WEBVTT

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<c.steel>Episode 4, Touch Move, is not released</c>

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<c.steel>yet, and it is on this course anyway,</c>

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<c.steel>labelled so.</c>

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<c.fact>A brass clock with two dials is set to</c>

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<c.fact>fifteen minutes each, and a fountain pen</c>

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<c.fact>writes the title on a score sheet: Touch Move.</c>

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<c.steel>This much Aaron has decided: a chess lesson</c>

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<c.steel>between a passionate teacher and a</c>

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<c.steel>nine-year-old boy, with the board at the</c>

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<c.steel>centre for the first twenty minutes,</c>

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<c.steel>and chess that is interesting</c>

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<c.steel>in its own right.</c>

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<c.fact>The boy shows how he usually wins:</c>

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<c.fact>Scholar's Mate on his tablet,</c>

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<c.fact>against pawn.hab3, which offers him a draw.</c>

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<c.fact>Then the teacher makes him Black.</c>

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<c.fact>You're a Duke. And a Count. They replay</c>

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<c.fact>Morphy's Opera Game of 1858, and the boy</c>

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<c.fact>tries to guess each of the Duke's moves first.</c>

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<c.fact>At twenty minutes the teacher's</c>

21
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<c.fact>flag falls with his fingertip still</c>

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<c.fact>on Morphy's mating rook,</c>

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<c.fact>and the whole programme tips</c>

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<c.fact>over, like a resigned king.</c>

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<c.fact>The teacher is never seen whole,</c>

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<c.fact>and never his face.</c>

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<c.fact>His name, Daniel Fenn, is written</c>

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<c.fact>on an old score sheet, as Black.</c>

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<c.steel>Aaron asked for a teacher who loves chess</c>

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<c.steel>and loves sharing it, never as a performance,</c>

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<c.steel>modelled on Doctor Hiriluk,</c>

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<c.steel>from One Piece: never give up on your</c>

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<c.steel>imagination when it looks hopeless.</c>

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<c.steel>And Aaron decided he is not naive:</c>

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<c.steel>he knows when a position is lost.</c>

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<c.fact>His only praise, all night,</c>

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<c.fact>is one word: Yes.</c>

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<c.fact>When the boy says he has used far more</c>

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<c.fact>time, he answers: I talk more.</c>

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<c.running>By our reading, he spends his own</c>

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<c.running>clock on the boy on purpose.</c>

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<c.steel>Aaron has decided who the boy is: nine,</c>

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<c.steel>rated about a thousand, never formally taught.</c>

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<c.steel>His mother arranged the lesson;</c>

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<c.steel>he did not ask for it.</c>

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<c.fact>In forty seconds, why do I have to do this,</c>

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<c.fact>becomes: what if I get it right?</c>

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<c.fact>His imagination fills the board,</c>

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<c.fact>one medium for each kind of piece:</c>

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<c.fact>crayon pawns with faces, engraved bishops,</c>

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<c.fact>playdough knights, oil-painted queens,</c>

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<c.fact>daguerreotype kings and blueprint rooks.</c>

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<c.fact>He grabs a pawn, and the teacher says the</c>

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<c.fact>rule, the only time in the film:</c>

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<c.fact>Touch move. You touched it, you move it.</c>

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<c.fact>So he holds the pawn in the air for</c>

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<c.fact>forty-two silent seconds, and finds</c>

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<c.fact>a better move than the Duke's.</c>

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<c.fact>Late in the lesson, the boy asks: Did you</c>

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<c.fact>ever give up? And the teacher says: Once.</c>

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<c.fact>I was ten, he says. I had ten minutes on my</c>

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<c.fact>clock. He stopped it, and shook her hand.</c>

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<c.running>The position is fictional;</c>

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<c.running>the crew labelled it so in every file.</c>

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<c.fact>The teacher leads him only with questions,</c>

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<c.fact>and the boy finds one: Rook c2,</c>

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<c.fact>check. If he takes it, I can't move.</c>

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<c.fact>If he doesn't, I keep doing it.</c>

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<c.fact>Later, at the real table, the boy plays</c>

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<c.fact>it out, and the teacher strikes out the</c>

71
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<c.fact>old result and writes in a draw.</c>

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<c.fact>The boy, checking, doesn't see.</c>

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<c.egg>White signed the sheet x R.</c>

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<c.egg>The film never says who she was:</c>

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<c.egg>the signature is a planted egg.</c>

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<c.running>By our running count,</c>

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<c.running>it was Rosie, at sixteen.</c>

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<c.fact>Early on, the boy asks where the captured</c>

79
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<c.fact>pieces go. In the box. And then? And the</c>

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<c.fact>teacher says: That's a good question.</c>

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<c.fact>At twenty minutes the film</c>

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<c.fact>answers by going there,</c>

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<c.fact>falling with the night's twelve</c>

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<c.fact>captured pieces through the felt,</c>

85
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<c.fact>the stitches and the wood.</c>

86
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<c.fact>Inside the lid is a cross-stitched x R,</c>

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<c.fact>its centre the one warm stitch.</c>

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<c.fact>Taped beside it, a card: when scared,</c>

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<c.fact>twelve in, twenty-four hold,</c>

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<c.fact>twenty-four out, ten hold.</c>

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<c.egg>They are the same words as Noor's card on</c>

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<c.egg>the Moon, in Episode 2: a planted egg.</c>

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<c.open>Why the teacher has them is open.</c>

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<c.fact>Down there, the captured pieces keep an</c>

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<c.fact>opera house, and the sacrificed queen sings.</c>

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<c.fact>At exactly twenty-five minutes, Morphy's</c>

97
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<c.fact>face appears, in oil, for the first time.</c>

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<c.open>Who won tonight's game is open: the mate</c>

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<c.open>stood on the board, the flag fell first,</c>

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<c.open>the hand had not let go, and nobody claimed.</c>

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<c.fact>Every draw offer from pawn.hab3 lands two</c>

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<c.fact>point five six seconds after the boy's move,</c>

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<c.open>and whether it is Episode 2's PAWN,</c>

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<c.open>still on the Moon, is open.</c>

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<c.fact>At the very end, a small hand accepts</c>

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<c.fact>the draw, and the teacher says,</c>

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<c.fact>very quietly: Goodnight.</c>

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<c.fact>Then Black's flag falls in the</c>

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<c.fact>dark, and changes nothing.</c>

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Next: Rosie's life.