"Chess" (not the musical)

Finished Stefan Zweig's 1943 novella "Chess" in two bus trips and a bathroom visit. The plotting's exquisite and, presumably, so was the original language (it's translated from German). Here's an outline: When a group of passengers on a cruise ship discover the world chess champion is also on board, they pester him for a game. The man agrees, but only for a sizeable fee. His unmatched success has made him arrogant and he takes great delight in besting their combined efforts at the board. As the amateurs seek revenge in a second game, a stranger appears, begins offering advice and turns a losing position into a shock draw. A one-on-one showdown is inevitable. But although the champ's own peasant-to-potentate tale is an amazing one, it's nothing compared to the ordeal the stranger has been through as a prisoner of the Nazi regime. Subject to a unique form of psychological torture, chess has come to mean more to him than to the most studious grandmaster. It has simultaneously rebuilt and destroyed him. Whatever the result, the third game can only end in tragedy.