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Chess Pieces - List of Contents
The following extract is from Samuel Beckett’s novel Murphy, set in an asylum, featuring a rather unusual chess game:
… Murphy resumed his round, gratified in no small measure. Mr. Endon had recognized the feel of his friend’s eye upon
him and made his preparations accordingly. Friend’s eye? Say rather, Murphy’s eye. Mr. Endon had felt Murphy’s eye upon
him. Mr. Endon would have been less than Mr. Endon if he had known what it was to have a friend; and Murphy more than
Murphy if he had not hoped against his better judgment that his feeling for Mr. Endon was in some small degree reciprocated.
Whereas the sad truth was, that while Mr. Endon for Murphy was no less than bliss, Murphy for Mr. Endon was no more than
chess. Murphy’s eye? Say rather, the chessy eye. Mr. Endon had vibrated to the chessy eye upon him and made his preparations
accordingly.
Murphy completed his round, an Irish virgin. (Finished on time a round was called a virgin; ahead of time, an
Irish virgin.) The hypomanic it is true, in pad since morning with a big attack blowing up, had tried to come at his
tormentor through the judas. This distressed Murphy, though he rather disliked the hypomanic. But it did not delay him.
Quite the reverse.
He hastened back westward down the nave with his master key at the ready. He stopped short of the wreck, switched
on Mr. Endon’s light and entered bodily into his cell. Mr. Endon was in the same position all but his head, which was now
bowed, whether over the board or merely on his chest it was hard to say. Murphy sank down on his elbow on the foot of the
bed and the game began.
Murphy’s functions were scarcely affected by this break with the tradition of night duty. All it meant was that he
took his pauses with Mr. Endon instead of in the wreck. Every ten minutes he left the cell, pressed the indicator with
heartfelt conviction and did a round. Every ten minutes and sometimes even sooner, for never in the history of the M.M.M.
had there been such a run of virgins and Irish virgins as on this Murphy’s maiden night, he returned to the cell and resumed
the game. Sometimes an entire pause would pass without any change having been made in the position; and at other times the
board would be in an uproar, a torrent of moves.
The game, an Endon’s Affence, or Zweispringerspott, was as follows:
White (MURPHY) Black (MR. ENDON) (a)
1. P-K4 (b) 1. Kt-KR3
2. Kt-KR3 2. R-KKt1
3. R-KKt1 3. Kt-QB3
4. Kt-QB3 4. Kt-K4
5. Kt-Q5 (c) 5. R-KR1
6. R-KR1 6. Kt-QB3
7. Kt-QB3 7. Kt-KKt1
8. Kt-QKt1 8. Kt-QKt1 (d)
9. Kt-KKt1 9. P-K3
10. P-KKt3 (e) 10. Kt-K2
11. Kt-K2 11. Kt-KKt3
12. P-KKt4 12. B-K2
13. Kt-KKt3 13. P-Q3
14. B-K2 14. Q-Q2
15. P-Q3 15. K-Q1 (f)
16. Q-Q2 16. Q-K1
17. K-Q1 17. Kt-Q2
18. Kt-QB3 (g) 18. R-QKt1
19. R-QKt1 19. Kt-QKt3
20. Kt-QR4 20. B-Q2
21. P-QKt3 21. R-KKt1
22. R-KKt1 22. K-QB1 (h)
23. B-QKt2 23. Q-KB1
24. K-QB1 24. B-K1
25. B-QB3 (i) 25. Kt-KR1
26. P-QKt4 26. B-Q1
27. Q-KR6 (j) 27. Kt-QR1 (k)
28. Q-KB6 28. Kt-KKt3
29. B-K5 29. B-K2
30. Kt-QB5 (l) 30. K-Q1 (m)
31. Kt-KR1 (n) 31. B-Q2
32. K-QKt2!! 32. R-KR1
33. K-QKt3 33. B-QB1
34. K-QR4 34. Q-K1 (o)
35. K-R5 35. Kt-QKt3
36. B-KB4 36. Kt-Q2
37. Q-QB3 37. R-QR1
38. Kt-QR6 (p) 38. B-KB1
39. K-QKt5 39. Kt-K2
40. K-QR5 40. Kt-QKt1
41. Q-QB6 41. Kt-KKt1
42. K-QKt5 42. K-Q2 (q)
43. K-R5 43. Q-Q1 (r)
And White surrenders.
(a) Mr. Endon always played Black. If presented with White he would fade, without the least trace of annoyance,
away into a light stupor.
(b) The primary cause of all White’s subsequent difficulties.
(c) Apparently nothing better, bad as this is.
(d) An ingenious and beautiful début, sometimes called the Pipe-opener.
(e) Ill-judged.
(f) Never seen in the Café de la Régence, seldom in Simpson’s Divan.
(g) The flag of distress.
(h) Exquisitely played.
(i) It is difficult to imagine a more deplorable situation than poor White’s at this point.
(j) The ingenuity of despair.
(k) Black has now an irresistible game.
(l) High praise is due to White for the pertinacity with which he struggles to lose a piece.
(m) At this point Mr. Endon, without as much as "j’adoube", turned his King and Queen’s Rook upside down, in which
position they remained for the rest of the game.
(n) A coup de repos long overdue.
(o) Mr. Endon not crying "Check!", nor otherwise giving the slightest indication that he was alive to having
attacked the King of his opponent, or rather vis-à-vis, Murphy was absolved, in accordance with Law 18, from
attending to it. But this would have been to admit that the salute was adventitious.
(p) No words can express the torment of mind that goaded White to this abject offensive.
(q) The termination of this solitaire is very beautifully played by Mr. Endon.
(r) Further solicitation would be frivolous and vexatious, and Murphy, with fool’s mate in his soul, retires.
Following Mr. Endon’s forty-third move Murphy gazed for a long time at the board before laying his Shah on his
side, and again for a long time after that act of submission.
From Samul Beckett’s novel Murphy; chapter 11. The game can be played over thanks to Chess Paste Bin.