Tayzwi

Should be reading more and writing less, but well...

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

 

The Master of Chess

"A Zugzwang!" - exclaimed Grandpa.

"So it seems" mused the other old man. He laid his over-sized black-framed glasses down on the floor and turned to me with a grandfatherly smile. "Your Grandpa will be stuck for a while." He turned towards the old chess board again and gazed at it for a while before smiling back at me. "Do you know what a Zugzwang is?"

I nodded my ignorance. His grin became wider, and those stained yellow teeth, by themselves, were grinning at me now.

Grandpa seemed to come back to this world with a sigh - "Am resigning myself to resign today." Before I could smile at the pun, he went on "I need a tea now. Yes, I think I need a tea now."

I made them both some tea. These tea requests were always special to me. Grandpa loved the special Darjeeling flavor. His friend seemed to not mind. They sipped on it and the game continued.

Their chess was legendary in this part of the world. Grandpa was himself a national level player; FIDE rated players didn't take his old school defensive game lightly. These days, he had picked up some of the newer styles and was runner up in the 80+ category last year.

Surprisingly, his friend had kept up somehow. Loans, deaths, and disease seemed to have not affected him; or at least, not his chess. He was here everyday morning; and Grandpa started each game with his old rival with a keenness that bordered on obsession.

The games went on. Grandpa won some, but lost many. Tea was served always.

Both of them are now dead. When grandpa's rival died, I had gone there to pay my last respects. Few dusty books were lying around. I hadn't known that he could read. A worn out chess book caught my attention and as I was going through it, I could see his wife smiling at me through similar stained teeth. She looked at the book in my hand and grimaced a little - "He hated chess. But he loved your tea."

Labels:


Comments:
Channage itto story. Was thinking along the lines of '7th seal', where victory in the chess match (played against death), gives a few days of life, i.e until the next chess match.

Did you play Othello? Zugzwang concept allu barotte.
 
nice! true story?
 
@Solzaire: Yes. In spirit though.
 
nice 'spirited' story!
 
Awesome, very unlike you .. unrelated comments! :D
 
superbly written!!
 
Awesome Story. Loved the way lot of things are left to reader's imagination.
 
As a great admirer of short stories, I loved this story. Plot, execution and number of characters, editing everything was up to the mark. Keep writing this kind of stories
 
Liked it. Good stuff dude.
 
Post a Comment

<< Home

Archives

February 2004   July 2004   August 2004   September 2004   October 2004   November 2004   December 2004   January 2005   February 2005   March 2005   April 2005   May 2005   June 2005   July 2005   August 2005   September 2005   October 2005   November 2005   December 2005   January 2006   February 2006   March 2006   April 2006   May 2006   June 2006   July 2006   August 2006   September 2006   October 2006   November 2006   January 2007   April 2007   May 2007   June 2007   November 2007   December 2007   January 2008   March 2008   June 2008   February 2009   June 2009   February 2010   November 2010  

Quick index to blog-posts I like (from my personal website)

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?