GG Trajkovski

Nikola Trajkovski has driven a Skopje taxi for thirty years and claims to have carried three prime ministers, two of them before they were anybody. The glovebox holds a magnetic set, prayer beads he does not pray with, and a lucky die that has never once worked. Between fares he plays a hundred games a day, blitzing every decision, turning the cube because the moment felt right rather than because the position said so. He knows he is not a strong player and has decided that this is not the point. He goes to the cash tables for the chouette in particular, on the reasoning that in a crew of five somebody is always doing worse than he is, and he has yet to sit through an evening where that was not so. He is loud and superstitious, and never quiet whichever way it is going. That many games a day is only possible in the fast format, and he plays almost nothing else: he has never sat through a long match in his life and does not intend to start. He switches to Albanian without noticing he has, which is what a working day in Skopje does to a man.