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Sergei Karjakin had only one game of chess left, and he had to win it.

It should have been an easy task. The opponent was the lowest-ranked player in the tournament. Karjakin was one of the rising talents in chess, a poised and accomplished boy of 12 years 7 months who was, at that moment, one victory from becoming the games youngest grandmaster.

The title would change his life. In chess, only the Top 30 players can expect to build a proper career from the game. Becoming the youngest grandmaster in history offered Karjakin a direct path to that world, a door to global acclaim and corporate sponsorships and invitations to the biggest tournaments to the life that he and every prodigy, and, perhaps most of all, their parents dream about.

For once, though, his skill did not appear to be enough. For nearly 60 moves, Karjakin posed subtle and challenging problems to Irina Semyonova, his opponent. Each time, she had an answer, a counter. Karjakin kept pressing, but the game ended in a draw.

Suddenly, all of what had been close enough to touch the label, the fame, the history was slipping away.

But the aspiring grandmaster and his team still had one audacious move left.Fathers, Sons and PointsChess grandmasters are not made in a day. Even the brightest talents need years to earn the highest and most coveted title in the game. To achieve it, a player must gain a high rating through strong tournament play and by collecting a series of bench marks, called norms, in games at qualified events.

For the three decades after the title was formally introduced in 1950, the grandmaster was a rare species. Other players knew not only their names but their playing styles, too. They were treated like stars at tournaments and appearances.

That all changed in the 1980s, when FIDE, the governing body for chess, started expanding into countries that did not have established chess cultures. To pursue its goal of having at least one grandmaster in each country, FIDE relaxed its requirements.

That change made the label more accessible, but also less exclusive: Nearly 2,000 players have become grandmasters since 1950. Gradually, the label ceased being a ticket to a great future in chess. Young players and their often obsessive parents needed something to set them apart. The title of the youngest grandmaster turned into one such springboard.

For Karjakin and his father, Alexander, the label held almost infinite promise. By becoming the youngest grandmaster, Karjakin would, in an instant, assume a title once held by Boris Spassky and Bobby

Karjakin had worked his whole life toward this goal. Born in Simferopol, Crimea, in 1990, he was playing chess for six hours every day by the time he was 5 years old. Through talent and devotion he quickly developed into one of the most promising young players in Ukraine.

The Momot Chess Club, the countrys most prestigious chess school at the time, took notice. It invited Karjakin to join its ranks in the town of Kramatorsk, a rusty industrial wreck in Ukraines east. With little to keep them in Crimea Karjakins parents had become street vendors to make ends meet in the ruins of the post-Soviet Union economy the entire family moved with its chess-playing son.

For the Karjakins, the Momot club was an island of opportunity in a country terrorized by economic transformation and gang wars. By the time they arrived with Sergei it had started producing champions and grandmasters at the speed of an assembly line. At one point, Momot counted three of the 10 youngest grandmasters in the world among its members. Ruslan Ponomaryov, the clubs first star, was the world knockout champion from 2002 to 2004.

Karjakin quickly rose to become one of the stars of the school. His success, and the strong bonds his father was forging with coaches, meant Karjakin got the schools backing in tournaments. Those appearances, and his success, propelled his preteen reputation.

But for some players, securing a prestigious title meant more than just playing well. It is an open secret in chess that many players cut side deals with tournament organizers and other top competitors that help them achieve norms they might have struggled to get legitimately.

This culture touched the Momot club. Many of its members acquired their grandmaster credentials in Crimea, at tournaments in places like Sudak and Alushta that were known as norm factories where, for as little as $1,000, organizers would make sure players accumulated enough points for a norm.

But there were other, more subtle, ways to succeed, too. Far from prying eyes, secret agreements and cash exchanges to arrange results were not uncommon, according to interviews with chess players and FIDE officials. In a sport so wholly obsessed with status, title and rank, even selling a game could be accomplished for the right price.

Mikhail Zaitsev, who achieved the rank of International Master and is now a chess coach, estimated that of the worlds roughly 1,900 living grandmasters, at least 10% have cheated one way or another to acquire the title. Shohreh Bayat, one of the leading arbiters in chess, describes such arrangements in the plainest terms. Match fixing, she said, is cheating. Some hopefuls didnt even have to play a game of chess to get the points they needed: Some tournaments, she said, took place only on paper.

