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“For life is a kind of chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effects of prudence or the want of it.”
-Benjamin Franklin, “The Morals of Chess”.
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Game: Royal Gambit
Difficulty: Queen of Diamonds
Time Limit: One Hour per Team for Each Round
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RULES:
Before the game begins, everyone must pick a tile on the board to stand on. With the exception of being the captured piece, players are not allowed to leave the board.
Pieces on the board can only move under the command of their queen.
It is GAME CLEAR for the players if they can win two games out of three first.
If the Queen won twice against the player’s team, it is GAME OVER for all players.
If a draw is reached at the end of a match, another game must be played to decide the winner of that round.
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Playing against her is not an easy feat.
As expected of the Queen of Diamonds. One of the face cards of the intelligence suit.
Rizuna frowned as she turned her gaze towards the monitor attached to the sidewall of the parking lot. The digital display of the chessboard blinked back at her, each square sharp and defined as it reflected the positioning of their current game.
She scanned the board displayed carefully as she considered her next move.
This was their third round of the game.
The first had ended with her team’s win, while the second had ended with a win in the Queen’s favor. The Queen had let her play White in the first round of their game, and afterwards, they exchanged the colors for the second round.
For the third round, however, they had decided who played White using the traditional way. The Queen had closed her fists around two different miniature pawns and asked her to pick the hand she wanted. Rizuna had picked White.
As her thoughts circled back to the present, she surveyed the the positioning of her players again.
The space around her was still, save for the steady tick of the game clock and the occasional shift of a nervous player on her side. The sound of its ticking echoed across the massive black and white tiled floor that made up the chessboard they were playing on.
Across the tiled floor, the Queen watched her with a sly, unreadable smile as she patiently waited for her to continue their match. The woman was draped in a dress that fit the game they were currently engaged in, white at the top and black for the skirt, with a neat bow tied at the front of her dress.
Between the two of them stood towering stone pieces—human-sized statues, serving as the Queen’s pieces.
Her own team members, sixteen players positioned on different squares as living pieces on her side of the chessboard, shifted uneasily as they waited for her decision.
Over the course of their matches, Rizuna had gotten quite familiar with the Queen’s propensity for unconventional and aggressive moves.
Her initial gambits had caught her off guard, forcing her to adjust her plans and moves accordingly.
It had been startling, the way the Queen would willingly sacrifice her pieces and offer up her material in exchange for freedom and control of the board. Pulling off gambits that put pressure on Rizuna’s own pieces. Shifting the game into unexpected territory.
But now, after their last two games that kept ending just barely before the time limit, Rizuna found herself changing up her own tactics to counter the Queen’s unrelenting pressure on her team.
“Pawn to e5.”
Her command was met with hesitation.
The player on the d4 square glanced back at her, his eyes flicking between her and the black pawn in front of him. The man shot her a nervous look as the pawn standing on that tile went down and disappeared into the ground, signifying that the piece had been captured by their side.
“Are you sure? The other pawn’s going to eat me!”
Rizuna nodded, her voice calm and assured. “Trust me on this.”
The man swallowed hard, his eyes darting across the chessboard as he muttered to himself. “I hope you’re right about this.”
Before she could try to reassure him further, one of her teammates, the girl with twin ponytails, stepped in and spoke up.
“You can trust her.” The girl said with a smile. She was the bishop of their team, one of the survivors of the Witch Hunt that had joined the face card game with her. “Ann’s really great in Diamonds. She won us the first round, remember?”
The two other former Beach members nodded their heads in agreement. The mustache man standing two tiles away from her, on her left, grinned from where he stood as their knight.
“Yeah! With her on our side, we’re sure to win this!” He added to the girl’s statements.
At the corner of the board, on the same side as him, the blond-haired woman playing as their rook gave a nod of her head, a smile tugging at her lips.
The three’s level of faith and confidence in her brought a lump to her throat, bringing back memories of her time with the Beach. The camaraderie between them. Before everything had gone sideways after the death of their number one, Hatter. And many of their members had died due to the carnage that was the Ten of Hearts game they had been forced into.
Despite the reassurances, the man still hesitated, his doubts flickering in his eyes.
It took a long, tense moment. But finally, the man moved, heading towards the tile that he had been directed to. As he did, he eyed the pawn looming a step diagonal from him with a mixture of trepidation and resignation.
And it was for good reason. As he was going to be sacrificed.
The Queen stopped her fiddling of the bow of her dress as she took note of the change in position. Her expression remained unchanged as she tilted her head, a hint of intrigue sparking in her eyes.
“That’s new. You sure you want to do that?”
The Queen’s voice was soft as she talked, but it was tinged with interest. As if wanting to see how the game unfolded. And what would come out of it.
It was admittedly a very rare move. A bold choice, and a risky one.
A move that could easily be disadvantageous to her side if she made the rest of her moves wrong and miscalculated her plan. However, it was a gamble that she was willing to make. In order to counter the Queen’s own style of playing.
Rizuna straightened, her eyes narrowing behind her sunglasses as she crossed her arms. “It’s your turn.”
