The Hand of Fate #9
In "It Is Written: I Die Tomorrow!", chess champion Nicola faces a chilling challenge from a ghostly opponent—none other than the late champion Kovacs, returned from the grave to settle a score. As the game unfolds with human pieces moving to deadly ends, fate itself intervenes, claiming Nicola’s life for his arrogance. Penciled and inked by Kenneth Rice, this 1952 Ace Magazines thriller blends psychological tension with supernatural stakes, all rendered in a stark, haunting style.
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Chess champion Nicola is a vain and arrogant man. He is challenged by a mysterious opponent to a game of life and death involving human chess figures killing each other as the game unravels. The opponent is the late chess champion Kovacs, who returns from the dead to teach Nicola a lesson. Fate steps in, sends Kovacs back to the afterlife and claims Nicola's life himself - for his vanity (and because he has "seen what no mortal can live to repeat").
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).