"Dunsany, Lord - The Three Sailors' Gambit" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dunsany Lord)

course that as they had never heard of Stavlokratz they
would not know of his opening; and with probably a very good
hope of getting back his pound he played the fifth variation
with its tricky seventh move, at least so he intended, but
it turned to a variation unknown to the students of
Stavlokratz.
Throughout this game I watched the sailors closely, and I
became sure, as only an attentive watcher can be, that the
one on their left, Jim Bunion, did not even know the moves.
When I had made up my mind about this I watched only the
other two, Adam Bailey and Bill Sloggs, trying to make out
which was the master mind; and for a long while I could
not. And then I heard Adam Bailey mutter six words, the
only words I heard throughout the game, of all their
consultations, "No, him with the horse's head." And I
decided that Adam Bailey did not know what a knight was,
though of course he might have been explaining things to
Bill Sloggs, but it did not sound like that; so that left
Bill Sloggs. I watched Bill Sloggs after that with a
certain wonder; he was no more intellectual than the others
to look at, though rather more forceful perhaps. Poor old
Stavlokratz was beaten again.
Well, in the end I paid for Stavlokratz, and tried to get
a game with Bill Sloggs alone, but this he would not agree
to, it must be all three or none: and then I went back with
Stavlokratz to his lodgings. He very kindly gave me a game:
of course it did not last long but I am prouder of having
been beaten by Stavlokratz than of any game that I have ever
won. And then we talked for an hour about the sailors, and
neither of us could make head or tail of them. I told him
what I had noticed about Jim Bunion and Adam Bailey, and he
agreed with me that Bill Sloggs was the man, though as to
how he had come by that gambit or that variation of
Stavlokratz's own opening he had no theory.
I had the sailors' address which was that tavern as much
as anywhere, and they were to be there all evening. As
evening drew in I went back to the tavern, and found there
still the three sailors. And I offered Bill Sloggs two
pounds for a game with him alone and he refused, but in the
end he played me for a drink. And then I found that he had
not heard of the "en passant" rule, and believed that the
fact of checking the king prevented him from castling, and
did not know that a player can have two or more queens on
the board at the same time if he queens his pawns, or that a
pawn could ever become a knight; and he made as many of the
stock mistakes as he had time for in a short game, which I
won. I thought that I should have got at the secret then,
but his mates who had sat scowling all the while in the
corner came up and interfered. It was a breach of their
compact apparently for one to play by himself, at any rate