None of this is lost on the sports frustrated leaders.

We have a dog called Pasquales, said Nigel Short, the vice president of FIDE. I believe it is possible that if I went to the effort, I think I could get my dog a grandmasters title.

Games SoldThe Great Silk Road tournament, where Karjakin became the worlds youngest grandmaster in 2002, was held in the picturesque town of Sudak on the Black Sea. It was a mess, according to interviews with five people who were there.

The winner was Vasily Malinin. How he won was another matter. Alexander Areshchenko, a young player at the time, said Malinin paid Areshchenkos mother in exchange for a victory in their match. Another player, Nazar Firman, said he was also paid.

Malinin, who died in November, always denied paying for results. But in a letter published in Russian on an obscure chess website, he acknowledged playing an unusual role in the Sudak tournament.

The most notable game, he said, was one he agreed to lose.

Malinin told the story this way in his letter:

With Karjakins title as the worlds youngest grandmaster slipping away after his unexpected draw with Semyonova, Karjakins father, Alexander, approached several players to whom his son had lost points and offered them money to replay their games. Firman said he was among those to receive an offer of cash for an arranged draw.

Malinin, who had points to spare, agreed to replay his game with Karjakin. He said he did so for free and therefore did not consider it cheating. The two replayed a game that normally would have taken up to six hours; in the replay, Malinin said, it was played in a blitz a high-speed variant of chess. Karjakin won.

Minutes later, the newly crowned grandmaster ran into the tournaments main hall, radiant and proud as a peacock, according to Areshchenko, who was present.

Asked about the episode in an interview with The New York Times, Karjakin said he would ask his father about it. He later said that he is not in touch with his father and had no further information about the tournament. Phone calls and text messages sent to Karjakins parents were not answered.

The fruits of Karjakins victory, though, came quickly. The next year, he played at the tournament in Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands, a town known as the Wimbledon of chess. In Paris, he joined the prestigious NAO chess club. Only a few months earlier, Karjakin had traveled to tournaments in Europe by bus. Now, as the worlds youngest grandmaster, he was greeted by the president of Mexico.

I was just swarmed with invitations, Karjakin said in an interview, talking about the aftermath. I became widely popular.

Competing against the worlds best players, Karjakin progressed rapidly. By October 2005, when he was 15, he was already ranked among the Top 50 players in the world. In 2016, at the World Chess Championship in New York, he was on the cusp of becoming world champion before losing to Norways Carlsen, considered the worlds best player then and now, in a tiebreaker. And for more than 18 years, Karjakin, now 31, held a title no one could match: the worlds youngest grandmaster.

The stain of what had happened in the Sudak tournament, however, has lingered. There were rumors about the event in the chess world, but no one seemed interested in pursuing them. Several participants in the tournament said that Karjakin had not achieved his grandmasters title by the book, but that, for them, it was just a fact of chess life.

Areshchenko, a stronger player than Karjakin at the time and his classmate in a chess club, said that his coaches had told him to play a draw with Karjakin to make sure he got the youngest-grandmaster title on time.

He could not do it honestly, Areshchenko said of Karjakin. I played better than him at the time, and it was tough for me to become a grandmaster then.

In an interview, Karjakin denied offering payoffs or making side deals. He said it was Malinin who had tried to extort money from his family for simply playing a game that they had agreed to postpone, not replay. After Karjakins father refused to pay, Malinin got mad and made up all that mess, he said.

My father came to him and told him that he has to go and play with me, Karjakin said of Malinin. In any case, nobody would engage in negotiations with young children.

A Visit With PutinMany chess players say making side deals in chess is essentially harmless. But to others, Karjakins career has demonstrated that is not the case.

Players who fulfill their norms honestly, other players said, would not get their grandmasters title for years, and thus never get the chance to join the top echelon. Firman, for instance, has quit professional chess several times because of his inability to make a living at it. At least one of Karjakins former peers at the Momot Chess Club now earns money giving Skype lessons. Others compete for small prizes in sweaty halls at low-level tournaments.

Karjakin, however, has thrived. In 2009, President Dmitry Medvedev of Russia granted him citizenship. In 2014, Karjakin sided with Russia against his native Ukraine by openly supporting its annexation of Crimea. In Crimea, he posed in a T-shirt bearing the face of Vladimir Putin, of whom he was by then a prominent and vocal supporter.

