Sophies team in the world of Chaturangi
Elena Shatrandzh
Editor L. B. Mironova
Illustrator A. Yu. Mishina
Illustrator Yu. S. Kvartalova
© Elena Shatrandzh, 2023
© A. Yu. Mishina, illustrations, 2023
© Yu. S. Kvartalova, illustrations, 2023
ISBN 978-5-0060-0995-0
Created with Ridero smart publishing system
Elena Shatrandzh
Three worlds: Earth, Rukkhaya, Bellas. Three teams of chess players, three eternal comparisons: Russia, West and East. Sophie, Keira, Mark, Artem and Alisa, a team of young winners, end up in Chaturangi, a world of chess full of mysteries, wonders and magic. The children stand to learn the secrets of other worlds, get acquainted with creatures originating from different parts of the Universe Will they, just children, be able to take the varnish off, defeat evil thanks to friendship and protect their world? To do this, they must win the main match of the Grandmaster Tournament. On the other hand, would our Russian boys and girls refuse to play chess? A game that bestows clear consciousness, analytical thinking and the geometric art of moving chess pieces?!
Chapter 1.
Sophies team feeling bored
A year ago, Sophies team won all the competitions held in Russia and now it was in Cuzco, an ancient city in Peru, hosting the famous Secret Games tournament that gathered together childrens chess teams from all over the globe.
«Why are all tournaments held in the most remote corners of the planet? In the most boring cities, where there is absolutely nothing to do?», Keira, the second board and Sophies right hand, the most courageous and cheerful girl on the planet, said, whining as always. Certainly, it is difficult to stay put in one place for a long time if you have such a fiery competitive spirit. She was an attacker playing lightning-fast, attacking games, ready to give up all her pieces so that they didnt prevent her from checkmating her opponent in a few brilliant moves. This, however, was also her weakness. Therefore, the team would not let her play against opponents who loved positional styles.
«Keira, such places are needed so that we cannot focus on anything but chess, plus, you must admit, there is a certain magic about small towns», the captain tried to reason with her.
«Sophie, only the high stone jungles of Singapore or New York have magic to them. It was there where really cool tournaments were held last month! Mark, tell her we need some adventure to recharge our batteries before the final round and make sure to get out and explore every dark secret corner of this magical town,» Keira finished sarcastically.
«Keira is still a nuisance, but now she is right», Mark a merry fellow, the soul of the company, always ready for adventure, said, agreeing with Keira. His playing style was attack. However, he didnt attack as violently as Keira did. His style was more of an advance and retreat, kind of probing the opponent. Magnus Carlsen was his favorite chess player. Mark had a passion for difficult games and complex end plays that required the quick calculation of a lot of moves without a single mistake.
Virtually from her birth, Sophie could not do without a chessboard. Chess was an inseparable part of her life full of constant tournaments, different cities, all kinds of gatherings. She was 11 years old. She was just about to finish elementary school, but she was already a world chess champion among her age mates, just like her friends a dream team were champions of city-wide as well as Russian and world championships.
Sophie united all the guys by pure accident, since she always considered herself a loner. Playing in a team was a big responsibility and, most importantly, she never wanted to lose just because someone couldnt keep up with her or let the team down by losing the worst thing that could happen. The mood of each team member was important for everyone. They were like arms and legs of one organism. Sophie was the leader of her team, a real captain. She was strong in spirit, responsible, kind, fair. Her playing style was creative. She liked to mix different styles, set brilliant traps. She liked to play for the sake of art and the beauty of the game and not just for the sake of winning. Sophie dreamt of becoming a doctor without giving up participating in major chess tournaments and, perhaps, she was already obsessed with the Hippocratic oath that invoked huge responsibility she felt for her team. So, when Mark agreed with Keira, there was no option but to find an adventure for everyone.
«I would quote Alices favorite Shakespeare now: «These violent delights have violent ends, the Captain started.
«Oh nooo, no more of Shakespeare, Sophie! Suffice it that Alice always quotes him!!
«I wont», Sophie said, laughing. «Yesterday, after the game, I found in my room a handbill for an underground labyrinth that only the «most worthy can pass».
«And you didnt say a word?», Keira even leaped up in anticipation.
