The Luzhin Defense

I’d like to recommend The Luzhin Defense by Vladimir Nabakov, an English translation of which is available from Penguin. It follows the life of Luzhin, an awkward, troubled boy who discovers an escape, and a defence, in chess, becoming a child prodigy, and eventually a top class grandmaster contending for the world title. Luzhin as a man is unkempt, absent minded and somewhat mean spirited. He goes through his life merely operating the physical necessities, his body an unhealthy vessel for transporting his mind. It explores the idea of chess as an obsession, or, more generally, the obsessive quality of artistic genius and its consequences. It’s absolutely beautifully written – you sort of fall through the prose like water, and, through the characters, a duel perspective is seen, one from Luzhin himself, where chess is a form of the highest art, demanding total subservience to conquer, and the other, from various lovers/relations, is where chess is a simple pastime, and the machinations of the genius are profoundly mysterious. It’s a great book in its own right, but I wanted to post this message because of the way it talks about chess. Below is an excerpt that stood out to me: 

“Luzhin was indeed tired. Lately he had been playing too frequently and too unsystematically; he was particularly fatigued by playing blind, a rather well-paid performance that he willingly gave. He found therein deep enjoyment: one did not have to deal with visible, audible, palpable pieces whose quaint shape and wooden materiality always disturbed him and always seemed to him but the crude, mortal shell of exquisite, invisible chess forces. When playing blind he was able to sense these diverse forces in their original purity. He saw neither the Knight’s carved mane nor the glossy heads of the Pawns – but he felt quite clearly that this or that imaginary square was occupied by a definite, concentrated force, so that he envisioned the movement of a piece as a discharge, a shock, a stroke of lightning – and the whole chess field quivered with tension, and over this tension he was sovereign, here gathering in and there releasing electric power … but this physical weariness was nothing compared to the mental fatigue – retribution for the stress and rapture involved in the game itself, which he conducted in a celestial dimension, where his tools were incorporeal quantities.”

ED. 

There's a movie? I didn't know that! When was it made? I'll have to check that out. 

Fair enough, I wouldn't know, it's the first Nabakov I've read. 

were can i watch it for free i've tried youtube hulu nothings working help plz.

FOR FREE

It's Nabokov.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Luzhin_Defence

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Defense

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Nabokov

http://www.freebase.com/view/en/curt_von_bardeleben     The book was based on him.

Luzhin is a Luzher. I went to see the movie and asked the manager for my money back This movie was pathetic---can you imagine a wife taking the place of her dead, grandmaster husband and she cant tell a bishop from a knight. She has some written notes that she is reading before she makes a move. And with these notes---she wins the match!  It was so lousy---it was funny 

 Movies are often stupid, but the book didn't end that way.

 Well, if you are going to spend millions on a movie you got to jazz it up somewhat. Make it interesting for the non player. It went straight down the toilet at the box office.

 If you're going to spend millions on a movie, you ought to have the common sense not to insult peoples intelligence. I knew I didn't want to see it when I heard about the stupid ending. I definitely would have wanted to see it if it would have stayed with the book ending.

Cheers for posting the game :)