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“Check!” exclaimed Peter, confidently putting his knight down on the board. “Ha, finally!” He and Charles had been playing chess for what felt like hours now and while ‘check’ wasn’t exactly a win, it was certainly an improvement from the previous games. Grinning proudly, he watched as Charles stared at the board silently. For a moment, Peter had deluded himself into thinking that he had the upper hand for once but unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.
“I don’t think that is check, Pete.” Peter’s smile dropped as he looked at the board again. He had been confident that it was but as he counted the squares again, he realised that the other was right; his knight was just one square out. It was Charles’ turn to grin, clearly amused by how bad the other was at chess.
“I was very close to a check though.”
“No? You’re nowhere near my king.”
“Huh?” Once more, Peter looked at the board. He pointed to one of the white pieces. “Is that not your king?”
“That’s my queen,” Peter frowned, crossing his arms. “And since your knight is in her diagonal…” Charles picked up his queen and dragged her over to a black knight, knocking the horse over with a swift flick. “I can take yet another piece.” He sat back, crossing his arms and smiling smugly.
“You know what? I don’t want to play anymore.”
“Aww. Is chess too hard for you, Petey?” The teasing just made Peter even more mad. As he opened his mouth to hurl an insult back at Charles, the third midshipman finally came to join them.
“Sorry for taking a while. Are you two playing chess?” asked Thomas, sitting by Peter.
“We were but Pete gave up. Can’t tell his king from his queen.” Peter pouted again, huffing like a little child. Thomas giggled. “Since Pete’s not playing, do you want a go?”
“Oh, I’m no good at chess. Too complicated.”
“Come on, I promise to go easy on you. I’ll even let you go first.”
“Oh alright then.” Charles went about setting the pieces back to their starting points before gesturing for the other to make the first move.
Thomas stared at the board intently. There were countless ways to start a game of chess and he had no idea which was the best. He’d just have to put some pieces out there and try his best to react to Charles’ moves. He picked up a pawn and moved it forward two spaces. “There we are. Pawn to g4.”
“Alright.” Charles didn’t hesitate as he casually moved one of his own pawns forward two spaces. “Pawn at e5.” There wasn't much to go on, leaving Thomas slightly stumped already. He was sure the other had already thought of several paths of play but there was no way to know; Charles’ face was like stone. Thomas moved another pawn forward one space to f3. It seemed a safe move and besides, between the two of them, they had only done three moves. There wasn’t any possible way Charles could-
“Checkmate.”
“What!” Peter shouted, not sure whether he should be annoyed or impressed. Thomas looked back and forth between Charles and the board, his mouth slack-jawed. Checkmate? Already? He couldn’t believe it but it was right in front of him; Charles had moved his queen diagonally to h4, leaving his king nowhere to run.
“Well, I don’t know what to say…” stuttered Thomas. He looked up at Charles, still in awe. “That’s bloody impressive, Charlie.”
Once again, Charles wore a smug smile. “It’s not often that people set themselves up for failure in the first two moves. Quite an extraordinary blunder, Tom.”
“You don’t have to rub it in, Charlie,” warned Pete who was getting increasingly annoyed on Thomas’ behalf.
“No, I genuinely mean it. Losing that way was quite impressive. It’s called the Fool’s mate. Only black can perform it and it can only be achieved under very specific circumstances so you don’t see it very often.”
Thomas chuckled, still somewhat embarrassed by how fast he lost. “Well, if I can’t be the best at something, I might as well be the worst at it, right?” Unlike Peter, he wasn’t a sore loser so he held out his hand for Charles to shake. “Seems like you’re going to have to teach me and Pete a thing or two about chess if we want any chance of winning.”
“Did one of you boys say chess?” Turning to look behind Charles, the midshipmen saw William standing over them, looking at the board on the table. “Been a while since I played.”
Peter leaned back in his chair. “Don’t bother, sir. Charlie will do his ‘fool move’ or whatever it’s called.”
“He won after just three moves,” Thomas admitted to the officer.
“Oh wow! Now I have to give it a go. Fancy a match, Hershtik?”
“Sure. As long as you aren’t as sore a loser as Pete.” Charles began setting up the pieces again as Thomas moved to let William sit down. “Any preference for black or white, sir?”
“I’ll take black.”
“Good choice.” As he placed one last bishop in its starting position, Charles looked across at the officer, smiling. “May the best man win.”
Luckily, the game wasn’t over as fast as when Thomas was playing. In fact, it went on for quite a while. Thomas and Peter had tried to stay for the entire match but eventually they retired to their cabin; playing chess was a lot more interesting than watching it. Despite no longer having an audience, William and Charles continued to play, gradually whittling each other's sides down until there were barely any pieces left on the board. Then silence. It was William’s turn and he hadn’t moved for several minutes. Instead, he had just been staring at the board. Charles, once again, had a smug face. He knew how this would end already, he was just waiting for William to figure it out too.
The officer sighed, not wanting to admit defeat. “I don’t think there are any legal moves I can do but I’m not in check.” Charles nodded. After another moment’s silence, William spoke again. “Is it possible to have a draw in chess?”
“Yes, it’s quite possible. There’s several ways to draw but this would be a draw by Stalemate.”
“Well then.” William held out his hand. “We’ll call it a draw.” Charles’ smile grew wider as he took the officer’s hand and shook it. “I have to say Hershtik, that was a good game. You have a skill for planning ahead and considering different strategies. If you can apply those skills to your duties, you’d make a fine officer one day. Hell, I could imagine you being Captain on your own ship!”
What was once a smug grin turned into a sheepish smile. “Thank you, Mr. Hoscut. I’ll keep it in mind.”