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The book impresses us from the first moment not only for its skilful use of literary means and forms but also for the variety of its influences, including great men of letters, thinkers and philosophers, which make it more than a standard novel. In fact Arnellos employs the method of allegory, to construct an analogy between chess and life, in the way of the best traditions of already existing literature. The story centers in the erotic relationship between Hannibal, a personification of the writer himself, and Elisa. This relationship - and it is here that chess comes into the front - is adroitly compared with the famous “Immortal Game”, a friendly encounter between Anderssen and Kieseritski at London 1851. The writer proceeds thus to connect the microcosm of his heroes with the social macrocosm, from which their behaviors indirectly emanate. Particular emphasis is laid to the antithesis of Hannibal's romantic spirit, centered in the excitement of the moment, and the realistic temperament of Eliza, stressing the element of endurance in things. This fundamental antithesis is dealt through a parallel with the struggle between Anderssen’s romantic school and the more down to earth tendencies of modern chess. It is a merit of the book that it avoids any kind of simplification, showing how opposing approaches are connected and revived through their struggle in a dialectical manner. The book compares also favorably with other classics of chess literature, especially Stefan Zweig’s famous Chess-novel. Zweig had used chess in order to portray the intellectual climate of the prewar period, thus depicting the collision between the humanitarian all-round ideal of man and the rising wave of fascist madness and brutality. Arnellos ably performs the task with respect to the present age of neo-conservatism, presenting his hero as a vampire, crushed by the lie and the unreality of his world. In this chess proves a suitable means, if we judge from a typical Lasker aphorism he quotes: "On the chess board lies and hypocrisy do not survive long. The creative combination lays bare the presumption of a lie" (p.132). Let us hope the book will be soon translated at least in English, so that it is made accessible to the foreign public. A painting of the well Known Greek artist and chess player Nicolas Sphicas is inspired by Arnellos’s novel: A Game of Chess, Oil on canvas, 2002. The small rooster in the middle is a children toy, making an allusion to the child of the woman figure, symbolizing Elisa. Both hair-covers are of Hellenistic origin, from existing idols. Christos Kefalis ************ If you like music, you may choose now a fine background Music:
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