# Is "The Royal Game (Chess Story)" by Stefan Zweig a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Royal Game (Chess Story) by Stefan Zweig (Pigmalión, Buenos Aires, 1942) is identified by: German-language true first is 'Schachnovelle,' printed in Buenos Aires and finished 7 December 1942 (posthumous — Zweig died in February 1942, having sent the manuscript to his agent Alfredo Cahn shortly before): the standard issue is 250 copies numbered 1–250 in wrappers under the Pigmalión imprint, alongside a deluxe issue of 50 cloth-bound copies numbered I–L (Janos Peter Kramer), identical typography and text. Original-language true first = Pigmalión, Buenos Aires, December 1942 (limited/numbered).

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- German-language true first is 'Schachnovelle,' printed in Buenos Aires and finished 7 December 1942 (posthumous — Zweig died in February 1942, having sent the manuscript to his agent Alfredo Cahn shortly before): the standard issue is 250 copies numbered 1–250 in wrappers under the Pigmalión imprint, alongside a deluxe issue of 50 cloth-bound copies numbered I–L (Janos Peter Kramer), identical typography and text
- Note a first-appearance trap: the text's earliest printed appearance was actually a Brazilian-Portuguese translation ('A partida de xadrez,' Rio de Janeiro, September 1942), but the collected true first is the German-language Buenos Aires edition
- First English is 'The Royal Game' (trans
- B.W. Huebsch), The Viking Press, New York, April 1944 — a collection that also gathers 'Amok' and 'Letter from an Unknown Woman' — preceded only by a magazine appearance in Woman's Home Companion, March 1944
- Publisher imprint reads Pigmalión, Buenos Aires
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Stefan Zweig |
| Publisher | Pigmalión, Buenos Aires |
| Year | 1942 |
| True first | UK edition |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | German-language true first is 'Schachnovelle,' printed in Buenos Aires and finished 7 December 1942 (posthumous — Zweig died in February… |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
German-language true first is 'Schachnovelle,' printed in Buenos Aires and finished 7 December 1942 (posthumous — Zweig died in February 1942, having sent the manuscript to his agent Alfredo Cahn shortly before): the standard issue is 250 copies numbered 1–250 in wrappers under the Pigmalión imprint, alongside a deluxe issue of 50 cloth-bound copies numbered I–L (Janos Peter Kramer), identical typography and text. Note a first-appearance trap: the text's earliest printed appearance was actually a Brazilian-Portuguese translation ('A partida de xadrez,' Rio de Janeiro, September 1942), but the collected true first is the German-language Buenos Aires edition. First English is 'The Royal Game' (trans. B.W. Huebsch), The Viking Press, New York, April 1944 — a collection that also gathers 'Amok' and 'Letter from an Unknown Woman' — preceded only by a magazine appearance in Woman's Home Companion, March 1944.

## Is this the true first?
Original-language true first = Pigmalión, Buenos Aires, December 1942 (limited/numbered). English precedence is clear: Viking (New York), April 1944 precedes the first UK edition, Cassell (London), February 1945 — US precedes UK. Dual-title trap: first Englished as 'The Royal Game'; most later translations (e.g. Anthea Bell/NYRB) are titled 'Chess Story' — same work.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
A 1944 Armed Services Edition (oblong stapled paperback, Viking copyright) exists and is not the trade first. Later NYRB / Anthea Bell 'Chess Story' printings are modern reprints, not firsts.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Royal Game (Chess Story)* by Stefan Zweig a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-royal-game-chess-story
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.