The "Chess Dimension"

Let's see how this one works out. I hope you all realize that I may or may not continue this after chapter one (but probably will at least go to chapter two). Whether I continue or not depends on how interesting I think this story is. Also, please do not post in this thread.

I'm using an old idea I had for a role play and turning it into an actual story. It takes the game of chess to a whole new level, by implementing distinct lifelike chess pieces and a high danger rate. I've told Durn most of what this "Chess Dimension" is all about, but I think I'll have everyone else take a wild guess. (b=3=)b

Note that I will be using characters that you may or may not have seen before (derp).

Oh, and I suggest you keep a chessboard nearby.

Chapter One:
First Match

“And with this, I call checkmate,” a young, black-haired boy stated, placing a black horse-like mini-statue on a black-and-white board that was covered with the same type of pieces. The boy held a constant, gentle smile as he placed that final piece on the board. Next to his right hand, which he used to place all his pieces, was a small grouping of white mini-statues, pieces that he had won.

The black-haired boy's green eyes closed for an instant, then looked up at his opponent. His opponent sat across from him, an older and balding man who rubbed his scalp, a defeated look spreading across his visage. The older man was very obtuse and wore a checkered, hideous, tan suit. The boy saw that the older man accepted his loss, and began to stand up, but was quickly stopped by the older man.

“Hold on just a second, I cannot place my bishop here to protect my king?” The bald man asked, taking up his bishop and placing it directly in front of his king to protect it from the knight. The boy paused for a moment before slowly shaking his head.

“No, the knight is the only piece on the board that can jump over ally and enemy troops, so placing the bishop there will do you no good. Besides,” the boy pointed to his queen, “If you move your bishop there, my queen will have a clear view of the king. There is no other piece that can move to intercept, so this is my win.”

“Wow, I'm amazed. You destroyed me so easily,” the old man said, looking at the two pawns that he barely managed to get from the boy, in comparison to half of his own army in the boy's possession. “You keep getting better and better, Nathan. I'm impressed. You should try to play against the elite.”

“Oh no,” the boy, Nathan, laughed and shook his head, “I'm only 15, I can't enter. Besides, I'm not confident enough to go up against the Black King. The best I can do is little shops like this.” Nathan began to clear the board of pieces, but the older man stopped him again, taking over.

“Oh no, you won, allow me to clean the board. Don't you have school soon anyway?” The older man asked, his smile returning.

“Yes, but I have an hour left before I need to be there,” Nathan protested, but was shooed away by the older man. Slightly dejected, Nathan frowned, “Okay, thank you Mr. Zakizoa. I'll be on my way out then.”

“Be careful and have fun at school, Nathan.”

Nathan exited the chess room and moved into a tiny shop where a few older men were taking a break, drinking tea at the small bar. The shop, although small, was quite cozy. A fire roared on the other side of the room, keeping the inside comfortably warm to battle the frigid winter outside. On the tan walls hung a few picture frames of chessboards and some chess players who were identified as elite players. The way out of the shop was just a short walk to the left from outside the chess room, which was a separated room from the shop with a glass window pane covering the opening in the wall.

As Nathan left, the waitress and the older men bid him a friendly farewell. Nathan was well-known within the shop, he visited frequently during his spare time to play a few rounds of chess. He was considered the best player the shop had, but Nathan thought otherwise. He was never one to be overconfident or to exalt himself.

As a freshman high school student, Nathan was required to participate in at least one club, or he would not receive any financial aid. As a response to the school's lack of a chess club, he had brought his own chessboard to the school and commandeered an empty classroom and a few classmates who seemed interested. As a result, he gave kids just like him a chance to be in a club, so he was well-liked by those few kids.

But, with every group comes an anti-group, namely the jocks of the school. The kids who preferred sports over chess would sometimes taunt and insult Nathan and his chess friends, but it wasn't anything they couldn't deal with. Lately, however, the football players started becoming more physical with them, which was a problem. Nathan could hold himself pretty well against others like him, but he was no match for a football player's physical strength.

