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it in that spirit you will quiteenjoy it.

Thhe authors have assembledseventy classic games spanningthe years of Paul Morphy andHoward Staunton to Anatol

arp and Gary Kasparov.aoy

The body of the games arepresented without annotation,but each is accompanied by adiagram depicting a key posi-tion. After you'e studied adiagram long enough to con-vince yourself th

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at you veguessed Capablanca's nextmove, you can read below tosee why he didn't play thatmove or the other move youconsidered.

Nf3 Nc6 3. c3.Intertwined with the discus-

c6 3. c3). sion of candidate moves is aEst s ~lysis lack. the wiA ~ of chess history

ias commonly found in Philosophy, strategY, and Psy-

specialty books on less popular chology. It's a good bo k fo o or

the older mp 's. He updates much of reading over toast and ff

er material, and some (tea and carpets.) in thean co ee

improvements can be found ew enyour 's in the latest En- feel like reading a chess book

cycfopedia ofcbess openings b.ut don't have a board handy.This book is recommend d Keene and ~ 1'te y irrever-

or e intermediate or ad- entlY rate the games withvanced ttournament player five stars for qu& and th

wi one to

whose o eninpe~g preparat,on re rate the key moves with sym-

quires the study of one of these bois st~ding for "brigh," "in-

openings. The analysis isn't sPired," and on rarare occasions,e or the beginning player.

"flash of genius.

One improvement could be ony 1 es

onl se. e author has included e~ a weH deserv d f'ive stars

whichy seven sample games I

ragon en-

c could have been greatlycounter at Bad Lauterberg in

expanded.Even thoug the b ok has Sets flash-of-genus accoiades.

f th ~p f d (You'l have to buy the book to

e two gnightsDefe~, it ~ see it.) anyone who la

never rec 'eive the ~ereco~ move like that deserves to be

go beca Se f th 1 k f seeded into the candidates'

opu1arity of the openingsmatches !

covers.g,,t Thee best move in a chess

USCF National Mgame is often just as hard to find

1 h t h dG d Go,Mlf estau t," the b rb t ll

r y, at first this comparisonstruck me as ridiculous. But the

RInext few times I went out to eat,

ay Keene's Good Move Guide

Whitel '

hat wou1d Bobb F'

.ew y iscer

'y; 0xford University press order in Ws situaho " F

1982; 141 apages; paperback L'sts for tunately, mY generall unr li-on. or-

ca a og number a lesourcesin the Unit d Kin(USCF638KP'8..95 to members). dom assure th

'eme at y Keene

BY KEN ROGOFF present book entitled Eat Like ar

I

1 is book is designed to en- Grandmaster.tertain as much as to in zen Ro oogoff

'gr

ou gest master who lives in Washington, D.C.

heightened with plenty of ches-sic jargon and some contemp-orary stars (such as TigranPetrosian and Mikhail Tal)around the edges of the fictionaldrama.

IWe Queen's Gambit is thinnerin most respects that Nabokov'sThe Defense, a result to be ex-pected when the focus is moreon a romantic plot than on thepsychopathy of the centralcharacter, who happens to be achess master. But even 1

second in this competition isigh praise for a chess novel.

Dr. Ge Du llea spent many yearsstudying and teaching the art of fictionand the modern novel.

IThe Queen's Gambit By WalterTevis; Random House 1983; 243pages; hardcover lists for $ 13.95.

BY GERARD DULLEA&

)&he Queen's Gambit, anew novel by Walter

Tevis, demonstrates that theAmerican dream is alive and aswell as it ever was. Best knownas the author of The Hustler,Tevis has chosen another un-likely subject for his

readers'ympathy,this time a Kentuckyorp an who is a chess prodi

fre novel follows her carr career

rom the basement of an or--. phanage to the very heights of

world chess.Despite the many differences

large and small, Beth Harmoill recall Bobby Fischer to

armon

many readers. A natural la erwins her state's ch~plo Three Double mng Pawn Open-

sh'p in her first to~ament mgs: B'shop'sOpenm Hu

soonch

ian Defense and Ponziani 0g by Yakov Estrin; Chess Enter-

'ani pen-

ith th,b t 1'h

ldb f h 'w ty allas a principled loner. Along t e

en, . 0222EP; $4.95 too members).

y she has several obstacles BY ROBERT M. S~DERto overcome, not the least b'erproclivities toward alcohol

s eing I ~ ormer World Correspon-p'it-

i kin d willf'f d f th th

in a acknowled e

g fe au or's work Thournament The same a Y

p s also found in Thrng Op ng''

~ ~

same topics.

ourna-'5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc )

~ e r sm is Ponziani Opening (l. e4 e5 2.

