A/N - The idea for this story popped into my head when I totally forgot and then remembered that Henry and Alison often play chess together, and I just had to write about it. This story fits in with the episodes 'So It Goes' and 'Tamerlane' from season 1. It's likely to be around four chapters long. I hope you enjoy it! Please leave a review if you'd like to. I hope I don't bore you too much with the chess basics - I just thought it would be sweet for us to see Henry teaching a young Alison how to play, considering we see them play together several times on the show when she is older.
I had some lengthy discussions with other Madam Secretary fans and Elizabeth and what her chess playing would be like. Initially I thought it'd be hilarious if Elizabeth was terrible at the game - instead I settled on the fact that she's a pro - however in the future (Think season 5 in the airport episode) she is very rusty because she hasn't played in many years.
Chapter One
Learning The Ropes
The fire crackled quietly in the background as the McCord family lazed around in the cozy living room of their farm house. It was Henry's favourite day of the week, Sunday. To his delight it was a cold and rainy afternoon, denying the children of the opportunity to play outside and therefore forcing them into actually spending time with him and Elizabeth.
He gazed down at the chessboard in front of him, a beautiful brown and white checkered board with ornate pieces coloured white and mahogany. It was a thing that Henry had treasured since Elizabeth had bought it for him on his birthday many years ago. He always took pride in owning this beautiful set, never missing the opportunity to polish it and wipe away any specs of dust. He'd grown up playing chess and thought that he'd been pretty good at it, that is until he met Elizabeth Adams.
He couldn't keep a track anymore of exactly how many times she'd wiped the floor with him on the chess board. The first few times it blew him away - her extensive knowledge of the tactics, the best moves to play offensively and defensively, the way she hardly ever blundered material and the way she barely ever let him get to her side of the board. Eventually it became a little annoying - they hadn't played a game together for many years now, but he still always strived to improve in the hope that one day he would finally beat her on the board.
An old battered copy of Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual lay open on his lap as he arranged the pieces on the board to signify one of the diagrams at the top of the page he was reading on how to checkmate with two knights. When all of the pieces were in place, he closed the book and attempted to solve the puzzle by himself, this was after all one of the best ways to learn. Pausing before making the first move he looked over to the rest of his family sitting on the sofa, six year old Jason cuddled up in Elizabeth's arms, the two of them watching Wall-E on the family TV. Stevie as her usual self was glued to her phone and Alison - who had been watching the movie with her mother was now walking over to his arm chair.
She stopped when she was opposite him and at the other end of the board and reached out to touch one of the white knights.
"Daddy, what are you doing?" She asked, eyeing all of the different pieces curiously.
"Hey Noodle." He smiled. "Just studying some chess theory. Would you like to see?" He asked.
She nodded and walked over and jumped up onto his lap, waiting for the lesson to begin. With one hand wrapped around little Alison's waist he began to move all of the pieces back to their normal starting positions on the board.
"Let's just get this board back to normal, one sec." he said, moving all the pawns back to their ranks.
"Why are there so many pieces?" Alison asked, picking up one of the white pawns and looking at it.
"Well, here, look." Henry said, taking the white pawn from her. "This right here is called a pawn, they are the lowest valued piece, we have more than one of these - you want to count them?"
Alison took the pawn back from her father and placed it back into its empty square on the board and counted each one aloud.
"That's right, we have eight pawns." Henry said. "Now a pawn can normally only move one square forward, but on its first move, it can move two squares forward." He explained. "Why don't you choose one and make your first move?"
"Okay." Alison said, picking up the queenside pawn and moving it forward two squares and setting it down.
"Pawn to D4, good move - that's actually a very common opening." Henry said. He reached over and picked up the kingside pawn on the opposite side of the board and moved it forward two squares so that it was diagonally opposite Alison's white pawn.
"So Noodle, the aim of the game is to get the other players king into checkmate - to put them into the position where their king cannot avoid being captured, you manage that, you win the game." Henry explained. "Now, let's discuss captures, you with me so far?" He asked.
Alison nodded, eyes wide taking in all of the information.
"Good girl." Henry said. "Now, pawns can only move one square forward after the first move, however they can capture other pieces on the diagonal." He explained, pointing at her pawn and then his, indicating how they were diagonally opposite each other. "I just took my turn, I moved my pawn to E5, so what would your next move be?" He asked.
