The Gambit

The Gambit



He had been playing Chess for over forty years now but never had, Dr.Huygen, seen anyone use the Reti Gambit so effectively against him. It was his favorite opening move and his only opening-move weakness when used against him. It was such a rare opening sequence… how did he know? Huygen tilted his bifocal glasses forward and strained to read: “Graham Chapman” that was neatly written on a piece of card, cut to a perfect square, pinned above his shirt pocket. After decades of his usual drab office at the university and observing idealistic equations and theories, Huygen had become quite fond of normalcy. And quite naturally, he found a square name card rather odd.

“Checkmate!” said the elderly man, in a low sonorous voice, clasping his hands together and smiling awkwardly. As an experienced player of the game, Huygen saw it coming ten moves ahead, and attributed the victory to Chapman’s experience and good fortune with the fluke gambit.

Huygen shook hands with his opponent, “You must have been playing for a long time now, no? Mr Chapman?” His old hands didn’t tremble as much as the physicist expected it to. In fact Huygen noticed that his face was unusually perfect without wrinkles or blemishes, he stood surprisingly upright and there was very little lethargy for a man who had his head of white hair. In fact, the only thing that gave away his age was his wooden staff that he rarely leaned on.

“No sir. I only picked up the game recently. I had a good teacher.” Chapman spoke slowly.

“Whoever that teacher is, he is pretty darn good!” Huygen feigned a nervous and surprised laugh, “Are you from here? I have never seen you at the club before.” They started walking towards the door.

***

“I am new to town. Just thought I check out the chess club,” the old man explained. “Do you play every weekend?” he asked.

“Saturdays. Just mornings actually. Can’t think past two or three games, as you might have noticed. Must be the age,” Huygen shrugged and silently congratulating himself for finding reasons. “Care for some coffee at my place, Mr.Chapman? Its just by the corner over there,” the professor pointed at his porch two houses away.

“Certainly, sir!” the old man replied enthusiastically.

***

Before long, the two men sat at the porch, with steaming cups of coffee in hand. Curious about the queer old English accent, Huygen asked “So where are you from Mr.Chapman? Netherfield? Nuthall?” The old man smiled widely, not awkwardly this time, revealing a set of perfect pearly white teeth that convincingly looked like dentures.

“I am from far away, sir,” his voice suddenly grew raspy as he looked into the bright morning sky, “You are a man of physics, no? You fashion astronomy, good sir? I think you will understand.”

Huygen suddenly grew very conscious of the conversation when Chapman began to talk about his occupation. He nodded eagerly, “Yes, I’ve been teaching at the University of Nottingham for over twenty years now. We do research in particle cosmology. So I know a fair bit about the stars, Mr. Chapman.” Huygen took a quick sip from his cup as he began proudly on his department that had the blackboard used by Einstein on display.

***

“Very interesting, Dr.Huygen,” Chapman spoke slowly and deliberately, “Are you a religious man?”

“No, not exactly. More than in fortune, Mr.Chapman, I trust in causality. You know causality?” the professor asked. The old man nodded quickly, urging him to continue. “All events in time occur as a result… as a reaction to the event that has occurred before it. All occurrences have reasons and purpose, so defined by that one event which put the entire cosmos in motion,” Huygen paused for dramatic effect - “The Big Bang” Chapman interrupted. “Yes, indeed, the Big Bang.” Huygen admitted sheepishly.

“If all events have purpose as defined by the Big Bang, could that event not have been designed by a Creator, sir?” Chapman asked.

“Maybe,” Huygen shrugged making it clear that the proposition wasn’t science.

“Then what of us, Dr. Huygen? What purpose have we evolved for?” the old man pursued. The professor began to understand that the conversation had grown deeper than what he had expected. He became more involved.

“We don’t know of that purpose yet. Possibly, our purpose, through society” he emphasized “is that we find the purpose itself. Circular, no?”

“We live in a time where we don’t see where we are going. We see men, ourselves, working without purpose. The time between birth and death - an interim of pain and pleasure? For what gain, what experience, what purpose?” the old man began to speak quickly, “We have built a culture without reason. It destroys, sir! Our world is not what it used to be. How long more can this planet sustain?”

“It is not in our hands, Chapman,” Huygen addressed him warmly, “We are not society. Changes of ideology take years. The society will understand, eventually. Will it be too late? What if it is? We won’t be here to see it anyway!”

“You ask the right questions, Dr.Huygen. But the heart of the problem is in the realization,” Chapman spoke gravely with great emphasis, “How did we get here?”

“If you read Dawkins, you know? Self replicating structures formed complexes… this and that…” Huygen tried to lighten the conversation up a bit, but didn’t know how much it worked, “A lot of stuff happened in the primordial soup and boom! Life was born. Our existence, indeed, is a miracle, but the cosmos is so huge that this was almost bound to happen.”

“I think, Dr.Huygen, that our planet is nearing a tipping point. We are running out of energy, and our attempts at recovering Earth from the crisis has far outweighed its costs. We are a single species. I feel that our actions are unjustified in our quest to seek for a purpose.” Chapman said.

“You aren’t suggesting that we eradicate our species now, are you Chapman?” Huygen asked jokingly, and the grave look on the old man’s face was not reassuring, “As much as the costs may be, we have obtained much knowledge about ourselves and the universe. When the time comes, Chapman, I am sure this species will be able to respond and even change itself.” Huygen said slowly, “Humans are a special species in the universe. In the path that causality has taken, we are a special thing, we might even be the only one of our kind.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Chapman said looking at his now empty cup, “There are only a handful of planets in the cosmos that are capable of supporting complex life.” Chapman paused, as Huygen slowly began to realize what he implied.

“Wait a sec,” Huygen’s mouth agape, he asked, “How would you know that?”

“I am afraid your species has gone too far,” it said, “This planet cannot be allowed to perish.”