Sen. Jamie Raskin outmaneuvered Del. Jim Gilchrist during a 30-minute chess match this evening, successfully defending the Senate's title as the more intellectual (craftier?) chamber.
Only six pieces were exchanged during the post-session game: Raskin seized both of Gilchrist's knights and two pawns; Gilchrist also took a pair of pawns.
The match was a culmination of a multi-week series of games designed to produce a top player from each chamber. (Read the Sun story on the tradition here.) It is the second year that the two chambers have held an organized match.
"Jamie knows how to attack," said Gilchrist afterward.
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Raskin said he had a "sleepless" night before the match, but said he was motivated to humble the House of Delegates after the chamber "let us down" by failing to pass a bill legalizing same-sex marriage.
Raskin shepherded the controversial measure through the Senate, but supporters did not find the votes for the bill in the House.
(The Montgomery county Democrat may have had another reason to want to win: He already sits in the back of the chamber and worried that Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller would "send me into the hall way" if he lost.)