The story centers around the mysterious death of sixty-eight-year-old Dr. Dieter Frisch, a wealthy industrialist and chess master, living outside Vienna. Having returned from his office in Munich on Friday evening, he was discovered on Sunday morning in the orchard of his estate, at the center of a concentric maze, built in the shape of a chess board. Dr Frisch was found lying in a pool of his own blood, with his antique silver pistol several feet from the body. There was no suicide note, but a primitive chess set was found by police, in Dr Frisch's study, set up at a complicated middle-game position.

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