Without hesitation, the Queen whispered a command for her own piece.
Not long after, the mechanical clicking of a stone figure sliding across the board filled the air.
The pawn statue advanced, moving forward in the direction of her pawn sacrifice. The man flinched as the menacing stone figure approached, growing closer to him, until it finally stood directly in front of him, taking over the square that he was on.
Having been captured, the player stepped away from the board, his eyes wide with uncertainty as he watched them resume their match from the outside of the tiled floor that served as their chessboard.
After her player had left the board, Rizuna made her move.
Her boots clicked sharply against the stone floor as she strode across the chessboard tiles, stopping only once she had reached the black tile that the Queen was standing on.
The Queen’s gaze sharpened as their eyes locked onto one another. And for a brief moment, everything stilled.
A beat of silence went by with neither of them making another move. None of the players scattered around the floor made any sounds either as they fell into silence, watching their tense confrontation.
Then, a certain sparkle entered the Queen’s eyes. And briefly, Rizuna wondered if the woman was truly enjoying this game of theirs despite the life-and-death aspect of their situation.
The Queen raised an eyebrow, an amused smile playing at the edge of her lips.
“Sacrificing your queen so early in the game?" The Queen said as she took a step backwards, standing outside of the board now that she had been captured. "How intriguing. You’re changing up your plays, I see.”
In a swift response to her attack, the Queen ordered her rook to take her position, and following her command, the stone piece glided into Rizuna’s space with the sound of sliding stones.
Rizuna accepted the move graciously and stepped away from the board herself. She made her way back to her side of the board, standing a step behind it like the Queen was doing on her own side of the chessboard.
The two queens were now out of the game this round, both removed early. And would remain so for the rest of the game. Unless a pawn promotion occurred sometime during their match.
The game continued on in a similar manner as it had in their previous rounds against each other—each side pushing forward, testing each other’s limits and trying to make a dent in each other’s defense.
Rizuna’s players darted around the board carefully and cautiously, while the Queen’s own pieces weaved traps and snares across the board, as if setting up the board was merely a formality before a grand finale.
Soon enough, they found themselves deep in the middle game, each move escalating the tension that hung between them. The seconds continued to tick by as pieces on both sides were exchanged and taken away from play.
Over time, every player on her team grew weary, exhaustion written clearly on their faces as they continued to keep up with the Queen’s relentless offense. Some of them had taken to sitting on the tiles they were positioned on, too tired to stand from the hours-long matches.
But all of them remained focused, driven by the shared goal of winning and clearing the game.
As she wiped away the sweat gathering on her forehead, Rizuna studied the board and her remaining players carefully, not letting herself waver from the pressure nor the time that was slipping away from them.
And then, she saw it—a sequence that could shift the balance.
“Bishop to c2.” Rizuna commanded, sending her player forward. The player’s face steeled with determination as the woman followed her order and settled into her new position on the board.
By pulling that piece away from the pawn that was threatening it, she was instead making it so that even if the Queen’s c-pawn made a move forward, the exchange of pieces would still not fall to the advantage of her opponent.
Effectively neutralizing the probability of the Queen advancing from that side of the board.
As she took more control over the c4 square with her pawn and knight and rendered the pawn unable to make a forward move, a flicker of concern briefly crossed her opponent’s expression.
The Queen’s eyes narrowed as her gaze swept over the pieces still standing on the tiled floor.
“Rook to d6.” The Queen declared after a moment, countering with a defensive move that cut Rizuna's pawn from advancing to her side. But the pressure was mounting, the cracks in her strategy showing through, bit by bit.
Minutes passed. It took a few more turns, but she finally managed to break through her opponent’s queenside barrier. She allowed her pawn to be eaten by the Queen’s own before capturing it with her other pawn, who had been standing on the tile diagonally to it.
It was a pivotal moment.
Her players were now closing in on the Queen’s defenses, chipping away at the barrier slowly and surely, each one of their moves reinforcing the next.
And she suspected her opponent realized it as well, by the way the Queen was now studying the board with more caution than she had been showing from the beginning of their game.
As the match neared its end, they continued to circle each other, caught in a tense, unbreakable lock.
Despite her own exhaustion, Rizuna stayed focused, knowing that any lapse now could mean the end, and a possible change in the flow of the game. She moved her players with relentless precision, matching the Queen’s intensity move for move.
“Check,” Rizuna announced, her recently promoted queen slipping into a position that directly placed an attack on her opponent’s black king.
The Queen glanced at the board, her gaze darting from piece to piece as she searched for an opening to counter her assault. And then, with a flicker of admiration in her eyes, she let out a low laugh.
“You’ve driven me into a corner.” The Queen's tone was strangely proud, even though she had just lost to them. She lifted her hand in a gesture of mock surrender as she said. “It seems this round goes to you. Humor me and play until the end?”
A rush of relief washed over her and her team at her declaration, but she didn’t let herself relax yet. The game was not over yet.
Rizuna thought over the offer as she considered the probabilities of the Queen turning the tide over to her side in any way. She glanced at the players that were still playing on her side, all of them exhausted and staring back at her with hopeful eyes.
