system
A chat on subreddit /r/me_irl
human
The German book Schachnovelle (the Royal Game in english) is also a very interesting book about the effects of isolation

I read this book in high school and really liked it so I'll take this chance to talk about it lol. Also I decided to take my ritalin today because I need to finish my thesis yet here I am...

SPOILERS: 

The book starts of on a boat with a chess champion on board. The champion is playing against the other passengers and obviously winning when a random man suddenly helps the passengers draw. Then the book goes into the backstory of the man. 

He was a lawyer who was detained by the Gestapo and escorted to a hotel. He was put in a room in this hotel and kept completely isolated except to get tortured. After months he starts going completely crazy until he manages to steal a chess book from an officer's coat. First he teaches himself to play chess, then he memorises every play in the book. When that doesn't provide any stimulation anymore he starts playing games in his head against himself to the point of him developing two different personas in his mind (the black and the white side). At a certain point he is mentally playing multiple matches at all time. Eventually he suffers a breakdown and gets transported to the hospital where he gets freed. 

Back in the present the man is uninterested in playing a game with the champion but eventually gets convinced to. He easily wins from the champion and the champion becomes upset and asks for a rematch. 
After noticing the man becomes upset when he takes too long to do his move the champion deliberately starts taking very long to do his moves. This man can't handle the waiting and starts doing a second match mentally, ultimately leading him to make a mistake when he confuses the real match with his mental one. He almost breaks down again until the other passengers help him snap out of it and he resigns the game and vows to never play again. 


______

Me: I need to finish my thesis

My brain: No, poorly summarise a book you read 8 years ago for no fucking reason



EDIT: Y'all are just promoting procrastination at this point lol but thanks for the awards &lt;3
gpt
Oh wow I read this in college years ago for a literature course. Was one of the less weird books I read in that course tbh.