Chess with the Doomsday Machine

Chess with a Doomsday Machine (Template:Lang-fa)

Author	Habib Ahmadzadeh
Translator	Paul Sprachman
Language	English
Published	2008
Publication place	US
Media type	Book
Pages	xviii + 268
ISBN	1568592159

Imagine that your hometown is attacked by an enemy army; how would this change the city and the people who live there? In 1980, a surprise attack on the Iranian city of Abadan marked the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war. Hundreds of thousands of people fled the badly damaged city but a small number of civilians chose to stay, living in a city under siege. The story focuses on the experiences of Moosa, a young Abadani soldier defending his hometown. He has been chosen to assist in destroying the enemy’s “Doomsday Machine”, an advanced radar system that was able to hone in on Iranian artillery emplacements almost as soon as they fired. This was initially devastating to the Iranian defence operations and it became a priority to locate the radar system so that it could be destroyed. Also, through Moosa’s tale, we experience how Abadan was re-shaped by the war. Another task of Moosa in this story is guarding of a small number of civilians chose to stay in the Abadan.

Appellation of book name

Doomsday Machine is the name of an advanced radar system developed in Europe, Iraqi forces were able to hone in on Iranian artillery emplacements almost as soon as they fired. This radar was Cymbeline (radar) that France were prepared for Iraqi forces. When the French radar detected Iranian forces fire place, the area turned into hell (doomsday) and was burned by horrific burst. Locating of the radar system was a priority for Iranian forces. It is the task of the narrator, a young Basiji (volunteer paramilitary) spotter that called him “Moosa”, to locate the radar so it can be destroyed.

Publisher

The book was wrote in 1996 and published in Persian by Soreie Mehr Publication Company in 2005. Chess with the doomsday machine has received and proposed numerous awards and has been reprinted many times in Iran. According to experts, Chess with the doomsday machine is one of the most prominent novel about Iran-Iraq war in the recent years. In 2008, the book was translated from Persian to English by Paul Sprachman, a professor at Rutgers university, and published by Mazda Publishers.

Awards

• Literary Award of Esfehan
• Year Book of Sacred Defense
• Year Book of Press Association of Writers and Critics
• Golden Pen Award of Iran
• Year Book of Islamic Republic of Iran

Narrative

Chess with the Doomsday Machine (Shatranj ba Mashin-e Qiamat) is a novel by Habib Ahmadzadeh (b. 1964) about the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88). It is set in Ahmadzadeh’s native Abadan, a city located on an island near the Persian Gulf. Because of its importance to the Iranian petroleum industry, Abadan was the target of heavy bombardments during the early stages of the conflict. In the early months of the Iran-Iraq war, a young soldier, Moosa, has been assigned to locate the enemy’s Doomsday Machine, an advanced radar system that was able to hone in on Iranian artillery emplacements almost as soon as they fired. This was initially devastating to the Iranian defence operations and it became a priority to locate the radar system so that it could be destroyed. In the course of fulfilling his assignment, Moosa becomes entwined with civilians who could not or would not leave Abadan. The novel paints a striking tableau of a city under siege, not only inhabited —as one would expect— by a variety of soldiers, but also by two Armenian priests who believes that divine intervention will protected him from incoming bombs; a retired oil refinery engineer who has been abandoned by his family for unknown transgressions; and a prostitute and her young daughter Pariah’s who live on the edge of the city.

One of the important property of Chess with the Doomsday Machine is avoidance the kind formulaic patriotism and hagiography found in much of Holy Defense (defa’-e moqaddas: an official Iranian term for the conflict) fiction in two ways. First, it indulges a type of black humor used in such war satires as Joseph Heller’s Catch 22 and, second—and more profoundly—it examines how wartime conditions throw the ephemeral nature of human existence into high relief. As the novel progresses, the narrator’s journey evolves from a simple search-and-destroy mission into a quest for meaning among the surreal sights of the besieged city: an improvised “shark aquarium”; a ravaged farmer’s market; rows of bombed-out homes; an ice cream freezer that doubles as a morgue; and an incomplete seven-story building that miraculously survives the Iraqi shelling to become the stage for the novel’s chief theme.

Author

Main article: Habib Ahmadzadeh

Habib Ahmadzadeh is an Iranian author. He is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq War, whose military career began when he served as a teenage Basiji and ended after he attained the rank of Captain in the regular army. He has studied theatre arts and is an accomplished scenarist. Ahmadzadeh is also the author of a prize-winning collection of short stories called The War Involved City Stories (Dastan-ha-ye Shahr-e Jangi), one of which became the basis for the film Night Bus (Autobus-e Shabaneh; directed in 2007 by the well-known film and television artist Kiumars Poorahmad). Ahmadzadeh also provided the research for Conversation with the Shadow (Goft-o Goo ba Sayeh)(directed in 2006 by Khosrow Sinai), a study of one of Iran’s greatest writers Sadeq Hedayat (d. 1951). A City Under Siege: Tales of the Iran-Iraq War is the name of important Ahmadzadeh's book. This book is about Siege of Abadan during Iran-Iraq war.

Onelight Theatre Presents Chess With The Doomsday Machine

According to Soreie Mehr publications, the novel's publishers, some two years ago The Chronicle Herald daily presented a report about the decision of "Onelight theatre" institute for staging an adaptation of the Iranian novel which was themed on Iran-Iraq's war. Onelight Theatre is a professional theatre company that has been developing and producing works in Halifax, Nova Scotia since 2002. Recently, Onelight theatre has relocated to Alderney Landing, becoming the new resident theatre company at the complex. Onelight theatre continues its first season as resident theatre company at Alderney Landing with its newest production, Chess with the Doomsday Machine. After returning home from representing Canada at the Fadjr International Theatre Festival in Tehran, the show will launch its Canadian premiere on February 6th 2014. Coming back to the stage, Onelight Theatre’s entrancing Chess with the Doomsday Machine, January 19 to February 7, 2015 at Alderney Landing. In 1980, a surprise attack on the Iranian city of Abadan marked the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war. Hundreds of thousands of people fled the badly damaged city but a small number of civilians chose to stay, living in a city under siege. Chess with a Doomsday Machine is their story. Chess With the Doomsday Machine is Shahin Sayadi’s original adaptation of Iranian author Habib Ahmadzadeh’s novel of the same name. Currently on tour in Iran, the production debuted in Abadan, the birthplace of the story and that of Onelight Theatre’s Artistic Director, Shahin Sayadi. “Taking this work to stage in the place it all started, my hometown, has truly been an honour, “ says Shahin Sayadi, Artistic Director, “I’m looking forward to bringing it home to Canada next month.” Developed as an international co-production with artists in Iran and Canada, Chess with the Doomsday Machine, is an original adaptation of Iranian author Habib Ahmadzadeh’s novel of the same name. Written and directed by Shahin Sayadi, Chess With The Doomsday Machine uses a unique combination of English, Persian and unspoken communication to tell the story of the challenges faced by a young soldier as he balances his duty to defend his home with the need to protect a band of misfits who have stayed in Abadan when most civilians have long-since fled.

See also

• Iran-Iraq war
• Siege of Abadan
• A City Under Siege: Tales of the Iran-Iraq War
• One Woman's War: Da (Mother)
• Noureddin, Son of Iran
• The Night Bus
• That Which That Orphan Saw

External links

• Onelighttheatre,project of chess with the doomsday machine
• Theatre Nova Scotial
• CHESS WITH THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE CANADIAN DEBUT PRESENTED BY ONELIGHT THEATRE