Page 81 "...the four-knights' opening."

From page 81 of the book:  "..."How do you play chess?" asked Ebert, watching Owen's move, which mirrored Ebert's.
"What do you mean?" asked Owen, as Ebert moved his queen's knight to bishop-three. Owen copied the move, thus completing the four-knights opening.
"What is your plan?"
"My plan?" replied Owen, as Ebert moved king's bishop to bishop-four. "You ever read Magister Ludi?" "
                                                                           

[The Four Knights Game is a chess opening starting with the moves
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6

This is the most common sequence but the knights may be developed in any order. The ECO codes for the Four Knights Game are C47 (alternatives to 4.Bb5), C48 (4.Bb5 without 4...Bb4), and C49 (the Symmetrical Variation, 4.Bb5 Bb4).]

[The Four Knights is fairly popular with beginners who strictly adhere to the opening principle "develop knights before bishops." It was one of the workhorses in the family of the Open Game, at even the highest levels, until World War I. Thereafter it fell by the wayside, along with a number of open games. In this period ambitious players explored the Ruy Lopez, believing it a better attempt for White to exploit the advantage of the first move. In the 1990s, this opening saw a renaissance, and is now seen in the praxis of players from beginner to grandmaster. The Four Knights usually leads to quiet positional play, though there are some sharp variations.]  See this video link: http://chrisrecord.com/chess-com-the-four-knights-opening-intro/

Magister Ludi was originally published under the title: The Glass Bead Game (German: Das Glasperlenspiel).  It is the last work and magnum opus of the German author Hermann Hesse. Published in Switzerland in 1943, after being rejected for publication in Germany, the book was mentioned in Hesse's citation for the 1946 Nobel Prize for Literature.  Glass Bead Game is a literal translation of the German title, but the book has also been published under the title Magister Ludi, Latin for "master of the game," which is an honorific title awarded to the book's central character. "Magister Ludi" can also be seen as a pun: lud- is a Latin stem meaning both "game" and "school."

Hermann Hesse

The Glass Bead Game takes place at an unspecified date, centuries into the future. Hesse suggested that he imagined the book's narrator writing around the start of the 25th century. The setting is a fictional province of central Europe called Castalia, reserved by political decision for the life of the mind; technology and economic life are kept to a strict minimum. Castalia is home to an austere order of intellectuals with a twofold mission: to run boarding schools for boys, and to nurture and play the Glass Bead Game, whose exact nature remains elusive and whose devotees occupy a special school within Castalia known as Waldzell. The rules of the game are only alluded to, and are so sophisticated that they are not easy to imagine. Playing the game well requires years of hard study of music, mathematics, and cultural history. Essentially the game is an abstract synthesis of all arts and sciences. It proceeds by players making deep connections between seemingly unrelated topics.