The story in three lines. For the Midsummer Garden Party, Captain Castle's academy re-stages the Evergreen Game of 1852 on a chessboard cut into Sir Pinwell's lawn. Black takes a knight and threatens mate, and Inkling must see the whole finish before she calls the first name: a rook given with check, a queen given with check, and three bishop moves, all checks, ending in mate. She announces "White mates in four" to the village before it is played, as the first printing of the game did.

One question to ask. "Why did every one of White's last moves have to be a check?" Then: "Have you ever had to plan the last step before you could take the first?"

One thing to do at the table. Set up the position after Black's nineteenth move. Ask your child to find White's five checks, saying them aloud before moving anything. Then play them.

The grown-up layer. The book is about forcing moves and seeing ahead. Its Honest Page notes that the last four moves were not printed at first, and that later analysts found a defence Black might have used. A fuller version is on the Whetstone as "Today's classic".