I'm not able to rate this novella by any means. It's only about 70 sites but i think its complete meaning is out of my scope. Zweig finished this work in February of 2018 in Brasil and kills himself and his wife only a few days later on. On the day of his suicide, he sent 4 copies of this novella to different publishers. He lived in exil, expelled from Austria which has been occupied by the Nazis and sufferring from depression. These background facts lead to a lot of interpretation of his last work. For instance, if the chess fight between the two main characters represents the fight between fascists and democrats. At the end of the version I read my book, 10 sites of interpretations were appended, trying to give a broad overview of existing interpretation. Most of them try to figure out in which dimension his last work is autobiographic, if he announces his own suicide or his lack of hope for humanity. And most importantly, what the chess game is referencing to. I'm not able to answer these questions after the book. I only got some ideas by reading the interpretations. But maybe this is the beauty of his last work: no clear answers, much room for interpretation, making the reader think.