The Detroit Doublejumpers were in Tampa, Florida, for a match with the Tampa Tinsleys, a very strong team in the American Conference Eastern Division of the National Checker League. Led by superstar captain Marvin J. Mavin, the Doublejumpers were favored to win, but the odds line was close at 5-4 in favor of the Doublejumpers.

As regular readers know, National Checker League matches are five boards to a side, with the highest rated player on the first board and so on down to the fifth board. Of course, in professional checkers at the Major League level, a fifth board starter was ranked at least as a master and was a very skilled checkerist.

In our previous episode, Marvin had remarked on the unexpected loss of a strong player to a lower ranked player in a match played in Dallas. He had since noted a couple of other similar anomalies, but didn't pursue the matter any further.

But now, with the Doublejumpers on a lengthy road trip, it was time to focus on the match with Tampa. The Doublejumpers would play a three match series here, then move on to Miami for another three matches prior to going to Dallas, and then on to St. Louis before finally returning to Detroit. It would be two weeks before Marvin would get to see his wife, Priscilla, back in the suburbs of the city.

Pre-game practice went along as usual and Coach Baba Dudut then prepared the starting lineup. He announced it to the team.

"Marvin, first board. I better see a good showing with no attitude."

"Yes, coach," Marvin said meekly. "You got it."

Coach glared a little and continued. "Panko Ryder, second board. Jimmy Jack Johnson, third board. Suzie Brankovich, fourth board."

Coach then hesitated a moment before continuing. "And Steve Moscovitch, fifth board."

The team murmured a little. The usual fifth board player this season was Sarah Hotchkiss, and she had played well so far, winning most of her games. Steve Moscovitch was the lowest rated player on the Doublejumper team and had only seen action as a very occasional substitute. He had not played all that well and rumor was he might soon be sent down to the Doublejumpers AAA farm team.

"You people have a problem?" demanded Coach upon hearing the muttering. "I make the decisions around here and I make them in the best interests of the team. You don't like it, go play for some other team."

The muttering died down but the look on the faces of the players told a different story.

It was soon time for the match to begin. The Tampa Checkerdrome was sold out and 50,000 avid checker fans were awaiting what would likely be a close contest. While most of the fans were from the local area and would cheer for the Tinsleys, there was a sizeable group who had come down from Detroit to see their team and take a bit of a vacation near the waters of Tampa Bay.

The starting lineups were announced over the stadium's PA system. When Detroit's fifth board was announced, there was more audible muttering, this time from the Detroit audience. Sarah Hotchkiss was a favorite of the fans and won hearts everywhere she went with her fine play, pleasant personality, and decided strength of character. Steve Moscovitch, on the other hand, was viewed as someone on his way out.

After the National Anthem, the players took their places at their checkerboards and the referee blew his whistle. His cry of "Play Checkers!" resounded throughout the stadium and the match began.

Indeed, it was close. The Doublejumpers drew on first and second board, with both Marvin and Panko unable to get a win against the strong Tampa players. The Doublejumpers lost on the third board and won on the fourth in games that were hard fought and close.

It was now all down to fifth board. Steve had been playing very slowly. By the rules, he needed a win to carry the day for the Doublejumpers. A draw, on the other hand, would leave the score tied at 5-5 but tiebreak rules gave precedence to wins on the higher boards, so the Tinsleys would win the match if Steve only drew.

The fifth board for the Tinsleys, Agatha Agarawal, was a pretty good player. But she tended to play a little too fast. The result was a position in which Steve was to play, and he had a possible win. However he only had a minute left on his clock while Agatha had twelve minutes.

Steve's clock was running and he seemed ready to make his move. He reached out, and then suddenly drew his hand back. He stood up from the board, stretched his arms over his head, moved his legs up and down, and then did a pirouette. The big crowd in the stands again was muttering. What was Steve up to? His clock was now down to ten seconds. Steve grabbed the top of his chair as if to begin to sit down, but he knocked it over, and, rather than just make his move, he slowly picked it up.

"Time!" Agatha called out, pointing to the clock. Indeed, Steve had run out of time and thereby lost the game. The Tinsleys had won by a score of 6-4.

