At Paul Stein’s first chess tournament at a hotel in New York, he watches a match by Harry Urbanic, a sixteen-year-old prodigy who was not much older than himself. Harry is playing people for quarters, and Paul considers stepping up but decides against it. Paul’s chess career begins with a light game against his neighbor, Artie. He begins avidly reading books on chess and winning his way through the state junior tournament comes relatively easy. His next stop is a metropolitan competition in Manhattan, the one where he first meets Harry. Paul is surprised by the diverse range of people all gathered to play chess. He is put in Class C, an average placement, and wins his first two games. For his third game, Paul plays against Harry, who does not sit down once and casually walks in and out the room during the game. The match comes to a draw, but Harry reveals that he could have easily beaten him if not for a major, rare mistake early on in the game. Harry places as the runner up to a chess master in the tournament, and Paul is awarded Best Player in Class C. As Paul establishes a name for himself as a young player in New York, he grows more detached from other people and the world outside of chess. At a spring invitational tournament with multiple chess masters competing, Paul loses his first game to an old man and storms out of the competition, putting aside chess for an indefinite period of time. Paul continues normal life at college in the city, until he sees a flyer for chess master Harry Urbanic to play fifty games at once. Paul enters the game as one of the fifty and makes it down to the last five still playing. Harry vaguely remembers him from their previous game together and beats him easily this time. After all the games are done, Paul joins Harry and his brother for a late-night coffee. He mentions that he sometimes considers playing again, and Harry tells him he does not have the talent to continue. He makes a side comment about something that happened in Miami last winter, and Paul realizes Harry’s world is beyond his understanding or knowledge.