[One-Shot] Tim and Damian play chess. Nothing more, nothing less... okay maybe a bit more but still not less. [HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL! Read at your own risk]
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A/N: WARNING! This fanfic depicts a very detailed chess game. Every move is depicted and when I say every move, I mean every single mother effing move also including its coordinates. For a full experience, go and grab a chess board or find a chess board online. Just try to remember where the coordinates are. It's not too hard. I also provide some brief analysis in the narrative, but keep in mind that I'm no expert and most of the analysis are stuffs that novice players could figure out. The narration is intentionally slightly amateurish just to keep the non-players informed and entertained.
This entire one-shot is very experimental. If you find it entertaining and enjoyable to read despite the distracting chess details, that's great. But if you find it slightly distracting and confusing with the chess stuff, then give a review. This story will take place in an alternate universe, the same one as the one in my other Batman story 'Knight's Play', but that story has not reached this point yet. So if you're interested on this universe more, go read it (shameless plug) :D
Without further ado, let's begin.
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The day had been quite exhausting for young Tim Drake. He joined the Bat Clan for a reason. He wanted to save the city. He wanted to erase corruption from Gotham every time it pops up either coming from his own company or others. Gotham City is quite the bitch city to take care of. It's like having a pet tiger. You're going make sure that tiger is well fed or else it will get loose from its cage and the next time you see it, the defecated remains of your loved ones are on his bin.
Christ. That was a dark thought.
Speaking of dark, he had lots of dark thoughts on his head the moment the little demon popped up. Bruce had told him that he's a primary target of a Middle-Eastern terrorist group simply calling themselves the League. And what an appropriately named League because this little bitch of a demon they spawned has caused him more uncracking nerves than an OCD nightmare image compilations. Whoever thought of spawning this hellhole in this city should be castrated and hung into hell.
He took those words back when he found out that it was Bruce's own son.
So Bruce Wayne, the billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne, somehow managed to bang someone who was tied up with a Middle-Eastern terrorist group. After somehow being able to bang this random chick, this one hellspawn of hell is born and somehow managed to get through Gotham City and caused billions of TV to malfunction and show the Bat logo. This kid? The kid's like eleven and he did that all by himself? No freaking way.
The kid's name is Ibn al Xu'ffasch, or just simply Damian Wayne. Despite Bruce's (and the kid's mother Talia's, whom was slightly brutal but surprisingly quite kind) insistence on protecting the little demon, he just didn't want to. He's an annoying little brat that just couldn't stay still for about a week. And thanks to the absolutely fortunate traits of being trained by those terrorist maniacs, he also had the skills to break locks and get out of any sorts of prison that even Bruce Wayne had struggles getting out.
Worst. Day. Ever.
At least Bruce didn't rape her, or at least Talia didn't rape Bruce to get this demon spawn. He didn't even want to know how the hell he could born.
Slowly, somehow slowly, the rest of the bat family is accepting his position. Dick was a bit hostile, but he's slightly more forgiving. Cassandra didn't mind so much because Tim suspected that perhaps Damian had a crush on the mute girl. Stephanie was just the most mind boggling. She treated the little hellspawn like he was five or something, and somehow she's the reason all of this loyalty mission started. Stephanie didn't even start off pissed with the kid. She just shrugged it off and said "He's just being a kid."
Yeah, a kid who loved to swing his sword on random bushes and break locks every five minutes.
He was glad that ever since doing his loyalty missions, he had been slightly less annoying. But his presence just irritated him. He was actually surprised that he came to him on the apartment and apologized, but he did not take that as a genuine offer and instead another attempt to prank him out. So the two just said fuck it and beat each other up to the death to the point where the entire apartment is wrecked into pieces and Tim had to stay on Wayne Manor for a change.
One moment that truly boggled his mind is when Stephanie noticed them both trying to clean up the place, face full of bruises and body full of scratches on either of them. Instead of being terrified or scared, she just smiled and said. "You guys are so adorable."
Maybe that's because Tim just couldn't understand Stephanie. Maybe that's because Tim just couldn't understand woman in general.
