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The Last Chess Game or How to Be a Winner

by Ralph Hornberger

48 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0564; ISBN 1-55369-751-0; US$14.00, C$17.95, EUR11.70, £8.10

An entertaining, instructive game of chess which allegorizes the vicissitudes of life and incorporates Scriptures with chess moves.

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about the book      about the author      table of contents and sample excerpts      catalogue info

About the Book The Last Chess Game or How To Be A Winner is a fictional game of chess incorporating God's salvation plan. It reveals the way God enables us to be victorious in both life and death. The game is annotated. Also included are two fictional short stories written by students.

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About the Author Ralph Hornberger has always loved to write; but until now his works have been short in content; editorials, essays, poems, newspaper columns, and a club newsletter. Now he has composed what, for him, is a lengthy work - a short story entitled "The Last Chess Game", also sub-titled "How To Be A Winner". It is an allegory in which chess moves characterize human traits, undergirded by God's salvation plan. A retired public school teacher, Mr. Hornberger has participated in a wide range of part-time jobs, and thereby has a wide range of experiences. He earned a master's degree in education at Philadelphia's Temple University, following a 2.5-year stint in the United States Coast Guard. His chess-playing acumen (he is rated an expert), has taken him into several surrounding states outside of Pennsylvania to engage in chess tournaments. He has a number of chess trophies and prize winnings to his credit. In the past he has been very active in his church, serving on the church council and as charman of the missions committee. A born-agin Christian, now, at age 73, he is living a quiet, although busy life, with his wife Joan, near Langhorne, Pennsylvania.

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Table of Contents and Sample Excerpts

The Game Begins (Uncertainty)
The Game Develops (Assertive Authority)
The Game Purposes (Priority)
Time Interlude 1 (Unknown Possibility)
The Game Resumes (Security)
The Game Unfolds (Reality)
The Game Proceeds (Tactical Identity)
The Game Formulates (Necessity)
Time Interlude 2 (Eventuality)
The Game Accentuates (Superiority)
The Game Intensifies (Startling Finality)
The Game Ends (Inevitability)
Conclusive Assurance (Certainty)
Move Characterization
Notation of "The Last Chess Game"
Annotation "The Last Chess Game"
Story - "The Old Chess Master"
Story - "No Escape From Chess"

Chapter Three - The Game Purposes (Priority)

My 6....N-K2 is a calm, quiet move, not even a maneuver. It surely doesn't appear to have any special merit, but it was my turn. Now I realize I should have a purpose in each move I make, by really, do I have to justify, rationalize, introspect every move I make - in life?

You dare to check me with 7. B-N5? Isn't that kind of bold? Am I in danger? No, I'll just move 7....QN-B3 and I've taken care of the exigency. That was easy. If only all our problems could be remedied as easily. I could have also blocked the check with my Bishop or my Queen(?). So I had a choice, and the Queen choice would have been disastrous. I knew that because I've played chess long enough to have learned not to jeopardize my Queen. I've lived long enough to have learned that when a choice exists, one choice may prove more detrimental than another. "And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, 'How long halt ye between the two opinions?'" (Scrip: 1 Kings 18:21) Now your 8. N-K2 is more advantageous in this sequence, the Bishop having moved out (developed) on the previous move, than had you reversed the sequence. The latter would have blocked in your Bishop and you would have had to make another move before you could extricate it. So, it is true that 'b' should follow 'a'; and I have often wanted to do 'b' first, only to discover that 'a' had priority. Life has its priorities. And if I get a certain priority in its wrong place, stuff can happen. Bad stuff!

8....R-B1 might be a good move for me, I mean for later on. Thinking ahead. Unless one does that, a confused conglomeration of purposelessnesses waste one's time. Time is precious. Sometimes one finds himself "passing the time"; he is actually wasting it. There is no ressurection of it.

Chapter Nine - Time Interlude 2 (Eventuality)

20. QR-K1! You see it; you see my plan. The exclamation mark isn't inserted to characterize the move itself, but rather to exclaim that you are anticipating almost expertly. Almost! You anticipated, and you moved to counter my intentions, or at least what you deem to be my intentions. It is well to prepare for any eventuality. Many of us prepare for the uncertainties with which this life is fraught. And, as I mentioned before, there are also many who cooperate with insurance representative and agencies to the combined wealth of millions and millions of dollars of corporate investments. So what's my "beef"? Certainly not in making preparations. My contention is that mankind misses the mark when his priorization goes askew. His being absorbed with the vicissitudes of this life, to the almost utter abandonment of thought to eternal verities skews his planning. It's the beyondness of this present life which needs to take priority. This is where so many miss the mark. When I refer to 'rapture' and 'saviour', I have in mind that which takes on the greater significance, because it relates to the greater time period - eternity.

So now I throw the bomb! Not only do I move 20....N-N5!! in our game, but I put forth bluntly to you this question: where will you be one minute after you die? You don't like the question? I'll bet I know why you feel uncomfortable with my forthright query; you don't have a for-right/for-certain answer. But I do! I have an answer for that very same question if (or when) it is put to me. And the reason I have a for-certain answer is because I believe in the Bible; rather, I believe the Author (singular) of the Bible. He, the Author, claims that I (or we) can know! That's not presumptuousness. "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life,..." (Scrip: 1 John 5:13).

You talk with people and you learn about what that think. But why they think what they think is the real go-getter. If we probe a bit as to why, I believe you will have to agree that we have been largely influenced and, consequently, conditioned by our training, by what had taken place in our formative years. Now most of us would be quick to defend our parents as having trained us and reared us and molded us according to their desires for our well-being. Even when it comes to our spiritual up-bringing. They taught us the spiritual lessons which they believed in and what they, in turn, wanted us to believe in. That's tradition, of course. But is it truth?

The next question follows - What is truth? That's where the philosophies of great thinkers do battle. Reading the Bible, one finds the declaration that God is Truth. So then, it isn't so much what one believes as who one believes. Believe God, believe what He says, and one has truth. So, it's really not so complicated after all. I, for one, don't like complex things; my mind can't contain complexities. Maybe that's why I find it so easy and simple to accept "thus saith the Lord". What He says settles the matter, and puts to rest all the rest, all of man's philosophies. So what does God say as regards these things we've touched upon?

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Catalogue Information

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