Unsound Variations

by George R. R. Martin

Release: January 1982
Format: Novella
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

Peter Norten and his wife Kathy already had a rocky marriage before heading up to Bruce Bunnish’s Colorado mansion for a ten-year reunion with Bruce and two other members of the Northwestern University B Team that Peter captained to a near-win at the North American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship. But will Peter and Kathy’s marriage survive the trip, and just how did Bruce end up as the only member of the team to go on to success?

— Michael Main

Time is said to be the fourth dimension, but it differs from the other three in one conspicuous way—our consciousness moves along it. From past to present only, alas. Time itselfdoes not flow, no more than, say, width can flow. Our minds flicker from one instant of time to the next. This analogy was my starting point. I reasoned that if consciousness can move in one direction, it can move in the other direction as well. It took me fifty years to work out the details, however, and make what I call a flashback possible.

DEBUT

“Unsound Variations,” in Amazing Science Fiction Stories, January 1982.

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TRANSLATIONS

6 translations

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Circa AD 1970 to 1999: The big chess tournament (early 1970s) and reunion (early 1980s).
Circa AD 2000 to 2099: When Bunnish was 71.

Timeline Models

Branching Timelines: “Meanwhile, changes in the past create a new, variant timeline.”

Themes

Big Game (sports): “We were goin’ to play over the game.”
Fix Your Own Past!
Repeat until You Get It Right: “When I flashed back—you have no idea how many times I have flashed back, trying one new idea after another—that is always my target point, that day in Evanston, the game with Vesselare..
Travels into Yourself: “My device would send my mind back to any point in my own lifetime that I chose, superimpose my consciousness with all of its memories on the consciousness of my earlier self.”

Groupings

Amazing Stories (periodical)

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From circa 2020 (for the first trip), when Bunnish was 71 ⋙ to generally the North American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship at Evanston, Illinois, early 1970s. Multiple trips. Note: The championship occurred ten years before the story.