The Mystery of the Scarlet Rose

The Mystery of the Scarlet Rose — page 9
people well Mr Nelson already spoke to me about that at length Even he was struck by it I said Not the little monkeys It’s this answered Sherlock pointing to a small box in the corner of the page I leaned over to read an ad entitled Chess Problem It had three rows of letters and numbers starting with V2 P19 Q2 followed by the phrase Checkmate in three moves and ending with the signature The Black Friar Sorry I said leaning back in the armchair It was typical of Sherlock to pore over the paper to find the tiniest details He always read the small announcements and ads more carefully than the front-page news The game of chess is not really a strength of mine Is it a stimulating problem That’s exactly what’s curious answered my friend Whatever this thing is it’s definitely not a chess problem Excuse me but how can you be so sure I asked Sherlock snorted and leaned across the table It’s simple It so happens that a while ago in an attempt to survive a boring endless summer I hope it wasn’t the one when we met each other I interrupted him teasing One much worse I can guarantee you Sherlock said He paused and I thought perhaps he too was thinking back to when we saw each other for the first time on the ramparts of Saint-Malo He’d been hopelessly lost in the pages of a book looking for an intellectual challenge that could keep him from being crushed by the muggy weather and all the history that surrounded us No last summer had been anything other than boring I thought and I got ready to hear the rest of the story At that time he continued I became a fan of chess I read a good deal and learned all the systems of chess notation that I could get my hands on trying to repeat the great games of the masters of the past Chess notation I repeated What exactly does that consist of It’s Greek to me It’s simple he said Chess notation is how you represent the position of the pieces on the chessboard at a given moment in the game by using sequences of letters numbers and other symbols A type of code in other words I said Precisely And I can assure you this thing the peculiar Black Friar published is not written in any existing chess notation Perhaps he’s just an oddball who uses his own code I suggested For what reason Sherlock replied What would the purpose be of getting a chess problem published in the paper that no one except the writer could understand Boredom I suggested Sherlock ignored me and continued speaking Not to mention there’s no way to guess at this sequence No way to understand what the position of the pieces on the chessboard could be I’ve been racking my brain for almost an hour without getting anywhere Almost an hour of concentrating for an obsessive mind like Sherlock’s was truly an eternity I glimpsed that unmistakable twinkle in his eye that conveyed his need to share what was going on in his head with me At my nod Sherlock launched into an explanation of why the classified ad could not simply be a chess problem I confess that I quickly gave up on following his long complicated lecture of which I only grasped parts hoping that would be enough to paint a clearer picture of the situation for me Algebraic notation Smith method Gringmuth system Sherlock interpreting my silence as a sign of agreement pulled a small dark notebook and a pencil from his pocket intending to convince me beyond any doubt that his conclusion was correct I’ve no intention of taking a course in such a tedious subject Professor Holmes I interrupted It’s enough for me to see