7.09.2014

subtleties of the game

Gradually, in what at first had been purely mechanical repetitions of the championship matches, an artistic, pleasurable understanding began to awaken in me. I learned to understand the subtleties of the game [chess], the tricks and ruses of attack and defense, I grasped the technique of thinking ahead, combination, counter-attack, and soon I could recognize the personal style of every grandmaster as infallibly from his own way of playing a game as you can identify a poet’s verses from only a few lines.

—Stefan Zweig, Chess (Penguin Mini Modern Classics, 2011: Copyright Stephan Zweig 1943; translation copyright by Anthea Bell, 2006)

2 comments:

Conrad DiDiodato said...

Excellent analogy! Substitute "the poem" for "the game" and the point is just as valid.

Tricks, ruses and technique mark the poem as much as meter and rhyme.

JforJames said...

I felt the same way, Conrad. But I failed to recast this quote into one of my "Substitution of Terms" posts...
http://ursprache.blogspot.com/search?q=substitution