Tim sighed. As he waited for his order of herbal tea that could calm his nerves after everything that happened, Alfred popped into the living room and already brought his orders.
"I'm sorry about Damian." Alfred said, dropping the tray of his delicious herbal tea. "But I can assure you that he is no longer the nuisance rapscallion that he used to be."
"Yeah you can say that as much as you want." Tim said. "I'm still not going to like the douche."
"Despite all the things that happened, he said that he forgave you." Alfred said.
"Did you say that out of sympathy or you just want to lie to me?" Tim said. "I'm sorry, Alfred. I just couldn't handle the boy."
"The price of being Gotham Knights, I'm afraid."
Alfred went out of the room slowly as Tim glared at him for that rather questionable sarcasm. He was perhaps right. He could've avoided this entire mess if he didn't enjoy the Bat Clan.
The boy that caught his head is now right in the front door. He opened the door and took a peek on the Boy Genius's rather pissed off face.
"What do you want?" Tim asked.
"I just want to talk... and play something with you."
Damian had something that managed to get the interest of the Boy Genius. It was a simple board game that tests the wits, determination, intelligence, and tactics of the players. It was a board game consisting of 64 black and white checkered tiles, 32 pieces of varying shapes like the pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, queens, and kings.
He is challenging Tim for a chess.
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Chess was a game that Damian played with his mother. It was a game required by the League of Assassins to master. Despite being just a board with 32 pieces, it is not only a game of intelligence, but also psychology. It was a great way to train the minds of the assassins both on strategy and tactics. Sometimes, when the members are bored of something, they might play chess for a bit. It is always a great game to play, and a magnificent tactical assistant too. Sometimes the great minds can outwit those with brute strength. If there's one thing that the two proved during their fight last time is that they were both just using their basic human instincts. Perhaps Chess might be a great way to prove their worth.
"I have shown very well that I am capable of outwitting you in a physical battle." Damian said. "However, a physical battle for us is simply too much for both of us. I want to see what you can offer with your mind."
"I got my Grandmaster title at 11 and my ELO is 2893. I was the highest in the world, but my buddy Carlsen beat me because I'm not into chess anymore." Tim said. "I don't mind losing once to a kid. Losing you is just a punch to the face. I surely will stab you in the heart. The punch doesn't matter, because you're the one who's going to die."
"I'm surprised that you still have the thoughts of killing someone, especially after that morality issue you asked me." Damian said.
"If it's you that I'm killing, I am most honored."
"Hilarious, Drake." Damian gave him a cold stare before noticing his intentions. "So, shall we begin?"
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Damian has already prepared the chess board. Tim hadn't opened that chess board for like years. He was only playing it with the on his apartment which Damian thankfully had the courtesy to destroy during his personal battle with him, along with his apartment too. The chess pieces were made of carbon fiber, a very strong material that would not make any of their pieces break upon contact. The glass were made of bulletproof materials. It was clean and transparent, making the game more interesting to look at.
"A very admirable chess set for a questionable mind." Damian taunted. "I'm sure you stole it on a nearby museum."
"Very funny, Wayne." Tim said. "I won that for the Grandmaster title. It takes a lot of winning and losing to get this thing to my hand."
"I'd be most honored to bring your painful memories of defeat back." Damian said.
"Playing chess is nothing but painful, at least in your head." Tim said. "It's now like banging a balloon hammer to my face. It won't be as hard as you'd think. I can't believe that we're on the same board on that, pun intended."
Damian sharpened his eyes. "Black or white?"
"You're challenging me. You play white." Tim said. "Like I said, I'll go easy on you for once, so make sure you do your worst."
"Oh I will." Damian said. "Blitz?"
"Oh, we're just warming up." Tim said. "Take your time."
"Then let's begin."
Damian opened with a pawn to E4. Tim replied with his pawn to E5.
"You know, if you're copying my moves, it's going to end very badly for you." Damian said.
"Like I said, I'm going easy on you." Tim said. "I just want to know how you play."
"Just play serious this time."
