The next day at 3:00 p.m. sharp, all the members of our little group were in the ship's bar, ready for the confrontation. O'Hara kept twisting his knuckles nervously and puffing on his cigar. At 3:40 p.m., Kreutzer showed up. Without any attention to our group, he walked straight to the table and explained how he would like the game to be organized. After each move, he would go to the adjacent room where he would wait for our answer, so that we could discuss freely among us. Then, when we were ready to play, we would strike a glass with a spoon to inform him. Naturally, we accepted his instructions without a comment and, upon this, he played his first move and went to the next room where he picked up a magazine and leafed through it negligently.
The outcome of the game was predictable. We were checkmated on the 24th move. But it was not the fact that we had lost against the best player in the world that bothered us, it was the manner in which we were treated.
He treated us scornfully as if we were a bunch of stupid men and would never even look at one of us in the eyes. I had hoped that he would encourage us with words of advice or approvals, but instead, he played like a machine without saying a single word, said bluntly "Checkmate.", and stood there still waiting to know if we wanted to play another game.
I rose abruptly from my chair, signifying that I had considered the mockery over. But, to the surprise of everyone, O'Hara yelled out:
- "Of course, we want a return match!"
During the second game, O'Hara had transmitted to us something of his rage. We wanted to beat Kreutzer or, at least, obtained a draw. We wanted to show him that we were human beings with brains and wanted badly to bring down the haughty manner of that despicable character. We discussed longer and in more minute details each move and would strike on the glass only after we had all agreed about the position.
To our own surprise, after the 28th move, we seemed to have a little advantage over our opponent. We could even capture his queen on our next move. Knowing Kreutzer's malice, we naturally thought that he couldn't have let this happen without an ulterior motive. But, after analyzing the position for more than 45 minutes, we couldn't find, or rather, we were unable to foresee any traps. O'Hara took the queen and lifted slowly the spoon to call Kreutzer back when someone grabbed his arm.
- "Oh no, don't play that. You're making a mistake."
Completely taken by surprise, we all turned our heads to look at the man. I immediately recognized him as one of the passengers whom I had seen once or twice strolling alone on the deck after sunset and whose complexion was abnormally pale. O'Hara was the first to have recovered from the surprise.
- "What do you suggest?" he asked.
- "Don't take his queen, otherwise, he will play his pawn which will create a double threat on your king's size and you'll be checkmated in 8 moves by a combination of rook and knight. The best thing for you to do now is to keep playing on your queen's side and, if you don't make any mistakes, you may wind up with a draw. That's the best thing that could happen to you in this position. It's exactly the position obtained by Capablanca against Lasker in their 5th game for the world championship in 1906."
You can imagine our surprise. That stranger must have been sent by an angel to help us. To be able to foresee a checkmate in 8 moves and remember with astonishing accuracy a position, he must be a very great player. O'Hara followed the stranger's advice and struck on the glass.
Kreutzer entered the room and seemed to appreciate the answer. He studied the position, nodded his head, and then, an extraordinary event happened. Kreutzer, who had always played rapidly and standing up, started to think deeply and at length. He bended over the chessboard, his two hands on the table and then slowly... very slowly... sat down on the chair across from us. We looked at each other with a feeling of victory. Even though we haven't won anything yet, at least, he was now at the same physical level as us. He was no longer that superior player who walked in, made his move as soon as he arrived, and walked back to the other room. He was in front of us, holding his head, breathing heavily, sitting at the same table, in the same room with us. When he had finally made his move, he stood up and simply said:
- "Drawn game."
Silence filled the room. We could hear the sound of the waves and the footsteps of the passengers on the deck. A soft breeze brought to us the music of a radio from a faraway cabin. Nobody dared to move or say a word. Kreutzer raised his eyes and stared at our group for the first time. Apparently, he was trying to find out who among among us had opposed him such a resistance. When his look met our mysterious stranger, he knew at once who his real opponent was. He then said to O'Hara with a voice that showed no signs of emotion but we all knew that his words were directed to the stranger:
- "Do you gentlemen wish to play another game?"
O'Hara, full of satisfaction and overexcited replied instantly:
- "And how! but this time, you will play against him. Just the two of you!"
O'Hara touched the arm of our stranger and an incredible thing happened. Our mysterious man, as if coming out from a bad dream, started to shake and stammered,
- "Oh no... I can't play... listen gentlemen, I shouldn't have interfered in your game... that was none of my business... I apologize... it will never happen again..." and disappeared on the deck before we could say a word.
Kreutzer, impassive, added:
- "If you change your mind, I will be here tomorrow at 3:00 p.m." and left the room.
O'Hara hit the table with his fist. We all agreed that we couldn't leave things as they were and after a long discussion, our group decided that I was to convince the stranger to play against Kreutzer.
