The Chess Match

I am not sure why some events are burned into our memories but this one stuck in mine because it seemed like a David and Goliath story. Only, my Goliath was a gorgeous 4ft 10in brunette. “Goliath’s” name was Lisa Fridell. She was a smart attractive brunette in the tenth grade in Central High School. We had never met before our meeting at the CHS chess club championship match the fall of 1982. I don’t know if she had heard of me before that match but, boy, had I heard of her. I had heard enough to make me sick but that is getting ahead of myself.

“Oh man! I can’t believe that I’ve forgotten! See you!” I shouted at my friend Tony as I grabbed my bag and ran for the library.

I was nervous but… I really am getting ahead of myself.

The story really starts a week earlier one afternoon after school. The chess club was sponsoring its yearly school championship match and I had made it to the semi-final. I had study hall my last period so I got to the room before both Mr. Smith, the faculty sponsor, 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 with my dad. We played chess together 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 20^th 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 attacked. 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 your 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 my opponent 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.

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. 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, on Monday I would learn about Miss Chess, Lisa Fridell.

I worked my way to the back of bus No. 17. Mr. Atkinson was his usually stoically quite self. I found a seat next to my best friend Tony Daniel, a person of unique personality and talents. He was the opposite of me; big, loud, boisterous, confident. In many ways he got me through high school.

“Hey I hear you won your chess match yesterday.” Tony greeted me. A wave of pride swelled in me.

“Yes, I did.” I was tempted to embellish my victory but decided truth was a much better idea. “I got lucky. He made a bad mistake and I just happen to have the right piece in the right place at the right time.”

“So is the next match the championship?”

“Friday. Its after school again.”

“So is your mom going to pick you up?”

“Yea.”

“You better not forget to ask her before Friday afternoon. Your memory isn’t exactly a steel trap, you know.”

“Yea, I know. I’ll remember, Dad!” I answered sarcastically.

“Do you know who you are playing yet?”

“Not yet. I think the other semi-final is today. I don’t know either of the players so Friday will be the first time I play against them.”

“You haven’t played them in the chess club before?”

“The tournament is open to the whole school and those players were not in the club.”

“Doesn’t say much for the quality of the chess club does it?”

“Hey!” I said with a small amount of indignation, “ I am still a member of the chess club. The chess club may yet claim the school title.”

“Well, I hope you win.”

“Thanks Tony.” I answered him and then changed the subject. “I saw North by Northwest last night!”

Tony’s eyes brightened, “So did you like it?” We were of into our virtual world of the silver screen. Our favorite topics of conversation were old movies, the Three Stooges and the best of all The Little Rascals.

The next day in Mr. Moore’s algebra class Tony leaned over and whispered, “Did you find out who you play next week?”

“No,” I whispered back quietly. I didn’t want to start a conversation because we were supposed to be doing our work. Tony hated math so he really didn’t care. It is not so much that I liked math is that I liked not being in trouble. Mr. Moore was a nice teacher but like any good one he didn’t like students talking when they were supposed to be working. Besides, Tony had already gotten on Mr. Moore’s bad side by bothering Narissa Ponder. He tilted her desk and almost sent her crashing to the floor. And later to the amazement of everyone started singing “Mr. Moore loves Miss Arrington”. Miss Arrington, a tall attractive English teacher, and Mr. Moore were dating. I am not really sure why Mr. Moore didn’t nuke Tony after that incident, maybe because it was true, but after blushing simply gave Tony the evil eye and Tony stopped. So Tony was not exactly in Mr. Moore’s good graces now. Mr. Moore didn’t notice me and that was fine with me.

“So when do you find out?” came back a whisper.

“Be quiet Tony! I’m trying to do my work.” I whispered a little too loudly.

“Is there anything you two gentlemen would like to discuss with the class?” Mr. Moore said as he gave us both the evil eye. Oh, I wanted to clobber Tony. I had never been given the evil eye by any teacher, much less the calm Mr. Moore.

“No sir.” I said.

“Then get about your work quietly.” Mr. Moore replied.

Mercifully the bell rang and we all started to file out for lunch. We all shuffled through the line to grab something that was interesting and even edible. After snarfing down the food we all went outside to claim our corner of the courtyard to yak until lunch was over.

