The Yiddish Policemen's Union

Chess recurs throughout the novel as a motif for Reconciling Fate and Free Will. When Landsman investigates the crime scene of Mendel’s murder, he becomes fixated on the chessboard he finds there: It records Mendel’s final game with an unknown opponent. It isn’t until the end that the novel reveals that Mendel set up the unsolvable game as a challenge to his killer, Hertz Shemets, to make him understand how Mendel felt about his life. Since Mendel has been forced to live the role of the Tzaddik Ha-Dor, he sees himself as trapped in a predetermined “game” orchestrated by his father and Litvak, where every move has already been decided for him. Thus, this chess game functions as his final act of communication and reflects Mendel’s experience of a life lived without free will.

For Landsman, the game of chess resonates with his own sense of inevitability. After losing his entire family in different ways, Landsman believes he is destined for loneliness and sadness. This perspective is cemented by his conviction that he acted wrongly when he and Bina decided to abort their child, which eventually resulted in the dissolution of their marriage. As a boy, Landsman’s father taught him to play chess with relentless criticism, making him believe that every move he made in each game was the worst possible move.