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

became accepted by chess-players, that one of them had been
taught their curious gambit and that the other two between
them had learnt all the defensive openings as well as
general play. Though who taught them no one could say, in
spite of enquiries made afterwards all along the Southern
Pacific.
I never learnt any more details from any of the three
sailors, they were always too drunk to speak or else not
drunk enough to be communicative. I seem just to have taken
Jim Bunion at the flood. But I kept my promise, it was I
that introduced them to the Tournament, and a pretty mess
they made of established reputations. And so they kept on
for months, never losing a game and always playing for their
pound a side. I used to follow them wherever they went
merely to watch their play. They were more marvellous than
Stavlokratz even in his youth.
But then they took to liberties such as giving their
queen when playing first-class players. And in the end one
day when all three were drunk they played the best player in
England with only a row of pawns. They won the game all
right. But the ball broke to pieces. I never smelt such a
stench in all my life.
The three sailors took it stoically enough, they signed
on to different ships and went back again to the sea, and
the world of chess lost sight, for ever I trust, of the most
remarkable players it ever knew, who would have altogether
spoiled the game.