Austrian author Thomas Glavinic produced a book in 1999 entitled “Carl Haffner’s Love Of The Draw”.  The book is predominantly a fictional account of the 1910 match for the world chess championship between Emanuel Lasker and Carl Schlechter.  The main character in theory is Schlechter, but his name has been changed to Carl Haffner for the purposes of the book.  All other players (Lasker, Albin, Janowski, etc.) and accounts of the match seem to be mostly factual.

The story begins with the preparations for the world title match to begin in Vienna and to conclude in Berlin.  Viennese writer and chess columnist George Hummel is one of the main characters and a devout fan of Haffner.  His belief that Haffner’s defensive genius at the chessboard will hold Lasker without a win is reiterated throughout the book.

Between most of the match games, Glavinic goes back in time to describe the childhood and upbringing of our main character.  He also proceeds to give a background on his chess career, from moments as a child prodigy in the coffee houses of Vienna to winning equal first with Harry Nelson Pillsbury at the 1900 Munich tournament.  Details which explain the events leading up to Haffner’s tile shot against Lasker are also given at various points of the novel.

The author paints a picture of Haffner as a kind, shy, unassuming man with a chess style built for defense and consequently, for draws.  Throughout the book you notice that Haffner’s health steadily deteriorates, both during the match and afterwards.  Some explanation of this is aimed at the stress of the match itself, as well as the fear that he might actually be victorious and have to deal with the rigors of being world champion.  It is almost implied throughout the story that he actually has no interest in winning the match.

One of the more often used minor characters is Anna Feiertanz, who was drawn to the match and to Haffner from a newspaper article that she had read leading up to the match.  Her interaction and flirtation with Haffner keep you slightly entertained.  Anna is a woman who performs several odd jobs to make money and eventually accompanies Haffner to Berlin to act as correspondent for the absent Hummel.

I am very curious as to how much of the background stories are facts and which are fiction.  The portrayed atmosphere of both the cafes and the actual playing sites are very intriguing.  Not knowing much about Schlechter previous to reading this book, I had no idea that his life and final days painted such a sad picture.  It immediately brought to mind the sorrowful tales of both Paul Morphy and Wilhelm Steinitz.

I will say that the childhood stories seemed to drag on a little too much and at times, caused me to temporarily lose interest in the book.  I also felt that the actual chess games could have been discussed in greater detail.  Glavinic brilliantly accomplished this with the tenth and final game of the match.  He made several references to particular moves and actually made me want to pull the game up and follow along.

Other than the couple of minor negatives mentioned, I felt that the book was a good purchase and I’m sure that I’ll pick back up and read it again one day.  It definitely fueled my interest in Carl Schlechter and I’m confident that you will be seeing some of his historic games on this blog in the very near future.

– Kevin Marchese

To find new and used copies of this book for purchase, click HERE.

When I first heard of actor Heath Ledger’s recent and unfortunate death,  I was very sad as he was one of my favorite movie actors. His performances in “A Knight’s Tale” and “The Patriot” were remarkable and have lured me into watching these two movies over and over again. I was additionally happy to hear that he would be playing the role of the Joker in the Batman Dark Knight movie sequel, which I believe he finished filming prior to his passing.

News releases covering this tragedy divulged that Ledger was a big chess fan, playing the game nearly every day.  It was also reported that he would play against the regulars at a local park and although he lost frequently, he always enjoyed playing. Another interesting fact uncovered by all of this was that Ledger was set to make his directorial debut, directing a movie based on a 1983 Walter Tevis novel called “The Queen’s Gambit”. 

I scoured some of the more frequented chess newsgroups and forums on the web and saw that most heavily criticized the book.  Knowing from prior experiences that most chess enthusiasts are overly critical of most everything,  my curiosity got the better of me and I ordered a used copy of the book online at Abe Books.  I quickly read the entire novel in matter of a few days and decided to write a quick review of the book.

The story is about a young orphan by the name of Elizabeth Harmon, whose mother dies in an automobile accident when Beth (as she’s called in the book) is only eight years old. She spends approximately four years at an orphanage in Kentucky where she learns how to play chess from a quiet and mysterious custodian, who eventually gives her an old copy of Modern Chess Openings, which quickly becomes young Beth’s bible.  She learns openings from the book and plays through all of them in her mind while lying in bed every night.  Beth quickly begins to defeat her mentor on a regular basis, showing signs of being a born chess prodigy.

Beth is eventually adopted by a Lexington couple (Mr. & Mrs.Wheatley) just before turning thirteen and begins her journey onto a promising chess career.   Her trials and tribulations are told as she goes from local tournaments all the way to international events, even battling alcoholism along the way.  The regular use of chess terms and openings throughout the book keeps the chess fan in you interested and wanting to read on to the end.  The author makes reference to historical chess literature (Deutsche Schachzeitung, Eches Europe, American Chess Bulletin) and expertly blends in actual chess professionals (Tal, Petrosian, Reshevsky. etc.) with the book’s fictional chess characters (Watts, Beltik, Borgov, Luchenko).

Chess openings are discussed and elaborated (Sicilian, Caro-Kann, Ruy Lopez, etc.) just enough to make the games seem a little more real and enjoyable to follow in the reader’s mind.  Beth’s exhaustive preparation for tournaments and hours of hard work give a realistic insight to the torturous practice habits of true chess professionals.  The only real complaint that I have about the book is the lack of drawn games, as Beth seems to only win or lose.  With draws making up more than half of chess games in the real world, this was a little difficult to get used to while reading the story.

All in all, I highly recommend the book as it keeps you entertained and wanting to see what happens next.  The main character was very likable and easy to identify with in many different aspects.  As long as you are not expecting “The Grapes of Wrath” or some deep Shakespearian story, I would think that the casual chess fan should thoroughly enjoy this book.  My hope is that the movie plans for this novel will continue on despite the tragic death of Mr. Ledger.