This Master's thesis explores the concept of ornamentalism in the novel The Luzhin Defense by Vladimir Nabokov. The approach to the study of ornamentalism is oriented towards the works on Russian ornamental prose and on the contents of the novel itself, respectively. Rereading of the novel resulted in numerous examples acknowledging the presence of this phenomenon. The main elements that construct the ornament in the novel are the duality of the structure, emphasized style, the role of the implicit author, who is inclined to use word-play, and the eccentric protagonist. However, the key element is the chess motif. Being the smallest thematic unit, it functions as the most important element of the novel's structure. Ornamentalism in the novel The Luzhin Defense is founded on the chess metaphor, on the weaving of different leitmotifs connected to the terms chess, play, and on relations chess – life, chess – destiny. The chess motif breaks into leitmotifs in the microstructure of the text, such as the motif of correlation between black and white, scenes resembling chess boards, and people compared with chess figures. Therefore, the ornamental pattern is created by numerous literary devices, the most important being the metaphorical chain of the words chess, party, play, defense, and threat. The implicit author plays with the meanings of those lexemes, thus creating a net of associations which spreads throughout the whole novel.