"Okay, I'll up the game for... maybe a percent."
A knight to F3 is played by Damian. Tim noticed his intentions on capturing the pawn at E5, so he moved one of his pawn to D6 protecting it. But Damian did not give up. He moved his pawn to D4, continuing his attack on the pawn.
Tim moved his bishop to G4 attacking the knight. That move alone made Damian to look at him with questionable eyes.
"I'm giving you a chance to undo your last move, Drake." Damian said. "Believe me, I never gave that chance to anyone."
"That's where your idiocy lies, my friend." Tim said. "I'm just merely manipulating you."
"I'll let you to prove it."
Damian captured Tim's pawn at E5. Tim captured Damian's knight with the bishop as he intended to do so. Damian replied quickly by capturing the bishop using his queen to F3.
Tim captured Damian's pawn at E5. Damian moved his bishop to C4, preparing a checkmate at F7. He definitely wanted to just end this game as quickly as he could. However, Tim discovered the killer move, so he moved his knight to F6, blocking the queen and preventing checkmate.
The plan still continues, however. Damian moved the queen to B3. Tim secured the F7 as much as he could by moving his queen up to E7. That was at the time where Damian noticed quite the golden move, which is a queen to B7, but he didn't take it. Instead, he moved his knight to C3.
"That's odd." Tim said. "You didn't take my rook."
"It's my time not to take you seriously." Damian said. "You're not worth it."
"Suit yourself."
Tim moved his pawn to C6 just to make sure that Damian did not make the move that Tim offered. Damian made a snap decision and moved his black bishop to G5, attacking the knight at F6. Tim decided that it might be best to tear apart Damian's attackers at this moment. He moved his pawn to B5, attacking the bishop at C4.
To Tim's surprise, Damian replied by capturing the pawn at B5 using his knight. He sacrificed one of his own pieces just for a pawn. Tim replied simply by capturing the knight using his pawn at C6, and Damian replied by capturing the pawn that took the knight by moving his bishop to B5.
"Check." Damian said. The bishop to B5 move also caused the king at E8 to be in danger, but Tim replied with a knight to D7.
"You're the first one to check. Congrats." Tim said. "But you did that because you gave away your own knight."
"Sometimes, sacrifices had to be made to prove a point." Damian said. "In this case, I'm proving a point that you're basically destroying yourself."
"I hope that you got the point straight, Wayne." Tim said. "I want to see how you do it."
The game continued. Damian decided to castle queen side. Tim noticed that move and he couldn't help but to feel interested. Instead of a castle on queen side, he moved his rook right next to the king at D8 while also protecting the knight at D7 that could potentially be harmful.
Still, that didn't leave Damian's array of sacrifices. Despite the rook protecting the knight at D7, he captured the knight still with his rook.
"Another sacrifice." Tim said. "I hope this one is worth it."
Tim captured the rook using his own, but Damian moved his other rook to D1, preparing some sort of potentially dangerous counter attack.
This was the time where Tim actually paused for a bit to think. He put on his fingers right at his mouth, twitching back and forth on what move that he's going to make next. Beyond those fingers covering his mouth, there was a grin, a rather gratifying and evil grin that noticed the Son of the Demon's intentions. Tim decided that it might be best to just play along with his game. So for a random move, he moved his queen to E6, also threatening Damian's own queen.
"You're going to die in three moves." Damian said.
"I know." Tim said. "Just want to see how you're going to pull it off."
"Bishop to D7, check." Damian said, not moving the piece and just crossing his own hand. "That's one silly mistake for moving the queen right there, Timmy."
"So you did find the mistake." Tim said. "Wonderful."
"Dare for a blindfold?" Damian challenged.
Tim realized his intentions. The bishop move was another sacrifice protected by rook. Not only that, the bishop managed to fork the queen and king at the same time. "Knight takes Bishop."
"Queen to B8."
Before he could twitch, Tim realized that he made another sacrifice. This one was quite interesting. A queen sacrifice for what? He knew what it was for, and there was no way for him to move anywhere else other than the next move he play. "Knight takes Queen."