Tony, Mark Lee, Lisa Reed and I started to engage in our favorite lunchtime activity: standing by the air conditioner next to the teacher’s lounge and bending the vanes off the unit. Kevin was slightly taller than average and was somewhat of an athlete. He kind of leaned toward the cool athlete type, though in Newnan Georgia that was also usually mixed in with a healthy amount of redneck. Kevin definitely had that in him as he spit out a big wad of skoal laced spit. “Hey, I hear you are playing Lisa Fridell for the chess championship next week.” He said to me as he prepared to ‘skoal’ a spider on the ground near us.

“Is she the winner of the other match?” I asked.

“Yeh,” Kevin looked up at me and said, “I just heard it last period.” He stared back at the ground for a second as if thinking. “You are going to be toast.” He said rather matter-of-factly.

“Lisa Fridel!!”, interjected Tony as he laughed. “I feel for you man.” He said as he turned to me.

“It’s going to be an uphill battle”, added Mark “I had her in trig class. She knows her stuff.”

“It’s not over yet.” Lisa Reed added trying to defend my mental honor, though not convincingly. It didn’t help. As far as my friends were concerned the match had already been played and I lost.

“What!?” I protested at this pre-game show analysis.

“Lisa is going to kill you, man.” Kevin said

“How do you know that?” I replied, starting to feel slighted.

“You don’t know her?” He asked in some disbelief, as if her mental genius was known to the whole world.

“No, I’ve never heard her name.” I answered

“Oh man!” he said chuckling. “She is the smartest kid around here. She going to medical school.”

“Medical School! Yikes!” I thought to myself. Heck I didn’t even know where I was going this weekend. I didn’t even know if I was going to college much less graduate school. This was more than a little intimidating.

“Well Harvey,” added Tony “you gave it a good shot.”

“What shot? We haven’t even played the match yet!” I was starting to get really steamed.

“I think you can beat her.” Mark added. From anyone else I might have believed it but Mark was such a nice guy I knew he was just trying to cheer me up.

“Don’t listen to them”, added Lisa. “I think you can do it.” Lisa tried to sound encouraging but then added without thinking. “I like rooting for the underdog.”

The bell rang. Tony, Mark, Lisa and Kevin filed out to their next classes. I stood there stunned for a moment.

“What?!!” I thought to myself. I was still a little dumbfounded. “Who IS this I’m playing?” I thought

Ring! Ring! Ring! I heard the bell ring. Startled, I stopped and all the previous thoughts in my mind vanished as I raced to my next class hoping the teacher wouldn’t see me come in late.

Dinner was the normal crazy affair at my house. Not that everyone was going in different places, no. In fact one of the things that my mom really insisted upon was being at dinner at the same time. Dinner was crazy because you had 5 boys talking about what they did during the day at the same time. Mom and Dad enjoyed the chaos. Usually I was in on the conversation. Most of the time I was involved in trying to correct all the erroneous views of my clod-head brothers who didn’t seem to know anything.

This night was different. Even with the decibel level pretty high around the dinner table I couldn’t get Lisa off my mind. It was strange. I didn’t know her. I had never seen her. I didn’t know the first thing about her, other than she was a girl and evidently a pretty good chess player and for some strange reason she was all I thought about during dinner. Farah Fawcett I could understand. I knew what she looked like. But Lisa Fridell? It didn’t make sense.

I dragged myself out of bed the next morning and got ready for school still confused about “Lisa”. The bus pulled up and I took my usual seat next to Tony. The confused look on my face must have been noticeable.

“Trying to figure out two plus two?” he asked with a wry smile.

“Yea, you could do it too. You won’t even need your left hand.”

“Ha. Ha.” Came back the fake laugh.

“No, I have been thinking about Lisa.”

“Lisa Reed?” he asked with an enthusiasm I didn’t expect, “She’s pretty hot isn’t she.”

“No! I haven’t been thinking of her, though you obviously have.” I said as I stared at him. There was a few seconds of silence as Tony turned beet red. “no.. I was thinking about Lisa Fridell. You know. The one I am playing in the chess championship in two days.”

“Yea, she pretty high on the looker list too.” He answered but not with the same gusto as before. “I thought you didn’t know her!?.”

“I don’t. That is what I don’t understand. I don’t know the girl. Heck! I’ve never even seen a picture of her but I can’t get her out of my mind.”

“So you got the hots for a girl you’ve never even seen.”

