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"Carl Haffner’s love of the draw" is an interesting novel by the Austrian writer Thomas Glavinic. It has appeared first in German (1998) and then in English (1999). The book tells the story of the great Austrian chess player Carl Schlechter, presented under the name of Haffner, and his 1910 world championship match with the German then world champion Emmanuel Lasker. An able chess player himself, Glavinic keeps his direct references to chess at a minimum, in order to emphaSIZE=the psychology of the heroes. Schlechter’s story becomes a motive to present the passions aroused by the game, tracing the connection between the human fate of the players and their chess personality. The hero, living in want and privation, manages gradually to reach the top. His shy nature, however, prevents him from taking advantage of his achievement and few suspect his misery. This fundamental experience determines Schlechter’s approach as a chess player: instead of trying to win, his game is aimed to avoiding defeat, just as in his life he aims not at domination but just at preserving himself. Against this, the established and successful Lasker embodies the opposite principle of the will to victory. The result is an interesting, lively contrast of the two players, who are not only antipodes, but at the same time complement each other. If Lasker, besides his fighting spirit, has trust in his strength and psychological insight, Schlechter is a superior technician, an advantage that turns him to an almost invincible player on the chessboard. The one possesses thus what is missing to the other in order to rise to perfection. The writer puts the always acute Lasker make the remarks: “What an odd fellow he was, this Haffner: so nervous on entering the chess club, he could hardly stay on his feet. He had not uttered a word during the opening ceremony. A big crowd had applauded him, and he had looked as if he wanted to creep under the carpet… Incredible that such a character should be playing chess for the supreme title. Equally incredible was the way he’d sat there, firm as a rock, since the game began. He radiated an assurance that wasn’t in character. Haffner favours a style of play that differs entirely from that of my opponents of the last fifteen years. Steinitz, Marshall, Tarrasch and Janowski were all inclined to take the initiative, whereas the Austrian champion’s predominant concern is safety… If, at the right juncture, Haffner’s strategy were allied with initiative, the perfect style would have been attained and Haffner would be unbeatable. It is not, however, given to any mortal man to be infallible. A chess player’s virtues are only approximations to the ideal”. The match will take a bad course for the world champion when, after four draws, he loses after a serious mistake the fifth game. Four more draws will follow until Lasker will be able to force his opponent’s resignation in the last game of the match, saving his crown. He will achieve this however only because Schlechter will voluntarily avoid a draw in that game, playing for the win so that no one will accuse him he won the title by avoiding battle. Portraying realistically the chess microcosm, the book offers valuable insights in the spiritual atmosphere of pre-war Vienna. Haffner’s impasse resembles in the end the fate of the chess players’ majority, at a time when the well being of a few patrons goes hand in hand with uncertainty and misery of everyday life. Christos Kefalis ************ If you like music, you may choose now a fine background Music:
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