Chess Game Ch. 02

Chapter 2 - The Middlegame

When I left the colonel's house, I was elated. I now had 3200 rupees. I could finally buy my beloved summer dress. I decided to go to Bandra right away, in case someone else bought the dress before me. As I got ready to go to Bandra, I paused awhile. There was going to be a rematch. And what if I lost? Maybe I should wait till the next week, I thought. But then horned and tailed little me on my shoulder reminded me that the boutique might sell the dress. So I could not delay buying it by even a minute.

Two hours later, I was back home, wearing my new dress and admiring myself in the mirror. The dress really suited my body well. And I thought it to be poetic justice that my chess earnings bought me the dress. Here's why. Growing up, I always was a bit of an ugly duckling. I was always tall for my age, but was very late filling out. My height also meant that I was very awkward, and everyone teased me about looking like a boy. To make matters worse, my mother always made me cut my hair short, to save money on frequent trips to the hair salon. And I got glasses at an early age, and given how clumsy I was, my parents got me thick plastic rims that I would not accidentally smash.

By the time I was 15, while other girls in my school started blossoming, filling out, and getting attention from boys, I was 5 ft 9, with short hair, thick glasses and an almost flat chest. My nickname was "giraffe", and no boys ever passed me any notes in class. I found solace in chess. The other girls were better at me in everything else, but no one could beat me in chess. I started taking chess really seriously, started practising for hours, and became the proverbial "chess nerd". My nerdiness and chess love fed into each other spirally. I was picked on by girls and ingored by guys even more at school. To the extent that I stopped even trying to look good. I was happy with my loose shirts and loose-fit jeans or salwar kameez.

College is when my metamorphosis started. I had started filling out late and filled out substantially by the time I was 18. Not many guys in my school realized it, but under my loose shirts and kameezes, were now hidden 38C knockers. And the rest of my body had also shaped up pretty well, I thought. Before college started, I finally pestered my parents into buying me contact lens. I put my foot down and refused to have my hair cut short. And I saved up my allowance to buy well fitting but cheap stylish clothes from the street side Linking Road.

And sure enough, in college, I turned many heads. I am not supermodel material by any stretch of the imagination, but I do look good enough to take a second and even a third look. My tops and dresses now accentuated my big boobs. The jeans, capris or dresses I wore fit well enough to highlight what a great ass I had. And my height, far from acting as an inhibitor, now actually started helping my looks. When the students council wanted to put on a fashion show to raise funds, they asked me to take part. I started getting hit on by all sorts of guys. The ugly duckling was no more. Coincidentally, chess was also no more. So in my head, I always thought of my chess-phase as my ugly phase, and my post-chess phase as my pretty phase. And now, I could have it both.

After preening in front of the mirror for a couple of hours, I changed into my usual jeans and started preparing for dinner. I was on top of the world today. A relatively hard chess win, followed by buying an expensive dress. What more could a girl want? Even Dhruv's bickering couldn't bring me down today.

The week rolled by slowly, and things between Dhruv and me actually seemed to be improving. We didn't fight too much, and he actually started keeping his stuff in the right place. He still worked late, but was at least not surly when he got home. The ceasefire might also have had to do with the fact that I was in a much better mood. I put on the dress everyday for a little while when I was home, and started making plans for spending the next 3200 rupees. Shoes, I told myself. Definitely shoes.

On Monday, an odd thing happened. I was sitting in the living room reading the paper when Ratna got done with her work. She walked to the door, put on her chappals, and then just stood for a while. I noticed her standing there and saw that she seemed nervous fidgeting with her sari in her fingers and looking down.

"What's the matter, Ratna?" I asked in hindi.

"Memsaab....." she started and trailed off.

"Yes, what is it?" I asked.

"Memsaab...I don't know how to say it...." she seemed uncomfortable.

"What is it? Do you need an advance on your pay or something?" I said, unable to think of anything else that she might want.

"No..it is just that...colonel saab..."

"Colonel saab?" I asked, puzzled.

"Memsaab, just stay away from him." she said, and started opening the door to leave.

"What!??" I said, surprised. "Wait!" I said and sprinted to the door. "What do you mean by stay away from him?"

