****
The two knights' defense was now the position after the move I made, knight to f6. I thought for I while before moving my knight, thinking if I should play the traditional Italian opening. But I decided to go with Nf6 to make the position different so that I could measure how much he knows in chess, as I sensed he was a great player.
He was thinking about what move to play next and decided to move his knight from f3 to g5, the square diagonally right from my knight. The move came as a bit of a surprise for me, as I haven't come across this move yet. I've been playing for a long time ever since I was born, but it still surprised me. I took a look at the board and tried to think what was the purpose of Ng5.
After some thought, I noticed that his bishop at c4, together with his knight at g5, was eyeing the square diagonally right from my king, the f7 square. That square is considered black's weak point as it only has one defender, the king, so it was hard to defend.
So he knows how to attack, huh?
He knows how to play. The fact that he knew that the f7 square is weak proves that to me. I thought about it and played pawn to d5, attacking the bishop. Now there's no double attack on the f7 square. He captured my pawn with his own, exd5- x indicates a capture has been made. I expected this as my pawn had two defenders the knight on f6 and the queen, so it was a fair trade. I took back the pawn with my knight, Nxd5. This was good as this move also opened up my queen's diagonal squares so that his knight is now in its line of attack.
Any good player would retreat the knight and escape. But his next move completely shocked me. Instead of retreating, he captured the f7 pawn with his knight, Nxf7. This was a strange move, as he moved his knight without any hesitation, and with no backup, as the bishop's line of sight to the f7 square was blocked by my knight on e5. Although that move did have a meaning behind it, at least I think so. The purpose of the move was to fork my queen and rook.
A fork is a tactic in chess in which one piece simultaneously attacks two or more enemy pieces, in this case, my queen and rook. But even if that was the purpose of Nxf7, the Knight was unguarded and can be captured by my king. The downside of taking the knight with my king is that I could no longer castle.
Castling in chess means moving the king two spaces horizontally and then bringing the rook directly to the other side of the king. This was a special move to take your king to safety, as the middle of the board is a dangerous square for the king, as it can be easily targeted by enemy pieces. So I could no longer do so if I capture the knight.
But I thought, "a free piece is free." and so I took it, Kxf7. Little did I know that that was a mistake.
He immediately slides his queen to f3, which attacks my king, Qf3+, a check. + means that there is a check- an attack on the king. When the king is in check, you can get out of it in three ways: block the check, capture the piece making the check, or move the king. The first two options weren't available so I had to move my king. I slid it over to g8. This move seems to take it to safety but I was wrong.
He captured my knight on d5 with his queen on f3. His move came with a check, Qxd5+, and my queen was now in the same file as his, facing each other. I thought I could make a queen trade.
Piece exchanges can be good or bad for any player. If I make this trade, his attack on my king can be diffused. With one less attacker on my king, I could make a counterattack after this sequence of moves. If he is looking to trade queens, this would be a bad one for him.
Plus, I was in check, and I can't move my king, as it was enclosed in my pieces. I decided to make the trade, Qxd5. And as I expected, he took it back with a check, Bxd5+.
Once again, my king can't move. I had no choice but to block with my bishop of the light squares, Be6.
But he took it again with the bishop. I looked at the chessboard, trying to find anything else to get away from the check, but to no avail. Is this...
"Checkmate." *Bxe6#. # means checkmate in chess notations.*
He took the words right out of my mouth. It was checkmate, as my king couldn't get out of the check. Therefore, it was checkmate. Game over for me. He won. He is worthy.
"Congratulations, Naoto Shinji-san. You've won." I accepted my loss as I looked back at him. He did not react to my statement, instead, he was only looking at the board.
"Naoto-san?" I asked, trying to snap him out of it. It worked, as he looked back at me.
"Eh? Oh, I won." He said, looking like he didn't know what had happened.
"Yes, you have. And you have proven yourself worthy of my support."
"I see." He responded, but he was still looking down.
"Now, Naoto-san, shall we become partners?"
"Sorry."
"Eh?" His answer baffled me. Did he just refuse to be my partner?
"Umm, sorry, what did you just say." I tried to clarify what he said.
"Sorry. I can't."
I didn't mishear it. He did say no.
"Why?"
"Because I've already quit chess," he said.
"You've quit chess? Why?" Why would he do that? I questioned myself. He's a great player, so why would he quit?
He stood up and went to the balcony door, opening it and going outside. The air was blowing on his hair. He looked back at me and told me a story...
To be continued...