Even so, Nathan didn't hate the jocks. Far from it, he pitied them for having nothing better to do than put off their own frustration on kids who were physically weaker than they. And rightly so, with only a little bit of research into the jock's backgrounds, he found that most of them had separated or only one parent. That was cause enough on it's own to make them feel inferior to others, which can make them feel like they have to bully others in order to feel better about themselves. That's the way it was, Nathan thought.

Outside of his school, Nathan heard the first bell ring from the building, which was a notification that the school doors had opened. Right on time, Nathan felt much better about his morning and headed inside.

Nathan's school was fairly large, holding around 30 classrooms and a teacher for each room and a few more. The class sizes were around 27-33 students per class, totaling around 900 or so students total. Nathan was in the honors classes, so he was considered to be pretty intelligent among the students. Playing chess helped Nathan stay focused every day, he found that after a game or two, he gained enough confidence to last him through the rest of the day.

Nathan entered the building and was immediately greeted by a rush of cold air, the cold outside penetrating the building had not been completely nullified by the water heaters that ran throughout the building. Nathan shook off the frigid temperatures and began to walk through the empty halls.

There were four floors to the main school building, each one holding around 7 classrooms, four on one side, three on the other. In between these classrooms were the student lockers, where books could be exchanged when needed in between classes. The seniors were granted the lockers on the lowest floor, the juniors had the second floor, and sophomores and freshmen shared the third and fourth floor lockers depending on their grade point average. As Nathan's was higher than most other freshmen and some sophomores, he was granted a locker on the third floor, which weren't all that different from the fourth floor lockers.

After depositing some of the books he carried into his locker, Nathan closed and locked the locker, taking only that which he needed for his first class. Nathan then moved up the stairs and into his home classroom, waiting for the teacher to arrive.
It didn't take much time for the door to open to allow Nathan inside, the teacher who had opened it retreating to his desk quickly after. So would begin another long day of studying, Nathan began to feel the itch to play chess as soon as he sat down in his seat.

Keeping his grades high was near the top of Nathan's priority list, but he began to feel unsatisfied with doing just that. There was something inside of him that clawed away at his insides, leaving nothing but emptiness inside. As school progressed into the extra-curricular activities, Nathan found himself running towards the empty classroom where the chess club would meet in a few minutes.

Getting inside the classroom first had a few perks. For example, Nathan could choose which chessboard he would like to play on, his old board or the new one that the school bought for the club. Everyone seemed to prefer the old board, it attracted them to it because of it's antique look. Nathan retrieved his old board and set it on the nearest table, beginning to set it up.

The old chessboard was rimmed with a gold plating, though it was not real gold, but steel that had been colored gold. The tiles on the board were made of wood, precisely carved out to fit the whole board, from center to edge. The wooden tiles were colored either a very light brown or a dark brown color, separating the “white” and “black” tiles accordingly. If Nathan so chose, he could remove the tiles and flip them over, which he had already done to some due to cracks in the wood. Seeing a few more cracks in the wood, Nathan began digging up the cracked tiles and flipping them over. The other students were too rough on the board, every single hard placement of a piece caused the wood to weaken and eventually crack.

Nathan frowned, he would have to talk to the others about this problem. Preserving such an expensive chessboard would be in their best interests.

After Nathan completed setting up the board, a few other students began coming in, two at first, then the rest came in groups of threes and fours until there were fifteen students, including Nathan, in the classroom. Nathan quickly got a partner from the group, one of the better chess players who stood a good chance against him.

“I'm assuming that you'd like to take up the black pieces, right Nathan?” Nathan's partner, a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy asked. The other boy was short for a 14-year-old, but he made up for that in thickness. Not overweight, but his arms and legs were more full than others his age.

“Yes, I will take them,” Nathan replied, he had already set up the board so that the black pieces were closest to him. The other boy took a seat and immediately started the match by placing his king's pawn two steps forward.