12 CHESS LIFE I MAY 1983

s ~ 4 o

BY MARCY SOLTIS

r & en years ago, writer Wal-.. ter Teviscameupwiththis

idea for the opening scene of anovel: a twenty-five-year-oldalcoholic woman named Beth isliving in a farm house in Ohio.The house is littered with paperchessboards, and there areempty liquor bottles all over thekitchen. Beth rents this houseduring the summer to be aloneand study Rook-and-pawn end-games, but most of the time sheuses the house as a place todrink. Despite the fact she isabout to defend her U.S. Cham-pionship title, she has just goneon a weekend-long drinkingbinge. Beth pours herself a cupof instant coffee, then spikes itwith a few slugs of gin beforegoing to the dining room tableto analyze chess positions....

Tevis wrote one chapter, then- abandoned the book while he

pursued other writing projects,until he thought it was time totackle the chess idea again.

"I had just finished a science-fiction novel. I was tired of in-venting the whole universe andwanted to get back to writingabout the real world."

He returned to his chessnovel just a little over a year agoand made 'a few changes.

Beth is now an eight-year-oldgirl living in an orphanage; sheis addicted to tranquilizers andis taught how the chessmenmove by a janitor in the or-phanage's basement. With allthe revisions, some key thingsremained constant; the bookwas still about a femalecharacter and still about chess.

Tevis, fifty-five, whose novelThe Queen's Gambit was namedas an alternate by the Book-of-the-Month club, is bet terknown for his science fictionand some of his earlier novels.

-A16 CHESS LIFE / MAY 1983

Most notable is-The Hustler, abook about a pool shark thatwas subsequently turned into asuccessful screenplay starringPaul Newman and Jackie Glea--son. And it was Tevis who, inThe Hustler, coined the phrase"born loser."

Among his science-fictionnovels is The Man Who Fell toEarth, which was also turnedinto a movie, starring rock-starDavid Bowie.

But it is fitting that Tevisshould write about chess,because he has always been abig fan of the game and itsplayers. He wrote a short storyabout chess several years agofor Playboy called "The King isDead," and he once did an arti-cle for Atlantic Monthly aboutthe National Open.

"People who say that chess istrivial and just a game aren'looking very hard at what theyare doing in their lives that theyclaim to be important," he says.

- Tevis learned to play chesswhen he was eight, but itwasn't until he got older that hisinterest increased. He onceowned-a Ghess library of forty tofifty books and has played inclose to twenty tournamentsover the years. "Tournamentchess makes me too nervous,though,".~says Tevis, whoserating is'1423. He enjoys speedchess and playing with hischess computer, but he says hewas never able to study thegame systematically.

Tevis found that he enjoyedwriting about competition morethan being a part of it. "I'edone a lot more losing than win-ning," he says. He claims he'better at pool than chess, butfinds similarities in the playersof both games.

"You don't get the girls inhigh school by being a poolplayer or chessplayer," Tevissays.. ~ . ]Neither game is ateam sport, both are rnale-dominated, and many playersare loners who are trying toescape from personal problems.

"I like writing about peoplewho are somewhat outcastsfrom society," says Tevis,"Highly intelligent, out of placecharacters. I like to write aboutalienation."

Tevis admits a good part of

Walter Tevis

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The Queen's Gambit is autobio-graphical. "I'm using chess [inThe Queen's Gambi t] as a way ofdepicting a somewhat neuroticpersonality — somewhat likemyself in my twenties."

. For instance, in the or-phanage Beth is routinely given"little green pills" that shebecomes addicted to. Tevisdrew from.his own experience,having spent two years in achildren's hospital between theages of nine and eleven, wherehe says he was regularly givenphenobarbital, a sedative. He isalso a recovered alcoholic."Beth's addiction to pillsreflects that," he says.

"I was a very inward child... scared of sex — all of this ischaracterized in Beth.

"I was a smart kid who spenta lot of time in an institution.Beth is a smarter kid in a dif-ferent kind of institution....

"I felt I was talented as awriter. I learned very early inlife that I could write fairlywell. Beth is talented at chessand found that out veryearly.... To Beth, chess wasan arcane mystery that could beexplicated." Tevis even has hischess champion share hishatred of studying.endgames.

"I love Beth. I'm touched byher ability to find what sne cando best — stay with it — and beable to survive and deliver..

"You can't get by in chem onbull—. You have to be able to doit without luck or Uncle Joe'smoney."

