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 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 baguette and omelet, 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
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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). A similar rating is also provided by the international chess federation FIDE. Grandmaster Garry Kasparov has the highest Fide rating ever, and for long years (fifteen or so).

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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.

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Swiss -- a popular chess tournament format.

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

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bishops of the opposite color -- bishop is one of the chess pieces; it has the unique distinction of being restricted to one color only of the squares on the board. In the ending of a chess game, when there are only a few pieces and pawns on the board, it is difficult to win the game, when you and your opponent have only one bishop each, and they move on the different colors. You may have an advantage of a couple of pawns but most of the time you cannot force your opponent to exchange bishops, and it is difficult to push the pawns forward (in order to promote one of them). Thus a draw is very likely in such endings.

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, he said.