a chess story

Senna Jawa

Literotica Guru
Joined
May 13, 2002
Posts
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I hope that nobody will object too strongly to my posting here my little piece of prose. (I can always remove/delete this post).

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A chess story
=========

My name is George, I used to be a single father.
My two kids joined a school trip so I in turn
was free to join Andy and John in John's mini
to a weekend Swiss, my first tournament. All
four of us studied at the same department, and
the three of us were frequenting a local chess
club. The fourth traveler was Cindy herself,
the cutest girl ever. Why she volunteered to
assist us with chores (what chores?) during the
tournament was beyond my comprehension but
I was psyched up for the competition and didn't
dwell on this psychologically interesting
question. Only when she said that the winner
would take all did I understand that perhaps
she had designs on Andy, our chess master.

John, dirty man that he is, immediately
suggested that the runner up would watch.
Cindy was game.

It was going to be my first tournament, while
John knew a lot about chess and on a good
day could win against anybody.

Andy was strangely subdued. He won his first
game but had to work. I was sure that I lost
in the opening but I kept playing and I won.
John was telling me proudly that he totally
outplayed his opponent rated four hundred
points above him. Concentrate John, I thought.
John lost. Next round I I played an obnoxious
guy and lost, and so did John. Andy won but
not smoothly. Third round. John loses
again, I drew against an 1800+ player
and Andy won a beauty. My opponent didn't
want to concede the obvious draw, it was
getting late and he kept playing. But when Cindy
brought me coffee, french bageutte and omellette,
he agreed to draw instantly. Thank you, Cindy,
that was sweet.

We got our tent from the mini and went to sleep.
John made some lewd remarks but Andy wanted
to rest and Cindy was in no mood for any hanky
panky with John.

Next morning I played sac after sac. Viewers
exclaimed "wow!" and Cindy was all smiles.
John, finally, won too. But Andy played long
and hard and, in a better position, had to
adjourn anyway. He looked tired.

The last round, I carelessly lost, John won against
a weak opponent, and Andy, unbelievable but he lost.
He still had to play the adjourned game. With bishops
of opposite colors he had to be satisfied with draw.

We were going home in a gloomy mood. Personally
I did ok, two and a half out of five, and I even
shared the award for the best unrated player, just
a few bucks. But Andy with three and a half was
out of money. "Andy", said John, "you still have
the best result of the three of us, so let George
watch you score with Cindy and I'll drive and
peek into the mirror". We said nothing so John
broke the silence again: "George got the money,
perhaps he should get Cindy". Andy only said "sure".
These circumstances were not for me. "I'll take a
rain check" I said... The whole trip back was
nothing to remember.

For the next two months I'd say "hello" to Cindy on
occasions and that's all. Then suddenly she showed
up at my place to babysit my kids. No single father
can object to that. In the next few weeks she
babysat for me quite often, then we got married,
great, even our college grades improved, and now I
play in chess tournaments regularly but Cindy prefers
to stay home.

=======
wh, 2003
 
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footnotes

1800+ player -- a chess player whose rating is between 1800 and 1900. It's a good, lower half range of the A-class rating. Chess masters have ratings starting with 2200. I am talking here about the USCF ratings (USCF = the United States Chess Federation).

sac--short for sacrifice of chess material in return for (chess) initiative or to get even more material in return after a number of moves or even to deliver the checkmate.

Swiss -- a chess tournament format

unrated -- a player without a rating (such a player is most likely inexperienced; or a foreigner; or both).
 
bishops of opposite colors

A chess endgame in which the two parties have one bishop each, which travel on different colors (one on white squares, the other one on black squares) tend to be drawish. Such bishops often cannot be exchanged (they never attack one another), and each controls its own color, which means that it is hard to push and promote pawns even when you have an extra one or two (sometimes even three won't do either).

The notion of the bishops of opposite colors can serve as a great metaphor. It was even used by a former World Champion Boris Spassky to describe his relation with his exwife: we were like bishops of opposite colors.
 
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