In 2016, Putin said that the country has always given high priority to chess, and chess has always helped the country. The chess crown, however, has been away from Russia since 2007, when Vladimir Kramnik lost it to Viswanathan Anand of India. Karjakin has promised to bring the chess crown back to Russia.

He received full support for that effort. Lucrative contracts with Russian corporations have bankrolled Karjakin, including one with a bank that brought him around $300,000. His face appeared on billboards around Moscow, and he was invited to the most popular talk shows, turning into a celebrity. He received a manager and an apartment. Soon, he had a country house, too, in the most prestigious area outside Moscow, as well as a Mercedes with a driver.

In 2017, Putin even invited Karjakin to his residence. In his office, Putins first question was: You became a grandmaster at 12, didnt you?

Yes, Karjakin said. I was the youngest.

A Worthy SuccessorOn the last day of June, 18 years after he had claimed it, Karjakin surrendered the title that had launched his career.

His successor as the youngest grandmaster in history, a young boy from New Jersey named Abhimanyu Mishra, broke the record by two months, gaining the title at the age of 12 years 4 months 25 days. Mishra and his father are hoping the achievement will do for him what it did for Karjakin.

Like Karjakins parents more than two decades ago, Mishras father, Hemant, had a lot at stake in seeing his son claim the title. He said he spent more than $270,000 on making his son the worlds youngest grandmaster, and he had been collecting donations online to make their chess dream come true. The small advantages that the money could buy in scheduling, in opposition, in timing began to add up as he closed in on his final norm.

Mishra, who described Karjakin as his idol, played in five so-called norm tournaments in Charlotte, North Carolina, in the fall of 2020 and spring of 2021 but did not achieve a single norm. With the deadline to beat Karjakins record bearing down, he and his father next traveled to Budapest, Hungary, where Abhimanyu Mishra played eight tournaments in a row.

At these tournaments, norm-seekers paid the organizers, who in turn paid grandmasters to show up, a legal and common arrangement in professional chess. But the quality was not the same; the average rating of Mishras opponents in the Budapest events was nearly 50 points lower than it had been in Charlotte.

In an interview, Arkady Dvorkovich, the president of FIDE, said that there is little sportsmanship at such tournaments. That is partly because the grandmasters, often aging players long past their prime, often lack the motivation to work hard to beat their opponents. The motivation was quite low for me, said Vojtech Plat, one of the grandmasters who played.

At the Budapest tournaments, Mishra had the added advantage of playing against the same group of grandmasters again and again, which allowed him to learn their tactics and styles.

Gabor Nagy, a Hungarian grandmaster, played against Mishra in six of the tournaments in Budapest. (In Charlotte, no grandmaster played in more than three tournaments.) In one match, they agreed on a draw after 13 moves, and in another, after only six. To chess experts, this was an indication that the matches were not seriously contested. But in playing them, Mishra accumulated a precious half-point toward his goal in a matter of minutes.

In another tournament, Mishra played three games in a day, his father said. FIDE rules, which seek to protect players from overexertion in the grueling sport, set a limit of two games a day. By the time Mishra had usurped Karjakins throne, he had played 70 games of chess in only 78 days.

It begins to smell, Bruce Pandolfini, an accomplished American coach, said of the effort to chase the youngest grandmaster title using those methods.

Still, Mishras rise to grandmaster will mark the start of a new life for him. He was recently featured on the websites of ESPN and People magazine and was invited to the upcoming Chess World Cup, one of the most prestigious tournaments in the sport with a purse of nearly $1.9 million.

Hemant Mishra said his son achieved the title legitimately and that suggesting otherwise would be utter nonsense. But top players are publicly questioning Mishras title and criticizing the system that helped him get it.

Short, a grandmaster himself and the FIDE vice president, said that he had attempted to reform that system. But the fact that so many players had already acquired questionable grandmaster titles made it all but impossible.

The horse has bolted; you cannot close the stable doors, he said. The best thing to do is to abolish the title altogether.

Link:
The dark side of chess: Payoffs, points and 12-year-old grandmasters - Economic Times

Last year, Netflix aired the mini-series The Queens Gambit which follows the chess adventures of the orphan, Beth Harmon. The release of the show saw viewers flock to chess websites and a general increased interest in the game. If youve decided to start playing on sites like Chess.com or Lichess.org youll likely have been improving your play but the further you climb the tougher it will get, and this is where practising with the best open source chess engine, Stockfish, could come in handy.

