Serendipity chess

We'd stopped for ice cream cones on the way back to our Stockholm hotel after a day of sight seeing. A game of chess caught our eye. Years ago, in Geneva, on hot Sundays, I would take my two dogs to Place Neuve to watch men move the giant pieces.

I never have been and will never be a very good chess player. Let me rephrase that. I am a horrible chess player, but I do remember the moves and soon Rick and I were caught up in the action. Sometimes I even predicted a move.

The game went on and on. A crowd gathered. One man, probably homeless, tried to tell the man with the white pieces what to do and was reprimanded by the black side player. The interfering man left the board and did calisthenics on the side. Both players ignored him.

Some young men were talking loudly behind the benches. The man with the black pieces went over and asked them to be quiet, they were hurting his concentration. They did.

The sun disappeared and a wind came up. Still the game went on. A light rain began. The crowd left. We stayed. The two men shifted piece after piece, often repeating a pattern. The black bishop bravely protected his king.

Rick worried I'd be cold, but it was worth watching. One can't shut a murder mystery off when there is only a few minutes left in the program. It was the same thing. We had to know.

The ending was brutal. The man in the white gloves made a surprise mood and won it for the black. There was no congratulations. The white team stalked, and I do mean stalked, off.

We clapped. The man with the black pieces and the white gloves came over to speak with us, quickly switching to English.

His name is Marcello and he considers himself the king of the park. He says people play him and try to beat him, but they almost always fail.

As we walked back to the hotel, huddling under the umbrella in the rain, we wondered about Marcello, whose identity seemed to be tied up with his position as chess champion in a very small park. How had he come from Italy to Stockholm? Where had he learned to play chess?

We hadn't asked. For us it was a moment of serendipity to come across a bit of street theater or maybe street sport. We wish King Marcello well in all his future tournaments.

This is a dueling blog. http://lovinglifeineurope.blogspot.com/ and has some great photos.