«Thats what we need!», Mark agreed.
«Great, since you agree, get prepared in 15 minutes. Have Artem and Alice prepared as well. Keira, since its an underground labyrinth, a white dress will not be a good idea»
«Yes, Ive got the point,» Keira shouted leaving the room.
When Marka and Keira left, Sophie quickly found that handbill, put it in her backpack, having first memorized the approximate location of the entrance to the labyrinth, put on her favorite purple sneakers, wrote to her mother a note that the next couple of hours she would be busy getting prepared for the next game and made for the exit from the hotel. Indeed, the guys were already there waiting for their captain.
«Keiiiraa!!» they had nothing to do but exclaim since the main attacker was wearing a knee-length white dress with rhinestones and a bell skirt, shining like a New Years tree laden with her neon bracelets.
«We tried to reason with her, but you know if someone wears a white dress, only another white dress can make her take it off,» Alice said, joking. «You know, Sophie, Im almost sure that today well need luck, and Keira is our Caissa.»
«Does the goddess of chess, Caissa, have any idea that she is being compared to our Keira?» Sophie said and gave a smile. «And if this is the case, Alice, then maybe we should all wear white?»
Not that the team believed in the paranormal, but Alice was not by chance the teams intuitivist, psychologist and a game planner and played many other roles; but most importantly, if she believed that luck was needed, then it would be needed for sure.
«No, I think one white dress will suffice, and one more thing: we have to go, tick-tock».
Alice literally felt what would happen next, knowing when to retreat and when to attack. Her playing style was indefinite. She, like a chameleon, skillfully adapted to the opponent she played with. The style resembled something between that of Alexandra Goryachkina and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Her excessive gentleness was a flaw that had become a virtue, deceptively tempting the opponent into a trap.
Sophie led the guys quite confidently Cusco is a small town, so memorizing the approximate location of the labyrinth was not so difficult; the guys smoothly got to the place, almost in silence, as if everyone expected something important to happen, and, therefore, tried to remember the exciting sensations for future victories, like when you recall the nights and mornings of Christmas in order to achieve a feeling of complete happiness and tedious waiting for a miracle. What makes us think that something magical is about to happen? We do not analyze our happiness; we just feel it, hoping for the best. Thats what the guys felt for the time being. So, they seized the moment to take part in the important last game the next day full of strength and energy.
It was only when they approached the place, they kind of woke up and looked at each other in surprise.
«Do you feel the same?» Sophie asked.
They had no secrets from each other and shared everything from their personal family lives to fears, dreams, wishing someone good or even bad luck. So, they werent afraid to be ridiculed in front of each other just like one couldnt laugh at their own arm or leg or head.
«Its great, but its also strange that we all froze, feeling the same thing at the same time. We, however, walked confidently across a foreign town and, most importantly, came to the right place,» Artem, the teams analyst, said. «Sophie, show me the handbill for this place,» Artem said in a very calm voice. He was thoughtful, kind and compassionate. His playing style was positional. Sergey Karjakin was his favorite chess player. His favorite opening was the Caro-Kann Defense. He took losses as life lessons.
Sophie took the handbill out, opened it, and only then they realized that it was written in the Quechua, and that standing there, in front of the entrance to the labyrinth, they did not understand a word, although before that Sophie had somehow managed to understand both the map and the attracting handbill that led them directly to that increasingly mysterious and strange place.
«It looks like we are in for not just an adventure but something more,» Alice intoned.
«Well, since we are here, it means that someone wanted it this way, and how fortunate that the desires of the Universe have coincided with ours! The stars shine and we all need it,» Alice decided to calm herself and others down by paraphrasing the words by Vladimir Mayakovsky from his immortal poem «Listen!».
«I and Artem will lead the way followed by Sophie and Kiera with you, Alice, bringing up the rear. If something happens, then you, Alice, turn around and run away. Its only you with your power of suggestion who can send the entire Peru into a tizzy and make them rescue us,» Mark said and entered the labyrinth without waiting for the team to realize the whole horror of his words.
The guys had no choice but to follow the teams intellectual and main prop to immerse themselves into the biggest adventure that would change their lives forever and they did not know that yet the life of the whole world!
