For seven weeks, the Red and Nazi master players feinted, traded pawns, moved flesh-and-steel chessmen across Russia's vast chessboard. For seven weeks, in a desperate effort to fathom each other's strategy, they pored over maps, battle reports, messages from spies and scouts. Last week both knew: the Russians had outguessed and outplayed their foe.
The deadly game began early this summer. Anticipating Hitler's great offensive, the Red Army massed its men and guns in the Kursk-Belgorod sector. The Wehrmacht massed its strength south of Sevsk, near the center of the 300-mile-long chessboard.
On July 5 the Russians knew they had guessed right....
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