Chess, Please
Varian's morning had been busy. He'd gone to the meadow with his Dad to plant hay. He was four and fascinated by the seed drill, which planted the hay in nice, orderly rows and was more efficient than scattering the grain by hand. Varian liked how the drills opened the dirt furrows to a uniform depth before dropping the seed. He also liked watching how the metal discs behind the drills cut down the sides of the trench where the seeds where planted and covered them over.
But now, Varian had something else to attract his attention. The men had all stopped work and headed to the village square to break for his lunch. This meant that Quirin could talk to his friends, and Varian could watch some of the adults do something interesting: play chess. He'd been following Burt and Lorrie, the two most frequent players for months, and he had a firm understanding of the game now.
Burt was doing well, he still had his queen and both rooks but if Lorrie moved his knight to d6, he could take a rook. And the Queen on c8 would be threatened by the knight, but if she moved over to e6 she could be taken by Lorrie's bishop on c4. The queen could try moving to b7, c7, or d7 instead, but then Lorrie's rook on g7 would get her. Lorrie had a pawn on d4 and a c pawn that had captured on d5. And Burt's other rook was already on b8 blocking that move, while Lorrie's other knight sat on f2, promising a capture on h3.
And without the Queen, the King would have little defense against the combined might of bishop, knight, and rook. Varian knew the true strategy of chess: don't threaten the King too early. Always take out the Queen first, and then the King would falter.
Lorrie hesitated, unsure of which piece to move. "Nxd6. Take his rook." Varian suggested quietly.
Lorrie blinked in surprise. "I guess I could do that." he mused. "And then next turn, I go for the Queen?"
"She's trapped!" Varian said, feeling bolder now that his suggestion had been used. "The d6 knight can take her on c8, she has to move! If she goes for your bishop on c4, then Nxc4. Pawns can take on c5 and c6. Rxb7, Rxc7, Rxd7, no escape there! Bxa6, Bxe6, and Nxf5, cappers. Rxg4 also gets her. And Nxh3 cappers her too."
"Captures." Burt corrected, looking with dismay at his pieces. "You've told him how to capture my Queen!"
"Well thanks a lot, little guy. I'd been wondering how I'd get out of this one." Lorrie laughed.
Burt seemed to take this loss in stride, but his son David was furious. "You can't tell someone how to play when you're not in the game! That's cheating." David accused.
"Varian's just a little boy, he doesn't know any better. No harm done." Quirin interjected.
"That's right. And Lorrie could use the help, I was getting a little bored, winning all the time." Burt said graciously.
"He has mate in five now." Varian proclaimed, happy that the adults seemed to be on his side for once.
"How about that? Maybe you'd like to play the next game for me, keep my streak going." Lorrie offered.
"Can I, Daddy?" Varian asked.
"Maybe tomorrow. It's about time we got back to work. But if you really like chess, maybe Burt will make you your own set." Quirin answered.
"I'd be happy to. It's an easy task, carving a chess set." Burt replied.
David scowled. First the little twerp had interrupted the adults' game, and now he was getting rewarded? Only a stupid baby could get away with being a disruption. But David would show that little brat, he knew how to kick people when they walked past and make it look like an accident. He'd get him for sure, then.
"Alright, time for work, everyone. Varian, come with me." Quirin announced. But rather than have Varian trail behind him, Quirin picked his son up and carried him on his shoulders, unknowingly thwarting David's plan.
The End
I love learning new stuff for Tangled (in this case the use of seed drills in 1700s.) I also learned algebraic notation (chess) for this! Uppercase indicates piece that moves (K is for king, N is knight), x notates capture of a piece, and lowercase letter (file) + number (rank) indicates the square the piece moved to. Pawns are not identified by uppercase, only by the file they move from. When they make a capture the file they are on is used. So cxd5 means a pawn on a c square captured the piece on d5.