"Rook to D8." Damian said, crossing his hands and leaning his back to the chair before smirking at him with an evil grin. "Checkmate."
Tim smirked at one side of his lips and gave a slow clap. "Bravo. You just beat highest ranked player in the history of chess at move 17... while he was drunk off his ass. Nice achievement there, kid. So that's how you play, hm?"
"This isn't fun." Damian said. "I want a rematch. This time, use your brain."
"It'll be my pleasure." Tim said. "This time, I'll beat you for good."
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The chess is once set off for another game. This time, Tim played white pieces and he started with D4. Damian replied with a Knight to F6. Tim played C4. Damian played G6.
Tim discovered Damian's opening style and gave his comments. "King's Indian. What are you, desperate?"
"Just to be safe."
Tim scoffed. "You're afraid. That's good."
"I'm not afraid." Damian said. "I just want to be safe."
Tim continued the game with a knight to C3. "So about the fight last night..."
Damian continued his King's Indian Defense with a Bishop to G7. "What about it?"
"You do realize that you're the one causing the most damage." Tim said while moving his pawn to E4.
"Your stubbornness got the better of you." Damian said after a move to D6."All I did was to simply apologize and you didn't accept. Richard, Stephanie, Cain, Alfred, all have approved of my existence here."
Tim moved his bishop to E2. Damian continued his move by castling king side.
"I've done my hardest to gain their respect." Damian continued. "I've done all the things that I could to help them. What Stephanie said was right. The League is after me, my mother, and the rest of the family. There's no time to compare strengths. There's only time for teamwork, and I can't do that when the group doesn't even trust me. There's a reason why I put you on the last. Your temper is blocking my way."
"You have an annoying attitude." Tim played Knight to F3. Damian continued with a Pawn to E5 as Tim continued his rants. "You're the one causing us the most problem. The terrorists are coming into Gotham City just because you storm in here wrecking my cribs."
Tim pushed his pawn to D5, not capturing the pawn that Damian offered.
"I didn't." Damian replied with a knight at B to D7. "You did. I only came to apologize for my rude behaviors. There's a reason why I didn't stab you in a throat with a bottle during the fight."
Damian just couldn't find a way to get through his defenses and his absolutely annoying stubbornness that held him back. Tim continued the game with a bishop to G5. Damian wanted to push the bishop away by a pawn to H6. Tim's bishop escaped to H4.
Damian moved his pawn to A6, preventing the knight at C3 from moving further. Tim castled king side. Damian replied with a Queen to E8. Tim asked a question as he moved his next piece, a knight to D2 right in front of his queen. "You're saying that you wanted to kill me?"
"If you weren't my ally, I would've killed you right there." Damian moved his knight to H7 right near his castled king. "All I wanted to win this war against the League is just asking you to be more than just an ally, but thanks to you being a hard rock on your head, I don't think that's going to happen."
"There's your answer." Tim said, moving his pawn to B4. "You should've made a good first impression , and you didn't. The first thing that come to mind when you came to my house was that you're just an immature 10 or 11 year old boy or whatever because you're a grandson of a terrorist group leader."
Damian gave him a death glare that he always got. It didn't always intimidate him, but it wasn't supposed to intimidate. He just never liked it when he kept ranting on about his attitude, and that really pissed him off inside.
Damian continued the game with a bishop to F6, challenging Tim's own bishop for an exchange. "I'll take my chances against you anytime, but I'm not even with them. So if you're going to beat me over, it won't help anything. It's just going to drag you down."
Tim accepted his challenge and took Damian's bishop at F6 with his own. "You're just wasting time. I don't care how many chances you take. You're not going to have my loyalty."
Damian took Tim's bishop with a knight to F6. "Forever enemies, then?"
"If I beat you in this, how about a yes?"
"Even then, I'm not going to give up."
Tim continued his move with a knight to B3. Damian replied with a queen to E7. Tim finally moved his queen to D2, but Damian noticed his intentions on a checkmate at h6 that just weren't too safely guarded. So he moved his king to H7.