Chapter 2
The mystery of the labyrinth in Peru
In the labyrinth, they came face to face with creepy silence and darkness.
«Erm Did it occur to anyone to take a flashlight?» Alice asked.
«Well, apparently, there is one in every mobile phone,» Sophie sneered, taking out her mobile phone and turning the flashlight on.
When the labyrinth was illuminated by the phones, the team saw walls covered with symbols, which, upon a closer look, turned out to be pictures of chess pieces, frayed in some places, intact here and there. Whole game notations or chess problems could be seen elsewhere.
The guys moved forward beckoned by these amazing themed walls as if they were created specifically for them. Sometimes they stopped, puzzling over a problem or trying to figure out a solution for a chess study.
None of them noticed how much time had passed and how long they had been walking, but at some point, mobile phone flashlights became completely unnecessary and the team ended up inside some kind of a room that looked like a secret room in a cave. Suddenly it became light. However, it was impossible to determine where the source of light was. It seemed to go from the very space around the room.
The room was substantially a circle, in whose center there was a chessboard with pieces on it in a position enabling a checkmate in one move (Blacks move)1:
«The queen moves to f1, checkmate in one move,» Mark said confidently and before the team had time to stop him, he did exactly what he said.
In an instant, a loud voice from nowhere said:
«The first round is over, the second one will begin in 5 seconds, but if you want to finish, leave the thing that is the most valuable for you and leave the room forever.»
«Its optimistic and strange at the same time,» Keira muttered. «Who even uses such terrible voices for childrens quests?!»
«Keira, youre reading my mind. Its like youre at your parents party when they are watching an old American movie with a terrible one-voice translation,» Sophie said.
«And Im concerned about what is going to happen next given that after the first round and the scholars mate in one move, we have to leave the most valuable thing?» Artem puzzled everyone.
Once the promised 5 seconds lapsed, the pieces on the board changed into quite a simple position: checkmate in two moves (Blacks move)2:
This time, Keira stepped up to the plate. She apparently was eager to find out what would be requested after the second round.
«Congratulations on passing the second round. The third round will begin in 3 seconds, but if you want to finish the game, leave your intuitivist and leave the room forever.»
«Me? How do they even know about me?» Alice appalled.
To put it bluntly, everyone experienced a wild fear as if at some point it had occurred to the guys that they were not playing a computer game or dreaming. Everything was really happening to them and it could very well be that they were trapped by a psychopath who specifically lured smart, but not very smart, kids there?!
They did not have time to panic or try to comprehend something, when a more difficult position appeared on the chessboard «mate in three moves» (Whites move)3:
Alice solved the problem faster than anyone else and already raised her hand to rearrange the pieces but this time Sophie was on the alert:
«Stop! Alice, we do not know how much time we are given to solve it, but intervals between tasks become less and less, why? And if our time is not limited while we are solving a problem, then maybe we will discuss what is happening right now?»
«Thats not quite right, Captain,» the voice out of nowhere said. Everyone had already been pretty much annoyed with that voice, and the word Captain was said with such a mockery that the guys felt like becoming wrestlers or whatever they called them instead of chess players.
«In fact, you really are not limited in time while solving the next problem. However, if you talk about anything but the position, you will lose and will not be able to win the next game and, therefore, continue your way through the labyrinth, pending the most important and final win.
«Great, Voice from Latrine, why do we need to pass these tests at all, and how come you know who we are?» Keira said in an angry voice.
«Your victory will save your world. We, however, cannot give this chance to unworthy. Consider this a pure test for strength.»
«What about your threatening words: «Leave the most valuable thing or a member of your team? What a lot of rubbish!» Mark also joined in.
«Defender, we didnt build the labyrinth. More likely, it built itself between your world and ours. It has its own rules and laws and if you enter it, you must keep trying till the end and win to prove that you are eligible for the Main Battle in your life or lose to confirm that the Earth has not participated in the Great Tournament for hundreds of years for a reason. And you may not just turn around and leave at any moment since you have to pay for everything. Thats the law of this Interworld. Your time is running out, players, make your move and dont bother me again.»
After that the annoying voice deactivated. And the guys had nothing to do but to nod Alice to the chessboard and everyone would continue to play by someone elses rules.
Checkmate in 4 moves (Whites move)4: