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Chessville
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Big Brothers by Mary Elizabeth, as retold by Rick Kennedy Big brothers are cool. If the boys in my class were as mature as my big brother Matt, I would probably ignore them only half as much as I do now. Still, Matt sometimes gets caught up in middle school things. Last week was a doozy. He wound up in an argument with his friend Collin over some girl, and before he knew it, he had been challenged to an old–fashioned duel! Luckily for him, he thought fast and chose the weapons to be used: pawns and pieces at game/60. He also got the first move. The crowd in the Rec Center the next day was hushed when the game began. 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6.
“Oh, how romantic” whispered my younger brother, Jon, and he rolled his eyes and stuck out his tongue. Last summer he had tricked me into reading a chapter on the Four Knights in Zagorovsky’s Romantic Chess Openings – but it turned out to be very different than I had expected. 4.Bb5 Nd4 “Frankie! My man!” Jon exclaimed, and then bit his tongue. The pawn sacrifice Collin was offering was pioneered by American grandmaster Frank Marshall, Jon’s hero. Marshall attacked, though. Jon was just offensive. Marshall “swindled.” Jon cheated. 5.Nxd4 exd4 6.e5 dxc3 7.exf6 cxd2+ 8.Bxd2 Qxf6
“If this is supposed to be such a ‘drawing’ line,” worried Jon, “why is Matt already down a pawn?” I had nothing to say. 9.0-0 Be7 10.Bc3 Qg5 11.Re1 Qxb5
“Make that a piece,” Jon mumbled. “The game is mostly over.” If he only knew! 12.Qg4 Rg8 13.Rxe7+ Big brothers are generous. 13…Kxe7 14.Qe4+ Kd8 15.Qh4+
Big brothers are persistent. 15…f6 16.Bxf6+ Did I mention that big brothers are generous? 16…Ke8 17.Re1+ Kf7 18.Re7+ Kg6 19.Be5
At this point it was clear to everyone that Matt was soon going to win either a Queen or a King. The guys shook hands and ended their fight. I don’t know what The Girl did, but Matt and Collin went off to shoot hoops. Big brothers are cool. But they’re coolest when they listen to
advice from their little sisters – who, after all, might just have learned a
little something from reading a chapter on the Four Knights in Zagorovsky’s
Romantic Chess Openings last summer… Index of Fiction at Chessville
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