The Vienna Review
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Author Thomas Glavinic: A tale of destitute genius in fin-de-siècle Vienna
Photo: Heribert Corn
Chess and the mysteries of human aggression: Carl Haffner’s Love of the Draw by Austrian author Thomas Glavinic
Constructing the Game By Cynthia Peck I played chess again one hot afternoon this summer. It had been a number of years. Surprising myself, my approach had changed radically: I had become aggressive. Lost was the long-ago defensive game I played with my brother. And lost was the careful game I had needed with my son, who already at seven could put up an excellent fight. At ten, my son discovered the elegance of the Japanese game called Go, and I lost my chess partner. But that didn’t bother me too much: chess had lost its appeal. I had finally beaten my brother, and out there in the world, the Machine had also beaten the grandmaster. The brute force programs had been refined with heuristic logic and pattern searches; there were even chess competitions between computers. Why still believe in human intuition? Luckily, I read Carl Haffner’s Love of the Draw. This wonderful book is a fictional account of the world chess championship held in 1910 in Vienna and Berlin between the actual world champion of the time, Emanuel Lasker, and the fictional Carl Haffner, who is modeled on the true Austrian grandmaster Karl Schlechter. At the time, the German Lasker had already been champion for sixteen years. But the Vienna
KARIM EL-GAWHARY’S TAGEBUCH DER ARABISCHEN REVOLUTION Head of the ORF’s (Austrian Broadcasting Company) foreign bureau in the Middle East, Karim El-Gawhary reported live from the heart of the revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. In this personal document of contemporary history, he takes us on a journey from the outset of the Tunisian revolution, to the protests at Tahrir Square, and the battle of the Libyan rebels. Reading in German. Sep. 8, 19:00 Thalia Buchhandlung 6., Mariahilferstraße 99, 01 595 45 50 www.thalia.at STADTLESEN READING IN THE CITY On Sept. 15 – 18, the main court of the Museumsquartier will be turned into a giant open-air living room, with beanbag chairs and freely accessible bookshelves. Bookworms can choose from 3,000 books of all genres and many languages. The event is part of the initiative StadtLesen, which tours through European cities and seeks to sparks the interest for reading. Sep. 15-18, 09-22:00 Museumsquartier, Haupthof 7., Museumsplatz 1, 01 523 58 81 www.mqw.at
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Chess Club was sure their Schlechter could secure the world title for Austria. Schlechter was a master, but he was particularly a master of the defense, with a style “always geared to safety.” Not aggressive, he was generally inclined to let a game finish undecided: Over half of the some 700 games he played in his professional career ended in a draw. As described by Glavinic, the unassuming Schlechter (alias Haffner) had to be pushed into challenging the world champion. In the quiet depiction of how the nearly destitute lived in fin de siècle Vienna, the life of the chess genius Haffner seems strangely foreign, but nevertheless painfully alive. Perhaps the most curious and yet finest point in Carl Haffner’s nature is his reluctance to be any sort of burden. He has an almost pathological modesty and a deep humility. He refuses any gain that he does not feel absolutely fairly earned. In contrast, his opponent Lasker, as portrayed in Love of the Draw, has “a fighting spirit unequalled by any player alive.” Chess is a silent sport, but it is nevertheless full of contemplative fury, minute choreography of skill, and slow-motion wrestling. It is not merely a game with 64 squares; it is much more than the memorization of openings or tactical
positioning. It is the encounter of two psyches, a meeting of two temperaments. When Haffner meets his foe, he is upset and embarrassed by the hullabaloo. In return, Lasker eyes Haffner intently, assumes a “serene and lofty manner,” and puffs on a cigar. As in solving any problem, in chess it is possible to play a pugilist game, boxing your way forward. It is also possible to choose a game that builds walls and nearly immobile defenses. Some players prefer symmetry in the opening , others immediately fight for the center of the board. Some strive for equality and others for the advantage. Some are willing to sacrifice pieces to gain positional strength, others are reluctant to lose a single one. “Every true master has a style of his own. A musician doesn’t invent songs, he composes them. A writer doesn’t simply write books, he puts them together. Similarly, a great chess master doesn’t play games, he constructs them.” The reluctant Austrian begins the challenge, moving carefully. But as Lasker immediately notices, Haffner “played chess with his entire self, not just with his brain.” The first four games all end in a draw. Then Haffner wins the fifth after a remarkable blunder by Lasker. In the tenth and final round, Haffner leads by a point. He opens strongly, and Lasker’s serenity is finally broken. Lasker knows that the final game, too, will most certainly end in a draw. Suddenly Haffner makes a move that is completely out of character. As the astonished spectators immediately see, “the Viennese challenger had lost his wits: he was playing to win.” Haffner considered his lead unmerited: to truly consider himself the world champion he had convinced himself that he needed to win by two points. But it is a shortlived aggression: just a few moves later, after a nearly paralyzed hour-long analysis of the board, Haffner “plays like a child” and loses the game. For a grandmaster, chess is like ballet, full of elegant series of moves that have been analyzed