She took a few minutes to look at the board, Henry smiled as he could see the cogs in her mind turning, deciding which move to make next.
"So I could just -" She started to say, picking up her pawn, moving it diagonally up and removing Henry's pawn, and then looking at him for validation.
"Excellent!" He smiled. "You made your first capture! Well done!"
Alison smiled brightly and placed her father's pawn down on the side of the table next to the board.
"So now let's take a look at how the other pieces move and capture." Henry said, picking up his queenside knight. "Do you know what this piece is?" He asked her.
"A horse?" Alison asked. Henry chuckled.
"Well yes, it sure does look like a horse. But no, this is actually called a knight. These guys move kind of strangely. For one, they can jump over other pieces. They can move two squares forward and one square left or right, or two squares left or right and one square up or down."
He placed the knight down on the board to demonstrate.
"So you see how the knight here jumped over these two other pieces?" He asked, pointing at them.
"So it moves in, like, an L shape?" Alison asked.
"Exactly." Henry nodded. "Why don't you try moving one of your knights?" He motioned towards her pieces.
Alison picked up her own queenside knight and moved it to C3 - basically mirroring Henry's move.
"Brilliant." Henry said. "Okay the next piece we call a bishop." He said, pointing at the four bishops on either side of the board. "Notice how one is on a light square and one is on a dark square?"
Alison nodded again.
"That's important see, bishops can only move diagonally." He explained, picking up his kingside bishop and moving it diagonally up the board so that it was on the furthest left dark square opposite one of Alison's pawns.
"Okay, I see." Alison said, pointing at the board at where the bishop had started and now where it had ended up.
"Now let's stop here and think for a second." Henry said. "How do pawns capture pieces again?" He prompted.
"Diagonally, you said - ohhhh." She said, realising that he had moved his bishop into the perfect square for her to be able to capture it with her pawn. With a look of delight on her face, she moved the pawn up and removed his bishop on the board.
"Very good." He said. "I think you're a natural. You may even take after your mother. Between you and I - your mom is amazing at this game, but don't tell her I said that."
"You know, I'm only over here." Elizabeth piped up from the sofa. "I can hear everything you're saying."
Henry chuckled as he picked up another piece to show Alison.
"You just enjoy your movie, babe." He said. "And I will continue to teach Noodle here, how to become a grandmaster one day."
Elizabeth rolled her eyes and laughed, turning her head back towards the TV to continue watching with Jason.
"So, this piece here is the queen." Henry explained, he passed it to Alison to let her examine it closely. "This is the most powerful piece on the board, it can move anywhere it wants - horizontally, diagonally, vertically - you name it, the queen can do it." He explained demonstrating to her all the squares to where the queen could move. He then placed the queen back into its starting position and then proceeded to remove Alison's pawn that had captured his bishop earlier.
"Now just for an example for this next piece." He said as he placed Alison's pawn on the side of the table. "What do you think this piece is called?"
She looked at the piece in the bottom left square, it was tall and round, it basically looked like a tower, she shrugged slightly, unsure.
"A tower?" She asked.
"Almost." Henry said. "This is actually called the rook. Though in French they call it a Tour - which in English means Tower, so you weren't far off." Henry said.
He picked up the rook and moved it all the way up the board in a straight line until it was opposite one of his pawns.
"The rook can move any number of squares vertically." He said, he then moved it all the way over to the right side of the board "And any number of squares horizontally. Again, this is a really powerful piece - it's the most important piece after your queen."
He now picked up the only piece they hadn't discussed yet and placed it right in the center of the board for her to see.
"This is your king." He said, pointing at it. "You have to keep this piece safe throughout the game, it can move and it can capture. The king can move one square in any direction." He explained and watched as she picked it up and moved it to all of the squares available for it to move to.
"I think that's enough for today." Henry said. "I don't want to overwhelm you with information. If you like it, I'll teach you some more moves and theory another day."
"Yes please, daddy." Alison said, getting up off of his lap. "That was fun."
She returned to the sofa to sit next to Elizabeth and Jason to watch the remainder of the movie. Henry returned all the chess pieces back to their starting positions and once again opened his book.
Back to the grind he thought.