"Memsaab, I think you are very nice. So I am telling you. Don't get involved with him." she said.... actually the exact words she used were - uske lafde mein mat pado. Now "lafda" could mean many things. It could mean mess, situation, issue, and very often, affair. I assumed she was implying I was having an affair with the colonel.

"What? How dare you? I am not having any "lafda" with the colonel. Who told you that?" I said angrily.

"Memsaab, you misunderstand. I didn't mean it like...." she started apologizing.

"I know what you mean. Okay, I go to his place to play chess some times. But come on, he is old enough to be my father. What nonsense is all this about a lafda?" I asked.

"Sorry memsaab, forget I said anything." she said, pulled door and almost ran out.

I was annoyed at Ratna. And I wondered....people in buildings like these have nothing better to do than spread false rumors and gossip. Maybe someone had seen me visit the colonel, and decided I was having an affair. And Ratna heard of it. Small minded people and their small minded mentality, I fumed. The next day when Ratna came to work, she stayed tactfully silent and I didn't bring up the topic either.

Finally, it was thursday. The day of my big match with the colonel. The day when I would get another 3200 rupees to splurge. I got up, took a shower and wore my designer dress. I decided that the chess match was a good occasion to wear the dress bought from the winnings of a previous match. I wore an apron while cooking breakfast to make sure nothing splattered on the dress. If Ratna, who was doing the dishes next to me, noticed my new dress, she did not seem to indicate it. I almost always wore t-shirts and jeans or sweatpants at home. Wearing such a pretty dress in the morning at home was rare. I was on cloud nine, wearing my new dress, and anticipating another big cash win. I was so excited that I didn't realize that my mind wasn't entirely on cooking.

I laid out the breakfast on the table and called Dhruv to join me. He walked to the table, and took no note of the new dress at all. He was always bad at these things, and I knew he would not notice it. He had some printouts in his hand, and a busy look on his face as he read them. Without saying anything to me, he sat down, cut off a piece of the omelette and put it on his mouth.

"Thoo!!!" he said as he spat it out. "What the fuck!!!"

"What happened?" I asked, worried.

"There is no salt in this omelette. It is completely tasteless." Dhruv said, in an annoyed voice. He then picked up the cup of tea, took a sip and made a face. "And there is no sugar in the tea!"

"Oh shit! I am so sorry, Dhruv. I was distracted." I said, running to the kitchen to get sugar and salt.

"Distracted? Hahh!" Dhruv said derisively raising his voice. "What the hell do you have to be distracted by? You sit at home all day doing nothing. And you can't even do simple things like adding salt and sugar where they belong."

"Shut up Dhruv!" I shot back, struggling to not cry in front of Ratna. "Don't make a mountain out of a molehill."

"Hmpff..mountains...molehills..." he mumbled as I walked out with the salt and sugar. "Let it be. I am leaving. I'll get breakfast on the way."

"Come on, Dhruv. I made it for you. Don't walk away from food."

"You're saying you made it for me as if it is some gourmet delicacy. It's fucking omelette, Prerna. Even kids can get it right, but you can't." he said, putting his shoes on.

"Fine, you don't want to eat? Don't eat!" I screamed. Ratna, who was standing at the kitchen door, looked surprised, and rushed back inside the kitchen.

"There comes another tantrum. I can't deal with this stupidity right now." Dhruv said, picked up his bag and started walking out. I got so peeved at his calling me stupid, I picked up the plate with his uneaten omelette and threw it at him. But he had already closed the door behind him and the plate hit the door with a loud clang.

As I saw the mess that I made on the floor, I sat on the chair and started crying, not caring that Ratna could see it. Ratna gingerly walked out of the kitchen after a while and went to the door. Although cleaning was not part of her job, she started picking up the omelette and toast pieces from the floor and put them on the plate. She then got a rag from the kitchen and wiped the floor. By then I had stopped crying.

"It happens, memsaab. This is what marriage is." she feebly said. I stayed silent.

"My husband also acts like this. And so I have made mistakes." she continued. "But you are intelligent, educated. You should not make mistakes."

"Mistakes?" I said. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Any mistakes. Just because our husbands act badly at times, we should not do something wrong." she said.

"Ratna." I said, pressing my forehead. "I am really not in the mood for this mumbo jumbo. Don't you have clothes to wash?"