At the start of this month, the team behind Stockfish released version 14 for anyone to download. This version of Stockfish has a rating 338 Elo points ahead of Stockfish 8 which famously lost against Alphabets AlphaZero. The boost in its rating largely came from the inclusion of an Efficiently Epdatable Neural Network (NNUE) and its subsequent refining with help from the team behind the LCZero chess engine team. According to CEGT, Stockfish 14 is about 700 Elo points ahead of the current Chess champ, Magnus Carlsen.

To become any good at chess, youll need to become familiar with common patterns and learn to respond to them accurately. Chess engines such as Stockfish can calculate moves with significant depth making them handy for figuring out the best responses to your opponents moves. Of course, you shouldnt use engines when playing live games but memorising moves it suggests is completely fine.

In this guide, Ill be looking specifically at running Stockfish in a program called PyChess which is only available for Windows and Linux but if youre on other platforms there is a dedicated Stockfish Mac App and an iOS app called SmallFish where you can practice with the engine. For those on Android, you should install the DroidFish Chess app and StockFish Engines OEX. The latter app will make Stockfish 12, 13, and 14 available in DroidFish under Manage Chess Engines.

The first thing youll want to do is download and install PyChess which will provide the main interface youll interact with when you play games. On the projects download page, head down to the package list and find the msi package if youre on Windows or follow the instructions for your Linux distribution. Once youve downloaded and installed PyChess you should open the program and close any pop-ups that appear. You may also be informed that a new version of the program is available from the projects GitHub, its entirely up to you if you want to install it or not.

Now that you have the program which can handle the Stockfish engine, youll need to go to the StockFish website and get the latest version. PyChess may already have a version of Stockfish pre-bundled but it isnt the latest version of the engine. To get Stockfish 14, go to the download page and select the version you think will run best on your system, if in doubt, get the most compatible binary.

Once youve finished the download, you will have a zip folder in your downloads folder, right-click it and press Extract All. After the files are extracted, youre ready to load Stockfish into PyChess. In PyChess, simply press the Edit button in the menu and then go to Engines. In the box that appears, you should see a button that allows you to add new engines, press that and direct it to the Stockfish executable in the extracted folder.

Now that Stockfish 14 is installed in PyChess, you will want to make it your default analyser. Press Edit in the menu again and open Preferences, then go to the Hints tab and under the Analysing header, check the use analyser option and pick Stockfish 14 from the dropdown, you can also do this for your opponents analyser.

To put this analyser to work, press Game in the menu, then New Game and then choose one of the options. Under players, select Human Being and pick a rival and start the game. Press View in the menu and select Hint arrow, this will allow the Stockfish analyser to point out the best moves for you to make. Enabling the Spy arrow will display your opponent's best moves.

If youve played a game on a website like Chess.com, its possible to download a PGN file of the games youve played in the past. If you press Game in the PyChess menu, select new game and then load a game from notation, you can view your game move by move and see Stockfishs recommendations with the hint arrows. Once youve analysed your own games, using a chess engine to further help find the best moves will help you the next time youre in a similar position.

When you were choosing the game participants in the last part of the guide, you might have noticed that you can make both players computer-operated, allowing different engines to play against each other. This can be useful if you want to see how the newest Stockfish version performs against older versions, or if you want to try out one engine brand against another. There are lots of chess engines out there but some that are freely available are Komodo and LCZero.

While selecting which engines you want to battle each other, also notice that there is a power bar underneath. If you want the engine to play at its full potential, be sure to rack it up to 20. If you want to play against any of the engines, feel free to lower this level so that you have an easier time playing against the computer.

While having the latest Stockfish engine set up is invaluable for developing in chess, the PyChess program also includes other useful features for helping you improve. In PyChess 1.0 and above, be sure to look at the category section in the lower right of the home screen, this contains lots of lectures, lessons, puzzles, and endgames. Having all these items compiled in one place will definitely expedite your chess improvement!

Once youre ready to play real people check out websites like Chess.com and Lichess.org where you will be given a rating based on your wins, losses or draws to help you track how much youre improving. Your constantly adjusted rating on these websites will ensure you play people of your skill level, so dont worry if youre not a good player yet.

