The tournament took place in the café's back room, between a discarded juice dispenser and shelves of books nobody borrowed. The prize was dinner for two. All day Selma imagined eating it with Bakir regardless of who won. He had brought her to the club a year earlier and still introduced her to everyone as his pupil, although they had long been learning from the same books.
In the final, they faced each other alone at the table. Selma gained an early advantage and patiently preserved it. At first Bakir made jokes, telling the onlookers that he always had to give in at home. Selma did not laugh. Their friend Armin moved Bakir's glass farther from the board. "Let's not have this causing trouble as well," he said, and went to order more coffee.
A few moves later, Bakir reached across an empty part of the table, caught the glass with his elbow, and spilled juice over the pieces. Selma was watching his hand. There had been no reason to reach there. A king fell to the floor, several pawns slid toward her lap, and Bakir immediately announced that they would have to start again. He said it before getting up for a cloth.
Suddenly everyone was talking. Somebody tried replacing the pieces; somebody claimed to remember their positions. The café owner demanded that they stop spreading the sticky liquid. Selma picked her king up from the floor and placed it on a dry coaster. She did not want to spend the evening proving the direction of somebody's elbow. She said she would not play the game again. Bakir accused her of fearing fair play.
That sentence hurt her more than the spilled juice. For a year, she had watched him explain defeats through poor lighting, noise, or the wrong chair. She had considered it an amusing weakness. Now she stood inside the same story as one of those excuses. She picked up her bag, and Armin quietly said that he had seen the glass. She did not ask him to testify. She thanked him and went to wash her hands.
Nobody won dinner that night. The owner gave the voucher to the cook, whose free hour had been spoiled by everything. Selma returned the following week, when Bakir was no longer attending. A girl who had never played sat at a table. Selma showed her how the queen moved, then let her think for herself. When the new player found a good move, Selma felt a pure and unexpected pleasure.