Eventually, she accepted with a nod of her head. “That’s fine with me. I’ll play until the end.”
Some of her players let out a groan at her statement, but none of them moved to leave the board. The glint in their eyes steeling with determination as they waited for her to announce their next move.
On the other side of the board, the Queen’s smile widened. The warmth in her expression a stark contrast to the way she was heading directly towards her own death. The look in her eyes strangely bright.
As they moved their remaining pieces on the board, Mira's words back during the official broadcast drifted through her mind.
But if you continue to press me for an answer... it’s because we are all sick.
Rizuna wondered if that was how the citizens were. The reason why they could design all these deathly games that could easily lead to their own deaths, not just the players themselves.
She moved her queen to a different square, double-attacking the black king with her promoted pawn and her rook. Before she could declare the ending of their game, the Queen raised a hand to halt her.
Rizuna paused.
“And that’s checkmate.” The Queen announced in her stead, a sigh slipping past her lips. The corner of her mouth then tugged into a wry smile. “Ah, it’s been so long since someone bested me in my own game. You’re good. Played any competitions before?”
Rizuna shook her head. “No, but I played a few games in my spare time.”
“You should consider it.”
The Queen hummed as she turned to walk a few steps away from the chessboard, the hem of her white and black dress swishing elegantly in the air. Her smile stayed on her lips as she tilted her head, looking back in their direction.
Her eyes met Rizuna's own, before she continued. “If I had met a player like you in the old world, perhaps I might not have decided to stay here when that question was asked.”
“Question?” The player that had played as one of her pawns asked, his brows furrowing in confusion.
The Queen only smiled, not answering the spoken question. “I won’t spoil something that you’ll eventually find out at the end. That is, if you managed to reach it yourselves, of course.”
The players scattered around the parking lot exchanged glances with each other, trying to make sense of what she was saying, or rather, what it was that she was still hiding from them.
Rizuna frowned at the wording, catching the implied meaning of it. “You were a player yourself?”
“I was, yes.” The Queen’s voice softened. “Perhaps you’ve heard of me. Or maybe not. I used to play in various competitions back in the old world.”
“Wait, that’s why you seem familiar!” The man that had played as her king piece exclaimed with a gasp. He pointed his finger in the Queen’s direction, realization dawning in his eyes. “You’re Itagaki Yuzuki, aren’t you? You’re one of Japan’s grandmasters!”
Murmurs and startled gasps rippled through the players around her as many of them recognized the name, including Rizuna herself. She may not be a competitive chess player like the Queen herself, but the name was familiar to her.
Now, her way of chess playing made a lot of sense.
Itagaki Yuzuki was the name of the chess player who had received her grandmaster title at the young age of nineteen. Immediately after her accomplishment at winning an international chess championship.
She was known for her creative, unconventional, and aggressive plays. Her style of playing leaning on catching her opponent off guard and attacking them as they scrambled to catch up.
In hindsight, she should have realized that sooner. As that had been how the Queen had played against her in all of their matches.
“That’s my name, yes.” The Queen replied with a nod. She made a gesture with her hand, letting her finish the game that they were still playing. The timer on the wall slowly ticking down from ten minutes. “Would you please do the honor then, Miss White Queen?”
Rizuna glanced back at the Queen, taking note of the resigned yet content expression on her face, before she finally announced it.
Sealing the end of their last match.
“Checkmate.”
As her voice echoed through the empty parking lot, the Queen exhaled out a breath. The speakers attached to the ceilings crackling with the announcement of the Queen’s loss and the players win.
“It’s been a fun game with you all.”
The Queen's smile was bittersweet as she raised her arms by her side and turned her head up to gaze at the ceilings, accepting the loss with grace. “I must thank you, for reminding me of the challenge and fun that chess has always brought me. I wish you luck, that’s my final farewell to you.”
“Goodbye.”
The last word barely left the Queen’s lips before a crimson laser struck her head, and she crumpled to the ground.
Her body hit the stone floor with a thud, quickly followed by the sound of explosions coming from outside the building. Somewhere above, in the direction of the sky.
Game clear. Congratulations!
An addition of twelve days will now be given to the winning players’ visas.
The game clear announcement reverberated through the empty parking lot as they made their way towards the exit, stumbling into the cool night air outside of the building. The darkness of the night having long taken over the daylight at some point during their long matches with the Queen.
“What are we going to do now?” one of the players asked, his words hanging in the air as his gaze bounced from players to players.
“Now,” Rizuna started as she met the gazes of the other former Beach members, all three of them having similar resolve in their eyes as they looked back at her. “We hide from the King of Spades. And wait.”
The rest of the players shared glances with each other. Before they nodded, agreeing with her suggestion.
And with that, they finally left the game arena behind in search of a place to stay for the time being, making sure to keep an eye on the King of Spades flag and avoid it on their way.
Behind them, the blimp carrying the Queen of Diamonds flag gradually fell from the sky, its machine exploding on itself and burning the face card picture displayed on it to ashes.
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"Every chess master was once a beginner."
-Irving Chernev