Jaque de coz
The chess players share a bottle of brandy from Jerez during the long game. As he moves his knight to checkmate, the winner notices with surprise that the drink disappears from his glass, as if a hole in the bottom were sucking it up through secret channels.
Long ago, amid the campfires of the Greek encampment, a warrior from Ithaca wonders if they will ever take the city they have been besieging for nearly ten years and return home. His empty glass suddenly fills with a golden liquor. He is not alarmed: there are gods in the vicinity who favor him. But when he brings the cup to his lips, the aroma plunges him into the unsettling memory of a game he does not know, where a knight stalks a king.
Jorge Accame
