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English Chronicles 2025 26printed 103 · PDF 109
113 pagesrevision 50822
printed 103 · PDF 109
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AC Chronicles
103
The first move was by Solomon: e4. So Ralph played the brilliant Silician
defence, as cliché as it may be. While Solomon was making his next move,
that is when he first saw them: the children of Ethiopia, who were all
peering through the windows of the hall in which the game was being
played. Then, Solomon moved his knight, and I saw Ralph snap back. He
responded by developing his knight, too. I saw him looking back at the
window, so I looked too and saw kids dressed poorly, many of whom we
would consider starving, back in America. A few seconds later, Solomon
moved his other knight into the game. When Ralph heard the piece being
placed, instead of looking over the chessboard, he just stared at the ground
for a good while before finally picking up a pawn and moving it. But to my
horror, it was the G3 pawn.
This was a terrible move, and I thought that he wanted to move a pawn
next to it, but he blundered after being distracted; this assumption was soon
to be shattered. Ralph’s next 12 moves left the TV hosts and the audience
speechless, and some even went “immobile” as they didn’t want to miss the
move that would finally bring the King down.
He played so horribly that now he was in check. Now, his next move was
pivotal. Either he moves his king or gets checkmated. The crowd went
silent, and everyone looked at the board with eyes wide open. I saw him lift
his king, and then he grasped the piece as if he didn’t want to let go of it. 3
seconds, 5 seconds, 7 seconds passed, and he was still in this catatonic-type
stage, and then he finally moved the king to safety.
I gasped a breath of relief and looked down. I was getting all my wits
together and trying to get what in the world happened to Ralph today, but
when I looked up, I saw Solomon shaking hands with Ralph. I got upset for
the first time with Ralph because I thought that Ralph had finally resigned
instead of playing on after saving his king.