"Drake," Damian called. "Whatever you think of me, it won't take long for the League to come and find all of us here. Despite what you think, you won't stop me from saving my mother, my father, Richard, Stephanie, Cain, Alfred, or even yourself. Truthfully, if there's any reason for me to save you, it's because your friends need you, and I need them more than I need you."
"All the sudden you care about them now, huh?" Tim said. "I don't care. I'm still not going to like you even if you save my ass countless of times."
"Oh I'll be there to save you." Damian said. "Doesn't mean that I'll like it, but I'll save you. Your friends actually gave me a chance to change. I want to be better. I'm going to need their respect and their loyalty to me if I want to stay alive, especially my father's. That doesn't count yours because fortunately, I love to piss you off."
"I'll make sure you won't get another chance." Tim said. "This time, I'll piss you off."
The movements had been rather safe for the most part. No one bothered to go into each other's spaces. Only Tim was managed to get inside Damian's territory and even then, it was only a pawn.
Tim made his next move, a queen to E3. Damian moved his knight to G8, reinforcing the defense of the quite threatening checkmate space at H6. Not knowing what else to move to check Damian's king out, Tim moved his pawn to C5, but Damian reconsidered his challenge for later and moved his pawn to F5, challenging Tim. Tim accepted his challenge and captured his F5 pawn. Damian recaptured with another pawn.
Both really did not know how to proceed. Tim's next move took quite a bit of time to think, and Damian couldn't blame him. Both had amazingly strong defenses and well-developed pieces that they might as well throw in pawns at each other. Although to Damian's dismay, the white pieces were more developed than the Black's and Tim is winning in this case.
The game continued. Tim played a pawn to F4 for a challenge. Damian accepted his challenge and captured the pawn, but in the process, there is a discovered attack to the black queen. Tim didn't take Damian's surprisingly protected queen and went out easily by recapturing the pawn at F4. Although Damian did not take the piece at C5 last time, he took the piece right now with a pawn.
Tim moved his bishop to D3, preparing a check. Damian didn't care for it and captured the pawn at B4, threatening Tim's knight. Tim didn't care for Damian's knight threat and moved his rook at A to E1 near its partner and attacking the black queen. Damian countered by simply moving the queen to F6. Tim's rook continue to threaten Damian's queen by a move to E6, but Damian then made a move to Tim's territory and captured his knight at C3.
Tim made a reply with a surprising move with a bishop to F5. "Check. This is getting very interesting. You may have your black queen developed and possibly even rook, but you got no chance against me."
This time, Damian actually shut his mouth up. There was a look of defeat as he scratched his chin for the next possible moves. He was right. There was no way that he could win this. Multiple variations popped up right on his head, and he just couldn't see a good way to win the game on these kinds of chances.
"I'm going to try anyway." Damian said.
"No use, Wayne. You lose." Tim said. "Let's see if you have a better combo in your head."
With a grit on his teeth, Damian picked his rook up and was about to take the bishop threatening his king, but then he realized how dangerous it was to just simply take it with a rook, at least he thought it was. After calculating a few more moves in his head that seemingly took him quite a while, he put back his rook to its original position. Moving his king to the corner might help, but it only delays the inevitable. So he moved the king to G7 and into the fire of the battlefield.
"Wrong move, Demon." Tim gestured by twitching his finger right on Damian's face. It was a face worth looking every second of. The way Damian bit his teeth up and clenched his fist, he knew that he was losing, and he knew that he's going to lose hard. "You should've captured with a rook, my friend. It's just a delay for your lost, but at least you'll live longer. You can also stay in the corner, but you're too afraid to go there wouldn't you?"
Damian bit his lips. He was right. He should've known better. Why did he miss that? Why did he didn't do that in the first place? "I'm still going by that move."
"Oh so you don't like being tortured then? Fine. Works for me." Tim shrugged off and moved his queen to G4. "Check."
