Chess - Stefan Zweig

"But why wouldn't such a rapid rise to fame send an empty head like that into a spin?" concluded my friend, who had just related some classic examples of Czentovic's childishly authoritative manner. "Why wouldn't a twenty - one - year - old country boy from the Banat start putting on airs when pushing some pieces around on a wooden board is suddenly earning him more in a week than his whole village back home makes in an entire year of woodcutting and the most backbreaking drudgery? And, actually, isn't it damn easy to think you're a great man if you aren't troubled by the slightest notion that a Rembrandt, Beethoven, Dante, or Napoleon ever existed? This lad has just one piece of knowledge in his blinkered brain−that he hasn't lost a single chess game in months−and since he has no idea that there's anything of value in the world other than chess and money, he has every reason to be pleased with himself."