The story really starts a week earlier one afternoon after school. The chess club was sponsoring its yearly school championship match. I say yearly but I really have no idea if it was ever held before or afterwards. I wasn’t in the club the year before and the year after I was at a different school. I suspect the only reason the club existed that year was that Mr. Smith, one of the teachers at CHS, wanted to start the club. Who knows if he was in the mood to sponsor the club the next year?
It was 3:15pm after school in the library. In my previous period I had study hall so I got to the room before both Mr. Smith and my opponent, whom I had never met before. They both must have had a class because I waited for at least ten minutes. My thoughts began to drift around to class and girls, soccer and girls, movies and girls, football and girls. You may notice a pattern.. something always got in the way of thinking about girls. My thoughts eventually drifted to chess and one game in particular. It was with my dad. He and I didn’t do too many things together but we did play chess every so often. Dad loved to teach, no matter what activity we did together. He was always trying explain why something worked the way it did, why Winston Churchill was the greatest leader of the 20th century, or why the Braves couldn’t seem to win another World Series. Dad and I had just sat down and I was getting in the mood for a nice long game. I was white so I went first. I thought for a moment and decided to position my defense in the way I usually did. So out went a pawn two spaces. Before I had even drawn my hand back to my side dad had moved the pawn in front of his King.
I didn’t think anything of the quickness of his move. I was moving my pieces according to my usual defense and wasn’t really thinking about Dad. On his next move dad quickly moved his queen out diagonally so that it was even with the pawn he had moved out previously.
I was starting to sense he was up to something but I didn’t know what it was. No matter, I figured if I just concentrated on my defense he couldn’t harm me. Bam! As quick as a gunshot he moved the bishop that was next to his king out in the only direction it could go. He had set it up to take the pawn in front of the bishop next to my king.
His pieces were still on his side of the board, so I didn’t sense any danger. I felt I needed to get my defense set before I went to attack. And then he showed me the error of my ways when he moved his queen all the way across the board and took the pawn in front of my bishop that was next to my queen.
“Check mate.” He said softly.
I was a little startled and said “That’s not check mate. I can take the queen with my my…”
I was going to say bishop when I noticed that the queen was in front of the bishop and noted that the bishop can only move diagonally.
“Well I can take it with my king.” I said until I noticed that in taking the queen I would then be in check by his bishop. I was shocked. Check mate in four moves! I was astounded. He had gotten me in checkmate in under five minutes. That had to be a world record, at least for our house. Dad smiled that dadly smile they smile when they know something that you don’t.
“How did you do that?” I asked in disbelief.
“It’s called fools mate.” He said. “Let me show you the moves.”
My daydream was interrupted when Mr. Smith and my opponent entered the room. There wasn’t much ceremony. Mr. Smith introduced us and we got down to playing the match. There wasn’t much said. We sat and stared at the board for a good half hour. The quiet setting betrayed the slaughter that was going on. I was losing men faster than an Arnold Schwartzneger movie. My opponent was obviously a very gifted chess player. After about 20 minutes I started to give up hope. He had taken all the power pieces I usually use, the queen, both bishops, one rook and a knight. It was really only a matter of time before I went the way of Napoleon at Waterloo.
Just when the game looked its most hopeless he made a big mistake. He was chasing my king around my side of the board. He would move and I would be in check. I would make the only move I could to get out of check only to see him get me in check the very next move. It was only a few moves before it was checkmate. Then he made the same mistake I had made against my Dad. He was so focused on his part of the game, trying to get me in checkmate; he forgot that I was trying to get him in checkmate. In order to make sure that he got me in checkmate he had to make a move that didn’t leave my king in check. So I had one free move. I looked around to see if I could strengthen my defense and to my surprise noticed that he had left his king exposed. His king was trapped on the right side of the last row behind a row of pawns. His only move with the king was along that last row toward the left. I looked to see if I could take advantage.
I noticed that my rook had an unobstructed path to row on which his king resided. I checked the spot where my rook would land. No danger there. He wouldn’t be able to take my piece. Then I checked if he would be able to block my rook. A thoughtful scan of the board seemed to reveal that he wouldn’t be able to block the rook. I sat silent scanning the board. It seemed too easy. Checkmate in one simple move?
After looking at the board again I could see no reason why it wouldn’t work and decided to give a try. I wanted the game to be over anyway. If it did get over soon (and the bus was late) I might still be able to catch my bus and mom wouldn’t have to drive the 20 minutes to pick me up. So I picked up the piece and moved it to the last row. My hand stayed on the rook for a long time as I tried to see one last time if there were any kinks in my plan. As I could see no other I slowly removed my hand and slowly stated, “Checkmate.”
My opponent was in disbelief he scanned the board but quickly realized that he was indeed in checkmate. He looked up offered his hand in congratulations and we parted. I don’t think I ever saw him again. Internally I was breathing a sigh of relief. I knew I had beaten a far superior player not because I was better but because he made a silly mistake. Though, as I thought about it I began to feel pride about my accomplishment. I had actually made it to the championship game. Technically I was one of the two best chess players at Central High School. Now for a boy who didn’t perceive himself as really good in any particular activity this was a real boost. I was Mr. Chess! Unfortunately, the next day I would learn about Miss Chess, Lisa Fridell.
A Grandpa's Musings 
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