Opportunity
Danny’s Rook stared back at him in disgust.
“A pawn! One measly pawn! Now listen here, I am a high-ranking officer in this army, good sir. I didn’t earn my stripes by grabbing pawns!”
The lithe bishop, looking from the side, perceived the meaning of Danny’s idea. If the Rook would sacrifice himself, the light squares would be his. What a chance! If only that too-proud rook would stop his complaining. But Danny seemed shaken by the rook’s hesitance. The Bishop looked at Danny, eagerly, pleadingly even, but was not noticed. So often in this opening, it was the dark square bishop who got all the glory. His chiefest rival. So full of himself, with a notch on his mitre for every checkmate. A tough guy, a bad boy: the Queen’s favorite. He remembered how many games where he, a piece of equal strength, had been casually traded on move eight, only to spend the rest of the match on the side of the board. Watching, as the dark square Bishop took up some important post, delivered checkmate in a brilliant combination, or single handedly stopped a row of pawns in a technical endgame to save the day.
He remembered all of those times, sitting alone, while the raucous pawns would pile up around him, singing their crude anthems and cheer on their king. Unlike him, they never seemed to mind being traded. All part of the job. More brick than man. Loyalty is a virtue, but why were they so slavish? The Bishop had no ideas, except that it was the result of low birth. In that case, nothing could be done for them. It meant the pawns were simple tools, though once in a great while, one would rise up to magnificent heights, offering his life to bring their Queen back from the dead. What glory! Perhaps the thrall of such stories is what kept them going in the trenches.
The argument with Danny brought the Bishop back to the present.
Avoidance
“But, the back rank is weak, sir!” the Rook was practically whining.
The rook continued to try and convey his fears to Danny’s mind. The Bishop thought whether he should speak up. If only he could see the other side of the board, he could know for sure. As usual, it came down to a matter of counting moves and squares.
Danny considered the rook while absently twisting one of the opponent’s pieces over and over in his nimble fingers. It was an enemy knight. The horse’s eyes were wide as saucers, and it was paralyzed with fear. As Danny flipped him over and over, the knight who rode him screamed in terror. His head clanked loudly against the inside of his armor, and the Knight began to weep pitifully. With indifference, Danny stared deeply at the knight, as if he hoped he could compel him to give away his master’s plan. Meanwhile, Danny’s opponent sat back confidently, glancing at the board, but mainly concerned with another game a few tables away. He seemed cruelly indifferent to the torture of his knight.
“I’ll never tell you! Not ever, not in a hundred moves! Not even if you tear off my felt!” he vowed, before losing consciousness.
Reality
Danny lost interest like a cat who abandons a plaything that has stopped moving. Thinking him dead, Danny set down the knight, considering again his Rook. At length, the Knight came to, and whimpered softly. He was comforted by his fellow prisoners - a ragged group of pawns and of course, the opponent’s light square bishop.
“With my opposite number off, won’t I be able to do more damage than that noisy rook? No one but the Her Majesty can control the light squares like I can,” pondered the Bishop. He glanced towards the center of the board. Danny, as usual, had done a fine job in the opening, and his army’s pawns controlled more space. Although the opponent was cramped, he still had a solid defense. The Bishop knew that Danny must soon act decisively.
Fantasy
“Just do it, Danny!” thought the Bishop. “Once the pawn recaptures, I will take the second pawn, and the Queen can jump in to finish the attack.” The Bishop knew, though, that it was not so simple. When the Queen would arrive next to him, the opponent would have a single extra move. In that brief moment, the King, to whose fealty he was sworn, could fall into danger. Though Danny seemed indecisive, the Bishop was willing to risk it. In those heady moments when the attack was in the air, he knew he would have the honor of fighting next to his Queen. That tall, brave, and powerful woman! Oh, how her moves complemented his. The Bishop daydreamed of how they would dance. “A one-two check, A one-two take, a one-two mate!” he sang silently, as the Queen’s perfume wafted past him.
“We’d be together, on the other side of the board from that boring old King for at least five moves, no matter what happens afterwards,” the Bishop calculated. “Just she and I.”
Jealosy
The Bishop had a low regard for the King. Never taking part in the battle until nearly all the threats were gone. Honor prevented him from saying this opinion aloud, but the Bishop thought his monarch a bit of a coward. It was impossible for the King to be captured or killed at the hands of the enemy, nevertheless he seemed fearful, and showed limited strength and daring. When he did venture out, it was only after the enemy’s strong pieces posed no more threat. This leader did not lead from the front, at least not until after his soldiers had been all destroyed.
“Too old, and too slow,” decided the Bishop. He hoped never to become like him. With a chuckle, he told himself he would rather have his honor, and admire his beloved Queen from afar, than lose the ability to move more than one square at a time. Danny was getting low on time. He must soon decide. Would he sacrifice or not?
Agency
“No!” screamed the Rook, as Danny’s hand shot out. Against his wishes, the Rook was compelled to capture the enemy pawn, who eagerly gave his life. Being captured, in sacrifice, by such an important piece as a rook was a great honor. Especially so, while guarding his King. Danny slapped the clock with finality. The pawns comrade quickly snapped up the rook, who began moaning softly from the opponent’s camp, burying his face in his hands. The Bishop’s moment had come!