The idea of writing about amale character never occurredto him. "I like smart women. Inever even thought of writing

288

about a man.... The malecharacters I was writing aboutwere starting to sound toosimilar. I wanted to write aboutwhat it would be like to be awoman from a man's point ofview."

While Beth works her way tothe top of the chess world, Tevismade a conscious effort not tohave her do so by playing inwomen's tournaments. He sayshe doesn't know if there willever be a woman champion asstrong as the character hecreated, but he doesn't thinkthere is any physical orbiological reason why a womancouldn't become as strong asthe top male grandmasters.

"I think it would be good ifwomen didn't play in women'tournaments at all," he says."Doing so only reinforces thenotion of women's inferiority. Iwould like to see chess be a sex-less game."

Tevis says he took ideas forcharacters and places from hisown experiences — and whenthat didn't work, he inventedthem. (He says that Grand-master Borgov somewhat re-sembles, physically, a youngerversion of Leonid Brezhnev-at least as far as his bushyeyebrows.)

But he emphasizes that hemade no effort to portray anyreal chess personalities in hisnovel. In fact, he did not speakto any female chessplayers aspart of his research.

Tevis was very upset that apool player he says he neverheard of before started callinghimself "Minnesota Fats" afterhe created a character by thatname in The Hustler. Becausehe was burned by that experi-ence, he went out of his way inThe Queen's Gambit to avoidhaving any man or woman inthe chess world thiidcing that he'r

she was being used as any of''he

lead characters."I'm very proud of my char-

acterizations and don't like tohear anyone say that they aren'original," says Tevis. "I don'like it to be thought that I mjust'eportingon something thatI'e seen."

The games Beth plays wereconstructed around the actualmoves from nineteenth-century

pril is the biggest monthfor scholastic chess, with

five U.S. national scholastictitles at stake in three differenttournaments. More than 1,400would-be titlists are expected tocontest over 11,000 games todecide the five titles.

tournaments. "When I waswriting up Beth's games, Ifound myself really getting intothe imagined competition."

The U.S. Championship de-scribed in the novel was partlymodeled after the 1975 Cham-pionship in Oberlin, Ohio,which Tevis attended.'I was surprised by thesomewhat depressing playingconditions — somewhat austereand unexciting," Tevis says. "Itoccurred to me that here werethe best chessplayers in thecountry playing for the nationalchampionship that didn't havethe class look of a first-rate high-school basketball game. ~ ..

"I'd like to see chess takenmore seriously," he says. "Idon't like seeing golf get all themoney and attention that itdoes while chess gets none."

Tevis says a few film pro-ducers are considering TheQueen's Gambit for a screen-play. He might also be in-terested in doing a sequel some-day. "I'd still like to use thatscene of Beth in her twenties inthat farmhouse," he says. "Youusually reach a peak in chess ata very young age — unlike brainsurgeons [whose skill increaseswith age]," he says. "What hap-pens then?"

At the end of the book, Beth isnineteen. In the final scene,after she's finished a prestigiousSoviet tournament, Beth is at aloss for what to do all alone inthis foreign country. She goes toa nearby park, sees an old mansitting alone in front of a chessset, and challenges him to agame. "The message here is,"says Tevis, "when in doubt—play chess." 4'arcy

Soltis is a writer and chessplayerbased in New York City.

Sc. &o..ast.ic'.vent.s Sel:..'or A 3ri:.

The action starts April 23-24with the National Junior HighTeam and Individual Cham-pionships in Terre Haute, In-diana — host of last year'record-shattering Junior HighChampionships.

Terre Haute, in the heartlandof the United States, expects acrowd that will top last year'record of 485. There are eightytrophies to be won — and anaward for each entrant whocompletes the tournament,courtesy of the U.S. ChessTrust. Who will be the newJunior High champs?

The following weekend, boththe National High School TeamChampions and the NationalElementary Team and Indi-vidual Champions will becrowned.

April 29 will find the firstround of the High School TeamChampionship under way inSan Jose, California. This is thefirst time the High School Teamhas been held on the WestCoast, and hundreds of eagertrophy hunters are sure to at-tend.

Awards include $ Z,500 inscholarships and more than six-ty trophies for winners in anumber of categories. Thetourney lasts until May 1.

On April 30, in Cordova, Ten-nessee (a suburb of Memphis),elementary school studentsfrom all over the country willbegin battling for fifty-fivetrophies, five Kaisha chessclocks, and forty-eight chesssets! All this — plus the titles ofNational Elementary Team andNational Elementary IndividualChampions and U.S. ChessTrust Participation Awards too!