See more here:
How to set up the Stockfish chess engine to improve your skills - Neowin

Former world champion Viswanathan Anand played out a draw against Russian Grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik in the second game of their four-game match for the Sparkassen Trophy in Dortmund on Thursday. (More Sports News)

The Indian maestro played out a 39-move draw in an English Four Knights variation game with black pieces.He is ahead 1.5-0.5 after Thursday's match.

Earlier in the first game, playing with white pieces, Anand needed 66 moves to beat Kramnik late on Wednesday.

The match is played as part of the "No-Castling" Chess devised by the Russian GM.

Castling is not allowed in this format in an effort to make the game more interesting.

Castling is a special move to protect the king and activate the rook?. It's the only time in chess a player can move two pieces in one move.

The Indian maestro will take on Kramnik, also a former world champion, in the second game on Thursday night.

Anand had returned to over-the-board action in the Croatia Grand Chess Tour tournament in Zagreb last week.

He finished second overall (Rapid and Blitz combined) in that event.

The rest is here:
Chess: Viswanathan Anand Draws With Vladimir Kramnik In 2nd Game Of No-Castling Event - Outlook India

Chess Played Quick is Chess.com's series of monthly events where top chess streamers do live speed runs using one of Chess.com's features.

This month's event, Chess Played Quick Bullet Edition, starts on June 28 at 10 a.m. PT/19:00 CEST. During 3 hours and 20 minutes, streamers will do their best to collect as many bounties as possible. With an open and a U2000 section, the event will feature prizes for the three highest-rated players in each section. Four main bounties and three hidden bounties complete the set of challenges that make up the $12,000 total prize fund.

We will broadcast the entire event on Chess.com/TV and on our Twitch and YouTube channels. During the event, Aranhawaii will provide commentary and highlight different streamers.

Chess Played Quick Bullet Edition features a total prize fund of $12,000, distributed according to the participant's final bullet rating and bounties described below:

Open Prizes

U2000 Prizes

We will announce the hidden bounties 20 minutes before the hour (00:40, 01:40, 02:40 elapsed time). Streamers will have 20 minutes to complete each hidden bounty.

Open Bounties

U2000 Bounties

The event starts on June 28 at 10 a.m. PT/19:00 CEST. We will announce the hidden bounties on our official broadcast 20 minutes before the hour (00:40, 01:40, 02:40 elapsed time).

We will publish the results of the event here.

To participate in the event, fill out the official application form below. Please note that you have to play at least 25 bullet games with your new account before applying. Applications close 48 hours before the event:

Visit link:
Chess Played Quick Bullet Edition: All The Information - Chess.com

New Yorks Sex Diaries series asks anonymous city dwellers to record a week in their sex lives with comic, tragic, often sexy, and always revealing results.

Photo-Illustration: James Gallagher

This week, a woman who spends her birthday week sleeping with an ex and adding a new guy to the rotation: 25, single, London.

DAY ONE

11 a.m. I wake up later than Id like to because my sleep routine is in ruins. Ive been averaging a bedtime of 3 a.m. and honestly I dont even have an excuse (other than being a freelance writer, which allows me to set my own schedule). I scroll through Twitter, send my friends some funny tweets, then make myself a coffee.

3 p.m. I text my favorite ex to confirm our catch-up this evening. This will be the first time Ive seen him in a year, although we have sporadically sexted. I recently got out of a chaotic fling with a graffiti artist that lasted four exhausting months and ended with him blocking me on everything except my Finsta. Tonight, Im ready for some familiar, no-strings-attached fun.

7 p.m. I am sat opposite Favorite Ex at his local pub in South London, having taken a 40-minute Uber for the occasion. Hes the funniest person Ive dated, which is evidenced by my fits of laughter that cause the tables next to us to glance over looking increasingly pissed off. Im a few gins down so I dont care. If anything, it only spurs me on.

8 p.m. We tuck into an unsexy feast of nachos loaded with guacamole and a mountain of fried chicken as we continue to catch up. He tells me about his job as a cryptocurrency journalist and recruits me to join his crypto app. I say it sounds like a pyramid scheme but fine, Im horny enough to download it. I update him about my freelance writing and occasional antiques-dealing as I shovel more nachos into my mouth.

