12 Chapter 12 – American Chess Championship

Back to June 1984

[Main POV]

Since that day, Olivia acted as my loyal cult member. At first, she was extremely cautious, like I was made of glass, but over time, she returned to normal. However, she no longer seriously questioned me. Whether it be my decisions or my actions, she simply attributed it all to me being a God.

As Olivia and I were waiting for our bus to reach Fort Worth, she read the book I gave her. It was called The Giver.

It was a dystopian novel about a seemingly utopian society, following a guy called Jonas. Jonas gets the job of collecting memories of the community. As he does his job, he realizes every aspect of the community is basically being controlled by the government, as emotions are sacrificed for stability.

Jonas eventually turns on the government and releases the memories back to everyone.

The book explores themes of societal control, individuality, memory, and the value of human emotions. Perfect for a country in an ideological struggle against communism.

"Mwa hahaha! Ouch. What was that for Olivia? Why'd you slap me?"

Olivia huffed before stating, "You were laughing like an evil maniac. Again."

"Heh. Sorry. I was thinking about all the 9th graders who'll be tortured by being forced to read this book."

"Sorry about that. But you know, you really shouldn't slap your god."

Olivia simply rolled her eyes at my comment. "I'm sure Jesus's parents would've given him a slap if he laughed like the devil."

As I muttered, "Evil woman," I dodged another slap coming my way.

"Why're you even laughing this time," she asked before sarcastically adding, "your grace?"

"I prefer 'my lord,' but I suppose 'your grace,' is acceptable." Olivia looked at me like another slap was coming so I quickly explained. "I was thinking about all the 9th graders who'll be tortured by reading the book."

.

Arriving at our destination, we were greeted by Mr. Garcia. He had convinced Ms. Davis to be my unofficial "coach." Not that there was anything he could teach me. But I needed an adult who could act as my "guardian." Ms. Davis had 20 other kids to take care of, and Olivia had other things to do.

After exchanging greetings, Olivia left with a copy of The Giver. And Mr. Garcia started showing me around.

"The tournament's a round robin. There're 18 players, so you'll be playing 17 matches. You get one point for a win and half a point for a draw. The player with the most points wins."

"Got it. Anyone I should be aware of?"

Mr. Garcia paused, scanning the room before pointing out a clean-shaven guy staring intently at a chess board. In any other context, he would have been sent to a psych ward.

"That's Roman Dzindzichashvili. Georgian. He tied for the most points last year along with a couple other guys. He'll try to destroy you, swiftly and totally."

He nodded towards another guy with a Pringles moustache. "That's Walter Browne. He's got a weird accent cause he's half Aussie. He's won the US Championship 6 times and is your first match."

Turning me towards a third guy he whispered to me, "The guy with the glasses is Lev Alburt. Won the Ukrainian Championship 3 times before defecting a couple years ago. He's your last match."

.

Two days later, it was almost over. Two extremely boring days.

Now I like a good old chess match. Those can be pretty fun. What's not fun is playing matches that last over 90 minutes, where each of your moves takes 5 seconds while your opponent takes minutes.

Currently, I was playing my final match against Lev Alburt, but there was no tension in the game. We were in the endgame, and while he had a bishop over me, I had a past pawn about to promote.

And even if Alburt did win, he'd still lose the tournament. Unlike the original timeline, Alburt would not be winning the tournament. I had 16 points. He was in second with 11.5. It wasn't even close.

Alburt was slightly sweating, looking for a way out of his predicament. There was no way he could get to my pawn. I also don't think it helped that a Channel 7 news crew showed up and was broadcasting our game.

After 5 minutes of waiting, he stood up and resigned. That added to my frustration. I was unable to get the satisfaction of checkmating any of the grandmasters. Each one of them simply resigned when they realized they couldn't win.

Nevertheless, I politely stood up and shook his hand. Around us, the small crowd cheered.

Yay, I won.

.

After a long reception which involved a lot of hand shaking, saying "Thank you," and repeatedly telling people how old I was when they asked, I was able to get a check for $50,000, meet up with Mr. Garcia, and get out of the building.

Only to run into the Channel 7 news crew outside.

"Hi, I'm Mandy from Channel 7, can we get a quick interview from the champion?"

Mr. Garcia looked at me as I shrugged and said "sure." I handed him my trophy and walked towards a set of benches where cameras were set up for the interview.

"We're coming to you from Fort Worth, Texas. Here with our youngest US Chess Champion at 4 years old, Apollo – Apollo, what's your last name?"

"Hi Mandy, thanks for having me. I'm an orphan so I never got one."

"Um, okay. Sorry for your loss," Mandy stumbled, clearly not expecting that answer. "Anyway, let's talk about chess. How'd you start playing it, and how did you get so good?"

"I started playing it for about 6 months after reading a book about it. It's a pretty simple game. There are only 32 pieces in 64 squares with a limited number of moves. It's a solved game. So, I just choose the best move."

"Wow you must be a pretty smart kid! Anyway, you also won the Texas State Chess Championship earlier this year, which became a pretty big deal! And now that you've won the American Championship, you'll be going to Moscow in the fall for the World Championship. How do you like your chances?"

I paused, thinking before coming up with a response.

"I just have one thing I'd like to say to those I will be facing. Don't resign when I beat you. I want to have the pleasure of checkmating you all."