The Prodigy Chess Player

My boyfriend is a once-in-a-century chess prodigy.

Ever since he began competing in international tournaments at nineteen, he has never lost.

I’m the only opponent who can stand beside him, and his junior from the same school, who has admired him since we were children.

He never wastes time on anything but chess.

I always thought his coldness toward me was simply his nature.

But then he lost for the first time, to a brilliant young woman who had burst onto the scene.

When he told me, eyes shining, that he had finally met the one and only worthy opponent of his life,

I knew

we were nearing the end.