“King's Pawn to D-4.” The boy announced, grabbing the attention of some other students, who began hovering around the game to watch.

“Queen's Pawn to E-5,” Nathan announced himself, placing his queen's pawn forward two spaces. With the two pawns in cross-positions from each other, a few of the other students around them began fidgeting, wondering if the blond boy would be taking the black pawn.

The boy smiled at Nathan, “You know me better than that, Nathan.”

“The middle four squares are the most important positions in the board. Those who control those places will have control over the entire board. I'm well aware you know this, Daniel,” Nathan smiled back at Daniel, who beamed at him.

“Queen's Pawn to E-4,” Daniel declared, placing his queen's pawn up two squares, placing it in front of Nathan's own queen's pawn.

“King's Pawn to D-5.”

“Queen's Bishop to D-3.”

“King's Knight to E-6.”

“Queen's Knight to F-3.”

“King's Bishop to G-4.”

Daniel hesitated. Nathan's last move had brought his bishop right next to Daniel's knight in cross-positions. Daniel's knight was guarding his king from being in check, so moving it was out of the question. However, he did not like seeing Nathan's black bishop so close to his knight. In the early game, knights were much more useful than bishops, but you could hardly call a bishop disposable. Keeping both bishops alive until the late game would give the player a definite advantage over one who lost a bishop.

“Nathan,” Daniel said, “I'm not going to do anything about that bishop. King's Knight to C-3.” Daniel's king's knight was no in a position to take one of Nathan's center pawns, which would give Daniel an advantage if it was taken. Nathan, however, did not seem in the very least bit worried about losing the center.

Acting calm and in control, Nathan picked up his queen's bishop and placed it in a cross-position with Daniel's king's knight, which blocked Daniel's queen from being targeted by Nathan's bishop. Nathan smiled at Daniel, not saying anything until he released the bishop.

“Queen's Bishop to B-4.”

With both of Nathan's bishops targeting down Daniel's knights, Daniel's forces were essentially cut in half, as he could not afford to lose either his queen or his king. The knights, who were so exceptionally versatile in the early-game, as they could jump over any piece, were now completely worthless to Daniel. The game had tipped steeply in Nathan's favor.

Daniel grew quiet, glaring at the game board with intense concentration, the strain on his mind etched across his visage. He raised his hand for a moment, as if reaching for a piece, but quickly withdrew it. At such an early stage in the game, Nathan had already pinned him against a wall. Daniel was reluctant to move either of his rook's pawns, which would leave his defensive wall wide open to attack. But he did not have much of a choice at this point.

“Queen's Rook to H-3.” Daniel said hesitantly, moving his pawn up a square, targeting Nathan's bishop. Nathan's reaction was almost instantaneous.

“Queen's Bishop to H-5.” It was obvious that Nathan wanted to keep the contain of Daniel's two knights, which severely impacted Daniel's options. To Daniel, it felt as if Nathan was nudging him to use certain strategies that were desperate and sacrificial in order to get out of the bind he was in. But in the early-game of chess, making sacrificial pieces would be an extremely bad idea unless the situation was desperately in need of it.

If Daniel moved his queen's knights pawn forward just two spaces, it would give Nathan the perfect chance to put his king in check, and force a move that Daniel would not want to originally use. Daniel needed to act before that happened, and set eyes upon his king's bishop. If he moved it to the correct spot, he could put Nathan's king in check. But with the way Nathan was playing, he would be able to take care of the threat with relative ease and calm.

Even with no pieces taken by either player, Daniel felt trapped between a rock and a hard place, unable to make a single move that would help him out in any way. This game was over back when Nathan pinned his knights where they were.

Daniel had no other choice. He had to make a move soon, or the clock would time out and he would lose his turn. He took up his queen and placed it a single square forward. “Queen to E-2.”

“King's Knight attack Pawn at E-4,” Nathan said quickly, placing his knight on top of Daniel's pawn, taking the first blood of the game. Daniel grimaced. Nathan not only targeted Daniel's queen, but he also tore a hole in Daniel's wall, causing him to lose the battle for control of the middle four squares.

