The following three days turned out to support my friend's saying. It was impossible for anyone to be at less that five feet from Kreutzer. He stayed all day long in his cabin where he took all his meals, studying chess. The few times he took a walk on the deck, he would lower his head as if he were lost in some deep dreams and seemed to not even noticed the ship's loud siren. Then, a wonderful thought came to me. What can attract a chess champion if not the game itself? Fortunately, there was a chess game aboard and from that day, I kept playing chess every afternoon with my friend, hoping to attract the champion. But, we had attracted a group of amateurs instead and among them was a wealthy Irish whose name was O'Hara. He was a self-made man who had succeded well in life and to whom, the thought of losing an innocuous game put him in a state of fury. He played as if his fortune and reputation depended on the outcome.
On the 5th day of the crossing, my strategy seemed to have at last fulfilled its promise. Kreutzer walked slowly towards our group, took a glimpse at the chessboard when O'Hara made a move. The champion immediately turned back to proceed on his walk.
I knew he had seen in less than 3 seconds that we were only poor players, unworthy of his attention. I felt miserable and said aloud in frustration:
- "The grandmaster didn't seem to appreciate our game, O'Hara. Your last move must have been an insult to his intelligence."
At these words, O'Hara raised his head.
- "What grandmaster?"
When I had finished telling him who Kreutzer was, he became furiously excited.
- "What? I had no idea that a world champion was aboard. I've always dreamed of playing against a grandmaster."
He rose to his feet, and before we could say a word, he was running after Kreutzer. He came back 20 minutes later and was in an uncontrollable state of rage.
- "What happened?" I asked.
- "I asked that gentleman if he would do us the honor of playing a game with us and he started laughing at me..." said O'Hara in a quavering voice.
- "It was humiliating. He told me that he would never play against third-class players and, if it ever happened, he wouldn't do it for less than a thousand dollars a game."
I started to laugh noisily.
- "Well, I would have never thought that pushing these little wooden pieces could be that lucrative! I hope you've told him what he deserved."
But O'Hara remained silent. He looked at us in a round movement and said softly in a solemn voice:
- "Gentlemen, the game starts tomorrow at 3:00 p.m. I'm counting on all of you. Us against him. I hope we won't let him beat us easily."
I felt uneasy for a moment. After all, it was my idea and I knew, and we all knew, that no matter how numerous we were, Kreutzer would beat us anyway. But the fact was O'Hara's pride was hurt. And, if he didn't mind throwing away his money then it was a good opportunity for me to meet a genius like Kreutzer.
