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The character of Luzhin is based on Curt von Bardeleben, a chess master Nabokov knew personally. Bardeleben ended his life by jumping out of a window. Nabokov said of this novel: "Of all my Russian books, The Defense contains and diffuses the greatest 'warmth' -– which may seem odd seeing how supremely abstract chess is supposed to be." He later described this novel as the "story of a chess player who was crushed by his genius, a concept explored in "The Relentless Combination: Chess and the Patterns of Madness in Vladimir Nabokov's The Defense" (Glen Downey, The Antigonish Review #121. )
The book was also influenced by the Soviet film "Chess Fever" (1925).
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