Title:
Chess, Mates and Check
Author:
plainbrownbox
Rating:
G
Genre: General
Chapter: One-shot
Summary: Before KKM
begun, Shori and Murata had already met. But Murata needed money and
Shori was just passing by. No slash.
Shori Shibuya sighed as he surveyed the road before him. It always bothered him to watch a sea of people waiting to cross the street without minding if they have taken too much personal space of the other people beside them. But then, he guessed, it was another boring, uneventful Sunday afternoon that made him think about nonsensical things.
Walking on his way home, Shori noticed that people are drawn together to the far corner of the street. They were staring at something obviously lost in thought. Curious, he walked toward the crowd and squeezed himself to the front. There he found out the cause of all: a chess puzzle.
"Come all and come try," a young man in a blue shirt and with round glasses was telling everyone around. "Only three moves of white are needed to checkmate the black. It is easy. And easy money too! Twice the money will be returned if you win. Just remember, we are in touch-move rule here. Once you touch a piece, you have to move it immediately. If you claim your hand is slippery, God forbid, but I will bite it."
The boy in his teens was sitting at the other side of the chessboard. He held a heavy tinkling bag that probably contains several hundred yen coins in it. Clearly, he is the one running the show. His glasses have a dangerous glint on it and he wore a suspicious grin.
Who is this young person in front of him? Is he an escaped criminal who masked himself with latest movie clay plastic materials to look like other people? Does he have "colleagues" who are going to steal wallets of unsuspecting bystanders from their pants back pockets? Is he a yet-to-be-distinguished chess grandmaster child prodigy who impulsively thought that life is dull and dreary and decided to make fun of the passersby?
It must have been all the watching on the computer he did last night that Shori was having doubtful opinions. Those tearful jerks at the end of his new dating stimulating game must have done the trick. For a second, Shori composed himself. He bravely stepped forward to look clearly at the staged problem. He is eager to solve the problem himself.
"Here, come," the boy was egging on Shori. "Feel and try it. It is difficult if you try to find the answer in your head. It would be better if you do it here on the board. I tell you, it is easy. Just yesterday, only a 10-year-old child answered my laid-upon puzzle. Therefore, you can do it too! Bring on your bet and try your moves."
Shori taught himself chess when he was a child. His father did not know how to play chess, so Shori asked his father to buy him a chess set and few books. He later regretted it when he found out that no one from his family knew how to play chess. (His father attempted to understand the essence of the game for his self-proclaimed "For the father-son bonding time!" but failed to do so.) He developed his skills by playing against the computer. I have won few medals in competitions. This will be a piece of cake. I will be richer in no time.
So here Shori was, at four in
the afternoon, on a sidewalk beside a bus stop, trying to solve a
chess puzzle. There were only four pieces on the board: the two
kings, the white queen, and the white bishop. The black king would be
easy to trap, especially with the powerful white queen still on the
board. The key to the puzzle must be forced moves. The black king
must be given only one square to move into so as to keep the game
under white's control – until the third and final move which will
be winning the checkmate.
He could sense the frustrations of the
past bystanders who have undoubtedly lost against a mere boy. The
chess puzzle is not easy to sort out. Did the boy find a problem that
has no solution at all?
Some passersby moved on and some stayed behind. Several bystanders looked on, tried and failed. Different faces resigned and walked away. New faces come to witness the game. I was hopelessly contemplating at the laid-out problem when it hit me. A possible solution: white's three moves. He brought his wallet out and pulled two hundred yen coins. Ready to savor his victory, he placed it on the board.
Before Shori could move a muscle, the boy spoke, "My friend, that's not enough. The minimum bet here is 500 yen. If you bet on 500 yen, you may win 1000 yen. You look smart, why not bet on 1000 yen so that you can have a 2000 yen win?"
Will somebody tell me why I thought of playing this on the first place? Since everyone's eyes are on him, he could not back out. Shori grudgingly pulled out three hundred yen coins.
