GG Dervishi

Sokol Dervishi kept bees in the Albanian highlands for forty years, moving the hives up the mountain as the season climbed and bringing them down again before the weather turned. It is work that rewards patience and punishes hurry, and he has never found a reason to play any differently. He plays slowly. Every move takes as long as it takes and the evening takes as long as the moves, and he is a good deal more interested in who is sitting opposite him than in what the score is. A win and a loss are received in exactly the same way: a shrug, and an offer of honey. The offer is not rhetorical. People leave with jars. He has recently acquired Magriel's Backgammon, having been told it is the bible. He brings it to every session and sets it down beside the board, though he consults it afterwards rather than during, on the grounds that it would be rude to keep an opponent waiting. He is confident it is already working. He plays with the retirees most nights, the same faces in the same rooms, and has turned down every invitation to anything with a bracket attached.