“No, no, no!” I answered. Tony didn’t get it. “No I don’t ‘the hots’ for her. I just can’t get her or this chess match out of my mind. More specifically I can’t get what Whiteside said out of my mind.” I rubbed my chin with my hand as I stared at the floor.

I turned to Tony. “Is she really that smart, Tony? Am I really going to be toast?”

“I don’t know. I mean she is pretty smart but you don’t belong to Idiots Anonymous yourself.”

“Thanks, but I am a little worried.”

“Worried!? Worried about what?”

“Losing. I don’t want to lose.”

“Well nobody wants to lose.”

“Yea but its so….. so… so embarrassing. People will think I am an idiot. I don’t want to walk around CHS being known as the village idiot.”

“I don’t know what planet you live on but nobody around here is going to think of you as the village idiot.” He answered with a look of disbelief   “What is the worse that is going to happen to you. They will announce that Lisa won the match on the P.A. in the morning. Ninety percent of the school won’t even know you were the opponent. Then when the bell rings 30 seconds later and everyone head to class they won’t even remember that Lisa won the stupid chess championship. I mean chess doesn’t quite have the sex appeal of football around her and you don’t have the notoriety of coach Bass.”

While Tony seemed to have a good head on his shoulders somehow I missed internalizing his perspective. There was a gnawing fear growing in me about her and, ever since Tony’s evaluation of her, a strange fascination about her. “Who was Lisa?” Was she Goliath, Farah Fawcett or both?’ I thought.

Apparently the news of the match had gotten around the previous day. Kim Stephens, possibly the strongest sophomore in the school, some say he could bench 500lbs, walked up to me. “I hear you are playing Lisa Fridell for the chess championship.”

“Yes.” I responded a little suspiciously.

“Sorry to hear it.” He said. “I like you and I was hoping you would win.”

I actually got mad at this comment. The anger boiled up within me and I was about to give him a piece of my mind before common sense took over and I realized that he could easily take piece of my body as well as my mind.

“Thanks.” I said not really knowing how to answer him.

The rest of the day was filled with comments like that from friends, acquaintances and some people I didn’t even know. By now I was wondering if Lisa was Albert Einstein’s granddaughter. It was last period, the infamous study hall, and I walked to the library where Tony and I usually tried to catch up on current events in the newspapers, like Garfield and Bloom County.

I didn’t do much reading this time.

“What is this?” I thought to myself. “Everyone seems to think I will lose. Before this week I bet 80 percent of this school didn’t even know how to play chess and now everyone is an expert?” As my daydream wondered the image of Lisa began to grow in my mind. She was now nine feet tall, wearing armor and carrying a spear about the size of a pine tree. She really did resemble my mental image of Goliath, though the face was blank. I couldn’t seem to come up with a good one to put there.

“Hey, are you going to stay here all night or what?” Tony asked as if he had asked this question many times before.

“What?” I asked as I was startled out of my pity party “What?” I quickly pulled out my pocket watch. 3:13pm. The bus would be here in less than two minutes. “Ahh !” I yelled forgetting to thank Tony. Quickly I grabbed my bag and ran out to the stop hoping to get there before the bus left.

We got to the stop; the bus was there but hadn’t left yet. “Thanks Tony.” I said as I climbed aboard.

“Sure, no problem. Somebody has to watch out for you. Your bright but you’d forget your head if it weren’t attached to your body.” He chuckled. I would have been offended if I didn’t know it was true. I was an airhead. The real problem is its still true.

“You still pondering Lisa?” he asked.

“You mean Goliath?” I answered still in half daydream/day-nightmare.

“Tony?” I asked “What is she like? I keep thinking about this match and my image of her always comes up blank. I need to have some idea of what she is like so I won’t go crazy.”

“Lisa?”

“Yea”

“Well I don’t know her very well.”

“You know her better than I do.”

“She’s short, uh.. brunette.   with glasses. Pretty attractive.”

“No, I mean what is she like.”

“She’s smart, as you have heard. Frankly I don’t know much else.”

“You’re not much help, other than to let me know she is cute.” I spent the rest of the bus ride home trying to put together an image of Goliath, Einstein and Farah Fawcett. It wasn’t real easy.