Down the road a piece, inCrossville, Tennessee, lastyear's National Elementarydrew 336 — so look for a crowdApril 30 to May 1.

4'.VBIlOV:

.mo.i a1.

...1m mQgor Ivanov is at it again... After only a couple of

months into the 1983 GrandPrix race, the Canadian cham-pion and international masterhas more than twice thenumber of points earned by hisclosest rivals.

Will Ivanov, winner of the1982 race, become the GrandPrix's only repeat winner in1983? Only time will tell.

Also among the early leadersare International Masters NickdeFirmian and Boris Kogan.Kogan, the ninner-up in lastyear's contest, is always a topcompetitor in the Grand Prix.

The Grand Prix is a year-longcontest sponsored by Church'sFried Chicken, Inc. Top point-getters will split $ 18,500 inprizes at the end of the year, alldonated by Church's.

For more details on theGrand Prix, see page 49.

These are the standings fromevents reported as of lateFebruary:

1. Igor Ivanov........ 32.172. Nick deFirmian .... 12.00

Richard Delaune ...12.00Boris Kogan ~...... 12.00

5. Asa Hoffman ......11.676. Don Marcott....... 10.507. Michael Gatlin..... 10.008. Jay Bonin ..........6.679. Bruce Steinfeld...... 6.00

10. Dan Blocker........5.00Joe Bradford........ 5.00Michael Brooks ..... 5.00Timothy Brown..... 5.00Richard Carpenter...5.00Dan Lancry ........ 5.00

This unique outdoor chess set is featured at the San Jose Hyatt, siteof the National High School Team Championship.

16. Joshua Bousum .....2.50Michael Calogridis... 2.50Victor Frias ........2.50Dmitry Gurevich.... 2.50Sergei Kudrin.......2.50Phillip Steinen ......2.50

Memorial DClassic GfIersChess Holiday

A fter three years, Lina Gru-mette's Memorial Day

Classic already - has enoughhistory and success under itsbelt to be designated as anAmerican Classic. This title, in-stituted by USCF to giverecognition to tournaments thathave attracted more than 400players for three years straight,is next to the title of NationalTournament in importance.

Indeed, this upcoming event.easily qualified, drawing nearly500 participants each year sinceits inception. Besides quantity,this tournament has gatheredquality: grandmasters and in-ternational masters from allover the United States. They arelured by the large prize fund,the maximum 1ZO Grand Prixpoints, and the promise of top-level competition in sunnyCalifornia.

The inaugural event in 1980saw 478 players converge fromtwenty-four states and fiveforeign countries. GM LarryEvans decided to play after athree-year layoff from tourna-ment chess. Four players tiedwith 5'/2- /z. GMs WalterBrowne, Larry Christiansen,and Peter Biyiasas (whodefeated GM Lev Alburt) andIM Jack Peters. In case pasthistory has become vague, let'not forget that Browne, Chris-tiansen, and Evans tied for theU.S. Championship later thatyear. Yes, all three played in theMemorial Day Classic.

A slight increase in 1981 had483 players jockeying for$23,000 in prizes. GM Jim Tar-jan was knocked off in, a spec-tacular upset in round 2 by KarlYee (2159). Browne downedBiyiasas in the last round toagain climb into a four-way tie.this time with Christiansen,Peters and IM Nick deFirmian.

The most dramatic year was

289CHESS LIFE I MAY 1983 17

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Editor's Note: The following is excerptedfrom the hrst chapter ofThe Queen's Gambitby Walter Tevi's (copyright 1983 by WalterTevis). It is reprinted by permission ofRandomHouse Inc.

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By Walter Tevis

u

~ very Tuesday Miss Graham sentBeth down after Arithmetic to do~ the erasers. It was considered a

privilege, and Beth was the bes! student inthe class, even though at eight she was theyoungest. She did not like the basement. Itsmelled musty, and she was afraid of thejanitor. But she wanted to know moreabout the game he played on a board byhimself.

One day she went over and stood nearMr. Shaibel, waiting for him to move apiece. The one he was touching was theone with a horse's head on a little pedestal.After a second he looked up at her with a

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Writer and chessplayer Walter Tevis makes his homein New York City. Two of his novels, The Hustler/1959J and The Man Who Fell to Earth (1963J weremade into successful motion pictures.

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frown of irritation. "What do you want,child?" he said.

Normally she fled from any human en-counter, especially with grown-ups, butthis time she did not back away. "What'that game called?" she asked.

He stared at her. "You should be upstairswith the others."

