The Chess Problem: a Hercule Poirot Short Story

Hercule Poirot #0.001

by Agatha Christie

Inspector Japp is not a Big Four believer.

The good officer has been up north for awhile and Poirot and Hastings are pleasantly surprised to bump into him in a Soho restaurant. When Poirot begins to expound once more on his Big Four theories, Japp quickly changes the subject to chess and "that curious business yesterday." He then adds, "Match between two players of worldwide reputation, and one died during the game." Now he's got their attention.

Librarian's this story is one of the 12 in a weekly serial, "The Man Who Was Number Four" which appeared in "Sketch" magazine in 1924. It is the original. The 12 were later edited and adapted to become the novel, "The Big Four" in 1927.

Genres: Agatha Christie, Mystery, Short Stories, Crime

13 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1927

About the author

Agatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.

Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.

This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.

Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow. This one was an absolute bitch to find.
It's not in any collection that I could find so I had to download this Kobo app in order to buy a copy of it.
WTF, Amazon?! I wanted to one-click this shit and not have to link a Walmart account to a Google account so I could buy a .99 short story that I was 98% sure was complete ass simply due to my obsessive need to read all things Agatha Christie!
Admittedly, this is more of a me problem than an Amazon problem. What wasn't a me problem were all the errors in my digital copy.
"I will dis turb you no longer." <--for example.
It was ann oying.



Ok, so this was originally titled The Man who was Number Four: Further Adventures of M. Poirot in The Sketch magazine in 1924. This was retitled The Chess Problem, slightly reworked with the other short stories in that magazine series, and turned into the novel The Big Four.
I gotta be honest, that is one of my least favorite Poirot stories.
So.
You can imagine that this thing (a less polished version of that story) didn't make my heart tingle.



The mystery itself is actually not bad. The gist is that a reclusive chess player was the possible target of a murder. His opponent in a chess match apparently dropped dead of a heart attack a few moves into their game but Inspector Japp suspects that it was possibly poison that killed the man. Poirot says `mon Dieu! as he realizes the twist, pulls the curtain back to reveal the killer, and Japp and Hastings are appropriately impressed by his foreign Belgian-man skills.



No, it wasn't the story. It's the writing that's kind of sucky in this one. Stilted and off.<--it pains me to say that. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone but people like myself who are absolute completionists.
Not Recommended for the casual reader.

[Jack Heath · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars. As the title says, there is a problem and yes, it's about chess. But sorry, it's not that good. The story first appeared as chapter 7 in a 12-part serial, 'The Man Who Was Number Four,' in 'Sketch' magazine in 1924. I caught it in The Detective Club's 2017 publication 'The Big Four' which reproduced the original serial versions of each story, rather than 1927's modified ones under the same name. That's the year Christie edited some aspect of each entry to better link them into a novel. She wasn't pleased with the result. Karl Pike, writing the 2017 introduction, claimed that 'The Chess Problem' was the only one which was a true short story. Not sure. Poirot and Hastings are interested when they hear about the case Inspector Japp is investigating. A chess player, a young man, had died during a high level game. Heart failure? Poirot is suspicious and decides to follow Japp to the scene. The Inspector is pleased to escape Poirot's Big Four ruminations. Soon they are in the apartment of Dr. Savaronoff, the great Russian champion, where the challenger, the young American Gilmour Wilson, died the previous day. Just like 'The Big Four,' so-so. (No2021/Oc2024)

[Darinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short story with Hercule Poirot. Quick and entertaining.

[Girnar Anand · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would have given it a higher rating but (as the other reviews can also ascertain) finding this short story was SO not worth the trouble one has to endure. But hey at least, I am a Agatha Christie completionist now 😌

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story formed the basis for Chapter 11 of the book The Big Four (with the slightly different title of "A Chess Problem").