Chess men, prodigies, and Noah's little row boat...

I like chess.

I like the simple shape of the little wooden men…the complexity of the moves…and the intelligence of the strategy.

I like that it’s changed gradually from a game for men with interesting facial hair…into a game for facially and intellectually fascinating women… and children who are far too clever for their own damned good.

I know that, throughout the centuries, egos have been crushed, winners have been idolised, and losers have conveniently taken up backgammon.

I know that, down the years, the growth in prizemoney has made some folk very rich and other folk very depressed.

And I know that I became highly impressed (and envious as hell) when I learned that, in 2016, a 12-year-old from New Jersey became the youngest Chess Grandmaster in history.

His name is Abhimanyu Mishra and he’s a bit of a prodigy.

Actually screw that…he’s a lot of a prodigy.

While other kids with ages in single figures were playing computer games, building Lego space ships, kicking a ball around, and beating up kids half their size…little Abby was learning how to kick seven kinds of shit out of something called a Sicilian Gambit.

Was it because he wanted to reach short-arse geekdom earlier than any other kid who ever existed?

Nope.

It was probably because he saw in chess something he could do better than any other 12-year-old in the history of the known universe. And a sizeable chunk of the unknown one, too.

Of course, he was unquestionably the youngest Grandmaster to grace dry land since Noah built his little rowboat.

But he wasn’t the oldest.

That honour went to Yuri Averbakh.

He was a Russian who popped his clogs in May 2022, 3 months after turning 100.

If ever a very young, and a very old, pair of chess players deserved the nicknames “The Bookends”, it was Abhimanyu and Yuri.

Right up until May 7th, 2022.

When the nickname became one letter shorter…

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