#chess metaphors

[yourheartonfire]

Secret Santa 2024!

This one is for @wren-l-winter for the secretsanta2024 exchange! Prompt: Explore the dynamic between two rivals. One, an ancient vampire, and the other, a new vampire hunter eager to have her name written into legends.

It was a properly dramatic confrontation. Sheeting rain, lightning flashes, a marble floored pavilion in the middle of the city's oldest cemetery. The hunter skidded across the water-slicked surface on one knee, ending in a half-spin and a perfect three point landing, sword out and eyes narrowed.

The ancient vampire, the dreaded apex predator herself, rolled her eyes. "For fuck's sake," she said in a perfectly modern accent, rubbing the bridge of her nose. "It's going to be a clear night tomorrow, and this rain is going to wreak hell on all that fancy leather you're wearing. Can't we do this then?"

The hunter sprang. The sword flickered out. The vampire flung herself down into a shoulder roll. Sparks exploded against the pillar, inches from where her neck had been moments ago.

"Ow," said the vampire, brushing water off the shoulder of her wool coat. Somehow, none of the rain seemed to stick to her pale skin or dark hair. "How fun to see someone with a sense of the dramatic. Do you talk?"

"No," the hunter said and lunged again.

The vampire hissed, dodging and retreating from the flurry of blows, leaping with superhuman grace up onto the banister. "C'mon, kid. I'm giving you a chance here to walk away. I don't know which mothball-ridden cult trained you in sword-fu or whatever this is, but I can tell you this won't end well. It never ends well for your type."

"Don't try to get in my head, you monster!" the hunter snarled. "I grew up on social media, and believe me, your psychological warfare has nothing on unsupervised teenage girls."

The vampire arched a flawless eyebrow. "Oh honey. If that's your idea of evil, you are not at all prepared for this."

"If that's so," the hunter said with just the tiniest sneer, "why are you retreating?"

The vampire shrugged, and thunder boomed behind her as she spun around a pillar. "Maybe I'm sick of killing. Maybe the long centuries have infected me with a sense of empathy. Maybe I just don't want to deal with vampire hunter secret society bullshit again. The last time that was in fashion was the nineties. You don't want to go back there, kid. The economy was great but those cargo pants were a nightmare."

The hunter flicked water off her sword. "I think you're afraid," she said, letting the tip of her sword ring against the marble as she stalked closer. "I think you've gotten too comfortable, too lazy. Too used to picking off the easy targets. You don't remember what it's like to face a real threat-"

"I think you're dulling your blade," the vampire said with a half smile.

For a brief moment, the hunter glanced down. The vampire moved.

The world turned upside down with a painful crack, and suddenly the hunter was on her back, head dangling over the edge of the loggia. Hands empty, wrists pinned.

The hunter froze, adrenaline turning to ice in her veins. Oh god, her veins. Oh, no no no. It wasn't supposed to end like this.

"So," the vampire said with a fanged smile, shifting her weight over the hunter's hips. "Now what, honey?"

The hunter swallowed, and then flinched as the vampire's eyes flicked down to her throat. "You said something about a rain delay?" she said hoarsely.

The vampire chuckled, a noise like glass shattering. Her eyes seemed to widen, turning a honey-golden color as slow and sticky and sweet as molasses. "You've got guts, I'll give you that. Who are you, sweetheart? More importantly - who sent you?"

The hunter gasped and slammed her eyes shut, before the hypnosis could take her.

"Now, now," the vampire purred. "No need for loyalty. You have potential, I'll grant you that, but whoever it was that sent you after me as your first target is either cruel or insane. Or," she said thoughtfully, almost to herself, "they wanted to send a message. Run a pawn out to take a swing at the queen, while they get the board in order. What an opening move. Where did that sword go?"

Abruptly the vampire's weight and grip were gone. The hunter flailed up to her feet with all the grace of an overturned hedgehog. The vampire was across the pavilion, examining the blade, her back to the hunter as if she'd dismissed her from her thoughts. As if the hunter was nothing.

"I am not a pawn!" the hunter screamed, water running down her face and empty hands. "They sent me to end you and I will!"

"Sweet girl," the vampire said, tucking the sword smoothly into her belt as she stood. "You're a Christmas gift to me from an old enemy. A little holiday treat before the real fight begins." She tilted her head. The hunter took a step back. "But. You do have potential. I'm rather curious to see what happens if you do make it across the board, if you'll be a rook, a bishop, a knight. Yes. A little catch and release might be fun. You go on back to your masters, tell them I reject their trap. Look them in the face and ask them what game they are playing. But-" The vampire's eyes lit up from within. "-that's after you pay the penalty."

The hunter turned and fled. She made it down before a clawed hand caught in her hair, yanking her back into an iron embrace.

"J'adoube, little pawn," the vampire whispered into her ear. Hot breath and sharp points sank into the hunter's throat and everything went white and cold.

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

So, I was talking with some friends over here and we just made the connection of there being six animorphs and six archetypes of chess pieces! So now we're wondering: if you had to assign each Animorph to a chess piece, who do you think would be what?

Answered here!

[tilda-rothery]

Breaking away from Dovesso to attempt to write a Hicsqueak one-shot 🫣

Her life, Hecate decides, is no different than that of a game of chess.

[veralevina15]

My Radovid's chess monologue analysis is now on AO3!

"His greatest foes surrounds him. His own chessmen might trap him. And that is check...and death". Unfortunately, many fans of The Witcher didn't understand Radovid's chess monologue, in which His Majesty vividly and accurately described a black and white checkered field of politics. Let's figure out what the Stern King told Geralt in the chess club!

Continue reading on AO3...

