It was a sunny Sunday morning in the fall and in the very swank Detroit suburb where Priscilla Snelson had her very swank condo, she and her husband, Marvin J. Mavin, were at breakfast.

As regular readers know, Priscilla was the CEO of the large multinational conglomerate Rust Belt Holdings. Marvin, her somewhat unlikely husband, was the Captain of the Detroit Doublejumpers in the National Checker League. He was nothing short of a superstar but even his superstar salary didn't come close to Priscilla's CEO compensation.

Indeed, Priscilla liked the finer things, such as her 5,000 square foot condo, her fleet of cars including a Rolls-Royce limo, a Jaguar and many others right on down to her "everyday" Lexis. Marvin, on the other hand, had simpler tastes. Prior to marriage, he drove a dilapidated old Volkswagen Beetle and lived in a small one-bedroom apartment in a quite undesirable part of Detroit. Of course, once they married, Priscilla insisted on quite a few changes to Marvin's lifestyle.

But right now, at about nine in the morning, the couple was breakfasting on poached eggs with caviar, smoked salmon, avocado toast, freshly squeezed orange juice, and 100% Kona coffee, all prepared by one of Priscilla's private chefs (she had just recently added a second chef for Sundays, which was the day off of her regular chef).

Priscilla was glancing through a business book, The Gentle Art of Hostile Takeovers, while Marvin was reading the Sunday paper, The Detroit Free Herald. With both spouses immersed in their reading, breakfast was quiet. Marvin had a match in the evening but didn't have to report to the clubhouse for warmups until two o'clock, and Priscilla was enjoying a rare half day off from her busy job.

But suddenly, Marvin spoke up. "That can't be!" he said loudly, looking up from his newspaper.

Priscilla, a bit annoyed by the loud interruption--- she was just reading a fascinating chapter that talked about what percentage of the staff to fire after a hostile takeover--- also looked up. "What can't be, dear? What is so impossible that you felt the need to remark rather loudly about it?"

"Well, just look!" he said, turning his newspaper toward Priscilla and indicating an article in the checker section.

Priscilla took a cursory glance. "So?" she said, "what is it that stands out?"

Marvin shook the newspaper and pointed. "Well, right here!" he said. "See, the Dallas Dundees are a good team and they kind of stand out on the lower boards." (In the National Checker League, matches were played five boards to a side; the strongest player played first board and so on down to fifth board.) "Well, they played the Minnesota Moves, who are stronger on the top boards and weaker on the bottom. So, the top four boards split 2-2. But on the 5th board, where Dallas played Herb Woodman, well ... I can't believe it!"

"Can you get to the point, dear?" said Priscilla.

"Yeah, yeah, well see Minnesota played Sammy Sammerson on 5th, and he won! Woodman is so much stronger than Sammerson that it's ... well ... it can't be!"

"But it was, wasn't it? Even good players lose games. Now, if you'll let me get back to my book ... "

"Okay, right, sorry, but I gotta know more about this. It just don't make no sense."

"Yes, dear, if 'it don't make no sense' you can surely look into it if you wish." At that, Priscilla turned back to her book and didn't say any more.

Breakfast was leisurely and it wasn't until nearly 11 o'clock that the couple got up from the table. Priscilla decided to take a short rest before heading off to the office while Marvin opted for an hour or so of The Checker Television Network. But he got restless and decided to go to the clubhouse about half an hour ahead of practice.

He changed into his regular clothes, said good-bye to Priscilla, and then drove the "everyday" Lexus to the clubhouse. (Priscilla wouldn't let him drive any of the other cars, or at least not very often.)

Traffic on the Interstate wasn't bad and Marvin actually arrived at the clubhouse 45 minutes before practice was scheduled. He gave a brief thought to stopping for a quick beer but quickly dropped the idea; if Coach Baba Dudut were to find out, Marvin would (quite rightly) be suspended for a while.

Marvin quickly changed into his team uniform, so as to be ready for practice, but then logged on to one of the team's NCL computer terminals. A lot of information was available to the players and coaches, including records of all the games in all the league matches.

"I just gotta see this," he said, and with a quick search pulled up the game played yesterday between Sammy Sammerson and Herb Woodman. Woodman's player rating was 2100 while Sammerson's was 1900, a full 200 points lower. "No way Sammerson coulda won," Marvin said. "No way at all!"

Marvin brought up the CheckahBoard computer program in another window on the computer screen and started playing through the moves in the game. Everything looked pretty normal. There were some small mistakes on each side but nothing out of line with the players' ratings and major league status.

1.	10-14	24-19
2.	7-10	22-17
3.	9-13	28-24
4.	13x22	25x9
5.	5x14	29-25
6.	11-15	25-22
7.	6-9	23-18
8.	14x23	27x11
9.	8x15	26-23
10.	9-14	32-28
11.	4-8	24-20
12.	15x24	28x19
13.	8-11	22-18
14.	1-5	18x9
15.	5x14	30-26
16.	2-7	19-16
17.	12x19	23x16
18.	10-15	26-22?

Marvin stopped at his point. "No," Marvin said, almost in a whisper, "that just couldn't have been." Then he said it louder. "No way Woodman played 26-22!" But in fact he had.