Shori made his first move. The boy moved the black king to an adjacent square. Shori made his second move, and it happened. The boy moved the black king back to where it was before – a move that was overlooked. Shori thought he heard a toilet flushing with his 500 yen going down the drain. He finished his third move and the black king moved to safety.
"I thought I was about to lose," the boy said, obviously trying to entice the others to give it a try. "For those others, try this too. You should follow this man. Very brave."
I want revenge. Shori could not think of anything but getting his money back. He believed he is too drawn in in the game that it would be tortuous to back out now. He needed to solve this or else it would torment him on his way home.
He fished his wallet out. There is only 250 yen coins left in the wallet. If he bets on it, either he wins or he goes home without money. He still needs to ride a bus or he'll end up walking until the next day.
"Aaaayyy. It looks like nobody knows the answer to this," the boy was provoking everyone again. "Think fast because it's getting dark and I still have to do my school work. You, my friend, don't you have money anymore? I bet, you still have ideas hiding in your head. You were about to win earlier."
Again, he had that mischievous grin and annoyingly glinted glasses. "Why not bet on your watch? If you solved this, I'll give you 2000 yen win."
"I may be naive, but I am not that stupid!" Shori mumbled under his breath.
"I'll give all of you 30 minutes more, and then, I'll have to go. I'll be here tomorrow."
Time was running out. Shori thought fast on how to get his money back. He called on his courage to the guy beside him, who, by the look on his face, didn't know a thing about chess. "I'll give you the solution I had in my mind," Shori told him. "I have my 250 and you have your 250. Let's bet on it. We'll halved the win. Is it okay with you?"
Perhaps he saw desperation written on Shori's face or he was moved out of pity. He took out his 250 yen and lent it to me. "Good luck", he mouthed encouragingly.
I must not make a mistake, Shori told himself. I am gambling on someone else's money.
Shori put down the 500 yen on the board. He considered once again the problem that was in front of him. He walked on the other side on the board to see a different view of the puzzle.
Chess has always been a wonderful game. It has 100,000 possible first moves in an opening of the game. Set in front of him is an end game. Four pieces are placed.
"Last five minutes! If no one is willing to solve this, I'll have to go home."
Shori schemed the things he would do to the boy to shut him up. He could not concentrate. He wondered at his idea. He will be risking a lot. He knew his solution well. What if I had overlooked on things again? The boy was eager to go home but Shori needed more time.
"Will you give the answer before you go?" Shori asked the boy.
"Of course not," he replied. "But I'll be back here tomorrow. Another new problem. I am not forcing you to play. If you think that I am fooling you around and thought there is no answer in this puzzle, then don't play this game."
Shori understood the point of the boy. The guy who lent his 250 yen nudged me, "Just solve the puzzle. I had to leave soon too. It's okay if you had it wrong."
Oh, the pressure! Shori looked around the place. There was no ATM in sight. Shori wondered why he put himself in that situation. He moaned when he thought of his possibility of losing. His mother would embarrassingly declare her love for his son in front of the police when he arrives home with callused feet the next day.
Shori pushed his bet on the board and made an unconventional move with his queen. Shori retreated the piece away from the black king, seemingly reducing pressure from the corner of action, but really preparing for an elegant finish. The boy moved the black king. Shori repositioned the white queen near the white king, establishing, forcing the black king to retreat.
The boy thought for a while. He shook his head and said, "I was right. You are smart."
He took the black king and tipped it, surrendering the game. Several people in the crowd started to study my moves. All of them agreed that it would lead to a checkmate.
The boy stood up and shook Shori's hands. He handed Shori 1000 yen. "Don't pass by this road again, alright? If you do, I'll be left with less money than I usually get." He complained.
He started to pack his old and chipped wooden chessboard. The crowd started to disperse. And Shori gave his business partner his 500 yen.
The skies were getting dark. Shori just spent the last two hours on a sidewalk.
Shori was congratulating himself for a job well done while he waited for the bus to arrive. He looked back at the chess master before turning toward the opposite direction of the street that would lead him inside the bus. There he was on the sidewalk, counting his earnings for the day, obviously happy despite his loss in the last game.