In our previous story, our hero, Marvin J. Mavin, refused to fill out a 'political correctness' evaluation sent to him by Grosse Pointe Modern Thinkers Academy, in advance of his scheduled lecture at that school.

Not having received the evaluation form in a timely manner, the school canceled Marvin's lecture, and sent a complaint to the Belpre, Ohio headquarters of the National Checker League, which read in part:

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We are highly upset by Mr. Mavin's refusal to complete a routine political correctness evaluation, which we require in order to protect our students from mini-micro aggressions, ideas which they may find offensive or not properly aligned with beliefs and holdings required of the politically correct, and so on. We had no option but to deny Mr. Mavin access to our school. Because of this, our students were deprived of the opportunity to further develop their interest and skills in the sport of checkers.

We would like to further point out that, upon review of Mr. Mavin's National Checker League web page, we noted that he did not list his preferred pronouns, in an obvious gesture of contempt toward an obligation incumbent upon all politically correct members of society.

Finally, while not related directly to Mr. Mavin, we want to point out that our checkers are blue and gold in color, in order to avoid any untoward implications by forcing students to play with red and white or black and white checkers, which could lead to a belief that one of these colors is more likely to win than another, and is thereby thought to be superior.

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The letter was addressed to Mr. Axel Homeboy, the NCL Commissioner, who immediately contacted both the Detroit Doublejumpers (Marvin's team) owner, who in turn contacted the Head Coach, Mr. Baba Dudut, who then berated Marvin in front of the team at the next practice, not because Coach thought that checkers ought to be politically correct, but because Coach had gotten in hot water with the team owner and the Commissioner.

Marvin just listened in silence, as did his teammates. However, there was a match that evening with the Arizona Almas, and unfortunately, both Marvin and the team were dispirited and discouraged by Coach's rantings, so the match wasn't going well. The fourth and fifth board Doublejumper players had drawn. The third board was won by the Doublejumpers but the second board fell to the Almas. That left Marvin on first board, needing a win or his team would lose the match on tie-break rules.

Marvin's opponent was Paul "Peanuts" Peterson, who was a reputable player. Peanuts was playing a good game and the situation came down to the following position with Marvin to play, needing a win.

Marvin gave it some thought but couldn't quite get the whole political correctness debacle out of his mind. Finally, though, he made his move.

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A win for the team is at stake. Set ideologies aside; the game is what matters at the moment. Can you win it? Give it a try and then give a correct click of the mouse on Read More to see the solution and the rest of the story.

Solution and Conclusion

Marvin, in his distracted state, almost played 23-19 but at the last minute realized it would lead to a draw. Instead, the game went on as follows.

22-18---A 27-32 18-15 32-28---B 15-19 28-32 19-24 32-28 23-18---C 28x19 30x16 White Wins.

A---Any of the White King moves will win; however 23-19 or 23-18 will only draw.

B---Not 32-27 or 31-27 losing at once to 15-19.

C---23-19 only draws.

Marvin had won and carried the day for the Doublejumpers.

Later on in the locker room, Coach came up to Marvin and said, "Good thing you won that game or you'd be in even more trouble. Now, get yourself home and fix up your NCL web page. Put in those pronouns. I don't care what they are. Just make sure you do it. I don't want any more flak from headquarters about us not being with the program."

Marvin looked up and said, "But gee, Coach, I thought you told us checkers ain't about bein' politically correct and all that stuff."

"It 'ain't'," Coach said, "but it also 'ain't' about making waves. So just do what I told you and don't ask any more questions."

Back at home, Marvin told his wife Priscilla about everything that had gone on during the day.

"Just be glad that you won your game, and your team won the match," Priscilla said. "And by the way, I do think checkers should be at least somewhat politically correct and I do think you ought to list your pronouns on your web page."

Marvin was puzzled. "What do you mean, honey? About checkers being 'somewhat' politically correct? Why even Coach said ... "

"Checkers should promote equality," Priscilla said, "and provide equal opportunity. I know, you're going to say it already does, and I don't disagree. But you don't want to give a bad impression or offend anyone, now, do you? You can list pronouns that you like. Some people use 'they, them, theirs' for instance."

"Huh? But there's only one of me ... how can I be 'they'? Ain't that, like, bad grammar and stuff?"

"Oh, Marvin, you just don't get it, do you? If you want to be really conservative go ahead and list 'he, him, his.' That may not be very progressive but it might keep you out of further trouble."

Marvin said no more, but just asked himself how things like playing with red and white checkers or not listing pronouns on a web page led to bad impressions, or how anyone could be offended by such things. And he didn't see how faulty grammar somehow became acceptable in a 'politically correct' context. It made him wonder just what they were teaching the kids at the Thinkers' Academy.

Perhaps he, like the game of checkers itself, was still very traditional.

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As we mentioned in the first installment of this story, The Checker Maven believes everyone deserves a fair chance in this world, and that prejudice and discrimination on any basis whatsoever is completely unacceptable. We also said, though, that we don't support some of the silliness that has come to be associated with political correctness. If this offends you, we apologize, but we won't change our views.