‘So these are our leagues,’ says Rich, pointing at a flipchart. ‘Two leagues of three. We all play each other once – one point for a win, half-point for a draw – and the top person from each league plays in the final after school.’ Rich turns round from the whiteboard and smiles. ‘Do we all understand that?’ Everyone in the room nods. ‘What, even you?’ He looks right at me.

‘Yes!’ I say through gritted teeth. I can’t remember if Granddad wrote ‘Don’t let your opponent wind you up,’ but Rich just did.

‘Okay, then let’s play,’ says Rich. ‘Each game lasts for twenty minutes. Oh, and you all know how to work the clocks.’

Clocks? What clocks? Nobody said anything about clocks.

I look around the room. There are two chess sets on separate tables and beside each is a clock with two silver buttons on top. I saw them in Pawn Sacrifice and Granddad put them on his list, but he didn’t tell me how to work them. I glance at Rebecca to ask her, but she’s moving with everyone else towards the tables.

What do I do with the clocks? I’m going to look like an idiot and everyone will laugh. I don’t mind people laughing when I mess around, but not when I’m trying to be serious. But what if they do? What if everything Granddad taught me flies right out of my head like my schoolwork?

I’m sorry, Granddad, I can’t do this after all.

I take a step backwards towards the door.

‘Where are you going?’ asks Rich.

‘I was just . . .’

‘He was just going to sit down and play. Weren’t you?’ Rebecca looks at me with her eyes wide open like she’s trying to send me a message.

‘Umm.’

‘Yes,’ she says. ‘You’re down this end.’ My legs want to go backwards, but Rebecca comes over to me, grabs my arm and pulls me towards the end of the library. ‘Come on,’ she whispers. ‘You’re here now.’

‘But the clocks,’ I say urgently. ‘I don’t know how to work the clocks!’

‘They’re easy. Look.’ She picks up a clock. ‘As soon as one of you makes the first move, you bash this button on the top. That stops your clock and starts your opponent’s at the same time. Then when he takes his move he bashes this button, which stops his clock and yours starts again. Got it?’

‘No.’

‘Think of it like a seesaw – when you’re on the ground you make your move and you hang in the air while your opponent makes his.’

‘But—’

‘Okay,’ says Rich. ‘Is everyone ready?’

Rich is now sitting down, getting ready to play like everyone else. I search the room in panic. Tom, one of the boys from Year Eleven, nods at the seat opposite him.

‘You’re playing me,’ he says.

But the clocks!