Out of Captivity : Surviving 1,967 Days in the Colombian Jungle

286 OUT OF CAPTIVITYboard from a scrap box, and suddenly a game that we’d wanted since ourfirst months of captivity was within our reach. Just as physical activityhad taken up much of our time at the Exercise Camp, at what we calledChess Camp, the ancient game of warfare and strategy dominated ourtime. We had epic matches with one another that lasted all day. Sometimesthe guards even gathered to watch, and when they could manageit, they would sneak in a game or two with us.Tom proved to be a top-notch player, the best among the three ofus. Not only was he good, but he was a master of the mind games aswell. Whenever he took one of our pieces off the board, he would do sowith a flourish—verbal and physical—to let us know that he had justcrushed us and any hope we had of beating him. His grin was wicked,and the enjoyment he took in stomping an opponent was off the charts.I was just learning the game, so I wasn’t much of a challenge for himat the beginning, but I set myself the goal of beating him someday.Eventually I got so immersed in chess that I would skip lunch if I wasin the middle of a game so that I could study the board and plot my nextmoves. During our marathon, day-long matches, the guards who hadgone off duty at the start came up to us later in the day for an update.These titanic struggles between the master and the pupil loomed largein everyone’s imagination. I was grateful for the distraction the gamesprovided; they helped me take my mind off of Ingrid and the others. Iprayed for her nightly and hoped she was well.The Plumber also wanted to play Tom, and though he was a brightguy, he was not an experienced player. Tom wasn’t about to let up onanyone, and he had the Plumber on the run from the get go. Eachtime Tom took one of his pieces with that distinctive flourish of his,we could see the Plumber getting more and more flustered and angry.He was playing right into Tom’s hands—make the opponent think ofanything but what he was supposed to be thinking about. Tom took thePlumber’s rook and it was only a matter of a couple of moves before hewas going to win.