Paolo Maurensig
La Variante di Luneburg

Can a game of chess lead to suicide? It seems so, as we can read from this short but very enjoyable novel written by Paolo Maurensig in 1993.

Kasparov used to say that chess is one of the most violent sports in the world, hard to believe, unless a fit of rage leads you to jam a bishop into the eye of the person in front of you. No one would ever consider such a statement possible or true. In this little gem, the author manages to provide a plausible interpretation of the Russian champion's assertion, and he does it by telling us a story in reverse, starting from the end, mixing novel, psychological aspects, history, thriller, and mystery coated with a veil of enigma that will never completely dissolve, all centered around the highly complex game of chess.

A wealthy businessman, Dieter Frisch, is found dead in his villa, killed by a shot fired from his own gun, so one might think of revenge, maybe a settling of accounts. However, there is a detail that doesn't convince the investigators: a chessboard made of white and black fabric pieces sewn together and pawns made from buttons of various sizes, with the initials of each game piece engraved on them. The reason behind that rag doesn't make sense, as Frisch was an internationally recognized "Master" and editor of a famous chess magazine, so he could have played on much more prestigious boards than that, and it wasn't even his property. Much stranger, on the "playing field" was a particular move represented, to which the man had devoted several articles in his magazine, he called it the "Black Variant", but it's much better known as "The Luneburg Variant".

From here, the author takes us back in time, to the journey on the Berlin-Vienna express, where every Friday you could find Mr. Frisch and his faithful assistant Baum engaged in the noble game, oblivious to everything happening around them, until a young man enters the compartment and begins to study the layout of the pawns, noticing that Frisch had adopted a well-known variant, "the black variant", against the poor Baum, a move that, as also highlighted by the newcomer, a "disturbing" presence initially not much appreciated by the two, would surely lead him to certain defeat if not conducted properly.

Intrigued by the young man's observation, Frisch grows increasingly curious and begins to ask questions of the stranger, named Hans Mayer, also a professional player but one who hadn't been active for some time. Thus, Hans begins to tell his story, marked by a deep passion for chess, which first brought him a rapid rise, guided by another champion, Tabori, whom he met in a chess club (or perhaps better said "dive"), the "Der Rote Engel", who taught Mayer all the techniques he knew, then led to an unstoppable psychological decline, compounded by the disappearance of his mentor at a time of greatest need.

Tabori was a chess champion, one of those with an indelible "branding" stamped in the middle of his forehead, and he lost by a hair (or, more precisely, "sabotage") the most important match of his career, against a rising S.S. officer. From there, the historical component intervenes, bringing us back to the atrocious horrors of the Nazi extermination camps, which Tabori, being of Jewish origin, did not escape. In that grim place, he found the Nazi officer again, who, not finding opponents up to his level, insisted on having him as a challenger, sparing him a horrible fate and setting a macabre stakes: human lives. The disputes between the two would continue until the camp's "liberation" by the Russians.

The young Hans's story will deeply mark Frisch's conscience and will be decisive for the wealthy entrepreneur's extreme gesture. Mayer can be seen as a date with destiny, one from which no one can escape, not even by changing identity, ways of living, and hiding behind unassailable affluence and respectability.

A novel that flows smoothly from the first to the last page, capturing the reader's attention and above all curiosity, alternating and managing to tie together very well the various stories of each protagonist without losing the plot or risking boredom, also thanks to the short duration of the writing, the reverse narration, and the fact that it's not always the usual "investigator" explaining a crime, but the main characters themselves.

Highly recommended for those who do not have much time to read but seek a quality product contained in a few pages.