11 p.m. After rushing out of the pub, horny Favorite Ex and I are in the elevator of his apartment building. Im pushed up against the wall and were making out while he grabs my ass. He takes me by the hand and leads me into his bedroom, stopping briefly to explain how the layout has changed since I last came round. Pushing me against the wall he pulls my trousers down and whispers I forgot how soft your skin is. We fuck against the wall.

12 a.m. Favorite Ex brings us cups of herbal tea to bed and puts Jaws on the TV. Weve no interest in being romantic; this is a relationship that ended two years ago in a pretty amicable way. Most of my relationships do. As the sleepy herbal tea starts to kick in, we have gentle missionary sex before falling asleep to the sound of a shark attack.

DAY TWO

11 a.m. Favorite Ex and I continue the feasting at breakfast, this time opting for a fry-up at a caf down the road. Somehow theres no hangover; I put it down to the herbal tea he made me last night. We finish our coffee, he walks me to the bus stop and we go for a friendly hug. Well do this again sometime, probably in another year, I say, then embark on the long ride home.

4 p.m. My friend Christina calls to confirm our dinner plans this evening. Shes a self-confessed serial Hinge dater and for the past month things have been going well with a new guy. She asks if he can join us for dessert so I can meet him, because she trusts my judgment.

10 p.m. Christina and I are deep into a few bottles of red at dinner when her new guy arrives, sober and a little shy. Thankfully I am a very friendly drunk and immediately set out to get to know him. I admire how excited and giddy she is to see him and try to think back to when I last had that feeling. I havent dated somebody new in forever and suddenly it dawns on me that Ive just been recycling exes.

12 a.m. Ed, a sweet and very successful guy I dated briefly in 2019, texts me to say hes staying in a nearby hotel and invites me to join. Its a really nice hotel, but hes also drunk as hell and Im ready to call it a night. Christina and her new beau call an Uber together, and I get in one to go home alone.

12:30 a.m. Now that Im home, a wine-induced wave of neediness comes over me. At this point I dont even want sex; just some physical affection, and theres one person on my mind. Graffiti Guy and I ended badly, but weve been speaking most days on my Finsta reminiscing about the occasional good times (weve actually dated on and off for three years) and sexting more often than we should. I remember he has now unblocked my number so I call and he picks up. He says that he is sober and can tell that Im drunk, so coming over isnt a good idea. He is definitely right.

DAY THREE

9 a.m. I wake up and send Graffiti Guy a text apologizing for the drunken phone call. He says not to worry, he did the same thing to me last week. I vow never to do it again but know that I probably will.

1 p.m. I chat with the one new guy on my radar over Instagram. Hes attractive, hes lovely, but unfortunately he lives in Norway. He sends me videos of his lake house and I tell him how much I love his choice in dcor.

2 p.m. This guy is so great that I practice Norwegian on Duolingo with the idea that one day Ill fly over and visit. We call each other kjre; that means honey, but weve never actually met.

7 p.m. My friend Imi and I go for dinner at a Portuguese restaurant; we havent seen each other in months. We drink a big jug of sangria, eat piri-piri chicken and despair at the fact that were both turning 25 this month. I tell her about the Norwegian, scrolling through his Instagram to show her what he looks like. Shes very encouraging and tells me about her trip to Oslo a couple of years ago. She thinks I should definitely go and visit.

DAY FOUR

10 a.m. Its the day before my birthday and Im more excited than I expected. I spent a while dreading this age, but lately Ive embraced it and even come to believe this will finally be my year, whatever that means.

1 p.m. I make a list of all the preparation that needs to be done for tomorrow; Im hosting a dinner party at my place and envisioning it looking something like the set of a Baz Luhrmann movie. There are no exes on the guest list.

5:30 p.m. I exit Whole Foods having done some minor financial damage and cradle my birthday cake the way you might a newborn. Its hot in London and Im dripping sweat on the pavement.

8:00 p.m. Christina comes over to help me set up for tomorrow. We rearrange the furniture, sweating and complaining, then reward ourselves with a glass of prosecco while she updates me about her new guy and their summer evening dates. It sounds lovely and I wouldnt mind something like that myself, but I just cant be bothered to find it.

10 p.m. Now alone, I put on Casino for the hundredth time. I douse myself in Tom Ford Vanille Fatale perfume and make a half-ditched attempt to look glamorous for myself I figure thats what Ginger McKenna would do. Casino is the type of movie that makes you want to have a cigarette so I break my no-smoking-inside rule. I always do.

