A Funny Story by Horowitz

"The scene, a local chess club in Illinois. I was on a transcontinental tour giving simultaneous exhibitions and I was approached by a club official who asked, "Horowitz, have you ever throw a game?"

Not fazed by the noble greeting, I responded, "What's the ocassion?" And he explained that a founder of the organization, a veritable "pillar" of support and a patron saint, was to play against me, and it would be a feather in his cap if he triumphed.

Hardly a sticker for the moral code, still, I could not agree to throw the game. The idea went against the grain. "But I'll guarantee not to win," I odserved as I noted, mentally, never to cross the fourth rank with one of my men. Such restraint ought to ensure a non-win.

I was surprised, however. On my eight turn round, my opponent fingered the men and remarked that I have worked up an invincible onslaught against which he saw no defense. "I resign" said he. And since there is no such thing as refusing a resignation, the point was scored for me, exactly against my wishes.

Below, Judge Leon Labatt defeats the mighty Dr. Emanuel Lasker, World Chess Champion, accross the board. The tale above, not exactly apropos, does apply in the sense that my own and Labatt's victories both came most assuredly unexpectedly."

(Al Horowitz)