The Chessboard: A Memoir
nov 2026 · Other Press, LLC
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Through the lens of chess, a celebrated Belgian author unearths fresh insights into his work and relationships in this luminous exploration of childhood, memory, and aging.
Shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic forced Europe into lockdown, Jean-Philippe Toussaint left Brussels for the seaside city of Ostend. Spending his days editing his novel The Emotions and coming to terms with new aches and pains, his mind wanders to memories of his youth—summers at the beach with his grandmother, whose sore legs he’s inherited now that he’s reached the age she was then; the black-and-white checkered floor of his first school from the 1960s, where his exhausting quest for perfection would manifest.
When a slate of canceled trips and events presents him with unexpected time, Toussaint begins a translation of Stefan Zweig’s Chess Story, or The Royal Game, the writer’s final novel, completed in exile shortly before his suicide in 1942. Working closely with this text that has long haunted him, Toussaint reflects on both their lives.
Revisiting games with his father—who seemed to love winning at chess rather than playing it—as well as remarkable players such as Artur Yusupov and Gilles Andruet, Toussaint poignantly illustrates his coming of age as a writer.
Shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic forced Europe into lockdown, Jean-Philippe Toussaint left Brussels for the seaside city of Ostend. Spending his days editing his novel The Emotions and coming to terms with new aches and pains, his mind wanders to memories of his youth—summers at the beach with his grandmother, whose sore legs he’s inherited now that he’s reached the age she was then; the black-and-white checkered floor of his first school from the 1960s, where his exhausting quest for perfection would manifest.
When a slate of canceled trips and events presents him with unexpected time, Toussaint begins a translation of Stefan Zweig’s Chess Story, or The Royal Game, the writer’s final novel, completed in exile shortly before his suicide in 1942. Working closely with this text that has long haunted him, Toussaint reflects on both their lives.
Revisiting games with his father—who seemed to love winning at chess rather than playing it—as well as remarkable players such as Artur Yusupov and Gilles Andruet, Toussaint poignantly illustrates his coming of age as a writer.
Through the lens of chess, a celebrated Belgian author unearths fresh insights into his work and relationships in this luminous exploration of childhood, memory, and aging.
Shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic forced Europe into lockdown, Jean-Philippe Toussaint left Brussels for the seaside cit...
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Jean-Philippe Toussaint is a Belgian novelist, photographer, and filmmaker. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages and won numerous literary prizes, including the 2005 Prix Médicis for Fuir (Running Away) and the 2009 Prix Décembre for La Vérité sur Marie (The Truth about Marie). In 2012 Toussaint created an exhibition at the Louvre Museum that combined photographs, videos, installation art, and performance pieces to convey books without using writing. His novel The Emotions was published by Other Press in 2025.
Ruth Diver holds a PhD in French and comparative literature from the University of Paris 8 and the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She won two 2018 French Voices Awards for her translations of Marx and the Doll by Maryam Madjidi, and Titus Did Not Love Berenice by Nathalie Azoulai. She also won Asymptote’s 2016 Close Approximations fiction prize for her translation of extracts of Maraudes by Sophie Pujas.
Ruth Diver holds a PhD in French and comparative literature from the University of Paris 8 and the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She won two 2018 French Voices Awards for her translations of Marx and the Doll by Maryam Madjidi, and Titus Did Not Love Berenice by Nathalie Azoulai. She also won Asymptote’s 2016 Close Approximations fiction prize for her translation of extracts of Maraudes by Sophie Pujas.
Jean-Philippe Toussaint is a Belgian novelist, photographer, and filmmaker. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages and won numerous literary prizes, including the 2005 Prix Médicis for Fuir (Running Away) and the 2009 Prix Décembre for La Vérité sur Marie (The Truth about ...
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