Chess

On a cruiseship bound for Buenos Aires, a passenger challenges the world chess champion to a match. He accepts with a sneer. The chess board is surrounded. At first, the challenger crumbles before the mind of the master. But then, a voice begins to whisper suggestions. The speaker is wholly unknown. But somehow, he is also entirely formidable.
'... a human being, an intellectual human being who constantly bends the entire force of his mind on the ridiculous task of forcing a wooden king into the corner of a wooden board, and does it without going mad!' A group of passengers on a cruise ship challenge the world chess champion to a match. At first, they crumble, until they are helped by whispered advice from a stranger in the crowd - a man who will risk everything to win. Stefan Zweig's acclaimed novella Chess is a disturbing, intensely dramatic depiction of obsession and the price of genius.