The Royal Game recap

During an Atlantic voyage, an unnamed narrator becomes interested in fellow passenger Mirko Czentovic, the aloof world chess champion. A wealthy traveller pays Czentovic to face a group of amateurs, whose second game is saved by the unexpected guidance of Dr. B. Dr. B. explains that the Nazis once held him in complete isolation while seeking financial information. He stole a collection of master chess games, memorized them, and eventually began playing invented games against himself until the mental division caused a breakdown. On the ship he accepts one test against Czentovic and wins. In a rematch, the champion's calculated slowness revives Dr. B.'s compulsive inner play. When he mistakes an imagined position for the real board, the narrator stops him. Dr. B. concedes and renounces chess permanently, choosing sanity over another victory.

On a passenger ship travelling from New York to Buenos Aires, the narrator learns that the withdrawn world chess champion Mirko Czentovic is aboard. Czentovic's talent was discovered in youth despite his otherwise limited education, and he now treats chess as both profession and source of status. The narrator and the competitive McConnor arrange a paid game in which Czentovic easily defeats a group of passengers. During a second game, an unknown Austrian, Dr. B., intervenes with precise advice and enables the group to draw. He later explains that Nazi officials once detained him to extract information about assets he had protected for aristocratic and religious clients. Held alone in a hotel room and subjected to repeated questioning, he stole a book containing master chess games. Memorizing the games preserved his mind at first, but after exhausting them he began playing imaginary games against himself. The forced split between two competing sides developed into a dangerous obsession and a breakdown. A doctor obtained his release but warned him away from chess. Dr. B. nevertheless agrees to one game against Czentovic and wins. In the rematch, Czentovic slows the pace until Dr. B. again becomes consumed by imagined variations and confuses them with the real board. The narrator recalls him to himself; Dr. B. concedes, apologizes, and leaves, resolving never to play again.

Dr. B. defeats Czentovic in their first individual game, provoking the champion into requesting a rematch. Czentovic then deliberately plays at an extremely slow pace. During the second game Dr. B. begins retreating into the divided mental state created during his imprisonment, calculating imagined variations faster than the actual game can proceed and losing contact with the board before him. He announces a check that does not exist. The narrator intervenes and reminds him of his illness. Recognizing the return of his dangerous obsession, Dr. B. stops the game, apologizes, and says he will never play chess again. Czentovic is left technically victorious and remarks that his opponent had considerable ability, while Dr. B. preserves himself by walking away from the contest.