create this book to a sensuous experience. For this reason I used only precious and high-quality materials for this book. This bibliophile preciousness, hand bound in black oasis goat leather, is limited to only 30 copies. For each book a whole goat skin was used and the best leather was selected. Also the smell of the leather is a sensuous experience. The precious hand binding is a masterpiece by famous German bookbinder Christian Zwang in Hamburg.

Print from a brass plate for the Compendium of Contemporary Hand Press Printing, Bartkowiaks forum book art, Hamburg 1995.

Excerpt from a press release by the Frankfurt International Book Fair 1995