She looked at him levelly; somethingabout this man and the steadiness withwhich he played his mysterious gamehelped her hold tightly to what shewanted. "I don't want to be with the

. others," she said. "I want to know whatgame you'e playing."

He would stare at the pieces for minutesat a time, motionless, looking at them asthough he hated them, and then reach outover his belly, pick one up by its top withhis fingertips, hold it for a moment asthough.holding a dead mouse by the tail,and set it on another square. He did notlook up at Beth.

Beth stood with the black shadow of herhead on the concrete floor at her feet andwatched the board, not taking her eyesfrom it, watching every move.

he had learned to save her tranquili-zers until night. That helped her sleep.

During the five months since she was putin Methuen Home, Beth had slept onlywith difficulty. But now she had a system.She would put the oblong pill in her mouthwhen Mr. Fergussen handed it to her atvitarriin time, get it under her tongue, takea sip of the canned orange juice that camewith the pill, swallow, and then when Mr.Fergussen had gone on to the next child,take the pill from her mouth and slip it intothe pocket of her middy blouse. The pillshad a hard coating and did not soften in thetime they sat under her tongue.

Mr. Shaibel folded hisarms across his chest.He still did riot look at

Beth. "I don't playstrangers. "

He.looked at her more closely. Then heshrugged. "It's called chess." ill you teach me?"

Mr. Shaibel said nothing, did notbare light bulb hung from a black even register the question with a move-cord between Mr. Shaibel and the ment of his head.

furnace. Beth was careful not to let the Her voicealmost broke with theeffortof,shadow of her head fall on the board. It her words, but she pushed them outwas Sunday morning. They were having anyway. "I want to learn to play chess."chapel upstairs in the orphanage library, Mr. Shaibelreachedafathandouttooneand she had held up her hand to go to thw . ---'of the larger black pieces, picked it up deft-bathroom and then come down here. She ly by its head, and set it down on a squarehad been standing, watching the janitor at the other side of the board. He broughtplay chess, for ten minutes. Neither. of the hand back and folded his arms acrossthem had spoken, but he seemed to accept his chest. He still did not look at Beth. "Iher presence. ~don't play strangers."

''heflat voice had the effect of a slap in

the face. Beth turned and left, walkingupstairs with the bad taste in her mouth.

"I'm not a stranger," she said to him twodays later, "I live here."

Behind her head a small moth circled thebare bulb, and its dilute shadow crossedthe board at regular intervals.

"You can teach me. I already know someof it, from watching."

"Girls don't play chess." Mr. Shaibel'svoice was flat.

She looked at the darkceiling overhead andforced herself to see

the chessboard.

She steeled herself and took a step closer,pointing at, but not touching, one of cylin-drical pieces that she had already labeled acannon in her imagination. "This onemoves up and down and back and forth.All the way, if there's space to move in."

Mr. Shaibel was silent for a while. Thenhe reached out and pointed at the one withwhat looked like a slashed lemon on its top."And this one?"

Her heart leapt up. "On the diagonals."

ou could save up pills by takingonly one at night and keeping the

other. Beth put the extras in her toothbrushholder, where nobody ever would look.

That night for the first time she tookthree pills, one after the other. Littleprickles went across the hairs on the backof her neck; she had discovered somethingimportant. She let the glow spread all overher, lying on her cot in her faded blue pa-jamas in the worst bed in the girls'ard,the bed near the door to the corridor andacross from the bathroom. Something inher life was solved. She knew aboutBishops and Rooks and how they movedand captured, and she knew how to makeherself feel good in the stomach and in thetense joints of her arms and legs, with thepills the orphanage gave her.

Your Majesty, I think I'm allergic to this opening.

~[ kay, child," Mr. Shaibel said. "WeM~ can play chess now. I play White."She had the erasers. It was after

Arithmetic, and Geography was in tenminutes. "I don't have much time," shesaid. She had learned all the moves lastSunday, during the hour that chapel al-lowed her to be in the basement. No oneever-missed her at chapel, as long as shechecked in. But Geography was different.She was terrified of Mr. Schell, eventhough she was at the top of the class.

The janitor's voice was fiat. "Now ornever," he said.

"I have Geography . ~."

"Now or never."She only thought a second before

28 CHESS LIFE / MAY 1983300

CP

8

44

deciding. She had seen an old milk cratebehind the furnace. She went and draggedit to the other end of the board, seatedherself and said, "Move."

He beat her with what she was to learnlater was called the Scholar's Mate, afterfour moves. It was quick, but not quickenough to keep her from being fifteenminutes late for Geography. She said she'been in the bathroom.

