The Royal Game characters

Appears from the start

An unnamed passenger on a ship bound from New York to Buenos Aires. Curious about the world chess champion travelling aboard, he helps arrange the encounters through which the champion and the mysterious Dr. B. are brought together.

Also known as The world champion

Appears from the start

The reigning world chess champion, raised in poverty and discovered to possess an extraordinary narrow gift for the game. He is slow, guarded, and commercially minded away from the board, with little education or curiosity beyond chess.

Appears from the start

A wealthy engineer among the ship's passengers. Intensely competitive and unable to accept an easy defeat, he pays Czentovic to play a consultation game against a group of amateurs and presses for another chance when the first game is lost.

Appears from the start

A reserved Austrian passenger whose sudden advice saves the amateurs from defeat. He claims not to have touched a chessboard for many years, yet reads the position with a mastery that attracts Czentovic's attention. His skill is connected to severe isolation and persecution before his escape from Europe.

Appears from the start

The official who repeatedly questions Dr. B. after the Nazi authorities imprison him in isolation. The interrogations exploit monotony, uncertainty, and the deprivation of ordinary human contact rather than placing him in a conventional cell.