Dinner at home was normal; hectic, lots of talking and mom not putting up with our rude table manners. I was pretty quite until Dad asked me how my day was. I went blank I couldn’t think of one thing that happened. The only thing that came to mind was the name Lisa Fridell. I knew Dad would want to hear something but I couldn’t think of anything to say. Finally the words, “Lisa Fridell” came out of my mouth. Silverware clanked, food was dropped and heads turned toward me, as my brothers heard a girl’s name come out of my mouth. I was kind of a late bloomer and hadn’t even gone on a date up to this point in my life. So to hear me mention girl’s name made my family curious to say the least. Well, not really my mom and dad, more my brothers, specifically Stuart and Phillip. It was a mistake of disastrous proportions.

Soon the old brotherly refrain started, “Punky Kid plus Karen Rich. Punky Kid plus Karen Rich.” My brothers had made that one up when I was about four and often played with a girl named Karen Rich. You can guess how I got the name Punky Kid. It didn’t matter that I had absolutely no memory of Karen Rich. Had my brothers not sung that song at every chance they got to harass me I wouldn’t have even remembered that there even was a Karen Rich. Sam even joined in the refrain even though he didn’t even know what the song meant.

Insult to injury. Not only did my class mates know I was going to lose to Lisa Fridell, now my brothers were going to brand her as my girlfriend forever even though I had never met the girl.

“No! No! No!”, I don’t even know the girl.”

“Yeh right!” said Phillip as he smiled and bit into Mom’s fried chicken, which happen to be exceptional that night.

Stuart looked over at Phillip, “Punky Kid plus Lisa Fridell. Just doesn’t have a good ring to it.”

“Yeh your right.” Answered the elder, “Harvey, when you two get married your going to have to get her to change her name to Karen Rich.” He and Stuart laughed out loud.

I was so mad I almost flung the mashed potatoes at them but the potatoes tasted too good.

“Quiet!” Dad said in his stern voice. The boys shut up. “Who is Lisa Fridell?”

“I don’t know her.” I answered as I stared at Stu and Phillip. “But I am playing her for the chess championship of the school in a couple of days.”

“Fridell?” Dad asked, “Is that her name?”

“Yes.” I answered inquisitively.

“I think I work with her Mom. She is an RN at the hospital. In fact she mentioned something about her daughter being excited about a chess match at school the other day. I didn’t realize it was with you. I hear she is a pretty bright cookie.”

“bright cookie” was the last thing I needed to hear. That night I had a dream about her. (It was NOT the dream that most boys have about girls.)

Lisa was standing in a valley arrayed in her armor. I think she had grown to 20 feet by now. She was holding her spear, which now resembled an oak tree. Her very short squire stood by laughing maniacally. I didn’t see but sensed the presence of hordes of people on the slopes ready to watch the action.

I stood about 100 yards away from her on the other slope of the valley dressed in my normal school clothes and holding no weapon.

Her loud booming voice could be heard across the entire valley, “Send one man to fight me. If I win he will be my slave. If he wins…. Well there is no need to be concerned with that.” She then stared at me with fire in her eyes. She raised her spear up to her head and began to spring toward me. She pulled her arm back and was about to release the spear when I awoke. I was breathing heavy and sweating. At this point I wish I had never signed up for the tournament.

The next day, I was out on the lunch courtyard contemplating the match. “Is she so smart that no-one could possibly beat her?” Then the thought hit me, “Maybe she is.” I stood still and stared off into the distance not really seeing anything out of my mind. I didn’t have time to dwell on that thought before I realized I had been standing in the courtyard by myself for several minutes. I picked up my backpack and hurried off to the next class before the tardy bell rang.

The rest of the day was a fog. A fog named Lisa Fridell. It rolled in on my mind just after lunch that day. It was as thick as pea soup. I couldn’t see anything else, just Lisa Fridell. But unlike fog there was no sun to burn it off. Since I had never seen her, my mind ran wild with images, all of them bad. She was a large mean ogre. She had fangs and breathed fire. My mind raced to more cerebral terrors, she was Einstein with the heart of Ted Bundy. She was a cold calculating killer, at least a killer of my ego. She would beat me in one move and then stomp on the chessboard just to gloat. She was a giant standing tall, defeating people just by her presence, just like Goliath. And like Goliath she carried a large spear with which to impale my personal worth.

Friday morning; D-Day, only I was the German army. I felt like a prisoner going to his last meal. I trudged out to the bus stop got on the bus.

I slunk down next to Tony.

“Why so down?” he asked. Apparently the dejection on my face was pretty evident.

“I feel like the Titanic. Only I see the ice berg from the deck and there is nothing I can do about it.” I said rather morosely.

