Chapter 21
SUMMER 1952 — SUMMER 1947
A sunny summer day toward the end of June, 1952. When Modráček the architect was returning at noon from his control inspection of the housing units he was building on Botanická, he pulled up in surprise before the window-display directly across from Běhounská 3/5. There, right next to the U Cajpla restaurant, was a*****e selling board games and playing cards. What he saw there nearly knocked him over with shock. He moved up closer to make sure that he wasn’t mistaken. No, right there in front of him, he saw a chessboard, and upon it, the pieces set up in the manner of a chess problem — a mate-in-two. There was nothing surprising in this fact, for the shopkeepers had got in the habit of setting up a problem on the chessboard, which — should one of the
