1 woman grandmaster v 3 inept journalists = major humiliation

In their bid to taste high-class sport, to get under its sweaty skin, to investigate talent, journalists will sustain broken noses, mental scarring and do excessively unreasonable things.

In January 1959, George Plimpton, editor of The Paris Review, convinced Archie Moore, the world light-heavyweight boxing champion, to spar three rounds with him. Nearly 66 years later, reporters from The Straits Times sports desk have an equally painful idea. Kimberly Kwek, Melvyn Teoh and I decide to play a woman grandmaster in chess.