Mr. Schell stood at the desk with hishands on his hips. He surveyed the class."Have any of you young ladies seen thisyoung lady in the 'Ladies'"

There were subdued giggles. No handswere raised, not even Jolene's, althoughBeth had lied for her twice.

"And how many of you ladies were inthe 'Ladies'efore class?"

There were more giggles and threehands.

"And did any of you see Beth there?Washing her pretty little hands, perhaps?"

There was no response. Mr. Schellturned back to the board, where he hadbeen listing the exports of Argentina, andadded the word "Silver." For a momentBeth thought it was done with. But then hespoke, with his back to the class. "Fivedemerits," he said.

With ten demerits you were whipped onthe behind with a leather strap. Beth hadfelt that strap only in her imagination, buther imagination expanded for a momentwith a vision of pain like fire on the softparts of herself. She put her hand to herheart, feeling in the bottom of the breastpocket of her blouse for this morning's pill.The fear reduced itself perceptibly. She vis-

ualized her toothbrush holder, the long,rectangular plastic container; it had fourmore pills in it now, there in the drawer ofthe little metal stand by her cot.

She replayed thosetwo g.-tmes in her rrIIndwith the new moves,and won them both.

I hat night she lay on her back in bed... she had not yet taken the pill in herhand. She listened to the night noises andnoticed how they seemed to get louder asher eyes grew accustomed to the darkness.Down the hallway Mr. Byrne began talk-ing to Mrs. Holland, at the desk. Beth'sbody grew taut at the sound. She blinkedand looked at the dark ceiling overheadand forced herself to see the chessboardwith its green and white squares. Then sheput the pieces on their home squares:Rook, Knight, Bishop, Queen, King, andthe row of pawns in front of them. Thenshe moved White's King-pawn up to thefourth row. She pushed Black's up. Shecould do this! It was simple. She went on,beginning to replay the game she had lost.

She brought Mr. Shaibel's Knight up tothe third row. It stood there clearly in hermind on the green-and-white board on theceiling of the ward.

The noises had already faded into awhite, harmonious background. Beth layhappily in bed, playing chess.

He looked at the pawnsitting there for amoment and then

reached out angrily andtoppled his King.Neither of themsaid anything.

1 he pieces were set up. She cleaned... the erasers hurriedly and then seated

herself at the board. Mr. Shaibel hadmoved his King's pawn by the time she gotthere. She played her King's pawn, movingit two squares forward. She would notmake any mistakes this time.

He responded to her move quickly andshe immediately replied. They saidnothing to each another, but kept moving.Beth could feel the tension and she liked it.

On the twentieth move Mr. Shaibel ad-vanced a Knight when he shouldn't haveand Beth was able to get a pawn to the sixthrank. He brought the Knight back. It was awasted move and she felt a thrill when shesaw him do it. She traded her Bishop for

the Knight Then she pushed the pawnagain. It would become a Queen on thenext move.

He looked at it sitting there for a momentand then reached out angrily and toppledhis King. Neither of them said anything. Itwas her first win. All of the tension wasgone and what Beth felt inside herself wasas wonderful as anything she had ever feltin her life.

S he found she could miss lunch on Sun-days and no one paid any attention.

That gave her three hours with Mr.Shaibel, until he left for home at two-thirty.They did not talk, either of them. Healways played the White pieces, movingfirst, and she the Black. She had thoughtabout questioning this but decided not to.

One Sunday after a game he had barelymanaged to win, he said to her, "Youshould learn the Sicilian Defense."

She was still smarting from the loss. Shehad beaten him two games last week.

"What's that?" she asked irritably."When White moves pawn to King four,

Black does this." He reached down andmoved the White pawn two squares up theboard, his almost invariable first move.Then he picked up the pawn in front of theBlack Queen's Bishop and set it down twosquares up toward the middle. It was thefirst time he had ever shown her anythinglike this.

"Then what?" she said.He picked up the King's Knight and set it

below and to the right of the pawn."Knight to KB3."

"What's KB3?""King's Bishop 3. Where I just put the

Knight.""The squares have names?"He nodded impassively. She sensed that

he was unwilling to give up even this muchinformation. "If you play well, they havenames."

She leaned forward. "Show me."He looked down at her. "No. Not now."This infuriated her. She understood well

enough that a person likes to keep hissecrets. She kept hers. Nevertheless, shewanted to lean across the board and slaphis face and make him tell her. She suckedin her breath. "Is that the SicilianDefense?"