“What?!” Tony asked.

“Some friend!” I thought. “He doesn’t even realize the disaster that is about to encompass me.” I am just glad I no longer expect my friends to be mind readers.

“The chess match. I’m going to lose.” I said.

“What?” he mumbled in disbelief. “Is that all? Why do you think that?”

“Well, your dissertation on her world renowned genius the other day didn’t help.” I said as I scrunched my nose with a nasal voice. Unfortunately It didn’t take much to get me into a snit.

“Is that what is bugging you?”

“I’m going to lose.”

“Oh just forget about it.” He was frustrated at my complaining. “You’ll do just fine.” He didn’t sound convincing.

I wasn’t in the mood to talk to my former friend and chief general for the rebellion against me. It was a long silent ride to school. I had several more days of this. How was I going to survive?

The bus brakes screeched to a stop. I looked up half expecting to see Lisa Fridell standing out in front of the school yelling much like Goliath, “Who will play me? Any man that I defeat will be my slave!” My imagination was crueler than reality and lead me to believe there was some other reason she wasn’t there beside the truth that no sane person would do that.

On the way to Mr. Dunn’s class, Stephen Brown stopped me in the hall. “I heard you are playing Lisa Fridell for the chess championship today. Well I wish you good luck you’ll need it.”

It was as if Stephen just hit me with a shovel in the face. Wam!!! All those depressing thoughts came back. “I’m going to lose. Everyone will laugh at me.”

I was in the library when the final bell rang or at least physically I was. Mentally I was in a terrible world. One of dismay, depression and mostly fear, fear of facing Lisa at a chess match.

I was lost in thought when Tony tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up and couldn’t believe it. I had forgotten to get to the bus twice in one week. That was bad, even for an airhead like me.

“Thanks Tony.” He smiled as he usually did.

We went out to wait for the bus. It was only a few minutes when it hit me. The match was today! “Ahhh!” I yelled as I raced for the library. What was I going to do? The bus was coming soon. I had been so depressed the previous week I forgot to ask mom to pick me up after the match. “Uh! Uh! What am I going to do?” raced through my mind. I felt trapped. I couldn’t play the match because I would miss the bus and I didn’t want to walk the twenty miles home. I couldn’t miss the match. I am not sure why I couldn’t miss the match I just knew at the time I couldn’t.

“Ahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” I was screaming in my head silently as I ran toward the library. Mr. Smith jumped as I burst through the door. I stopped short upon the sight of the attractive sophomore seated next to Mr. Smith. “Lisa…” I muttered.

“Yes,” she said. “You must be Harvey.” At this point I suddenly forgot everything. Not just my recent worries, not just my high school but my name. All I could think was, “Goliath sure didn’t look like this!”

“Uhh…” Cough! Cough! “…Yes,” came out as my voice cracked.

My brain was an emotional soup as this point. I didn’t want to get left. I didn’t want to call mom to come pick me up. I didn’t want to get trounced in chess. I didn’t want to meet Lisa and now all of the sudden I didn’t want to leave. People say that women are hard to understand. I would say the mind of the adolescent male is much more confusing.

I pulled the chair out and sat down across from Lisa and slowly lowered my bag to the ground. Mr. Smith’s introduction and explanation of the match sounded something like, “Blah ba blah blah. Blah blah blah.”

I looked at Lisa’s watch. If Mr. Atkinson was on time I had about 15 minutes, though sometimes he came early, yikes! That quickly lifted the fog on my brain. As pretty as Lisa was, it wasn’t pretty enough to make me want to walk the 20 miles home. At this point I started not to care if I won the game. The only thing that mattered was this game had to be over before the bus got here. I suppose I could have just forfeited but adolescent boys in pressure situations don’t always think clearly.

We had just determined colors, Lisa was white and I was black, when I had an idea. My games with my dad came to mind and I suddenly remembered fool’s mate and how he had won the game in five minutes. I thought, “Well I’ve got at most 15 minutes to win or lose this game. So I’ll give it a try.”

Lisa stared at the board for a few second then picked up her first piece. I stared peering at her watch. I only had 13 minutes before the bus got there. I was already starting to get nervous. My hands were shaking a little. “Move the piece,” is all I could think. She set down her piece. The instant she removed her hand I moved the pawn in front of my king and pulled my hand back.