DAY FIVE

9 a.m. I wake up to the influx of birthday messages and answer a call from my mum, whos singing down the phone.

11 a.m. Two guys I used to date write the exact same message (happy birthday princess), which makes me laugh, and then I receive a happy birthday angel x from a guy I slept with once last year. His name is Felix a friend of a friend I met a while ago at a party. Hes really into playing chess, hes super witty, and we text from time to time. Ive always wanted to improve at chess so I thank him and say he should come and tutor me sometime. Just say the word, he replies.

8 p.m. With everyone now at my flat, the celebrating begins. Theres enough Champagne to serve a village and Ive definitely overdone it with the food spread.

11 p.m. I love my friends so much that I passionately make out with two of them.

1 a.m. Im briefly messaging Graffiti Guy about something irrelevant (despite my friend shouting at me not to) and he hasnt even realized its my birthday. Thanks for the happy birthday you gigantic asshole I write, semi-sincerely.

4 a.m. We sing Olivia Rodrigo good 4 u, because it makes me feel 17, and my upstairs neighbors bang on my ceiling. I figure thats fair enough so I turn the volume down.

DAY SIX

9 a.m. I wake up feeling surprisingly fresh considering we only managed three hours of sleep. A couple friends slept on the sofa so I make us all coffee and we eat leftovers for breakfast.

1 p.m. My friends leave to get a train home, and Graffiti Guy messages me to apologize for forgetting my birthday. I cant stay pissed off for long so obviously I forgive him.

9 p.m. It does not make me proud to admit that were still talking. He tells me Im the best sex hes ever had, but we acknowledge that it cant happen again because together we are a shit show. I suggest friends with benefits as an option but he says hes too possessive and protective over me for that to work.

11 p.m. I am bored of this routine and recognize its not healthy to carry on like we do, so I make the sudden decision not to speak to him again. I delete his number and send Felix a text: so when are we playing chess? He says he is free tomorrow night.

DAY SEVEN

10 a.m. Lately Ive neglected all things admin, so I relish a quiet morning on my laptop sending emails.

1 p.m. Felix texts me to arrange a time for tonight and for once I feel a little bit giddy. I know he doesnt want anything serious and appreciates I dont see him that way; were just two people who want to hook up under the guise of playing chess.

8 p.m. Felix is coming in an hour and Im running extremely late. Im fresh out of a very long shower and now I cant decide what to wear. Mildly stressed, I settle for an old pair of jeans that make my ass look good then run about lighting candles. I hope he doesnt think Im trying to create a romantic setting; I do this for literally everyone.

9 p.m. With the aid of Google, I put the chess pieces on the board when the buzzer suddenly rings. I buzz him up then finish getting ready at breakneck speed. I open the door trying to look composed and there he is. Fuck, he looks amazing better than I remember. Before hes even walked in, we start kissing in the doorway.

10 p.m. We sit opposite each other at my table with the chessboard between us; unsurprisingly we havent gotten around to playing. The wine is flowing and the conversation is too. Hes genuinely very interesting but honestly, I just want to sit in his lap. Desperately contemplating how to make my move, I get up to pour us another glass in the kitchen. He must have been thinking the same because he quietly comes up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist. Here we go. I fling my arms around his neck and put my tongue in his mouth, then he lifts me up and sits me on the counter. Wrapping my legs around him, he picks me up again and carries me to the bedroom.

10:30 p.m. I am in the presence of what can only be described as a selfless king. His attention is focused solely on me and I realize how much Ive settled in the past for being the one doing all the work, leaving me feeling like Ive just completed a HIIT workout. Well, it is your birthday week after all, you deserve it, Felix says. As soon as we finish Im eager for round two, but in the meantime, its back to the chessboard and a glass of whiskey on the rocks.

4 a.m. Seven hours since he arrived, somehow were still talking. As the sun starts to rise we go to bed for round two, which is even better than before. Lying there in the afterglow, we agree were definitely getting a bit too good at this, and I drift off easily looking forward to waking up beside him. I usually hate sharing a bed but hey, I guess this is the power of genuinely good sex. Something tells me that after tonight, I wont be calling an ex again anytime soon.

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The Londoner Inviting a Guy Over to Play Chess - The Cut