I was concerned that I wouldn't like this book, since I don't know the first thing about chess. But happily, this was not a problem. The book had me on the edge of my seat the whole time, wondering what was going to happen, and I was interested not only in Isaac's fate but in all the minor characters too -- Janek in particular was fascinating. My only complaint is that all the many POVs in the story sounded the same -- which may be a problem with the translation more than the original writing. I can't read Lithuanian so who knows. ( )

"I remember that day. I'd like to forget it, but I remember. That day stands before me like the wrecked bridge. The bridge is that day. Even now I can see the toppled pilings. I see the holes in the bridge's floor. The bridge is packed with people. And beneath it, near the water, his head bowed, stands a German. And above, leaning against a metal girder, sits a man, as if he were alive."

This novel of the Holocaust is set in the ghetto in Vilna, Lithuania. Isaac, a sixteen year-old chess prodigy, is the youngest (and only surviving) child of Abraham, one of the elders in the Jewish community. When the Nazi commandant issues an order that all Jewish children be sent to the death camps, Abraham tries to reason with the commandant. As a "compromise" the commandant proposes a chess match with Isaac. If Isaac wins, all the children will be spared, but Isaac will be killed. If Isaac loses, his life will be spared, but all the children will die. Only a stalemate will save all.

Meras narrates the story of daily life in the ghetto around this fateful chess game. The tension of what is otherwise a mundane game highlights the random terror underlying everyday life in the ghetto, where smuggling a flower for a girlfriend into the ghetto may mean death. There is much to reccommend this novel. ( )

My Around the World for a Good Book entry for Lithuania tells the story of life in the ghetto of Nazi-controlled Vilna, Lithuania. Under the rule of the sadistic Commandant Schoger, Vilna’s Jews try to go about with their life, survival, and resistance. The narrative is told from the perspective of Isaac a young chess prodigy challenged to a match against Shoger. The wager: should Shoger win, he will send the children of the ghetto to their deaths; if Isaac wins, the children will be spared, but Isaac will be put to death. In the unlikely event of a stalemate, neither Isaac nor the children will be killed.

Each chapter begins with a move in the chess match and is followed by a vignette from Isaac’s life with his girlfriend Esther and friend Janek alternating with stories from the point of view of Isaac’s brothers and sisters. These chapters give a glimpse into life in the ghetto, both the suffering under tyranny and prejudice, as well as the little joys of everyday life. Back at the chess match, with the whole community watching, Isaac must play for a stalemate, on the premise that Shoger is a man who would honor the terms of the bet. When he realizes that Shoger is not an honorable man, Isaac makes the stunning decision to make a move for a win, when he could have made a move for a stalemate, sealing his own death as well as the childrens’. This is one of the more moving and powerful books I’ve read in a long time.

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Vilnius.html ( )