" Chess Tales"
“The dream of Gaspar Lily”
What’s the soul of chess? Does that exist? Believe it.
You see, as if we were Professor Calculus (The Adventures of Tintin) we will have perfect motions of pieces, but chess soul is another thing whose definition never ends ...
Once upon a time, Gaspar Lily, when looking at chessboard there, had received and thinking away about, who made that and why?
Wondering, that was a form to passing time and staying in that way, he slept hugging it.
At daybreak he woke up and the chess board had fallen on the floor and an idea occurred: “Chess board is a matter of space”.
Travelling at his mind now another thought: learning to know how using that chessboard.
“What a pretty road!”, did think, and left the board at his desk affectionately.
So he walked around the neighborhood, and each step reminded him of the spaces he crossed, and he thought: “Oh! This is a real way to walk, like a chessboard!”
But he didn’t know very well how he could take a walk on board.
So reminded while coming back home there was a bag that he didn’t open because he was so tired at night and in the morning he has forgotten under the bed. He hurries to his room and picks it up and opens. But he didn’t understand what it meant.
He thought now: each piece signified something. And he gave way to despondency, not knowing. But he had second thoughts: maybe that was like feet to the floor to walk. And he was delighted. “Walk where no one would walk! He had thought!
There were groups of pieces divided in an equal form, and he liked that they had the same shape. He thought again: “It doesn’t matter to me what color i wear, the important thing is to wear one and walk with them.” In the future, he will know the first steps will be made from one side only, and that will cause despondency, because he believes that anyone could find other ways to begin a walk. But at the time, he went into a kind of castle with Kings, Queens, Rooks, Bishops, Knights and pawns. He was so happy now and couldn’t wait that long to walk with them.”
Placing pieces on the board, like an internet example, he thought: “Here we have two octopuses and two spiders on each side”. And he remembered that movie, Spider-Man 2, but with two Spider Men and two Doc Ocks. ”A double Spider-Man 2!” He thought.
Moving back to the board, he knew that it had letters and numbers on its edge, and he was happy with these cross-breeds names because he was trying to take his bearings.
He needed to walk, but where to? “Anywhere”, he wondered. “Knights could jump!” He imagined. The future proved him right. Knights jump two squares to move if needed, but they can ‘surf’ over them just when they are unoccupied. It was all good to him.
The idea that surfing across the board seems good, and he still plays even to this day. But, his chess journey in those days was just starting.
I lived through that time, i saw and i can tell you.
In the small hours, his shapely fingers put away the chess pieces one by one, while the air crept into his nostrils, slight and deep. How interesting, perhaps even fascinating, those pieces awaiting their correct places were to him.
And then suddenly an idea came into his mind about the force of nature, like sun rays warming the Earth or winds that move windmills. But that idea was indeed a question: “What is the power of chess pieces?” And to this, he didn’t know the answer. “Would i know it some day?” He had been asking this all the time. And so, these shadows of his distant fantasies wandered in the mists of his remote reality, which he wanted to repair in a very special way. And the game of chess always restored to him that fantasy of living.
However, whenever he looked at the chessboard across the table in his room, those joined squares seemed like rooms in a palace. He called it “The No-Man’s Palace” because it could be contested by both players. It was a palace built by overlapping files and ranks to form squares that illuminated the paths of his somber thoughts. These were the references of numbers and letters that he wanted to know, appreciate and memorize. He eventually learned from someone that letters denote the files and numbers denote the ranks, a system known by the curious name “algebraic notation”. Though he knew nothing of the term at first, he simply wanted to understand how those little “houses” on the checkered floor could transport his mind to such a special place. In time, the game would speak back to him, providing answers to everything, anywhere he might be.
Yes, his thoughts turned day and night to deeper things, and his heart wandered far from where he was. Throught sun-bright days and starry nights, a long walk over a chessboard suited him best. In a game of chess, there were endless secrets for him to reveal - from the motive for playing to the finest moves of the pieces. ‘The essence of all matters... one day understand it?’ He asked.
In the afternoon, the rain fell hard and the plants revealed their greatest beauty, as well as the wing of his hope taking him to a freedom of thought. Through his bedroom window, could see anthuriums, aloe vera, calla lilies, bromeliads, amid, ferns. Just as the beauty of things could be transported to a chessboard, what he saw out of the window that afternoon was what would suddenly appear in his chess game. Were these things possible to realize? “Oh! Everything is possible!” He thought.
It was when on a special day he was taken on an excursion to the Lados Chess Club, and then there he found many people who, like him, loved the wonderful game of chess. Everyone there at the club was testing their knowledge of chess pieces moves. There was in the air of the club the idea that a brilliant master would emerge at any moment. Beautiful wood chess tables with matching pieces and digital chess clocks placed on them, padded chairs, bookshelves full of chess books, some old and others new – posters of famous players on the walls, and trophies on a display stand formed the décor. People were restrained in their use of clothes.
Gaspar had been invited to participate in a rapid chess tournament at the chess club and agreed. Each player in this tournament had ten minutes to play and there would be five games. The height between the chair and the table was too big for him, even when he sat down and stretched his spine as far as he could. Across the table was a pretty girl, a few Years older than he, for the first game. He looked at her eyes behind the thick lenses of her spectacles and a mixture of respect and wonder touched him. He will play with the black pieces and after the handshake, he should press the button on the chess clock to start the game. He did, and unfortunately missed all games that afternoon, but he learned something from it: chess magic is everywhere.
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