‘It’s okay,’ she says quietly. ‘I won’t tell anyone what it was.’

‘What what was?’ I ask.

Rebecca checks up and down the corridor like she’s going to tell me a secret.

‘That was the Maróczy Bind, wasn’t it? The letters and numbers you shouted out in maths.’

‘No . . . No . . . they were just coordinates.’

Rebecca raises her eyebrows.

‘Okay, okay.’ I pull her to one side of the corridor. ‘It was, but please don’t tell anyone. My granddad said I have to keep it secret because chess moves are best—’

‘When you have the element of surprise!’

‘What?’ I frown. ‘My granddad is teaching you too?’

‘No!’ Rebecca laughs. ‘I might be rubbish, but I am learning something from this.’ She holds up her chess book. ‘Anyway,’ she says. ‘Does this mean you’ll be playing in this then?’ She nods at the noticeboard.

I turn and look at the board. The notice for new chess club members has gone and there’s a new one in its place.

SCHOOL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

WEDNESDAY 24TH APRIL

12–1 P.M. THEN AFTER SCHOOL UNTIL WE FIND A WINNER

SCHOOL LIBRARY

ALL COMERS WELCOME

BE SQUARE. BE THERE.

CONTACT RICH PANNELL (CLUB PRESIDENT) OR MR KEYTES

Rebecca grins at me like she did when she got picked as Cinderella in our primary school play.

I step closer to the board. Under the writing is a picture of Rich with a trophy in his hands.

‘What do you think?’ says Rebecca. ‘Would you like to get your own back on him?’

‘What? After what happened last time?’

‘Especially after last time!’ says Rebecca. ‘He deserves it.’ She nods at the picture of Rich.

‘What? I thought you liked him.’

‘No way!’ Rebecca screws up her face like she’s just seen a cat being sick. ‘He’s so annoying.’

‘Yes, he is . . .’ I look at Rich with his cheesy grin on the poster and think how I’d like to wipe it off his face. ‘Yeah.’ I nod. ‘He’s really annoying.’

‘So you’ll play then?’

‘What? No. I never said that. Besides, he’d never let me play.’

‘It’s not up to him,’ says Rebecca. ‘It’s up to Mr Keytes, and it says all comers welcome.’

‘All comers welcome? What does that mean?’

‘It means anyone who turns up can play. So that’s all you have to do – turn up.’

‘I can’t. It’s tomorrow. I’ve got no time to practise.’

‘That’s why he does it. Chris said Rich only puts the notice up a day beforehand every year so no one has time to prepare.’

‘That’s sneaky,’ I say. ‘And not fair.’

‘So you will play?’ Rebecca jumps up and down like it’s her birthday.

‘Play what?’ says Jake, wiping his hands on his sweatshirt. He follows my gaze to the board.