Abstract: Don DeLillo’s Libra reconstructs the Kennedy assassination with its dual narrative structure of space and time. However, apart from the major plot threads based on individual and conspiracy respectively, there is a covert progression based on the logic of chess games. Chess seems to be the breakthrough point that enables the author to strike a balance history writing and fictional narrative. Initially, his portrayal of Oswald, the protagonist, attempts to characterize him as a chess player, and he uses the same logic of chess games in characterizing other key figures in the event. He has thus reimagined the Kennedy assassination as a sort of solitarie game consisting of a series of consecutive chess games, in which individuals oscillate between their dual identities of chess pieces and chess players in order to find a moving balance between external forces and internal motivations. It is in this way that the ruptures in the novel’s plot development are patched up and the complex interactions between subjective agency and history are revealed.

Key words: Don DeLillo, Libra, chess, space, agency, covert progression