"Your grandmother was Rose Thompson?" Eleanor Whitmore said slowly. "The Rose Thompson? The one they called the Shadow Queen?"
Maya nodded. "She taught me everything. Said the gift ran in our family: from her father to her, from her to me. She used to say chess was the one place where the rules were the same for everyone, where a pawn could become a queen if it was brave enough to cross the board."
"This is all very touching," Victoria Peyton interjected, though her voice had lost much of its earlier venom. "But it doesn't change the fact that this child is homeless. Even if she is some sort of prodigy, what are we supposed to do about it?"
Before anyone could answer, James Chen walked through the main entrance. The internationally renowned grandmaster was tonight's special guest, scheduled to give a simultaneous exhibition against twenty club members. He was a small, neat man in his forties with intense dark eyes that seemed to take in everything at once.
"James," Richard called out, relief evident in his voice. "Perfect timing. We have a rather unusual situation here."
James Chen approached, his gaze immediately drawn to Maya. He studied her for a moment, then looked at the chessboard, where the final position from her game with Harrison was still displayed.
"Who played black?" he asked.
"I did," Maya said.
James studied the position more carefully, his trained eye reading the game's story in the placement of the pieces. "This is sophisticated chess. Very sophisticated." He looked at Harrison. "You resigned here?"
Harrison nodded. "She had me completely tied up. Three different winning lines, and I could only stop two."
"May I?" James asked Maya, gesturing to the board.
Maya nodded, and James sat down across from her. Without a word, he began setting up a new game.
The crowd, which had been starting to disperse, quickly regrouped. James Chen was one of the strongest players in the country; if anyone could expose Maya as a fraud or lucky amateur, it would be him.
"We'll play a rapid game," James announced. "Fifteen minutes each. That should be enough to assess her true strength."