Coach Baba Dudut ran out onto the field and started yelling at Steve. But Marvin noticed that Steve didn't have the scared look that most players have when yelled at by Coach. Neither did he have a defiant look. In fact, Coach's angry look wasn't the same as the one Marvin was used to.

A disappointed team walked off the field that evening. The hometown fans were happy, of course. But the Detroit contingent was left to wonder just what happened.

The next day it was announced that Steve Moscovitch, rather than get sent down to a farm club, had quit the Doublejumpers and made his exit from professional checkers. It was something quite unusual. Players often would be moved back and forth between the major and minor leagues, but few of them abandoned their careers altogether.

Sarah Hotchkiss resumed her usual place on fifth board and the Doublejumper road trip continued. The Doublejumpers split the next two matches with the Tinsleys, but that left Tampa with a 2-1 edge in the three match series, and it was enough to put them into first place in the American League East division of the National Checker League.

It was just a small one bedroom apartment in an old run down building in the Lyulin area of Sofia, but she knew she'd be moving to better quarters before too long. Things were starting to work out and the money, now mostly a trickle, would eventually turn into a flood.

It had taken her a while to settle in Sofia, after some time in other Eastern European cities like Warsaw, Prague, and a couple of others. It had taken her even longer to learn enough Bulgarian to start to make the contacts she needed. But she was good at that kind of thing.

Eventually she found a group with which she could work. The Bulgarian underworld wasn't trusting of foreigners, but she was very convincing and could be very charming or very tough as the occasion demanded. Building out her network took time, but she had enough side hustles to keep her going until things were at a point where she had enough control to start making some moves.

Oh, would they ever be surprised back home. But they wouldn't suspect anything until it was too late, and they would never suspect her involvement.

She went into the apartment's tiny kitchen to make herself some tea. A few roaches scuttled along the kitchen floor and the stove just consisted of an ancient hot plate. Never mind, better days were coming. For her, at least. Not for her victims back home.

She almost laughed aloud. Revenge would be sweet, and the money wouldn't hurt anything either.

It had been quite a long road trip, and except for that one unexpected loss in Tampa, the Doublejumpers had done very well. Marvin himself had played good checkers and was satisified with his performance. Of course Coach Baba Dudut wasn't one to give out much praise, especially to Marvin.

And Marvin still felt somewhat uneasy. He couldn't especially put his finger on just why, but it was a really odd kind of feeling. Something was a bit off with Coach, and there were just other nagging little things.

When he finally returned home, at a late evening hour, his wife, Priscilla, noticed his mood.

"What you need is a nice glass of wine, dear, to help you relax. I'm sure it's all just stress from the long road trip."

"Yeah, honey, maybe I'll grab a can of beer," Marvin replied, "and then hit the hay."

Priscilla scowled, but only a little, as she hadn't seen Marvin for a couple of weeks. Ordinarily she didn't like to see Marvin drinking beer out of a can; she said it was uncouth and low-class.

"Whatever you like," she said.

Marvin had his beer and slept uneasily, dreaming of wrong moves and game clocks that ran out.

To be continued.

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What move should Steve have played to secure the win, had he not done strange antics? His antics are not the only strange thing going on, it seems. We hope nothing particularly strange is going on where you are and you'll have a chance to solve the position. Give it a try and then click on Read More to see the solution.

Solution

1.	...	17-14*
2.	1-5	...

If 22-18 10-6* White Wins.

3.

...

24-20*

Not 13 9, *22-18, 24-20 (if 10-6, 18-22* Drawn) 18-15* 10-6 15-10* 14-7 5-14* Drawn.

4.

22-18

...

If 22-26 13-17* 26-23 17-22* 23-19 22-18* White Wins.

4.	...	14-9*
5.	5x14	13-9*
6.	14-17	10-6*
7.	2-7	...

If 18-14 9-18 2-9 20 16* White Wins.

7.	...	6-2*
8.	7-10	2-7*

Not 2-6 17-22* Drawn.

9.	10-15	7-10*
10.	15-19	10-14*

White Wins.

Today's problem is entitled "Give and Take" and was composed by Bill Salot. It first appeared in one of his early problem composition contests.