"But why wouldn't such a rapid rise to fame send an empty head like that into a spin?" concludedmy friend, who had just related some classic examples of Czentovic's childishly authoritativemanner. "Why wouldn't a twenty - one - year - old country boy from the Banat start putting onairs when pushing some pieces around on a wooden board is suddenly earning him more in aweek than his whole village back home makes in an entire year of woodcutting and the mostbackbreaking drudgery? And, actually, isn't it damn easy to think you're a great man if you aren'ttroubled 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 chessgame in months—and since he has no idea that there's anything of value in the world other thanchess and money, he has every reason to be pleased with himself."