The Engine and the Old Man

Paulina had not lost a game to a human being in over a year. She was sixteen, and her teacher was a program on her phone. For a small subscription and a great many evenings, it had taught her to see the board as a machine sees it: a column of numbers that rose and fell with every move. When a move was good, a green bar grew. When it was a mistake, the bar turned red, and she took the move back and tried again until the bar approved.

Sudah lebih dari setahun Paulina tidak kalah dari manusia mana pun dalam sebuah permainan. Usianya enam belas, dan gurunya adalah sebuah program di ponselnya. Dengan langganan kecil dan sangat banyak malam, program itu mengajarinya melihat papan seperti mesin melihatnya: deretan angka yang naik dan turun pada setiap langkah. Ketika langkahnya bagus, sebuah batang hijau memanjang. Ketika itu kesalahan, batangnya menjadi merah, dan ia menarik kembali langkah itu dan mencoba lagi sampai batang itu menyetujuinya.

On Saturday she carried her folding board down to the stone tables by the fountain, where the retirees played. She sat opposite an old man in a woollen cap who seemed to be asleep until she set up her pieces. He opened with a pawn on the very edge of the board, a move she would have called pointless. Then he spent his next four turns shuffling a knight backwards. Her phone, in her bag, would have painted every one of them red.

Pada hari Sabtu ia membawa papan lipatnya ke meja-meja batu di dekat air mancur, tempat para pensiunan bermain. Ia duduk berhadapan dengan seorang lelaki tua bertopi wol yang tampak tertidur sampai ia menyusun bidaknya. Lelaki itu membuka dengan sebuah pion di tepi papan, langkah yang akan ia sebut tak berguna. Lalu ia menghabiskan empat giliran berikutnya dengan menggeser seekor kuda mundur. Ponsel di dalam tasnya akan mewarnai semuanya merah.

She played the way she had been taught, quickly and accurately, counting each exchange to the end. By the twentieth move she was sure she was winning; by the thirtieth she had stopped being sure of anything. It was no single blow that undid her. The old man's pieces had simply been gathering, one slow step at a time, on the side of the board she had judged too dull to look at. When her king finally turned around, there was nowhere left for it to go.

Ia bermain seperti yang diajarkan kepadanya, cepat dan akurat, menghitung setiap pertukaran sampai tuntas. Pada langkah kedua puluh ia yakin sedang menang; pada langkah ketiga puluh ia tak yakin akan apa pun lagi. Bukan satu pukulan yang menjatuhkannya. Bidak-bidak lelaki tua itu hanya berkumpul, selangkah demi selangkah yang lambat, di sisi papan yang ia anggap terlalu membosankan untuk dilihat. Ketika rajanya akhirnya menoleh, tak ada lagi tempat untuk pergi.

"Good game," he said, and held out a hand as dry as paper. She shook it without thinking. "You played that very well, you know. Every move was right."

"Permainan yang bagus," kata lelaki itu, dan mengulurkan tangan sekering kertas. Ia menjabatnya tanpa berpikir. "Kamu bermain sangat baik, tahu. Setiap langkahnya benar."

"Then why did I lose?" The words came out harder than she meant.

"Lalu kenapa saya kalah?" Kata-kata itu keluar lebih keras daripada maksudnya.

He considered this, scratching his ear. "Every move was right for a board. I don't think you were looking at one. You were looking for the move somebody cleverer than both of us would pick, whereas I was only looking at you."

Lelaki itu mempertimbangkannya sambil menggaruk telinga. "Setiap langkahnya benar untuk sebuah papan. Kurasa kamu tidak sedang melihat papan. Kamu mencari langkah yang akan dipilih seseorang yang lebih pintar daripada kita berdua, sedangkan aku hanya melihat kamu."

He nodded at her hand. "You touch your bishop before you commit to anything. Twice you took your hand away. Rarely does anyone give me so much for free."

Ia mengangguk ke arah tangan Paulina. "Kamu menyentuh gajahmu sebelum memutuskan apa pun. Dua kali kamu menarik tanganmu. Jarang ada orang yang memberiku sebanyak itu secara cuma-cuma."

Walking home, she kept replaying the game in her head, and it refused to turn red anywhere. That was what she could not forgive. His moves, which the engine would have rated as errors, had not been errors at all, only questions. They had asked her something, and she had answered every one the same way, politely, with the best line a machine would find. The engine had never been afraid of her. It had never wondered whether she was bluffing, or tired, or about to touch her bishop. If she had been taught by a person, she thought, she might have learned what a person's hand does when it hesitates.

Dalam perjalanan pulang, ia terus memutar ulang permainan itu di kepalanya, dan permainan itu menolak menjadi merah di bagian mana pun. Itulah yang tak bisa ia maafkan. Langkah-langkah lelaki itu, yang oleh mesin akan dinilai sebagai kesalahan, sama sekali bukan kesalahan, hanya pertanyaan. Langkah-langkah itu menanyakan sesuatu kepadanya, dan ia menjawab semuanya dengan cara yang sama, dengan sopan, dengan jalur terbaik yang akan ditemukan mesin. Mesin itu tak pernah takut kepadanya. Tak pernah bertanya-tanya apakah ia menggertak, atau lelah, atau akan menyentuh gajahnya. Seandainya ia diajar seorang manusia, pikirnya, mungkin ia akan belajar apa yang dilakukan tangan seseorang ketika ragu.

She stopped at the corner and took out her phone. The app opened on the last game she had analysed, a long scroll of green bars. For a minute she looked at it the way you look at a photograph of a house you no longer live in. Then she put the phone back in her bag, turned around, and walked back to the fountain, where the old man was still sitting, folding and unfolding his cap.

Ia berhenti di sudut jalan dan mengeluarkan ponselnya. Aplikasi itu terbuka pada permainan terakhir yang ia analisis, gulungan panjang batang-batang hijau. Semenit ia menatapnya seperti orang menatap foto rumah yang tak lagi ia tinggali. Lalu ia memasukkan ponsel itu kembali ke tasnya, berbalik, dan berjalan kembali ke air mancur, tempat lelaki tua itu masih duduk, melipat dan membuka topinya.

"Again," she said, and began to set up the pieces.

"Sekali lagi," katanya, dan mulai menyusun bidak.