He seemed relieved that she haddropped the subject of the names of thesquares. "There's more," he said. He wenton with it, showing her the basic movesand some variations. But he did not use thenames of the squares. He showed her theLevenfish variations and the Najdorf varia-tion and told her to go over them. She did itwithout a single mistake.

But when they played a real game after-ward, he pushed his Queen's pawn for-ward, and she could see iiTImediately thatwhat he had just taught her was useless inthis situation. She stared at him across theboard, feeling that if she had a knife shecould stab him with it. Then she looked

301CHESS LIFE / MAY 1983 29

& & he chessboard was set up, and she,.. saw to her surprise that the White. pieces were facing her side and the milkcrate was already in place. "Do I movefirst?" she said, incredulous.

"Yes. From now on we take turns. It'the way the game should be played."

She seated herself and moved the King'pawn. Mr. Shaibel wordlessly moved his'ueen

Bishop pawn. She hadn't forgottenthe moves. She never forgot chess moves.

He showed her theLevenfish variation and

the Najdorf variationand told her to go over

them. She did it withouta single mistake.

back to the board and moved her ownQueen's pawn forward, determined to beathLrn.

He moved the pawn next to his Queen'pawn, the one in front of the Bishop. "Isthat one of those things? Like the SicilianDefense?" she asked.

"Openings." He did not look at her; hewas watching the board.

"Is it?"He shrugged. "The Queen's Gambit."She felt better. She had learned

something more from him. She decidednot to take the offered pawn, to leave thetension on the board. She liked it like that.She liked the power of the pieces, exertedalong the files and diagonals. In the middleof the game, when the pieces wereeverywhere, the forces crisscrossing theboard thrilled her. She brought out herKing's Knight, feeling its power spread.

In twenty moves she had won both hisRooks, and he resigned.

he rolled over in bed and put a pillowover her head to block out the light:-

from under the corridor door and began tothink how you can use a Bishop and a Rooktogether to make a sudden check on theKing. If you moved the Bishop, the Kingwould be in check, and the Bishop wouldbe free to do whatever it wanted to on the rnext move — even take the Queen. She laythere for quite a while, thinking excitedlyof this powerful attack. Then she took thepillow off and rolled over on her back andmade the chessboard on the ceiling andplayed over all her games with Mr.Shaibel, one at a time. She saw two placeswhere she might have created the Rook-Bishop situation she had just invented. Inone of them she could have forced it by adouble threat and in the other she couldhave probably sneaked it in. She replayedthose two games in her mind with the newmoves, and won them both. She smiledhappily to herself and fell asleep.

He played the Levenfish variation; shekept her eyes on his Bishop's command ofthe long diagonal, the way it was waiting topounce. And she found a way to neutralizeit on the seventeenth move. She was ableto tradeAer own, weaker Bishop for it.Then she moved in with her Knight,brought a Rook out, and had him mated inten more moves.

Mr. Shaibel seemed different today. Hedid not scowl as he always did when shebeat him. He leaned forward and said, "I'lteach you chess notation."

She looked up at him."The names of the squares. I'l teach you

now."She bl~ed. "Am I good enough now?"He started to say something and stopped.

"How old are you, child?""Eight.""Eight years old." He leaned farther for-

ward — as far as his huge paunch wouldpermit. "To tell you the truth of it, child,you are astounding."

ing, Knight, pawn. The tensions onthe board were enough to warp it.

Then whack! Down came the Queen.Rooks at the bottom of the board, hemmedin at first, but ready, building up pressureand then removing the pressure in a singlemove. In General Science Miss Hadley hadspoken of magnets, of "lines of force."Beth, nearly asleep with boredom, hadwaked up suddenly. Lines of force:Bishops on diagonals, Rooks on files.

She looked up at him."Am I good enough

now?" He leaned fartherforward. "To tell youthe truth of it, child,you are astounding."

The seats in the classroom could be likethe squares. If Ralph were a Knight, shecould pick him up and move him two seatsup and one over, setting him on the emptydesk next to Denise. This would check Ber-trand, who sat in the front row and was,she decided, the King. She smiled, thinkingof it.

~ ~ 5

ere," Mr. Shaibel said. He handed.... her something in a brown paper bag.It was noon on Sunday. She slipped the bagopen. In it was a heavy paperback book—Modern Chess Openings

Incredulously, she began to turn thepages. It was filled with long vertical col-umns of chess notations. There were littlechessboard diagrams and chapter headslike "Queen's Pawn Openings" and "In-dian Defense Systems." She looked up.

