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Kenneth Goldman is one of the chess players and a former world chess champion. He is a hotel manager by profession.
Appearance[]
History[]
In this tournament, he was in great shape after a few years of slump, and defeated Funaki, who was said to be a favorite for the championship. However, Funaki finds out about the "injustice" he was doing, and after an argument, he beats Funaki to death. At first, Goldman was flustered, but when he saw the chess board, he suddenly came up with an alibi trick. It was to create a fake alibi that he was playing chess at the time of the murder by reproducing the game record on the chessboard that was in Funaki's room during his own game. And because his chess opponents were inferior, Goldman managed to fabricate an alibi. However, Akechi becomes suspicious of Goldman because of the dying message Funaki leaves behind, which says "upside-down pawn," and the room service that Funaki asks for.
Because He's not familiar with Japan, He do not know Japanese cuisine, and his hotel restaurant does not serve Japanese cuisine. He also makes some remarks that look down on the Japanese, such as calling them the monkeys of the island nation of the Orient.
He's later revealed that he was cheating at the chess tournament. Taking advantage of the fact that the venue of the chess tournament was in front of Goldman's hotel and that it was being televised, he recreated the movement of Goldman's pieces in the light of his hotel room and played the game instead of himself. He was making the computer play chess. As a result, Goldman played mainly at night, when the lights in the cabin could be seen. His dishonest purpose was money, and it was because his hotel was in the red. He was in a slump. He had low odds of winning a chess tournament and expected good odds if he won .However, Funaki found out about his cheating and killed him before he could be accused by the chess federation. This time, before Akechi sees the "upside-down pawn" dying message left by Funaki, he is suspicious of Funaki's behavior of "eat slowly later" even though he ordered "soba" from room service.
In addition, the dying message of "upside-down pawn" left by Funaki cannot be associated with the word "gold", and he is ignorant of shogi and not familiar with Japan (he does not even know soba, which is a relatively well-known Japanese food). ) found out that the foreigner was the culprit. And he was unfamiliar with Japan and doubted Goldman as someone who fit the "upside-down pawn" dying message.
Goldman admits to wrongdoing but refuses to admit to murder, but Funaki's room service is the decisive factor. The food ordered by Funaki's room service was "soba", but the hotel staff had mistakenly brought onogiri. The culprit, Goldman, who was present at the scene, misunderstood the "onigiri" as "soba" when he checked the contents, and by exposing the mistake himself, he proved himself to be the culprit.
He also lost the chess match to Akechi, and when Akechi asked if he knew about the injustice and deliberately let him lose, Akechi said that he was interested in the computer that defeated Funaki, and played the game as it was and won.
Originally, Goldman fell into a slump when the opponent who defeated him in the match lost to the computer, realizing the powerlessness that humans cannot win against computers. Therefore, this time Akechi beat the computer, and he was arrested with a satisfied smile, saying that he was able to break through a bit. At the end of the anime version, Akechi said, "I want to compete with my strength when I come back someday," but he declined, saying, "I can escape the curse of chess."