''Carl Haffner's Love of the Draw'' (german: Carl Haffners Liebe zum Unentschieden) is a 1998 chess novel by Austrian writer

Thomas Glavinic Thomas Glavinic (born 2 April 1972 in Graz) is an Austrian writer. With Kathrin Röggla and Daniel Kehlmann, he is among other contemporary Austrian authors being perceived as significantly shaping the literary discussion in Austria. Life The f ...

. It was Glavinic's first novel and is about a shy and withdrawn Viennese

chess master A chess title is a title regulated by a chess governing body and bestowed upon players based on their performance and rank. Such titles are usually granted for life. The international chess governing body FIDE grants several titles, the most pres ...

who in 1910 challenges the

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

for his title. The book was translated into English in 1999 by

John Brownjohn John Maxwell Brownjohn (11 April 1929 – 6 January 2020) was a British literary translator. Career John Brownjohn translated more than 160 books, and won the Schlegel-Tieck Prize for German translation three times and the Helen and Kurt Wolf ...

for London-based publisher

Harvill Press Harvill Secker is a British publishing company formed in 2005 from the merger of Secker & Warburg and the Harvill Press. History Secker & Warburg Secker & Warburg was formed in 1935 from a takeover of Martin Secker, which was in receivership, ...

Plot summary

The novel is set mainly in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

in 1910. It presents a fictionalised account of a famous 1910 World Chess Championship match between Austrian grandmaster

Carl Schlechter Carl Schlechter (2 March 1874 – 27 December 1918) was a leading Austro-Hungarian chess master and theoretician at the turn of the 20th century. He is best known for drawing a World Chess Championship match with Emanuel Lasker. Early life Sch ...

and the reigning

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

champion

Emanuel Lasker Emanuel Lasker (; December 24, 1868 – January 11, 1941) was a German chess player, mathematician, and philosopher who was World Chess Champion for 27 years, from 1894 to 1921, the longest reign of any officially recognised World Chess Champ ...

. The eponymous Carl Haffner, closely based on Schlechter, is a withdrawn character with an eccentric preference for

drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...

games instead of winning. The narrative switches between the ten games of the 1910 World Championship and Haffner's psychological development in

childhood A child (plural, : children) is a human being between the stages of childbirth, birth and puberty, or between the Development of the human body, developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers ...

and

adolescence Adolescence () is a transitional stage of physical and psychological development that generally occurs during the period from puberty to adulthood (typically corresponding to the age of majority). Adolescence is usually associated with the t ...

, showing how he used chess to overcome poverty.

Critical reception

The UK edition received a range of positive reviews in the mainstream UK press. ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' called it "strikingly good" and said that it was "one of chess's finest novels, sitting comfortably alongside

Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (russian: link=no, Владимир Владимирович Набоков ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian-American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Bo ...

's '' The Luzhin Defense'' and

Paolo Maurensig Paolo Maurensig (26 March 1943 – 29 May 2021) was an Italian novelist, best known for his book ''Canone inverso'' (1996), a complex tale of a violin and its owners. Biography Maurensig was born in Gorizia, northern Italy. Before becoming a n ...

's ''The Lüneburg Variation''". ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...

'' said: "Glavinic's novel achieves its considerable emotional impact slowly and subtly ... ewrites about a game as if it were a poem or a painting". ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

'' claimed that the book was "a brisk and powerful portrait of a chess prodigy" presented with "a combination of lyricism, philosophy and edginess". The novel made the 1999 ''

Daily Telegraph Daily or The Daily may refer to: Journalism * Daily newspaper, newspaper issued on five to seven day of most weeks * ''The Daily'' (podcast), a podcast by ''The New York Times'' * ''The Daily'' (News Corporation), a defunct US-based iPad new ...

'' book of the year list and was nominated for the 2001

International Dublin Literary Award The International Dublin Literary Award ( ga, Duais Liteartha Idirnáisiúnta Bhaile Átha Chliath), established as the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 1996, is presented each year for a novel written or translated into English. ...

References

{{reflist, refs= {{Citation , title=Carl Haffner’s Love of the Draw , last=Glavinic , first=Thomas , authorlink=Thomas Glavinic , publisher=

, location=

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, edition=1st , date=12 October 1999 , isbn=978-1-86046-676-2

External links

Carl Haffner’s Love of the Draw at the complete review literary website

Carl Haffner’s Love of the Draw at Thomas Glavinic official website (German)

1998 novels Austrian novels German-language novels Novels set in Vienna Chess in Austria Novels about chess Fiction set in 1910 20th-century Austrian novels 1998 debut novels