He was scowling at her. "It's the bestbook for you," he said. "It will tell you

what you want to know."She said nothing but seated herself on

her milk crate behind the board, holdingthe book tightly in her lap, and waited toplay.

+& nglish was the dullest class, with~ Mr. Espero's slow voice and the poetswith names like John Greenleaf Whittierand William Cullen Bryant. "Whithermidst falling dew; while glow the heavenswith the last steps of day..." It was stupid.And he read every word aloud, with care.

She held Modern Chess Openings underher desk while Mr. Espero read. She wentthrough variations one at a time, playingthem out in her head. By the third day, thenotations — P-K4; N-KB3 — leapt into herquick mind as solid pieces on real squares.She saw them easily; there was no need fora board. She could sit there with ModernChess Open! ngs in'her lap, while Mr. Esperodroned on about the enlargement of thespirit that great poetry gave us. In the backof the book were continuations down tothe very end of the classic games, totwenty-seventh-move resignations or todraws on the fortieth, and she had learnedto put the pieces through their entire ballet,sometimes catching her breath at theelegance of a combination or of a sacrificeor the restrained balance of forces in a posi-tion. And always her mind was on the win,or the potential for a win.

"For his gayer hours she has a voice ofgladness and a smile and eloquence ofbeauty ~

.." read Mr. Espero, while Beth'smind danced in awe to the geometricalrococo of chess, rapt, enraptured, drown-ing in the grand permutations as theyopened to her soul, and her soul opened tothem.

~ ~

On Sunday there was another man in thebasement with Mr. Shaibel. He was thinand wore a striped shirt and tie. "This isMr. Ganz, from the chess club," Mr.Shaibel said.

"Chess club?" Beth echoed, looking himover. He seemed a little like Mr. Schell,even though he was smiling.

I he next Sunday she beat Mr. Shaibelfive games straight. She had been

playing him for three months now, and sheknew that he could no longer beat her. Notonce. She anticipated every feint, everythreat that he knew how to make. Therewas no way he could confuse her with hisKnights, or keep a piece posted on adangerous square, or embarrass her bypinning an important piece. She could seeit coming and could prevent it, while con-tinuing to set up for an attack.

When they had finished, he said, "Youare eight years old?"

"Nine in November."He nodded. "You will be here next Sun-

day?""Yes.""Good. Be sure."

P

. ~

P&mim~

30 CHESS LIFE / MAY 1983

11 Q

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QUEEN'S GAMBITCONTINUED FROM PAGE 31

,I,'I'll lI„'I',lI"')I'II,I'I,ISSUEI Ig ***iJ

through the short bushes by the walk at theedge of the building. Nobody spoke whilethe pieces were put on the boards. Mr.Ganz took the Knight gently from Beth'shand and set it on its home square. "Wethought you could play us both," he said.

"At the same time?"He nodded.Her milk crate had been put between the

boards. She had White for both games, andin both of them she played pawn to Kingfour.

Mr. Ganz was a betterplayer than Mr. Shaibel.

Still, she knew after ahalf dozen moves that he

would be easy to beat,and she proceeded to

do so, calmly andmercilessly.

Mr. Shaibel replied with the Sicilian; Mr.Ganz played pawn to King four. She didnot even have to pause and think about thecontinuations. She played both moves andlooked out the window.

She beat them both effortlessly. Mr.Ganz set up the pieces, and they startedagain. This time she moved pawn to Queenfour on both and followed it with pawn toQueen's Bishop four — the Queen's Gam-bit. She felt deeply relaxed, almost in adream. She had taken seven tranquilizersat about midnight, and some of the languorwas still in her.

About midway into the games she wasstaring out the window at a bush with pinkblooms when she heard Mr. Ganz's voicesaying, "Beth, I'e moved my Bishop toBishop five," and she replied dreamily,"Knight to King five." The bush seemed toglow in the spring sunlight.

"Bishop to Knight four," Mr. Ganz said."Queen to Queen four," Beth said, still

not looking."Knight to Queen's Bishop three," Mr.

Shaibel said gruffly."Bishop to Knight five," Beth said, her

eyes on the pink blossoms."Pawn to Knight three." Mr. Ganz had a

strange softness in his voice."Queen to Rook four check," Beth said.She heard Mr. Ganz inhale sharply. After

a second he said, "King to Bishop one.""That's mate in three," Beth said,

without turning. "First check is with theKnight. The King has the two dark squares,and the Bishop checks it. Then the Knightmates."

Mr. Ganz let out his breath slowly."Jesus Christ!" he said.

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d'or CHESS LIFE / MAY 1983 35