Dag Solstad's "Armand V: 5"
Pretty much just started. Put Franz and Milena aside but I'm sure I'll meet them again in Prague or Warsaw (count down: 5 days). Anyway, here's a clip on two friends and playing chess: So Jan Brosten and Paul Buer played chess together. They were an odd pair, especially since Jan was a much better player than Paul. If Jan had focused his attention on chess by joining a chess club, he probably would have gone far; the same could not be said of Paul. Yet both were happy amateurs, except that Jan was a much better player. What we can say is that Jan almost always won, and when he didn’t, it was a stalemate. Once in a while Paul would fight his way to a stalemate, and he was proud of that. And let’s be honest, sometimes Paul did win, on occasions when Jan had squandered most of his pieces in a battle with his own fascinating intuition. Because Jan played in a way that was directly contrary to how many would have thought he’d proceed. He opened with grea t daring, what many m...