The Walnut Opponent

A garden terrace behind a brick house in Maryland on a late summer afternoon, long golden sunlight through the leaves of an oak, on a white-painted iron garden table a chess computer in a dark walnut box about twenty-five centimetres wide with its lid raised, inside a plain brown front panel with a short row of glowing red display segments, a keypad of sixteen small dark blank keys and a small slide switch, at its right a compartment holding a closed beige booklet back cover up, beside it a folding cardboard chessboard in brown and cream with light and dark wooden pieces, a hand lifting a dark knight, a glass of iced tea.