Damian glanced at the board. The look of defeat began to slowly rising as he began his phase of acceptance. The corner is a delay, but that's like being stabbed by a knife and getting the knife twisted over inside you. You just want the knife to get in your throat and end your life already instead of getting tortured very slowly by the horrible pain. Damian is practically dead by this point, so the only way to get this over with and end the horrendous torture would be a king to F7.
Unfortunately, that's where the game truly ends. Tim moved his queen piece all the way to G6, and defeat has taken over most part of Damian's entire body. Tim slowly stated out the end- game result in the most dramatic way possible. "Check... mate..."
Damian grabbed his head and leaned down to the back of his seat. He has felt many defeats before, but not by this embarrassing degree. He had beaten Tim Drake so many times in the past. Even though Tim had beaten him as well, this one was the most personally humiliating.
"Game over." Tim said. "If you'll excuse me, I'm going to go for patrol and see if there's trouble around town. I'll check you back at the cave."
As Tim rose from his seat, Damian still froze still on his own. He just couldn't believe how much he had underestimated the young Boy Genius. He may annoy the living crap out of him, but he sure as hell had insulted his intelligence. No one had beaten him in this game ever. He has surpassed those who had beaten him. No one has beaten him ever since. He has never been beaten for a while, and he took his defeat with quite the devastating outlook.
Before Tim took steps on the way outside, he glanced back at the defeated Damian to speak some words. "Oh and uh... don't take too long mourning your loss. I think I'm going to need you for patrol."
Damian was quite surprised on Tim's offer. After all of that ranting and bitching and now he just asked him out for patrol? "Sorry?"
"I say that we both go out on patrol." Tim said. "I think now I get how your mind works. It was an amazing game by the way, one of the best I've played."
"Are you going to say that it's just because I lose?"
"No, really. I really enjoyed it." Tim said. "Even in the first game, you could've beaten me if I'm a little serious... a little... not too much."
"Are you saying that to comfort me?"
"No..." Tim twitched his head back and forth a bit. "Okay maybe a bit, but I'm still telling you the truth. I'm looking forward for more games with you. Just promise me not to die. I'll be leaving at 10. If you're not there yet, you'll miss your chance."
Damian gave him a smirk and scoffing out loud. He couldn't believe it. The defeat might have been totally devastating for his intelligence, but he finally managed to gain the respect of someone he truly wanted to gain respect to. Tim Drake, the stubborn and self-centered prick who managed to piss him off in so many ways and whom he managed to piss off in so many more ways, and right now he's offering to go out together.
Damian stood up from his chair and ran towards Tim. "Why not? I'm going to be there first anyway."
"Not this time!"
Both raced towards the elevator heading to the Batcave. Deep down, they're still rivals after all.
##
Final Notes:
The two chess games depicted in this story are not fabricated out of my mind. I want to make sure that the moves they made are as professional as possible. Tim was a grandmaster with a very high ELO and Damian is an amazing chess prodigy. If a chess amateur like me made two different games myself, the moves that they made would be disasterous and very unconvincing for a high-ranked grandmaster and a chess prodigy. So the games here were based on games that are played by chess masters in real life to make things a lot more convincing.
Chess geeks might already recognize that the first game is actually based on the game between Paul Morphy and Duke Karl in 1858. It is a very fascinating professional game that ends only in seventeen moves. I won't spoil why it ends so fast, but it was pretty funny.
The second chess match is actually based on a real-life match between Mikhail Tal and Bobby Fischer in 1959, two of the greatest chess champions of all time. Tal is one of my favorite players of all time. His attacks are absolutely insane and mind blowing and I think it's a good playing style for Tim. Fischer is also considered one of the best grandmasters of all time. The two best players competing against each other in a game they're absolutely amazing at, just like how I would describe Tim Vs. Damian in this story.
Though the first game is an exact move-by-move copy, the second one is not entirely. The real match is actually about 34 moves before Fischer resigned, but I shortened it to 26 in a shorter variation with a checkmate. Damian could've resigned, but most casual readers wanted a resolution. Like I said, I'm no expert but I hope that you like my own variation for the purpose of this story.
Thanks for reading and I hope that you enjoyed it.