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King Sacrifice
Ralph King was gifted, not just in chess, as some might think out of
ignorance. He couldn’t speak Spanish (yet), but when he was seven, he
impressed all his Mexican friends’ parents by reciting Spanish poetry about
family and war, in an accent as rich as the natives. He was great in math,
probably the best amongst all school children in the state who were in the
same grade as him, but he never indulged in the nitty-gritty things of math.
Now, yes, I may have mentioned to a few people that Ralph once told me
about the time he first saw his sister’s calculus book, and everything made
perfect sense to him already. But I doubt he even attempted a single question
until they started teaching calculus in school, because he had a point to
prove.
“Yeah, I can see myself as a great politician, but am I President material? Not
really, right? Then why should I spend my life doing politics?”
He had the same response to questions that people asked when they saw him
playing puzzle games at speeds that made them think that he would break
whatever puzzle he was working on. Or when he occasionally won all the
shooting games at a carnival. And when he completed an entire walkathon
at HIS running speed, that was also the first time I saw him in person. Even
sharing the same city as him didn’t reduce the shock I received when I shook
his hand that day, while he was fulfilling his regular, twice-a-day round of
handshakes from random crowds. “Hey chess kid, weren’t you in the chess
competition yesterday? I was there as a special guest.” He asked whilst
shaking my hand. “Oh yeah, didn’t see you there,” I told him.
“Understandable, apparently the grandmaster they invited changed his mind
and no longer wanted to compete against me, which meant that I got free
and spent around 20 minutes in the tournament area, trying to figure out
who could win.
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