The Knight in the Wrong Box

Chapter 1The Horse with the Chipped Ear

The white knight had a chip on its left ear. Hershy knew because he had dropped it last winter, and the tiny broken point had disappeared between two floorboards.

Now the knight was gone.

Thirty-one pieces lay on the chess-club table. There should have been thirty-two. Across the room, another complete set stood beside another board.

Complete, at least, according to Yanky.

"I counted," Yanky said.

Hershy went over to look. Among the other set's white pieces stood a knight with a chipped left ear.

"That's ours."

"It's in our box."

"It was in our box yesterday."

The boys had come early to prepare the school chess-club tables. Their teacher, Rabbi Cohen, was putting away books in the room next door. He had promised the boys could play a game when the tables were ready.

Hershy had arrived with an excellent plan for his first move.

Instead, he picked up the knight.

Chapter 2A Perfect Count

Yanky put his hand beside Hershy's.

"Don't take it. Then our set will be short."

"It isn't yours."

"We need two knights."

Hershy looked at the other knight. It had a long, narrow face, unlike the rounded horse in his hand. The pieces on Yanky's table were taller and darker at the base than Hershy's pieces.

Except for the chipped knight.

"Someone mixed them," Hershy said.

"Then find another one first."

Hershy felt his cheeks growing warm. It seemed simple. The damaged ear belonged to his set. He ought to be allowed to put it back.

He carried it to his table.

Yanky followed him.

"Now you have thirty-two and I have thirty-one. You didn't solve anything."

Hershy set the knight on a square. He wanted to say that his table was solved. But he could hear how that would sound before he said it.

"I'll help you look," he said.

Yanky did not thank him.

Chapter 3Under the Green Cloth

They checked the empty piece boxes. They looked beneath the tables and around the chair legs. Hershy found a pencil, two crumbs, and a rubber band that had lost its stretch.

No knight.

Yanky lifted the green cloth from the spare table.

On it lay three black pieces and a white pawn.

"There," he said.

"None of those is a knight."

"I can see that."

The pieces belonged to an old practice set used for examples. Rabbi Cohen let the boys use spare pieces when they studied a position. Both sets had been open during yesterday's club meeting.

Hershy remembered a group crowding around an example on the green table. He had packed away some pieces after they left.

Yanky had packed the others.

"Maybe you put it with the practice pieces," Hershy said.

Yanky crossed his arms. "Maybe you did."

Hershy started to answer. Then he saw Rabbi Cohen in the doorway.

Chapter 4A Question for the Teacher

"We can't find the tall knight," Hershy said.

Rabbi Cohen looked at the pieces they had placed on the green cloth.

"Which practice box did you check?"

"The one in the cupboard."

"There are two. One is on the top shelf. I'll bring it down."

Yanky gave Hershy a look.

Hershy did not know what the look meant. Perhaps it meant they should have asked earlier. Perhaps it only meant the knight might be found. He stopped trying to decide and helped clear a space.

Rabbi Cohen brought down a shallow wooden box. Its lid would not close because a pawn was lying sideways beneath the hinge.

Inside were several unmatched pieces.

And one tall white knight.

Yanky reached for it, then stopped.

"Is that ours?"

They put it beside his other knight. Same height. Same dark base. Same long face.

Yanky carried it to his table.

Hershy could have cheered. Instead, he heard a little click behind him.

Chapter 5The Other Extra Piece

The click came from a black bishop on Hershy's own table. His elbow had nudged the board, and the piece had tipped onto its side.

He picked it up. A name had been written beneath it in faded ink: PRACTICE.

"Rabbi Cohen? I packed this one too."

They checked Hershy's set again. One bishop was taller than its partner. It was the practice piece.

The matching bishop was still in the cupboard box.

Hershy exchanged them and checked the undersides of the other pieces. Yanky checked his own set.

Counting alone had not caught either mix-up.

"I told you my set was complete," Yanky said.

"It had enough pieces."

"That's what I meant."

Hershy put the chipped knight between his two fingers. He had been right about that one piece. He had been wrong about having nothing else to fix.

"I should have left it here while we looked," he said. "Taking it away made you wait."

Yanky rubbed a mark on his board with his sleeve.

"I could have helped check the boxes instead of arguing about the count."

Rabbi Cohen put the two practice boxes together on the shelf he could reach easily.

"All ready now?"

Yanky counted again. So did Hershy.

Then they looked at the pieces in pairs.

Chapter 6The First Move

The other boys arrived as Hershy and Yanky finished setting up. The green table was clear. Both practice boxes were closed. Each playing set had its own pieces again.

Hershy sat across from Yanky.

His excellent first move had slipped out of his head. In its place were thirty-two pieces, a chipped ear, and a shallow box that refused to shut.

Yanky moved a pawn.

Hershy looked at the board.

"Your turn," Yanky said.

"I know."

He took his time anyway. He moved a pawn of his own and sat back.

A younger boy stopped beside them.

"Why does that horse have a broken ear?"

"It went on a trip," Yanky said.

Hershy glanced up.

"Before that."