Doug Meet
reads
Checkmate,
Je t'aime!
avec
Utahna Faith
TO DISTURB SO MANY CHARMS
New York Public Library
staff-only rare book conservancy
September 31, 2019. 8:49 pm
*Checkmate, Je t'aime!
*This story has no prefiguration, no reference, no epiphany; and because it reveals no ending, it has no
dénouement.
As such, this story is for the telling.
...
An elegant woman, she invented good ones, relaxes; quiet park before her; AND before her too,
her rendez-vous.
She smooths her tightly splayed, blue wool skirt to her knees,
then pushes imaginary strands of
corn- coffee-colored stalky hair from her eyes;
and though there is not hair there, she busily pushes aside
the not-there hair
(to be caught in a false move ... she will never do that).
He, her rendez-vous, surprises her from behind, silent Gucci loafers, his Native footwear.
She revolves and extends her graceful shapely arm, its smooth hand strikes in one dynamic burst, a Nazi, lighting a cigarette; she unlooses the board from his armpit.
They embrace,
then miss-kiss, thrice,
alternating cheeks;
peripheral,
proximate,
recall the Seven Lost Graces
with their cheek-meat faces.
He, her 5-move-ahead rendez-vous,
maneuvers her
windowless
doppelverabredungs, where exist two secrets too beautiful to touch.
Twenty-five minutes on, he SEES
she's got him
mated;
5 moves.
She will extend it to 10.
Just then, she visualizes him
mated;
3 moves, a
bus lane opens in her mind at rush hour.
Then
5 moves are gone in 45 seconds.
5 seconds after,
she topples
his King,
a
15th-century potentate,
she
murders in the park,
a silent coupe de grace,
a draw-for-a-win.
She thinks this ritual, potent, kind, and merciful; thinks it
theirs alone.
"Kill my King, not don't kill me," it's remarkably unexpressed.
Tomorrow she will meet him again, because,
"There is no victory like no victory."
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
|
| 8 |
| 8 |
| 7 | 7 |
| 6 | 6 |
| 5 | 5 |
| 4 | 4 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 1 | 1 |
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
|
Position after 124.Bg7, stalemate[1]
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
|
| 8 |
| 8 |
| 7 | 7 |
| 6 | 6 |
| 5 | 5 |
| 4 | 4 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 1 | 1 |
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
|
Position after 30.Qe2, after 32.Qe2, and after 34.Qe2, draw by threefold repetition[2]
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
|
| 8 |
| 8 |
| 7 | 7 |
| 6 | 6 |
| 5 | 5 |
| 4 | 4 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 1 | 1 |
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
|
Position after 121...Rb5+, draw by fifty-move rule[3]
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
|
| 8 |
| 8 |
| 7 | 7 |
| 6 | 6 |
| 5 | 5 |
| 4 | 4 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 1 | 1 |
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
|
Draw. No sequence of legal moves can lead to checkmate.[4]
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
|
| 8 |
| 8 |
| 7 | 7 |
| 6 | 6 |
| 5 | 5 |
| 4 | 4 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 1 | 1 |
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
|
Draw. No sequence of legal moves can lead to checkmate.
Petrosian vs. Fischer, 1958
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
|
| 8 |
| 8 |
| 7 | 7 |
| 6 | 6 |
| 5 | 5 |
| 4 | 4 |
| 3 | 3 |
| 2 | 2 |
| 1 | 1 |
| a | b | c | d | e | f | g | h |
|
Position after 67.f7, draw agreed[5]
