SHOEHORNING:

Chess Rivalry Becomes a Blood Sport (CHRIS HEDGES, December 23, 2002, NY Times)

In the Far East, where the game of chess was invented around 600 A.D., stones were supposed to be placed on each corner of the board to keep the evil of the match from spilling over into the world. But there are no stones on the boards in the rival chess shops on Thompson Street in Greenwich Village. And people here see evil all over the place.

The owners of the Chess Shop, at 230 Thompson Street, and the Chess Forum, at 219 Thompson Street, along with the patrons who will go to one shop and not the other, are bitter rivals. The two owners, former partners, have filed lawsuits, had their customers take loyalty oaths and accused each other of spying and theft. They have engaged in name-calling and what each side considers character assassination. One shop briefly barred disloyal patrons. The shops unleashed price wars where each lost money. And all those involved, cursed with minds that often see life as an intricate battle between pieces on a board, have created whirlpools of intrigue.

The battle will probably not end until one of the shops goes into foreclosure.

"It does not make very good business sense," said Imad Khachan, 37, who owns the Chess Forum. "We would both make more money if we worked together."

The Bible warns, from the story of Cain and Abel to the commandment not to bear false witness against your neighbor, of the destructive power of perpetual war against a rival.

Such rivalry usually ends not only with the destruction of the enemy but also in self-destruction. The hatred, eventually, consumes all who embrace it.

It's a fascinating story but kind of a stretch to use it for the bearing false witness bit.
Posted by Orrin Judd at December 27, 2002 11:32 AM