βWhen you see a good move, look for a better oneβ – Emanuel Lasker βTwisted fingers slapped the board to cover the eyes of moveβ was the desperate style shown by Shiva to avoid the unwelcome move of the opponent. Chess is the battle where fingers and brain take a long route together to reach the destination of winning road. It is a board game also known as Xiangqi and Shogi. The emergence of chess recorded as a similar game during chaturanga, in seventh century India. It was given a standardized and formulated structure in 15th century, Europe which was later adopted by 19th century.
It is an abstractive strategic game where no hidden rules and information involves. It is arranged on chessboard with 64 squares arranged in an eight β by β eight grids. Each player controls sixteen pieces where one is king, the other as queen, two as rooks, two bishops, two knights and eight pawns. It is played on a black and white structure, so the player containing white pieces move first followed by the black pieces. The main objective of the game is to seize the opponentβs king who is under immediate attack on being checkmate and there is no way to escape. The game also reaches at its defeat when a player believes the situation to behopelesss , acknowledges the defeat by resigning. That’s why, it is called as the πππ’π π€π ππ’π₯ππ§π πππ‘π‘ππ Cππππ π’ππ©π.
πΏπππππ§ππ£π© ππ€π«ππ¨ π€π πππ’π
ππππ β White king begins the game on e1. Blackβs king is opposite at e8. Each king
can make a move of one square in any different direction.
ππππ β According to the game, each player can have only two rooks (also known as castles), which begins the game on the corner squares a1 and h1 White, as well as a8 and h8 for Black. A rook can move vertically or horizontally to any unhurdled square along with the rank on which it is placed.
π½πππππ β Each player has two bishops, and it begins the game at c1and f1 for the
White, c8 and f8 for the black. A bishop can move to any unhurdled square on the diagonal from where it is placed. Thus, each player has one bishop who can move only on light coloured squares and the other bishop on the dark coloured squares.
πππππ β Both the players have one queen, who have combined powers of rook and bishop and therefore, the most flexible and powerful piece.
ππππππ β the game has two knights, where the game begins on the squares between their rook and bishops. The knight has the L β shape of two steps: first one square like a rook and the other one like a bishop but always in a direction away from the starting square. The knight has unique ability to jump over any other piece to reach the destination.
ππΌπππ β Each of the players has eight pawns, which begin the game on the second rank closest to each player. The pawns are unique in different ways: a pawn can move only forward and can never retreat. It moves and captures differently. A pawn moves to the square directly ahead of it but captures on square diagonally in front of it. An unmoved pawn has the option of moving one or two squares forward which is called en passant, available to a pawn when an enemy pawn on an adjoining file advances two squares on its starting move and could be captured if it had moved only one square. The last characteristic of the pawn occurs if it reaches end of a file, it must be promoted, and that is exchanged for a knight, queen or rook.
Β πΌππ©ππ§ ππππππ©π¨ π€π πππ’e
There are three possible results of the chess β win, lose or draw. There are six ways when draw can come about: (1) by mutual consent, (2) when neither player has enough pieces to deliver checkmate, (3) when one player who is not in check has no legal move, (5) when an identical position occurs three times with the same player having the right to move, (6) when no piece has been captured and no pawn has been moved within the period of 500 seconds. In Recent times, an organized chess arose in the 19th century. Different International competitions are governed by FIDE (the International Chess Federation).
The first internationally recognized World Chess Champion was Wilhelm Steinitz, who claimed the title in 1886. Magnus Carlsen is the present World Champion. Though the theory of chess has its own inception but different compositions of art are found in its structure. It not only connects the idea of strategy but also with different fields such as Mathematics, Computer Science, and psychology. It represents the pattern of life where a person assembles the black and white pattern of his life to achieve different goals and ambitions. One of such goal is of Shiva.Shiva has always the thought of becoming the grandmaster and his bundles and abundance of medals and trophies shows his desire to come true. It was the heat moment of competition exciting the antsy and anxiousness within the perceived nerves. It was the day when his dreams can have the wings of reality. But the board has its own words to speak the independence and heat of the competition.
Oh thy players
You are the pawns of my board
Your fingers lean down to pick the move
But the pawns are already agitated to kill the enemies
the king and queen are still at rest Mesmerizing the scene with the visuals of victory
But the aura of triumph is yet on the way
Ahha! The queen has new plans to adore
The kingβs throne needs a calculable place
Along with the queen who is reliable on the same
The rook and knight have taken the command
Working as shield to save the same
The world of chess is a square earth
Shaking the board to an extend as game
The strategy is still a need of time
Players need to focus on line
Ohh my players, let the board decide your journey
From win to lose
It is the still the opening game Shiva wanders in πππ‘ππ’π’π after the upcoming move of opponent. His conscious felt numb when his upcoming move was smelled by the opponent and he has no second plan to adapt for the same. He realized the meaning of secondary options in life when you actually need them in the pace of time. The fingers felt frozen and his next move will actually decide the future of game. Shiva was losing his seconds and he had no other strategy other than putting the queen in action. It was mere mistake when he left his king alone without plans and he got no escape from enemies by checkmateβ.
The opponent put the king out of his throne and captured the estate. Though the game ends with a loud applaud yet Shiva felt frozen. Shiva wasnβt able to accept the defeat but he got the moral for sure that βbackup with strategy is the need of timeβ. Thus the game ends with Shivaβs defeat but it was the beginning and there is more to come in the upcoming dreams. Chess is something which starts with the lessons of life and ends on the piece of board. It is more about being played than being playing. Chess never regrets you in your chapters of book but adds new pages in it.
By: Nidhi Singh
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