Chess Story, also known as The Royal Game, is the Austrian master Stefan Zweig's final achievement, completed in Brazilian exile and sent off to his American publisher only days before his suicide in 1942. It is the only story in which Zweig looks at Nazism, and he does so with characteristic emphasis on the psychological.
Travelers by ship from New York to Buenos Aires find that on board with them is the world champion of chess, an arrogant and unfriendly man. They come together to try their skills against him and are soundly defeated. Then a mysterious passenger steps forward to advise them and their fortunes change. How he came to possess his extraordinary grasp of the game of chess and at what cost lie at the heart of Zweig's story.
This new translation of Chess Story brings out the work's unusual mixture of high suspense and poignant reflection.

《昨日的世界》是奥地利作家斯特凡•茨威格创作的自传体文学作品,写于1939年至1941年间，是茨威格在临终前被迫流亡的日子里完成的。在茨威格离世以后，于1942年在斯德哥尔摩出版。
在这部作品里，茨威格把个人命运与时代融为一体，通过自己所经历的人与事，展示了他生活过的城市和国家的文化生活风貌，记录了从第一次世界大战前夜到第二次世界大战时动荡的欧洲社会，描述了他与一些世界闻名的诗人、作家、雕塑家、音乐家交往的情景，批露了世界文化名人鲜为人知的生活轶事，同时穿插了作者各种细腻的心迹。茨威格从出生的城市维也纳和自己的犹太家庭写起，一直写到1939年9月已满60岁的时候，时值第二次世界大战爆发，他认为，这是“我们这些六十岁人的时代彻底结束”。