"Yes. Okay." she went to the bathroom to wash the clothes.

I was feeling like crap. I thought of telling the colonel to postpone our chess match. But then decided against it. A game of chess and winning some money is exactly what I needed to get Dhruv's nonsense out of my head. I needed to unwind and chess helped me unwind. In fact I needed to unwind before I started getting weepy and upset again.

So I went to the sink, washed my face and wiped it. I then took off the apron, and went to the bathroom,

"Ratna, I am going out. When you're done with the clothes, just pull the door shut when you leave, and the latch will lock." I said, and turned to leave when,

"Wait!" Ratna said. "Where are you going?"

"What? it's none of your business where I am going. Focus on your work, Ratna." I said, pissed off at her nosiness.

"You are going to his house, aren't you? Don't go, memsaab. Just stay away from him." Ratna started saying. But I was already walking away. She was still saying something, but I was out of earshot, walking out of the apartment and closing the door behind me.

"You're early!" the colonel said with a smile when I walked in through his unlocked door.

"Yes. Let's get on with it." I said curtly and walked to the chair.

"No hello? No good morning?" the colonel said smirking as he sat down in his chair.

"I am really not in the mood, colonel. Let's just play chess." I shot back.

"Okay. Okay. But first, let me see the money." he said.

"What?" I asked.

"The money. The 3200 rupees. Let's have it on the table." he said.

"I don't have it with me right now." I said.

"Why not? And what do I get if I win, then?" he asked.

"Trust me, you won't win." I said arrogantly.

"Yes, but what if I do?"

"You won't!" I said.

"Yes, but what if I do? Why don't you just go to your house and get it?" he said. I stayed silent. "What happened?"

"I don't have it. I spent it all. On this dress." I pointed to it. "I bought this dress."

"For 3200 rupees? That's one heck of an expensive dress!" the major who had been silent until now piped up.

"So what? What is it to you?" I snapped at him.

"Okay, you don't have that money. But you must have some money at home. Get that." the colonel said.

"I... it won't be much." I said.

"Fine. Whatever it is, we'll play for it. But we're not playing unless you put some money on the table."

I looked at him angrily for a few seconds and then walked out of the apartment without a word. I went back to the house, into the bedroom and opened the cupboard. This is where we kept the money for our daily expenses. I could at least double that, I thought. I counted it - 2135 rupees. I grabbed the money, and went back to the colonel's apartment.

"Here." I put the money on the table. "2135 rupees. The money for daily expenses. Happy?"

"I will be happy only when I beat you, Prerna. But yes, for now, satisfied and ready to play."

And we started. I won the toss and picked black. The colonel started. He pushed the king and queen pawns ahead, and then brought his knights out to the middle rows. King's Indian Attack, I immediately thought. Not a bad choice. I responded with Caro-Kann's Karpov variation. We got each others pawns and then knights, and then I thought it would be a good time to bring out my bishops. But a queen push from the colonel made me change tactics. And I went into a more prolonged mode of defence than I had originally planned. the colonel had used the week well, I realized. I set up some traps to encourage him to go on an offence, and render his queen ineffective. But he stuck to defensive moves and did not take my baits. As the number of moves entered the 20s, the board had gotten really complex, with both of us focusing on defence. The major not pulled a chair from the dining table and sat close to us, watching in rapt attention. Our clocks were almost even.

I finally decided to throw caution to the wind and try a risky tactic. The risk was a lot if you were playing an accomplished player. Basically, it involved drawing out his kingside rook and the pawns in front of it by offering my queen as a sacrifice. If he took the bait, yes, I lost my queen, but it opened up his king to an attack from my rook and bishop that was almost impossible to stave off. I had tried this tactic in my competitive days and met with success more often than not. The risk was, I would have to execute the checkmate soon. If his king did find an escape route, then I was queenless, in a bad position, and basically screwed. As I thought about all this, the colonel said,

"This is the longest I have ever seen you think before a move." and he chuckled.

"Yeah well...." I started to say something clever in response but couldn't think of anything, so turned my attention back to the board.

