GG Mwangi

John Mwangi ran at the level where pacemaking pays but podiums do not, and moved into coaching at the altitude camps, where his groups now include two athletes whose names he drops precisely never. An Italian visitor taught him the game in a training house over one long wet season, in a language he spoke passably for about three years and has since forgotten entirely. He still uses four of its words for board positions, correctly, without being able to tell you what any of them mean. He plays as he once ran: set the tempo, surge where it hurts, double on the stretch where the other side stops believing.