Danny grabbed the Bishop firmly, and he felt all Danny’s hope in that embrace. Recapturing the pawn, he landed on a square near the enemy King, who no longer had any pawns to protect him. The enemy King stared at the Bishop defiantly. But then came the Queen. Landing on a dark square nearby, both he and she. Eyeing the king with menace. Though the Bishop and Queen, they threatened, it remained the opponent’s turn to move. Surprised by Danny’s sacrifice, the opponent stopped paying attention to the nearby games. He glanced at his own clock, and perhaps a worry flashed across his face.
And now the wait. Danny’s decrepit King waited in the corner, wondering if the opponent could make a dashing counterattack. How the Bishop pitied that King. Just waiting helplessly to attacked, while he, the Bishop, occupied such a glorious square, so deep in the enemies camp. But still, one move could be enough. The opponent had several options, but just one chance to choose among them. The opponent’s dark square bishop could make a check, or perhaps a trade. Such calculations were more than the Bishop was capable of performing. He knew only the glory and honor that motivated him. And his Queen: the lovely, powerful, and frightening Queen.
Injustice
After a long pause, the opponent’s move was surprising in its smallness. He shifted his Queen just one square. A seemingly passive move, more fitting to a quiet opening maneuver than the current fever pitch of battle. Surely, now the moment had come! And so the Bishop and Queen began their checkmating dance! The Bishop could see pure delight in the eyes of both the Queen and Danny. The queen stepped forward, offering her hand, onto the square he guarded. Check! And, so the King was forced away. The chase began, and the King ran to the same square that the enemy Queen had formerly occupied. It was risky now. In moving, the enemy King had revealed an attack upon his beloved Queen. She was in grave danger, and it was only he who could save the game, and keep her safe. Not by protecting her, of course - she was far too strong to need protection from a mere Bishop. No, he must continue the attack. The two dancers would have to move away from each other for a few beats. The dance would continue, but at a distance. They must part to trap the King.
So the Bishop swung back, but this was no retreat: a check! Danny had found the Bishop a diagonal that could not be blocked, and so the King would have to move again. Across the board another square, the harassed King fled with what little dignity as he could muster. Now the enemy King was on a dark square - out of the Bishop’s reach. His beloved Queen was still under attack, but to retreat now would be an admission of defeat. No, the enemy King must be made to move again until checkmate or until the Rook’s sacrifice could be avenged.
Now the Knight lashed out. Leaving the safety of his outpost, the Knight flashed to the seventh rank, electrifying the King with yet another check. Now the king was forced up the board, towards Danny’s waiting and hungry army. The captured pawns on the sidelines cheered in their chains, but were silenced by a menacing glance from the enemy Queen. The King stepped forward, but in so doing, attacked the Knight who just a moment ago had so rudely dislodged him. It seemed the Knight must retreat now, for there were no more checks, and the lack of a Rook and a Knight would be too great a burden to bear for Danny’s remaining army to bear.
Chivalry
Yet the lady! Do not forget her! His noble Queen still faced the wrath of the enemy Rook. Without a check, it was sure that one of them would perish. The queen could take the rook, selling her life as dearly as possible, for when the opponent’s last Rook slayed her, the Knight would have his revenge immediately. Two rooks for the Queen, but still down material, Danny would lose in the end. No, something else must be done.
And then Danny spotted it - a subtle trap. The laying of it would reunite the Bishop with his lady. Danny moved the Bishop deeply into the enemy ranks, attacking the enemy Queen, and blocking the Rook who had fastened his eyes so hungrily on his Queen. Now, the entire board hung on the struggle of wits between Danny and his opponent - and that struggle centered on him. How thrilling! To be used in such a way! For glory, for his Queen, for the thrill that can only be had deep behind enemy lines. In such struggles where the ends will always justify the means. His moment had come, the Bishop mused that he would be remembered forever, in this immortal game of beauty.
Disillusionment
The opponent thought for a long time and the clock ticked towards zero. But then the moves came furiously, and the unexpected, brutal science of it shocked the Bishop. The rook captured him instead of the Queen. his once glorious square, was suffocated. Snuffed out by cruel logic of the opponent. Barely had his unconscious body hit the side of the board, when he was joined by his Queen. Her majesty life had been traded in a moment, and her corpse piled high with the pawns like firewood. Danny had taken his chances, but the opponent had not faltered. There would be no victory for Danny, and it seemed that he had seen this possibility to its end. The Knight desperately forked the enemy King and Queen, forcing the King to its one remaining square. Although the enemy Queen could be captured, Danny did not dare to do it. Even afterwards, he would remain a Rook down. So the Knight moved back. Another check, disturbing the King once again. But now it became clear that this was no real attack. The Knight, once noble in his fury, was a mere jack-in-the-box. Leaping back and forth. Frightening, but never trapping. Attacking, but never vanquishing.
Once, twice, three times: a draw. As the Bishop lay in the carnage of his once great army, he saw Danny shake the opponent’s hand. It turned his stomach.