Lisa was startled. I wasn’t sure if it was the quickness of my move or the loud “thunk!” the pawn made as I put it down. She refocused her concentration and began to stare at the board again. This time she took a little longer. I was starting to sweat. My hands were definitely shaking and my heart felt like I had just run a marathon. “Move the piece,” I was telling her in my head. Outwardly I just sat there as quiet as I could be. Eleven minutes to go. At this rate I was going to miss the bus.

Seemingly with the speed of a glacier she moved another pawn. Wham! My queen was sitting two spaces in front my king, just in front of my pawn. Lisa was again startled, though much more so this time. Mr. Smith accidentally let out chuckle as I suspected he knew what I was trying to do.

I could see the puzzled look on her face. Her eyebrows scrunched together. She rubbed her chin with her thumb and forefinger. Something was up but she couldn’t figure out what it was. She stared long and hard at the board, far too long as far as I was concerned. Didn’t she know I had to catch the bus!? Her gaze then shifted to me. It was a strange mixed feeling that welled up in me. I didn’t mind her looking at me. She was quite attractive and getting more so every second. However, her look was one of a policeman who has caught a suspicious character. He knows the guy is up to something but he doesn’t know what it is. She burned a hole in me as she tried to figure me out.

Finally she began to move. She moved with the speed of a sloth. The knight she picked up seemed to weigh a ton. She held it aloft for close to a minute before she finally set it down. I decided to try and be nice, I waited a few milliseconds before I moved my bishop out. Mr. Smith just smiled.

“What are you doing?” I heard her mumble under her breath. She had now taken to scratching her head. Six minutes to go and only if Mr. Atkinson was not early. I was now visibly sweating. I had torn off four fingernails by this point as well. The nervousness also made me have to go to the bathroom. My legs were shaking and I was rubbing my hand through my hair as I bowed my head. And to add to the mess for some reason beyond my comprehension I still cared about winning this stupid match. Why? Why in the @#$% did I still care about this match? The bottom line is that I was and still am competitive. I didn’t want to lose. Of course if I did lose I wouldn’t mind losing to Lisa, who was by this time starting to resemble Christy Brinkley. You know, when I really think about it I just don’t understand myself!

She looked up at me. “You are up to something.” She said quietly and then stared back at the board. I looked at her watch because I never wore one. I had become adept at reading watches upside down. I now had five minutes. Complete silence reigned in the library as all the students and staff had left. It was only me, Mr. Smith and “Christy Goliath Brinkley”.

Four minutes passed and the second hand seemed to be moving as fast as a fan. “Move. Move! MOVE!” I screamed internally. “I gotta go! In more ways than one.” I thought. My head was now flat on the table face down, my legs crossed.. tightly and I had a hard time not slipping out of the slick wooden seat.

Finally, I heard the creak of the wooden chair across the table. Lisa had picked up her other knight. I glanced at her watch. Two minutes left. She held the knight in her hand and looked at me with a raised eyebrow and seemed to think at me, “If you do anything I am going to pummel you.”

Fear raised its head again. I didn’t want to do anything. She turned her head slightly, which only accentuated her angelic beauty by this point, and put down the knight slowly while looking both at me and the board. She kept her hand on the piece, straightened up and stared at me again. “Just you try something.” Seemed to be the message.

I waited for what seemed like an hour but turned out to be 15 seconds until she finally removed her hand from the knight. Then within one second I managed to move my queen taking the pawn in front of her king’s bishop, say politely, “Check mate. Sorry but I gotta go” get up from my seat grab my bookbag and get out the library door. Mr. Smith tried not to laugh too hard but it wasn’t the greatest effort.

I just managed to catch the look of absolute disbelief on Lisa’s face and her, “No! this can’t be.” Before I exited the room. I raced down the hall way and hit the main exit door like a linebacker hitting a tackling dummy.

I was too worried about missing the bus to glory in my victory. Flying out the door I was greatly relieved when I saw Tony still waiting for the bus. I stopped short a little too quickly, my book bag nearly gave me a concussion.

As I began to saunter out to the bus stop a sense of pride came over me. I had won! Wow, I really did it. I beat Goliath. My chest puff out, what little there was of it. My head tilted back and my strides grew. My arms swung with confidence as I marched out to the bus stop. I am not sure if my feet really touched the ground.

Tony didn’t see me until I was right behind him. He turned with a startled look and was about to say something when I pointed down the bus lane from where we were standing. “Mr. Atkinson stopped at a different spot today. We better get down there.” We started walking with the other 20 students toward the bus.

