The narrator discovers that he has advanced melanoma. To dispel his fear of death, he starts manically playing chess on the internet. On a chess website, he sees a photo of grandmaster Igors Rausis sitting in a toilet with a mobile phone in his hand. The photo was used as proof that Rausis had been illicitly consulting a computer chess program during a tournament game.
It's game over for Rausis, who toured the international chess circuit while also working as a coach in various countries for over forty years. The narrator becomes obsessed with an enigma: what was it that made this respected chess professional resort to cheating? He travels to Riga and eventually finds Rausis in a small shack on a building site where he is working as a nightwatchman.
It turns out that Rausis is also suffering from incurable cancer. The two men drink tea together late into the night, discussing chess, cheating, childhood, life choices, death and fate.
Their conversations shed light on the fascinating but merciless world of grandmaster chess, in which there are ultimately few winners.
Afterwards, a chance encounter in a café provides the narrator with a fresh perspective on what to do with whatever remains of his life.
A Chess Master is an elegiac gem, a deep dive into life's big questions as reflected in the battle of sixty-four squares.