Two hours later, Hogan was staring at the chessboard, wondering what had just happened.

After a candid conversation in which Hogan coached Newkirk on ways to get along with Olsen, the two men settled into a quiet rhythm as the chess game absorbed their attention. It was 9:45 when Corporal Langenscheidt knocked at the barracks door, warning of lights out in 15 minutes.

Hogan and Newkirk had exchanged a few pawns, defended their positions, avoided pin-downs, developed their minor pieces, attacked and retreated. For a time, Hogan was sure he had the upper hand over his pupil; he'd been up one or two pawns for much of the game, and had captured a bishop early. But after 12 moves, it was obvious that Newkirk had a strong game underway. After Hogan's twentieth move, Newkirk accelerated his attack. He took down a pawn, removing his first obstacle on the path to the white king, and prepared to double his rooks in one file.

Feeling pressure, Hogan moved his own rook to the open line, getting ready to protect his bishop against certain attack by the black rooks. Newkirk marched his second rook behind his first one. Hogan defended his second-rank bishop by moving it up to the third rank, between his other bishop and a knight, seeing that a retreat would have put Newkirk's knight in position to make a series of captures.

Newkirk's rook swooped in to take down a bishop; Hogan recaptured. They were each down a rook now. Hogan's king captured Newkirk's remaining rook; his own last rook was stranded in a corner, unable to maneuver.

Newkirk slid his queen out from the seventh rank to the fourth, capturing a pawn and positioned for a sacrifice. Hogan tried not to let his jaw hang open, but he had rarely been defeated so creatively. His king could take out the black queen, but one move by the black bishop would put him in checkmate. And if he retreated, there were too many ways the black queen and her two knights could conquer him.

Hogan looked over the board, then up at Newkirk, then back down. He laid down his king in resignation.

The English corporal looked up, startled. "Why did you do that, Sir?" he asked.

"Because I can't win. I'm resigning. You slaughtered me, Newkirk," Hogan replied with a laugh. "I thought you hadn't played before."

"I haven't, Sir. Everything I know, I l-learned from you, and from w-watching you play against Kinch," Newkirk said.

"Really? What was that maneuver with the two rooks? You didn't get that from me," Hogan said.

"Well, Sir, I imagined we were in the wwwwoods outside camp, j-just Kinch and me guarding you. I was covering for you, and Kinch had my back."

"Did you know you were going to lose both rooks, Newkirk? Because that looked pretty risky… pretty crazy… when you were doing it," Hogan said.

Newkirk picked up a rook and turned it around in his fingers, then picked up the other one. "I thought I might, Sir, but I knew it would be worth the sacrifice. I needed a way to ffforce the opposing king out into the open, and the only way to do it was to give up a rook. Once I did that, my queen—that's you, Sir-had her p-p-pick of mmmoves." He put down the chessmen as Hogan packed up his set and cast a glance at the colonel. "So it was all right, Sir? To do it that way?"

Hogan stood up and faced his corporal. "It was very creative, Newkirk. Surprising and effective. So, yes. It was more than all right."

"Right-o, then," Newkirk said solemnly. He watched as Hogan tucked the set into his footlocker. "It's a game for gentlemen, though, isn't it? Not really for the likes of me. It's a b-b-bit of a surprise that I would catch on at all. Blimey, I'd have a hard time explaining this to the lads at the pub," he added with a laugh.

"Explaining the game?" Hogan asked.

"No, I mean explaining how I learned to pl-pl-play it," Newkirk replied. "No one would believe it."

"Well, I believe it," Hogan said. "You're smart. You're focused. And when you were down, you didn't wait passively; you used stealth to get in position to attack."

Newkirk looked stunned at the compliment and flushed a little, tugging at the end of his sweater before he finally replied. "What I mmmmean, Sir, is that you taught it to me. You're an officer and you taught me this game," Newkirk replied. "N-n-no one would believe I learned it from a c-c-c-colonel."

Hogan wasn't grasping what was so extraordinary about that. They were two men in a prison camp, on the same side, close colleagues, with hours to kill and things to discuss.

"I'm not sure I follow you, Newkirk," Hogan replied. "Why wouldn't I teach you?"

"W-well, because mmmost people w-wouldn't bother w-with mmme, Sir," Newkirk said diffidently. "A c-common thief who c-can't even talk right." He shrugged his shoulders and looked at Hogan impassively as if that made all the sense in the world.