“Put your queen back where it belongs,” Nathan said, staring straight at Daniel, his eyes blank. “Out of the fighting and protected. You can't afford to lose such a precious piece.”

“I know that,” Daniel said, irritated. He snatched his queen and placed her back a square. Daniel's last move had been completely useless because of Nathan's quick reaction with his knight. No doubt Nathan would have his knight back off, taking a pawn for free.

“King's Knight move back to C-6.” Just as Daniel suspected, Nathan moved his knight back into its previous position, guarding his queen from view. With no other move available, Daniel decided he had to copy what Nathan had done to him, and took his bishop.

“Queen's Bishop to B-5.” Now with Daniel's bishop in cross-positions with Nathan's knight, the true target being Nathan's queen, that knight was no pinned where it stood. Nathan, however, did not seem as concerned about it as when Daniel was when Nathan pulled that move on him.

With a collective calm about him, Nathan picked up his king and placed it two spaces towards his king's rook, then took the rook and moved it over the king and placed the rook down right next to the king. Nathan took his hand off of the rook and smiled at Daniel.

“King's Technique: Castle Defense.” Nathan was in complete control of this battle, Daniel was stuck in a rut, with only one way to go. There was nothing else he could possibly do at this point that would bring him a victory. He had to sacrifice.

“Queen's Knight's Pawn to G-4,” Daniel said, feeling defeated already. He moved his pawn up two spaces, bringing it to a cross-position with Nathan's bishop. This would force Nathan to move his bishop back, but now Daniel had a hole in his right flank, which could come under attack in just a few turns.

Sure enough, Nathan moved his bishop back a pace. “Queen's Bishop to G-6.”

“Queen's Knight to H-4,” Daniel moved quickly, aiming to take Nathan's bishop with his own knight. It would cause him to lose his knight, but it was a sacrifice that was necessary for Daniel to regain some sort of control over the battle. Nathan hesitated for only a moment, the cogs in his brain turning quickly to accommodate Daniel's sacrificial piece.

“Queen's Bishop attacks Pawn at E-4,” Nathan said calmly, taking Daniel's pawn and replacing it with his bishop. Nathan's bishop was now exposed to an attack by Daniel's knight or queen now, but whichever he used would be lost to Nathan's center pawn.

Daniel was about to move his knight on his king's side, but withdrew his hand instead, noticing that he would lose his queen if he moved it. Nathan's bishop was still pinning Daniel's knight to the spot, as the queen was in the way. Cursing under his breath, Daniel began looking for a way out of the situation while still claiming Nathan's bishop.

Finally finding an opening in Nathan's attack, Daniel moved his rook to the space to the left. “Queen's Rook to G-1,” Daniel said, breathing a small sigh of relief. Now, no matter what Nathan did, the bishop was trapped and could not move to a safe position. Nathan knew this, and so began to move the pieces in his favor once again.

“King's Pawn to D-4,” Nathan said, moving his pawn forward a single space, getting into a cross-position with Daniel's knight, which was in danger of being taken now. Daniel grimaced again, unable to take the bishop or save his knight from certain death. He would have to sacrifice that piece as well in favor of his queen.

“Queen attacks Bishop at E-4,” Daniel said, moving his queen to take Nathan's bishop, a heavy loss for Nathan, but not as serious as Daniel's own losses. Nathan frowned.

“I guess trying to defeat you without losing a single piece was an impossibility after all,” Nathan said, picking up his center pawn and moving it over Daniel's knight, taking it. “King's Pawn attacks Knight at C-3.”

“In that case, Queen's Bishop's Pawn to F-4.” Daniel picked up the last pawn of his right flank and placed it two spaces forward, in a cross-position with Nathan's on center pawn. If Nathan's center pawn is taken, Daniel would regain possession of the center. However, in this late-game stage, holding the center will do nothing for Daniel, his loss has already been determined by this point.

