The Chess Match
Stroudsburg High School
Stroudsburg PA
1995
We had a very active chest team in our high school. Our
student competed locally and did well. We often won matches. But the coach
decided it was time for a new, demanding challenge for his players. So, he
solicited the services of a Grand Master to challenge his students. This Grand Master had agreed to come to our school and challenge 10 students to
individual matches simultaneously. Our students could hardly wait for this man
and this challenge.
We set the event up in our library. We have a long row of
tables; 10 chessboards line those tables; 10 students sat on one side. The
Chess master owned the other side. There was one simple rule: the student could
make any moves he chose, but the move had to be made in the presence of the
Chess Master.
The first student began with confidence and made his first
move and immediately lost his pawn. The Chess master went down the road and
single-handedly eliminated more than half of the players in the first hour. As
students lost, they felt shame as secretly every one of them dreamed of being
the one to the beat the master. It was humbling and humiliating for them to see
they weren’t even any competition. This man was good. Actually, he was great.
Within the second hour, we were down to three players:
Jeremy, Tiger and Ben. Tiger made a move and the master chuckled a little bit.
“Good job,” he said to Tiger and he extended his hand. Tiger shook his hand and
took that gesture to mean that the master was impressed with his skills. Our
coach had to explain to Tiger that the master recognized with this last move
that Tiger boxed himself into a corner with no opportunity to win. The master
was just being gracious and congratulating Tiger on a game well played.
Ben went down shortly thereafter. Now it was up to Jeremy.
With just one competitor, the grandmaster grabbed a chair and set down. We all
huddled around the two of them. There was a real tension in the air. The Grand Master was great and we knew he was a champion, but all our hopes were on
Jeremy.
And then Jeremy made a move.
And the minute he took his hand off his Bishop, he recognized his
mistake. He knew he blew it and the game was over. But while Jeremy was beating
himself up, we were cheering for him: we being all his friends and the Chess Master. On this day, the winner of the match was not the winner of the day. The
winner of the day was Jeremy, the Last Man standing in this epic completion
against the Chess Grand Master.