Tony turned, “Hey what was that running all about. Is your chess match today?”

“Yes.” I said smirking as I noticed the curious look on Tony’s face.

“Well?” he asked incredulously.

“Well what.” I was having fun with this.

“Aren’t you going to go play?”

There were a million ways I couldn’t have answered this. However, the really good ones didn’t hit me until I started writing this story thirty years after the events. So I just opted for, “I already did.” And I said no more.

“Just now? I’ve only been out here ten minutes. You couldn’t have played a chess match in that amount of time.”

“Actually, you’ve been out here just at 15 minutes and yes I did play a chess match in that amount of time.” Again I shut up.

Tony was quiet as we stepped on the bus and made our way to the green vinyl seats. There was a scrunch as we sat down. I could see Tony as he looked at me and then his browse furrowed. He was thinking hard. Finally after a few minutes he said. “I’m sorry.” And he didn’t say any more.

“Sorry for what?” I answered. My face was about to crack. It took all my effort not to break a smile.

“Your loss. I know you wanted to win. I am sorry you lost.” He looked down not wanting to make eye contact. “It was so fast it much have been a brutal match.”

“Yes it was brutal.” I said trying to fake a frown. I wanted to bust out laughing but was having way too much fun. “I only took one piece of hers.”

“Only one piece, geeze. That’s bad alright.” He was quiet for a few seconds. “How bad was the blood bath? How many pieces of yours did she take?”

“Oh, she didn’t take any of mine.”

Tony was confused. “What… Then how did she get you in checkmate?”

“She didn’t”

Tony was really confused. “What!?…. Then how did she win? Was it a draw?”

“No it wasn’t a draw. And she didn’t win.”

“What!?.. You won? You actually beat Lisa Fridell and you did it in ten minutes.”

I couldn’t hold it in any longer. I turned to Tony and blurted it out, “Yes, yes, yes! I did! I really beat her. And not only that I beat her in four moves. I only had to take one piece of hers and she didn’t take any of mine.” The joy just flowed through me. I looked up as I said. “It was great and unbelievable. I never thought in a million years I would beat her much less like that. You should have been there. When Mr. Smith figured out what I was doing he started to laugh. I think that un-nerved her.”

“You want me to believe that you beat Lisa Fridell in four moves.”

“Well you can believe it or not but I did it.”

“Well you’re not going to convince me that easily.”

“If you don’t believe me just look at the door.” Lisa was just now exiting. Her head was slightly bowed and a look of unmistakable disbelief on her face. Mr. Smith had his hand on her should and was saying something we couldn’t make out. He gave her a pat on the shoulder and turned to the parking lot to get to his car. Lisa slowly made her way over to the school office. The last Tony and I saw of her was her picking up the desk phone in the office as Mr. Atkinson pulled our bus away.

Tony turned to me with a look of disbelief, “Well I’ll be…. You really did do it.” He turned to look again at Lisa through the big windows in the office. “Wow!” he said as he caught site of her just as the bus went passed the window. “too bad you had to beat someone so gorgeous.”

A sudden panic went through me. Ah! I just ruined any chance I had to go out with her I then relaxed. At this point that was a minor problem. I had just beaten Goliath.

A few weeks later my dad mentioned at dinner. “Oh, Harvey by the way. That girl you played chess with, Lisa, I think her name was. Well her mom told me at work that you really crushed her at the match. She said she was devastated not only that she lost but that she lost so quickly.”

“Lisa! Lisa! Lisa!” started the chant from my clod head but loveable brothers.

“Quiet down boys.” Dad quieted them like the pack of dogs that lived at our house. “How’d you do it? Apparently Lisa is quite the chess player.”

“Yes, but she had never seen fool’s mate before.”

“You used that old trick on her? Ooooo, that must have hurt.”

“You did it to me Dad just a few months ago. She wasn’t exactly pleased with the outcome.”

“Well son, I’m glad I could teach you something.”

“Yea Dad. Thanks.”

Lisa and I did become friends as Juniors. We were in honors classes together our last two years of high school. We did eventually go on one date, two years after these events.

I can’t remember exactly when I found out, I think it was the late nineties but I was very saddened when I found out that Lisa has been killed in a car wreck. She had become a doctor by then and I have no doubt she was a good one.

As fondly as I remember her as a friend, I will always think of her as Goliath.