At the current stage, the game board appeared to show no favor to either side, but to those students who had watched since the beginning, Nathan was leagues ahead of Daniel.

Nathan held a straight frown as he observed the game board. He was intelligent enough to know that he was only ahead for now. Daniel would be able to catch up if he made the correct moves. Nathan had left a small opening in his defenses, which would become apparent in just a few more moves on his end. If Daniel managed to find the opening, the game would become an even match between them. Nathan did not want to lose more than his bishop, but he did not have much other choice. He had to go in for the finishing blow soon, otherwise he would lose his lead.

“Queen's Knight to F-6,” Nathan said, placing his knight forward.

“Queen to E-2.”

“King's Knight to D-4.”

Daniel screwed up. He had placed his queen one step too far away, and now it was the prime target of Nathan's knight. Not only that, but Nathan's knight also targeted Daniel's bishop on his king's side. He had to save his queen at all costs, but that also meant that his bishop would finally be taken. Nathan was just too good of an opponent, Daniel began to feel even more pressure than before, which clouded his judgment as he moved his queen forward a tile. He completely missed that Nathan had left his own queen wide open.

“Queen to E-1.”

Nathan saw Daniel moving his queen away, and silently cheered for himself. He had put enough pressure on Daniel to make Daniel make a bad move. Now was the time for Nathan to use his queen as his primary attacking force in his army. As soon as Nathan touched his queen, Daniel slapped himself on the forehead and moaned in frustration. Nathan smiled and took Daniel's bishop with his queen.

“Queen attacks Bishop at B-5.”

“King's Bishop to E-3.”

“King's Knight to F-3.”

“Queen to G-3.” Another mistake. Nathan was dominating not only the game, but Daniel's mind. Daniel was so concerned for his queen's safety, that any threat would gather his attention and he would overreact, missing quite a few opportunities to gain the upper hand.

Nathan confidently took Daniel's rook at the cost of his own knight. “King's Knight attacks Rook at G-1.”

“King's Bishop attacks Knight at G-1.”

“Queen to F-1. I call check.”

“...Queen to E-1.”

“Queen attacks Pawn at H-3.”

“Queen's Knight's Pawn to G-5.”

“Queen's Rook to D-8. I call check.”

“King to C-1.”

“King's Bishop's Pawn attacks Pawn at B-2. I call check.”

“King attacks Pawn at B-2.”

“Queen's Rook to D-2.”

“King's Rook's Pawn to A-3.”

“King's Bishop to C-3. I call check.”

“King to B-3.”

“King's Bishop attacks Rook at A-1. I call check.”

“King to B-4.”

“Queen's Rook to D-4. I call check.”

“King to B-5.”

“Queen to E-6.”

“Queen attacks Bishop at A-1.”

“Queen to D-5. Checkmate.”

Daniel fell out of his chair, his mind exhausted from the battle he had just lost. Nathan seemed perfectly fine, as he was in control throughout the entire match, never once letting his guard slip, never allowing Daniel a chance to come back. Daniel stared at Nathan with a hidden respect and admiration. Daniel was considered the second best chess player in the school, and yet Nathan destroyed him so easily.

Nathan took a deep breath, finally relaxing now that the battle was over. He was brought back to reality by the clapping of his friends, congratulating him on his victory. Nathan stood up and walked over to Daniel, offering Daniel his hand. With a small pause, Daniel grasped Nathan's hand and Nathan pulled Daniel back to his feet.

“That was a great match, you are quite good,” Nathan said, smiling. Daniel shrugged and rubbed the back of his head.

“Not quite as good as you, Nathan. I still don't know how you do it. It's almost as if you were just playing around with me. You were in control of the match the entire time,” Daniel replied, looking at the finished chessboard.

“Well, there were a few moments where I was vulnerable, but you became to concerned with protecting your pieces, that you never got the chance to launch a counterattack,” Nathan explained, “I left my queen vulnerable to attack multiple times, you could have turned everything around then and there, but you were already stressed at that point.”

“Even so, I admire you, Nathan.”