"I will sum up the situation," said Ostap light-heartedly. "Debit: not a cent of money; three chairs sailing down the river; nowhere to go; and no SPCC badge.
Credit: a 1926 edition of a guidebook to the Volga (I was forced to borrow it from Monsieur Simbievich's cabin).
To balance that without a deficit would be very difficult.
We'll have to spend the night on the quay."
The concessionaires arranged themselves on the riverside benches.
By the light of a battered kerosene lamp Ostap read the guide-book:
On the right-hand bank is the town of Vasyuki.
The commodities despatched from here are timber, resin, bark and bast; consumer goods are delivered here for the region, which is fifty miles from the nearest railway.
The town has a population of 8,000; it has a state-owned cardboard factory employing 520 workers, a small foundry, a brewery and a tannery.
Besides normal academic establishments, there is also a forestry school.
"The situation is more serious than I thought," observed Ostap. "It seems out of the question that we'll be able to squeeze any money out of the citizens of Vasyuki.
We nevertheless need thirty roubles.
First, we have to eat, and, second, we have to catch up the lottery ship and meet the Columbus Theatre in Stalingrad."
Ippolit Matveyevich curled up like an old emaciated tomcat after a skirmish with a younger rival, an ebullient conqueror of roofs, penthouses and dormer windows.
Ostap walked up and down the benches, thinking and scheming.
By one o'clock a magnificent plan was ready.
Bender lay down by the side of his partner and went to sleep.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
THE INTERPLANETARY CHESS TOURNAMENT
A tall, thin, elderly man in a gold pince-nez and very dirty paint-splashed boots had been walking about the town of Vasyuki since early morning, attaching hand-written notices to walls. The notices read:
On June 22,1927,
a lecture entitled A FRUITFUL OPENING IDEA will be given at the Cardboardworker Club by Grossmeister (Grand Chess Master) O. Bender after which he will play A SIMULTANEOUS CHESS MATCH on 160 boards
Admission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 kopeks Participation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 kopeks Commencement at 6 p.m. sharp Bring your own chessboards
MANAGER : K. Michelson
The Grossmeister had not been wasting his time, either.
Having rented the club for three roubles, he hurried across to the chess section, which for some reason or other was located in the corridor of the horse-breeding administration.
In the chess section sat a one-eyed man reading a Panteleyev edition of one of Spielhagen's novels.
"Grossmeister O.
Bender!" announced Bender, sitting down on the table. "I'm organizing a simultaneous chess match here."
The Vasyuki chess player's one eye opened as wide as its natural limits would allow.
"One second, Comrade Grossmeister," he cried. "Take a seat, won't you?
I'll be back in a moment."
And the one-eyed man disappeared.
Ostap looked around the chess-section room.
The walls were hung with photographs of racehorses; on the table lay a dusty register marked
"Achievements of the Vasyuki Chess Section for 1925".
The one-eyed man returned with a dozen citizens of varying ages.
They all introduced themselves in turn and respectfully shook hands with the Grossmeister.
"I'm on my way to Kazan," said Ostap abruptly. "Yes, yes, the match is this evening. Do come along.
I'm sorry, I'm not in form at the moment. The Carlsbad tournament was tiring."
The Vasyuki chess players listened to him with filial love in their eyes.
Ostap was inspired, and felt a flood of new strength and chess ideas.
"You wouldn't believe how far chess thinking has advanced," he said.
"Lasker, you know, has gone as far as trickery. It's impossible to play him any more.
He blows cigar smoke over his opponents and smokes cheap cigars so that the smoke will be fouler.
The chess world is greatly concerned."
The Grossmeister then turned to more local affairs.
"Why aren't there any new ideas about in the province?
Take, for instance, your chess section.
That's what it's called-the chess section.