And I made the play. Moved my rook, bishop and a pawn into position for an attack and then offered my queen in a vulnerable position. It wasn't a straightforward sacrifice. He would have to work through a few moves to get my queen. And he'd have to spot that opportunity. He did. And yes, he bit. In three moves, he took my queen.

"Wow, Sir, you got her queen!!!" the major said in amazement. But the colonel still had a serious look on his face. That was the first time I felt the fear of defeat flash through my mind. He was not elated at taking the queen. So he clearly knew what was coming next. I had to be swift and ruthless.

I pushed my bishop and rook forward. He brought his second bishop into play. And that's when I realized...FUCK!!! I had stupidly thought it was a black-square bishop, when it was clearly white-square. It was a silly mistake, with the potential to be fatal. It made one of my rook moves impossible. I tried a couple of moves to corner his king nonetheless, and was shocked when he managed to snag my bishop. I was now down a queen and a bishop, with no way to threaten his king effectively.

Immediately, the colonel went into exchange mode. And I watched, with a sinking feeling in my stomach, as the board started getting cleared up. I could feel defeat gaining on me when he forced me into a rook exchange that I did not want to do. It now left me only with a solitary rook and a few pawns, while he also had his queen and bishop. I looked up at his face. It had a broad smile on it. He knew he was going to win. And how he decided to gloat.

"I told you, major. A woman can not keep beating me. Now I have her figured out, and she can never....I repeat NEVER beat me." he said.

"I guess you were right, sir." the major said.

I should have kept my mind focused on the game and still tried to play for a mistake by him. But I let that gloating get to me. I glared at him angrily and said,

"Never? I can NEVER beat you? What nonsense. You got a lucky break this time."

"Your move, young lady." he responded.

"And stop calling me young lady. Who calls anyone that anymore?"

"Your time is running out." he said.

"You know what? Fine. You win this." I said, and flicked over my king with my finger. "But only because I made the silly mistake of confusing the square of your bishop."

"That helped, sure." the colonel said nonchalantly as he picked up my money from the table. "But I would have still beaten you."

"No way. Let's have a rematch." I said.

"With what?" he asked.

"With what? Double or nothing." I shot back.

"Young lady....sorry...Prerna... I don't think you realize how double or nothing works. In this situation, I have won. This was already a double or nothing game. Which means you owe me back the money you got from me. You are already about a 1000 rupees in the red." the colonel said.

"So? If I win the next one, I get it back." I said.

"Yes, but what do I get if I win the next one?" he asked, with a tone of finality. And he was right. I had no more money left. Heck, I had given him all the money for the month's expenses. What would I tell Dhruv?

"I can owe you." I said, almost pleading.

"Sorry, I don't deal in credit while betting." the colonel said.

"Come on, colonel." I said. "You have to give me a chance to win that money back. It is for day to day expenses like groceries and bills. My husband will kill me if he finds out I lost it all."

The colonel stared at me for a few seconds. He then picked up his pipe and took a puff.

"So let me get this straight. You are someone who has only over 2000 rupees for expenses, and nothing extra to spare. Your family income is that limited. And yet, when you got 3200 rupees, you spent it all on one dress? Doesn't that strike you as kind of irresponsible, major?"

"Very irresponsible, sir." the major nodded.

"Clearly that dress means a lot to you. Does it?" the colonel asked.

"Well, I like it." I said, sounding defensive.

The colonel chewed on his pipe and looked at the ceiling for a couple of minutes and then said,

"Here are your options, Prerna. Option A - you get up, leave, go home empty-handed, and explain to your husband why you lost all the money. And option B - we play. I bet your expense money, and just out of the goodness of my heart, another 1000 rupees from my pocket. And you bet something worth the same amount - your dress." he said.

"Okay, sure!" I said at once. That sounded like a good deal. I liked the dress, but I didn't mind risking it to earn back the money.

"Wait, I don't think you understand what I am saying." the colonel said. "If you win, I hand over the money to you, right away. If I win, you hand over the dress to me.....right away."

I looked at him, confused. Then I said,

"Yes, if I lose, I will go to my house right away, change into something else and give you this...." and I stopped when he started shaking his head.

"That is not right away. Right away is, well, right away. You lose, you take off the dress and hand it over to me." the colonel said. I think I understood what he was getting at, but I could not believe that's what it was.