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Murphy (White) Vs. Mr. Endon (Black)

From Murphy by Samuel Beckett. Murphy (White) Vs. Mr. Endon (Black)

 WHITE:
something bubbles lifestyle and lock
or crown tempts lock or
cellular basket above watched basket

this desert, a sketch
diligently interlocks and tempts lifestyle

influential temptation, the storm and
related cast below reason

trimmed desert intelligently or gigantically
swings demanding equation or
stormy knot, a calculation

woman mirrors storm and mirror
or

BLACK:
fortune-teller winks path and kingdom
or estimate the punctuation or
elder sporadically weeds forgotten fate

negative fortune-teller, magician or
forward photograph surrounds around bedside

unexceptional weed past the can
opposes ore, each bust
bugs

 

 

 

 

Here are Beckett’s annotations to the game:

 

(a) Mr. Endon always played Black. If presented with White he would fade, without the least trace of annoyance, away into a light stupor.
1. e4(b) The primary cause of all White’s subsequent difficulties.
1… Nh62. Nh3Rg83. Rg1Nc64. Nc3Ne55. Nd5(c) Apparently nothing better, bad as this is.
5… Rh86. Rh1Nc67. Nc3Ng88. Nb1Nb8(d) An ingenious and beautiful debut, sometimes called the Pipe-opener.
9. Ng1e610. f3(e) Ill-judged.
10… Ne711. Ne2Ng612. g4Be713. Ng3d614. Be2Qd715. d3Kd8(f) Never seen in the Cafe de la Regence, seldom in Simpson’s Divan.
16. Qd2Qe817. Kd1Nd718. Nc3(g) The flag of distress.
18… Rb819. Rb1Nb620. Na4Bd721. b3Rg822. Rg1Kc8(h) Exquisitely played.
23. Bb2Qf824. Kc1Be825. Bc3(i) It is difficult to imagine a more deplorable situation than poor White’s at this point.
25… Nh826. b4Bd827. Qh6(j) The ingenuity of despair.
27… Na8(k) Black has now an irresistible game.
28. Qf6Ng629. Be5Be730. Nc5(l) High praise is due to White for the pertinacity with which he struggles to lose a piece.
30… Kd8(m) At this point Mr. Endon, without as much as ‘j’aboube’, turned his King and Queen’s Rook upside down, in which position they remained for the rest of the game.
31. Nh1(n) A coup de repose long overdue.
31… Bd732. Kb2Rh833. Kb3Bc834. Ka4Qe8+(o) Mr. Endon not crying ‘Check!’, nor otherwise giving the slightest indication that he was alive to having attacked the King of his opponent, or rather vis-a-vis, Murphy was absolved, in accordance with Law 18, from attending to it. but this would have been to admit that the salute was adventitious.
35. Ka5Nb636. Bf4Nd737. Qc3Ra838. Na6(p) No words can express the torment of mind that goaded White to this abject offensive.
38… Bf839. Kb5Ne740. Ka5Nb841. Qc6Ng842. Kb5Ke7(q) The termination of this solitaire is very beautifully played by Mr. Endon.
43. Ka5Kd8(r) Further solicitation would be frivolous and vexatious, and Murphy, with fool’s mate in his soul, retires.