Chess Story or Schachnovelle is a masterpiece comprising with a truly wonderful storyline. This was the last work that Stefan Zweig finished, and naturally it was unpublished at his death in February 1942, and it is amazing how well it has been adapted for the screen, actually making it equal as a film to the original novella, exploring the ultimate mental capacities of man under extreme duress constantly going too far, here by the means of the psychological torture of the Nazis going as far as murdering his best friend in front of his eyes, just to obtain some formal. Oliver Masucci (one of German’s best living actors) gives an outstanding performance going through massive ordeals, being transported like a modern Ulysses from the highest social position to internment in the hell of inhuman isolation. Everything in this film is just perfect, it is made like a psychological Thriller, and although action is minimized and the dialogue is sparse, the suspense is consistently strong to a Breaking Point, illustrated by the light bulbs repeatedly exploding. And yet the realism is always present. This is a masterpiece which nothing can reduce from the ranks of one of the most significant films made after the war about the war, and so long afterwards at that, enhancing it’s pricelessness even more.