Death is an event that none of us can avoid and thus, strangely, it is part of life itself. Nevertheless, we generally do not like to think about it and even contrive oblique manners of speaking about it, such as \u201cpassed away\u201d. It\u2019s not hard to understand in the frailty of the human condition, why we prefer more pleasant thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what we call \u201csudden death\u201d (or even \u201cunexpected death\u201d) demands considerably more of our attention, especially if it is a young person who dies, and this compounds the mystery of when it is that a person\u2019s time has come.
Thus the death of Cardinal football player J.V. Cain during practice on Sunday seems beyond our comprehension. Here was a 28-year-old athlete who had passed a physical examination only days earlier; yet in a routine drill his life expired.
Because J. V. Cain was a professional in the sports world, his was a prominent name, and so the shock of the event struck thousands. Not nearly so many knew of Michael Sarnoff, who had died 10 days before. But among those who did (I did not) the shock was even deeper. Mike Sarnoff was only 16, and already he had played the world\u2019s second greatest chess player to a draw.
One who knew him is Bill Moushey, former chess coach at Vashon High School, and the other day he allowed me to read something he had written about Mike Sarnoff\u2019s death.
Mike was 13 when they met at a local chess tournament. They were to be opponents. \u201cI hated beating a little boy\u201d Moushey recalled, \u201cespecially one who looked like a smile was permanently engraved on his face. Oh well, the kid would just have to take his lumps.
But it was Moushey (pronounced Moo-shay) who took them. \u201cBy the 20th move, this kid had taken everything from me but my shoes.\u201d He remembered. \u201cI resigned in disgust. He just looked up at me, smiled, and asked me if I wanted him to go over my mistakes. He then proceeded to go into about 10 variations and sub-variations on one of the moves I had made. What was phenomenal was that he was not doing this recall of moves on a chessboard, but in his mind.
\u201cMike Sarnoff with his ingratiating smile soon became the friend of every player in the small St. Louis chess community,\u201d Moushey went on. The \u201cepicenter\u201d of that world, he explained, is the Chess Conglomerate at 6252 Delmar Boulevard, whose owner, George Thompson, soon became Mike\u2019s close friend.
Mike spent every waking moment in the Conglomerate absorbing chess from the local experts and masters who frequented George\u2019s place. His accomplishments in the chess field during the next three years,\u201d said Moushey, \u201cwere nothing short of amazing.\u201d
Young Sarnoff played on the chess team at University City High School, where he was a student and also turned to individual competition. Then came the high mark of his brief life. Viktor Korchnoi, who had been beaten earlier for the world\u2019s chess championship by Anatoly Karpov, made a U. S. tour and last April was in St. Louis to play 40 local opponents simultaneously. He defeated 37 of them and drew with three. One of these was Mike Sarnoff, then only 15.
Moushey describes it. \u201cWe all wanted to see how our little prodigy would stack up against the best in the world. And so their game began, Mike chewing his fingernails and Korchnoi making moves. Of course, Korchnoi couldn\u2019t beat our little \u2018wunderkind\u2019. He tried, though. Move after move the game progressed. Korchnoi would reel off a series of superb moves and Mike would match him, move for move. Finally the great Korchnoi looked up to Mike and asked him if he, Mike Sarnoff would accept a draw from him. Mike just smiled and stuck out his hand.\u201d
\u201cAfter the Korchnoi exhibition, said Moushey, \u201cOur friendly giant-killer went after that most coveted title \u2013 chess master. By his 16th birthday he was one step away. The United State Chess Federation awarded Mike the title of chess expert. It was now only a matter of time before Mike Sarnoff would become a master. My personal guess would be by the age of 18. He never made it.\u201d
No, he didn\u2019t make it. At about 7 p.m. on the night of July 12, he began to pedal his bicycle home from the Chess Conglomerate. A block away a 21-year old man driving a car struck the bicycle and the young chess player was killed. The drive was booked suspected of driving while intoxicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If life is a mystery, so is the death of young people like Mike Sarnoff, 16 and J.V. Cain, 28. Said Cain\u2019s coach, Bud Wilkinson, \u201cHow and why these things happen and to whom always is a great mystery.\u201d Wrote Moushey, \u201cWe cry for \u2018what might have been\u2019 in Mike Sarnoff\u2019s life. His rabbi called him \u2018an unfulfilled great man. That is it exactly.\u201d
What does the mystery mean? Mostly we turn to religious beliefs for the answer, in trust that God has his reasons, for blind fate seems too senseless in the face of intelligence and order in the universe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bill Moushey is one who believes that. \u201cActually I can see Mike now,\u201d he wrote. \u201cHe\u2019s sitting up in Heaven and an angel walks by. He gets up, smiles, sticks out his hand, and says, \u2018Hi! I\u2019m Mike Sarnoff. Do you play chess?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u00a9- 1979 Jake McCarthy, St. Louis Post-Dispatch<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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