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DAVID SAFIER’S HAPPY FAMILY After the bestsellers Schlechtes Karma, Jesus Liebt Mich and Plötzlich Shakespeare, the German screenwriter and author wittily discusses yet another subject of life in a fictitious yet close to home story. In his latest novel, Safier’s biting wit explores the everyday madness of family life. Why is it that teenagers smoke weed during pu-
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for hundreds of years. There are five categories of openings, each divided into a hundred subcategories, of which each has a name. These are patterns that masters can dance in their sleep. What for us amateurs can feel like slow plowing forward, or even tedious and complicated stumbling, is for a master a rapid attack or defense that can be implemented again and again. In the end, Haffner returns to his humble life in Vienna. But Lasker’s triumph is not a true victory. Although the victor takes the spoils, in this case a gold watch, both he and the defeated know that it was merely due to Haffner’s retreat in the last moment that left the balance of the scales in Lasker’s favor. Love of the Draw is an unassuming book, much like the title’s protagonist, but it is rich in the subtle intricacies of human nature. The succulent vocabulary of John Brownjohn’s translation from the original German is a pleasure. But above all, the book reawakened my interest in how and why people play chess. Chess is not the “real world,” nor is the solving of chess problems a metaphor for it. But the mental process of disentangling the myriad possibilities offered in a game of chess is deeply satisfying. It is comparable to moving through the clean steps of a mathematical algorithm or reading a long crime novel. It leaves the mind both exhausted and refreshed. And so I will play more chess. But not like Haffner. It seems that I would rather, like Lasker, “accept losses in order to lure an opponent onto dangerous ground.” It has been a revealing glimpse into my own psyche and, I must admit, the idea is exhilarating. Carl Haffner’s Love of the Draw by Thomas Glavinic (John Brownjohn, transl.) The Harvill Press (1999) available at Shakespeare & Company Booksellers 1., Sterngasse 2, (01) 535 5053
Boards ready at the Vienna Chess Open at the Wiener Rathaus in August Photo: Vienna Chess Open
World of Books JOÃO UBALDO RIBEIRO UM BRASILEIRO EM BERLIN (A BRASILIAN IN BERLIN) Spending a year in Berlin in 1990, the Brazilian journalist and author wittily portrayed the Germans and the radical changes brought about by the fall of the Wall in the new, reunited German capital. Commissioned by the daily Frankfurter Rundschau to write a column, Um Brasileiro em Berlin, is a compilation of selected commentaries thereof. Reading in Portuguese and German. Sep. 16, 19:00 Hauptbücherei, 01 400 08 45 00 7., Urban-Loritz-Platz 2a http://www.buechereien.wien.at
The Vienna Review
berty, when it really should be their parents, is one question raised by the perplexed mother in the story. Reading in German. Sep. 17, 19:00 Museumsquartier, Haupthof 7., Museumsplatz 1, 01 523 58 81 www.mqw.at MARY HIGGINS CLARK READS I’LL WALK ALONE Struggling to bring the normalcy back into her life after her son has been kidnapped from a stroller in Central Park, an interior designer learns that someone has stolen her identity. Photos surface, suggesting that she herself has kidnapped the boy. Convinced he is still alive, she sets out to find the person responsible. By the bestselling author Mary Higgins Clark, who will give a reading in Vienna for the first time in the Kriminacht (Crime Novel Night). Readings in English and German. Reservation required. Sep. 20, 19:30 Cafe Schwarzenberg 1., Kärnter Ring 17, 01 512 89 98 www.kriminacht.at
SIMON BECKETT READING FROM THE GRAVE Three girls disappear. Their murderer confesses but keeps it secret where he buried them. When he breaks out of prison eight years later, Dr. David Hunter, who had been appointed to the case, is haunted by the past. By the British author and journalist, Simon Beckett. Readings are part of the Kriminacht (crime novel night) and held in English and German. Sep. 20, 20:00 Fernwärme Wien, 9., Spittelauer Lände 45, 01 313 26 0 www.kriminacht.at No reservations possible TONY O’ NEILL READS FROM SICK CITY A legendary sex tape. Two desperate dope friends. Three million dollars. Welcome to Sick City! In this thriller, the New York-based author and musician explores the dirty side of Hollywood through the eyes of two junkies. A former drug addict himself, O’ Neill captures the reader with blatant candor, humour and almost disgusting, thick visual descriptions. Read in German and English. Sep. 20, 20:00 Rabenhof Theater 3., Rabengasse 3, 01 712 82 82 www.rabenhoftheater.com
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