"What are you talking about?" an angry voice said behind him.

---

What move should Herb Woodman have played? How is Black now going to win? And what do you think is going on here? Correcting the error should be easy although playing out the win is quite a bit more work. Give it some thought and effort and then click on Read More to find some of the answers.

Solution and Continuation

The voice belonged to none other than the Head Coach of the Doublejumpers, Coach Baba Dudut. Coach and Marvin had had their "moments" in the past. Relations between them were okay, but certainly no better than that. (See previous Checker Maven stories.)

"Uh, oh, yeah, hi there Coach," Marvin stammered, obviously caught by surprise. "Er, well ... look here. Can you believe that move? Woodman lost to Sammerson! That ain't possible! Look, it was an easy draw with either 26-23 or 31-27. Now Black loses. It's kinda long but there ain't no stopping it." Marvin played out the following moves.

19.	15-19	22-17
20.	11-15	17x10
21.	7x14	16-11
22.	19-23	20-16
23.	15-18	16-12
24.	18-22	11-8
25.	22-25	8-4
26.	25-29	4-8
27.	29-25	8-11
28.	23-26	31x22
29.	25x18	11-16
30.	18-22	16-19
31.	14-18	19-15
32.	18-23	15-19
33.	23-26	19-24
34.	26-30	24-19
35.	22-18	19-24
36.	30-26	21-17
37.	26-23	17-13
38.	18-14	24-28
39.	23-19	28-32
40.	19-15	32-28
41.	15-11	28-32
42.	3-7	32-27
43.	7-10	27-24
44.	10-15	24-28
45.	15-19	28-32
46.	19-23	32-28
47.	23-27	28-32
48.	27-31	32-28
49.	31-27	28-32
50.	27-24	32-28
51.	24-19	28-32
52.	19-15	32-28
53.	15-10	28-32
54.	10-6	32-28
55.	14-18	28-32
56.	18-15	32-27
57.	15-19	27-32
58.	19-24	32-28
59.	11-16	28x19
60.	16x23	12-8
61.	6-1	13-9
62.	23-18	8-4
63.	18-14	9-5
64.	14-10	4-8
65.	10-15	...

Black wins with the move.

Unexpectedly, Coach glowered. "So what? Why do you care? I didn't need to see all of those moves. I know when somebody is winning or losing. You're just wasting my time."

"Well, gee Coach, dontcha think it's like kinda odd? Sammerson on his best day couldn't a beaten Woodson on his worst day! He just ain't that good!"

"Anybody can beat anybody anytime. You know that much," Coach said, "even if you don't know a lot else."

"But ... but ... "

"But nothing. What you don't know and need to learn right now is to mind your own business. And your business isn't a match in Dallas."

"Actually it was in Minneapolis ... "

"I don't care where it was!" Coach shouted. "It's got nothing to do with you, amd I clear? Right now go out and lead your team in practice, and if you lose tonight because you're distracted by soemthing that's no concern of yours, I'll be very upset!"

Marvin, taken aback, simply replied, "Yes Coach, right away Coach." Marvin then scurried off to the practice rooms.

The Doublejumpers won a convincing victory that night, but Coach Baba Dudut still seemed in a bad mood with regard to Marvin. Puzzled and a bit stung, Marvin hit the showers and then drove home.

It was about 11 PM when he arrived at Priscilla's condo. She was lounging in the living room in bathrobe and PJs, drinking a cup of herbal tea and reading Business Days. "I heard you won your match, honey," she said, "and that you played a strong game."

"Yeah, it was really good. You have a good Sunday afternoon at work?"

"Yes, I got everything ready for the coming week." But Marvin barely listened to this reply, instead going into the kitchen and popping open a can of Artisan Amber Apple Aerated Ale. He went back into the living room and flopped down on the sofa opposite Priscilla, taking a long pull on his beer.

Priscilla looked up and scowled. "Marvin, do you have to drink beer straight from the can? It's so vulgar." But Marvin still looked distracted. "Is there something wrong?" Priscilla asked, a note of concern creeping into her voice.

"Uh no ... well, actually, yeah."

"What is it, dear?"

Marvin hesitated a moment. "Well, like, you know that game I was looking at this morning where this one guy beat the other guy but shoudln't a? So, I looked it up and the other guy--- the guy that lost to the first guy ... "

"Marvin, would you please make your point?"

" ... played a real dumb move that even a scrub wouldn't a made. And he lost."

"That's what happen when players make 'a real dumb move'," Priscilla offered.

"Yeah but like, so dumb ... and then Coach comes in the room ... "

Marvin proceeded to relate the rest of the story to Priscilla, emphasizing his surprise about Coach's extreme reaction.

"Well, dear," Priscilla said, "maybe Coach just was worried about tonight's match. After all you said you were playing a weaker team and perhaps he wanted to impose a little structure and discipline, you know, to avoid overconfidence."

"I don't know, Prissy--- I mean, sweetheart. It all seems kinda funny to me."

"Well, then, if it seems funny, have a good laugh and let's go to bed. My driver picks me up at seven tomorrow and you know Coach always wants the team in early to review tonight's play."

Marvin assented. But he didn't sleep well. The whole affair continuted to bother him. Something was off, although he didn't know quite what.

To be continued.