Don't forget about kudos! Not only registered users but also guests can leave kudos and comments!

You can also read my chess monologue analysis on Tumblr

Эта же статья на русском на AO3 и на Фикбуке

[quicksilverlightning]

“It’s a killing game, Kaito,” Kokichi sighs, letting some small part of the mask slip to reveal the bone-deep exhaustion that has settled into his being. “Everyone here has been too focused on the killing part to realize that they should have been worried about the game.”

“It doesn’t matter who the Mastermind is,” his voice comes out harsh, but the edges are softened by exhaustion and frustration. “Who’s on the other side of the board is irrelevant if you flip the entire table."

[tomboxed]

knight to k6

[pebblegalaxy]

Check and Mate: The Quest for Dominance in Life's Grand Game

Check and Mate: The Quest for Dominance in Life's Grand Game #LifeStrategy #ChessAndLife #PersonalGrowth #SuccessPhilosophy #BeyondTheGame

In the timeless game of chess, there comes a moment of reckoning when one player’s strategic brilliance outmatches the other’s, leading to the inevitable conclusion: check and mate. Yet, beyond the confines of the chessboard, this phrase extends far beyond a mere game. It serves as a metaphor for life’s relentless pursuit of dominance and victory, where every move is calculated, every decision…

[quicksilverlightning]

I'd like to put forth the argument that the King is the one piece Kokichi can't be - the game ends when the King is taken. Kokichi set up a situation that demanded his death; you can't sacrifice your King.

I'd consider he and Shirogane to be the Queens instead - the most powerful pieces of their respective sides, but not necessary to continued game function. Understanding this point is exactly what makes Kokichi such a powerful player; he knows the actual King he must depose is Monokuma. The rest of the cast drops the ball so hard on this that they team up with their enemy in chapter five. It's a killing game, but only Kokichi is paying attention to the "game" part.

Combined with his willingness to make sacrifices, Kokichi is an absolute powerhouse in the chess metaphor. No single piece can be more important than the goal, even the most powerful piece; the cast that survives to chapter six wins in the end because they accept this fact. They become willing to end thier lives to end Danganronpa. Their King is not represented by an individual character, but by the group's collective will; that isn't something that can be taken out of the game as easily as a person.

Kokichi's Name Is Pretty Interesting, Actually

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Most people already know this, but for those who don't, 'Ouma' (王馬, or オウマ) translates to King Horse, and Kokichi (小吉, or コキチ) means Small Luck.

What never made sense to me was why 'King Horse' was chosen as Kokichi's surname. 'King' sort of makes sense as he's the Ultimate Supreme Leader, but what did horses have to do with anything? Other than his laugh in the JP, 'Nishishi', and the horse's head in his room, there was virtually nothing in the text that linked him to horses in any way whatsoever. These are both very small aspects of Kokichi's character as it is, and it feels weird for him to be named after them - they've always read more like little puns included because of his name, not the origin of the name itself, so what was the actual reasoning?

It goes without saying that there's a lot of chess symbolism in Kokichi's character. He's always planning ahead, places his faith only in logic (famously the most important element of chess), loves games, wears a checkerboard pattern, etc etc, but something less often discussed is that his name plays into this theme too.

'King' and 'Horse' are both pieces you find on a chess board. The King is the most important piece, with the game ending if it's taken by the other player, and the horse, while technically called the Knight, is a pretty recogniseable piece in its own right.

Kokichi sees himself as the King. He straight up says as much in the iconic line, "This school is mine, I am the King."

He had it in his head that if he was killed by Miu in chapter 4, all would be lost, because he's the specialist princess in the entire world the group's saving grace. If he dies before he can properly execute his plan, the plan (which he believes is the key to saving the others and ending the game) dies with him. The game that Kokichi is playing - the one directly opposing the mastermind, not the actual Killing Game itself - would be over. And so, he sacrifices Miu and Gonta, much like you'd sacrifice pawns in a game of chess to protect the King.

Not only that, but a King is nessecary for a Checkmate, which is exactly what Kokichi was trying to create in Chapter 5.

The mastermind takes the role of the other King on the board. Kokichi wanted to trap Monokuma, and by extension, the mastermind, in a situation where there was no comprehensible answer, breaking the game's structure and in theory, forcing him to end it prematurely. Whether or not this would actually work is up for debate.

Kokichi Oma is one big chess reference.

That's all.

*drives away*

[rrotostap]

#shuakeweek2024 | Day 5 | Royalty

Two kings, one game

[pepperfellover]

A little Valentine's Day Comission 💌

for my beloved @scribbat of young Eraqus and Xehanort, back in their prime (before the horrors of being doomed by the narrative).

[hija-ck]

moves and counter-moves ♟️

[cardasia]

okay okay but the metaphor when christine simultaneously isn't moving fast enough for spock at chess and isn't moving fast enough for him in their relationship while jim is playing the game in his head from across the room

[camarilla-arts]

Thinking about Sandra Lynne and Sklonda friendship. Sandra had to catch the Kalina-plague from somewhere. 👀

[wotzka]

So Bioware has already said that we can customize our Inquisitor in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, and a lot of people think this means they'll be an NPC, like Hawke in DA:I. I actually think there's a chance we can also play them.

Why do I think this? Because the playable character is called Rook, and there's this one chess play I keep thinking about:

Only move in chess where two pieces move at once, huh? Interesting 🤔

[threetrenchcoatsinatrenchcoat]

queen's gambit, one of the first phrases in the album (usually just referring to a gambit involving the queen's pawn), acontextually just means queen's sacrifice, aka losing a powerful woman to gain something more, aka the plot of the album

[wulfhalls]

everyone present understanding the cultural implications and letting it happen anyways