The checkered chessboard now lay in front of us. The castle-looking pieces, the rooks lay on each corner. Beside them were horse-looking pieces, the knights. To their left were the bishops, shaped like an elephant's trunk. At the center stood the king and queen-placed at the color of the square it's playing for. And right in front of them all were the pawns, eight per each side.
"Now then, Shinji-san. Shall we play?" She smiled.
"Yes. Let's do it." I said it. I was to play chess again. A game I promise to never care about again. And now, I had to play it again against not a human, but a mysterious being called a spirit. The chessboard was ready for action, but there was one thing missing...
"Uhh, where's the chess clock?" I asked
A chess clock is a device used to keep track of the remaining time a player has when playing chess. It consists of two adjacent clocks with buttons atop.
"Ah, well. That's because I want to evaluate your strength without the pressure of the clock."
The clock does add pressure when playing the game, especially if your time is running low. So I guess she wants me to show my full potential. Without a clock, it will be much more easier.
"I see. Let's play now." I readied myself to play chess again.
"Yes. Let us."
She had the black pieces whilst I has the white ones, meaning I was to have the first move. I guess she wanted me to go first. I reached for the pawn in front of my king and moved it two spaces forward. Pawns have an option to move forward either one or two squares, afterwards which, they can only move one square. In chess notations, it would be written as e4, the most popular first move in chess.
Chess notations are used to record moves made by a chess piece. They can be used for training when looking at the pieces' positions on the board. The horizontal squares, called files, are labeled at the side with numbers, one to eight from bottom to top. While the vertical ones, called ranks, were labeled at the bottom with letters, A to H, from left to right. Each square has its own name according to its rank and file. The pawn I moved was now in the E file, at the fourth rank, therefore it is notated as e4.
"Hmm..." She looked like she was studying my move. Then, she moved the pawn in front of her own king two squares forward, written as e5. My king's pawn and hers were now facing each other. Despite that, they cannot capture one another, as pawns can only capture a piece one space diagonal from them and they cannot move backward.
It was my turn next. I grabbed the knight to my right and placed it in the square f3- Nf3, one space diagonally right from my pawn. It's written that way because the letter K was already taken by the king, therefore is notated as N, while we do not write pawn moves with a P at the start-only the square they move to, case in point, e4. And yes, it did move from g1 to f3, as the knight moves at a sort of L line, three squares vertical, one horizontal, or vice versa- one vertical, three horizontal. Nf3 is a logical move as it attacks the pawn on e5.
Similarly, Megumi-san grabbed the knight to her right and placed it on c6- Nc6. Another logical move as it defends the pawn on e5. I then moved my bishop to c4- Bc4. Transposing the position to what's called the Italian opening, the most popular opening in chess.
She rested her face in her hand, seemingly thinking about what move to play. The Italian opening is popular at the beginner levels. I played this because I wanted to see if I could still play the game, go back to basics, as they say. Then, she moved her other knight to f6- Nf6, transposing the opening to a two knights defense.
Up until this point, I have been playing at a reasonable pace, but now I decided to think. Not because I couldn't find a move, but because I thought about what attack should I play. The real test begins now...
To be continued...