Brains V Brawn, Chess Version

“Are you sure? I mean, I don’t like being braggadocios, but I am pretty good.”
“That’s the point, how am I supposed to get better without going against someone better?”
“You know that it’s a common misconception that chess is the best measure of strategic thinking? At higher levels, the game pivots simply toward memorization of lines, which is why no human has beaten the top computers in the last-”
“Look Chris, I want to play chess against you, and you either play or I put your notebook on top of Academy’s roof, got it?”
“OK, OK, fine Kaylee, you don’t have to be mean, I was just saying is all.”

Kaylee thought back to the battle training, and her teams humiliating loss. It gnawed at her, and she had come to the conclusion that she had to train her mind as well as her body. She already knew that she was prone to losing control, especially when she felt that her back was against the proverbial wall, so if she was going to improve her mind, she needed to train it. She had played chess quite a bit back “home” and liked to think she was decent at the game. Christopher was the class savant, so when she had seen him playing the game on his phone, she “asked” for a match. They set up the board, found in a cupboard at the back of the classroom, and got ready to play.

“You be white, I prefer going second.”
Kaylee looked down at her much smaller classmate, then at the board. She made her opening move.
“E4”
Most common opening, though Christopher. He didn’t feel like doing the Sicilian defense, so mixed it up a bit.
“E5”
A bad move by statistics, but Christopher knew his classmate. She was one of, if not the, most powerful in the class, but her mind was nowhere near as strong as her body.

OK, thought Kaylee, I know what I’m doing. She made her next play.
“D3”
Oh dear, I don’t want to win too easily, let’s keep it at beginner level.
“D5”

Kaylee thought hard. She knew if she let him take her e pawn, then capture that with her d pawn, then he’d be able to take her queen with his, thus preventing her from castling. OK then, try this!
“F3”
“Bishop to C5”

He was attacking her knight! Well, her strategy needed to move it anyway, so no big deal.
“Knight to E2”
“D Pawn takes E4”
Christopher saw she was playing a pretty standard London opening, but whether she meant to or not, she had trapped her white bishop with the knight. With that, he felt comfortable breaking her pyramid.

Kaylee frowned; Christopher had taken the first piece of the game. She had to respond and get her formation back. She couldn’t do it with her d pawn without risking her queen, so she moved:
“F Pawn takes E4”

Not even a second went by before Christopher responded.
“Knight to C6”

Kaylee wasn’t sure what to do now, so she decided to mirror the move.

“Knight to C3”

Christopher bought his Queen out.
“Queen to F6”

Kaylee jumped to defend her bishop, but caught herself; it was defended, by her rook! If he wanted to trade his queen for a bishop, that was fine by her. She took a breath and looked at the board. Maybe she could try to fork his King?
“Knight to D5”

Christopher winced at that. It wasn’t a good move, and if he was going to play as she wanted him to, he would have to punish it.
“Bishop to F2, Check.”

Kaylee’s eyes widened; she hadn’t seen that coming! She only had one legal move.
“King to D2”
She could no longer castle now.
“Queen to D6”

Kaylee furrowed her brow, trying to think of her next move. Her King was too open, her Queen and Bishops were stuck, what to do? She needed to open up her pieces.
“A3”
Too obvious. Christopher moved to the other side of the board.
“Bishop to G4”

That pinned her Knight to her Queen! “Bugger” thought Kaylee. She had already got her plan, and she didn’t know what else to do here.
“B4”
Christopher retreated with his active Knight.
“Knight to E7”
He could take her Knight with his, and while it was already protected with her pawn, she wanted to unpin her Queen.
“C4”
She would be able to move her Queen out now.
“A5”
Not good. That put her Pawn under attack, and she couldn’t trade Pawns without losing her Rook. But what if she moved her Queen?

“Queen to A4, Check”

Easy enough to block, thought Christopher.
“Bishop to D7”

She couldn’t leave her Queen there now, she had to pull it back.
“Queen to B3”

That left her Knight open.
“Knight takes D5”

Kaylee was cross, but her Knight was defended, it was just a matter of deciding with which piece to take.
“Pawn takes D5”
“Pawn takes B4”
Damn! That opened his Rook! She decided to push.
“A4”
That Pawn was no longer under attack, and if he took it with his Rook, she would take that with her Queen.

“C6”
She responded.
“G3”
The idea was to activate her white Bishop, which hadn’t moved all game.
“Rook to C8”
“Bishop to G2”
“Pawn takes D5”
“I can do that too! Pawn takes D5”
“Knight to H6”
Kaylee leant back, contemplating what to do. She really didn’t know, so just decided to put pressure on the bishop in her lines.
“Rook to F1”
Christopher shook his head, almost imperceptibly, but Kaylee noticed it.
“Queen to C5”
She couldn’t take that bishop anymore, not without inviting his Queen to take her Rook. She looked at her centre, she had a Knight that couldn’t move without being taken, so she decided to work on that.
“Bishop to B2”
“Queen takes E3, Check.”
Damn. She couldn’t lose her second Knight, so kept her King protecting it.
“King to D1.”
“Bishop to G4”
Kaylee’s eyes widened; she saw the trap. All Christopher had to do was take her Knight on E2, and it’d be checkmate. She couldn’t move her King to the C file; that was defended by his Rook. She couldn’t move her King at all. She had to decide what to sacrifice.
“Rook to F2”
“Queen takes F2”
She lost her Rook; she could tell the game was nearly over. His Queen was simply too close in for her to do anything.
“Bishop to F1”
“Queen takes F1, Check”
Only one legal move.
“King to D2”
“Queen takes E2, Checkmate”
That was game. Kaylee slumped forward, her head in her hands. He had crushed her, he hadn’t even really been trying, judging by the speed of his moves. Christopher felt guilty, he had meant to go easy on her, but she had pushed him to play properly, and he couldn’t help himself but to get into the game.
“Hey.”
She didn’t respond. Christopher leaned forwards, trying to see her face. Despite her head being over half a foot higher up than his, he still couldn’t see her.
“Hey Kaylee, you did really well. I’ve been playing chess for ages and can remember every game I’ve ever played. Trust me, you did really well.”
The giant girl raised her head, inhaled, and opened her eyes.
“Thanks Chris, you’re really good at this game.”
“Thanks Kaylee.”
“Good Game.”
“Good Game.”

There was a moment of silence as they both looked at the board.

“So, got any tips for me?”
“uh, yeah! So, you see where my Rook was? That cut off the escape route for your King, allowing me to box it in. A counter to that would be…”
Christopher got into the flow of reviewing a game of chess, with Kaylee hanging on to his tips and tricks. By the time they were finishing up, the rest of the class was filtering in for the next lesson.