Zugzwang

Zugzwang: A chess term used to describe a position in which a player is reduced to utter helplessness-he is obliged to move, but every move serves to make his position even worse.

The year is 1914, and St. Petersburg is spellbound by the international chess championship, even as the city seethes with revolutionary plots. One blustery April day, a respected newspaper editor is murdered in front of a shocked crowd. Five days later, Dr. Otto Spethmann, the celebrated psychoanalyst, receives a v...