The Last Place in the Chess Notebook

Chapter 1The Little Notebook

Avrumi kept his chess results in a small notebook with a green cover. He had drawn three columns: Date, Opponent, Result.

There were nine lines already filled in. Eight said Won. One said Draw.

Most of the games had been against his younger cousin, Yossi.

Avrumi had taught Yossi how each piece moved. At first, he had warned him whenever a queen was in danger. Later he warned him less often.

"No hints today," Yossi said on Wednesday afternoon.

They sat at the dining-room table. Yossi's father was reading in the next room.

"All right," Avrumi said. "A proper game."

Yossi set his pieces in a neat row.

Avrumi opened his notebook to the next empty line.

Chapter 2No Hints

Yossi moved slowly. Avrumi knew that did not mean he was guessing. His cousin had begun checking the whole board before reaching for a piece.

"You can go," Avrumi said after a minute.

"I'm thinking."

Avrumi waited, tapping one finger against his own knee where Yossi would not see it.

The opening went well for him. He took a pawn. Then another.

"Careful of your knight," he began.

Yossi looked up.

"No hints."

"Right."

Avrumi moved his bishop. He was still used to watching the board as if it belonged to both players and he was in charge of both.

Yossi took the knight out of danger without help.

Chapter 3The Queen on the Edge

Halfway through, Avrumi brought his queen far across the board.

It looked like the beginning of a clever attack. He could almost see Yossi trying to escape it.

Yossi frowned, then moved a rook.

Avrumi reached for his queen. He stopped.

The rook had trapped it beside two other pieces.

He tried to find a square that would keep the queen safe and keep the attack going. There was no square that did both.

"You saw that?" he asked.

"I hoped you wouldn't."

Yossi sounded pleased, not apologetic.

Avrumi gave up the queen to save a different piece.

He kept playing. There were still moves he could make.

The next empty line in the notebook rested beside his elbow.

Chapter 4Checkmate

Yossi leaned forward over the board.

"Check."

Avrumi moved his king.

Yossi moved the rook again.

"Checkmate."

Avrumi looked carefully. His king could not move safely. No piece could block the rook. No piece could take it.

Yossi had won.

"I didn't know we were counting this one," Avrumi said.

Yossi's smile disappeared.

"We said a proper game."

"I mean, I was still teaching you in the beginning."

"You gave one hint. I said not to."

Avrumi closed the notebook before writing anything.

Chapter 5The Result Outside the Book

Yossi pushed his chair back.

"You count the games when you win."

"Not every game."

"The ones in that book."

Avrumi wanted to explain that the notebook was his.

He could write whatever he wanted in it.

That was true. It was also not the question Yossi was asking.

His uncle came to the doorway.

"Everything all right?"

Yossi looked at the pieces.

"I won, but he says it doesn't count."

"Did you agree on that before starting?" his uncle asked.

"No," Avrumi said.

His uncle nodded once.

"Then it sounds like the game is finished."

He went back to the other room. He didn't demand the notebook, or tell Avrumi exactly what to write.

Chapter 6One Honest Line

Yossi began putting the pieces away.

Avrumi took his hand off the notebook.

"Wait."

Yossi waited with two pawns in his palm.

"I lost. I wanted to change what we agreed because I didn't like the result. I'm sorry."

"You did agree it was a proper game."

"Yes."

Avrumi opened the notebook. He wrote the date, Yossi's name, and Lost.

The word was short. It took up less room than he had spent avoiding it.

He turned the book so Yossi could see.

"You don't have to show me," Yossi said. "You could just say I won."

"You won."

Yossi put the pawns in the box. He still wasn't smiling.

Chapter 7Not Another Game Today

"Want another?" Avrumi asked.

"Not today."

Avrumi had hoped to win the next one before going home. It would have made the line in the notebook feel less important.

Yossi closed the piece box.

"I want to go outside."

"All right."

Avrumi helped fold the board. He did not ask for three games and say the best of three should be the real result.

At the front door, he tried a smaller question.

"Would you like a game another day? Same rule, no hints."

"Maybe Sunday afternoon. I'll ask my father."

"Fine."

They went downstairs together. Yossi ran toward the courtyard. Avrumi walked home with the notebook in his pocket.

Chapter 8The Next Line

On Sunday Yossi's father said they could play after lunch.

Before setting up, Avrumi asked whether Yossi wanted help or a game without hints.

"Without."

"Then the result counts whoever wins."

"I know."

Avrumi smiled a little. Yossi didn't need that explained again. He needed Avrumi to mean it.

They set up the pieces.

The first game in the notebook that said Lost was still there. Avrumi had not erased it, and Sunday had not been arranged to erase it either.

He drew the new date on the next line and left the result empty.

There was time to find out what belonged there.