I really wanted to like this, but in the end it seemed more trifling that substantive. A foreword tries hard to make the case for the novelette as a showcase for writing craft mastery, in the device of the narrator telling the story through the voice of a different character. But in this case, or two related stories told by two different narrators, the stories are of different events, so there is no complexity added in the point of view. And the central characters (the chess opponents) are exaggerated “very serious literary characters” (you know, the kind who never go to the bathroom). There is no arc to the story, really. or at least the small arc of each chess master moving their understanding of their chess self a little bit did not resonate with me. Characters: Czentovic, the peasant grandmaster, and Dr. B., a discreet lawyer of the Austrian aristocracy imprisoned by the Nazi’s.