After the fifth round, when the last drawing problem was solved, an additional door opened and the guys continued to move through the labyrinth.
Draw (Whites move)5:
Chapter 3
When secrets are needed
«Should we really go further?» cautious Artem intoned.
«Guys, lets tune up for positive and victory as much as possible! Whatever happens next, we need to be at our best,» Alice said as she took everyones hands and quickly gathered them into a circle.
Everyone closed their eyes unquestioningly Alice felt danger or victory well in advance. Her intuition helped them out so many times that they learned to trust her pretty quickly. Sophie was trained in meditation by her coach at the age of seven, when her uncertainty did not allow her to win even win-win games. The mechanism was simple, but it worked: «Imagine yourself in the mountains (in the forest, by the sea, in a desert, put it another way, in a place where you can feel comfortable and free). You need to feel your entire body: each toe is immersed in the sand, each finger feels the movement of the sea breeze, only the sound of the sea surrounds you and you will stay there as long as your body needs to solve the problem that you have set for it.» Therefore, when Alice told the guys to close their eyes, thereby ordering the brain and body to tune up for concentration, victory and positive attitude, the team did it in a matter of seconds.
When you do self-control exercises daily since the age of seven, this practice becomes almost automatic, even during the gameplay, and allows figuring out a cool move even in a strange and scary labyrinth. This time, Sophie imagined «mountains, height of freedom, clean air, a hovering eagle, freshness of the wind and the most beautiful views in the world.
This was probably the only secret the guys didnt share with each other the place where they imagine themselves when meditating. They deliberately didnt share it with each other, so that even by chance the information would not go beyond the team and no one might undermine their victory, but, most importantly, no one could break their spirit by destroying their make-believe world. For example, you know that a person images themselves in a desert. If every time you meet you tell news about the dangers of a desert, repeat someones words about the horrors of sand and in every possible way turn a person against a desert, then pretty soon their subconscious will instill anxiety and fear in that person instead of helping them find sanctuary and a way to self-confidence and victory. And the worst thing is that they wont even guess the trick right away and are likely to believe that the theory of self-control is nonsense. It took the guys a couple of minutes to start smiling.
«And why did we get scared? So far, the adventure is just the coolest one,» Keira said, laughing. «Everything we need is here: chess, a dark labyrinth, mysterious voices from another world and «another world and interworld! This is an amazing quest, and so far, they havent charged us a penny.»
«Uh, Keira, I think there are a couple more pros. Its obviously free and maybe its really a different world,» Artem said.
«Artem, we know your faith in magic, other worlds and all that kind of stuff but you understand that the time for fairy tales will be a little later, its only lunchtime, and youre not your favorite Harry Potter at all!»
«Well, Keira, guys, just think, chess pieces re-arranging themselves and materializing from mist, a voice that knows everything about us, a labyrinth full of prehistoric drawings, but at the same time, kind of from the future We are like heroes of Marvel Comic books, superheroes! If all this is based on science, do you have any idea how much such a quest should cost?
«Artem, we agree that there are moments that we do not understand or they seem fantastic. But I am sure that there is an explanation for everything, and earthlier than what brought us into the inter-world subspace. Because if this is the case, then guys, we have a little more problems than just going through the labyrinth. We should get out at about the same time that we entered it and not in a couple of hundred years, right?» Sophie joked, or not joked
«We will deal with problems as they arise. Now we have to go through the labyrinth and, as we can see, it gives the best fit for us since it consists of chess problems. All other issues will be dealt with as they come. But now, we better go through that door because, judging by the slowly fading light, our time here is running out,» Alice reprimanded the team.
The guys looked around and saw that it had got much darker. The light seemed to kind of retreat from the walls towards the center of the room, concentrating there as a bright star with a beam of light emitted towards the open door in which the guys stood and leaving a literally black hole behind.
Despite the desire to comprehend and capture the fantastic moments of what was happening in their memory, they rushed towards the other door that already started closing. Alice managed to escape at the last moment. The door slammed behind her and the nasty voice said: «Sophie, your team will lose if you doubt your every step.»
Chapter 4
Earth teams first victories
«My team consists of winners. Remember that for future reference, Voice, and do not impede us in winning!» the captain replied angrily.
After a mental journey into their fantasy worlds, the strength and self-confidence of the team noticeably increased and anger at attempts to confuse the team gave the necessary strength to win. Alice, as usual, turned out to be right and urged everyone to concentrate at the right time since the figures wearing the cassocks of the monks of the Dark Ages, about three meters tall, were sitting hunched over their own chess boards obviously for a reason. Actually, everyone guessed what the next stage of the labyrinth was before the nasty voice began to broadcast:
«Dear players of two different worlds, get ready to take your seats at the chess boards. Each of you will have to play with an opponent to be able to go further, the losers will be instantly teleported to their worlds. Since you are all fighting for the opportunity to perform at our galactic Arena, both win and lose of each participant are important. After all, if one of you loses, then the winner will take your place.»
«Dont be ridiculous! Are you saying that if I lose, then that lanky monk will automatically become a member of our team instead of me?» Keira exclaimed.
Everyone echoed her showing indignation and unwilling to play by someone elses rules. The voice, however didnt care, as did the labyrinth the more so since rules are rules. For that reason, instead of answering questions, the voice simply activated a countdown timer until the start time of the game: everyone had 30 seconds to choose a seat and an opponent. The guys rushed to take a closer look at the monks to at least intuitively determine the playing style of each of them and choose a suitable opponent based on that. Of course, they were all «versatile players» and Keira could play tediously long by engaging in a positional battle while Sophie could opt for a wild attacking style, but why strain when you can take it easy?! A quick analysis did not help, especially since the guys could not see the faces of the monks: all of them wore long hoods and their faces were behind some kind of haze, either a strange holographic mask or they didnt have faces at all Only the chairs differed in color. So, they all shrugged the shoulders and took the chairs of their favorite colors, thats, exactly where the labyrinth wanted them to be seated, thus, perhaps falling into a trap or perhaps simply where everyone should have ended up. When the countdown time hit zero, several new scoreboards lit up above each table and the countdown began.
«1) e4 e6 2) f3 d6 3) c4 f6 4) c3 c6 5) d4 O-O 6) e5 b4 7) exf6 xf6 8) e3 g6 9) O-O h5 10) e1 d5 11) b5 a5 12) d2 b6 13) xc6 b7 14) xb7 ab8 15) a6 be86,» no thoughts, no feelings, the mind is working at its limit and, at the same time, the subconscious is showing the best of what has been learned. Each of Sophies team believed in other team members, there was no need to divert attention, everyone focused on their chess games, playing in overdrive, because they did not want to leave the team without each others support. When Sophie gave mate, it must have been her first breath like she had not breathed all this time. And before her very eyes, the monk that lost the game really disappeared in a portal that emerged out of nowhere. It was probably that moment when she believed the voice and the labyrinth 100 per cent for the first time because it was simply impossible to make such a trick or cause such an illusion.
After the monk disappeared, Sophie allowed herself to look around and check how her friends were playing. They also won their games in less than no time. Mark won his game with a nice move to h2, Artem with a pawn mate, Keira with a knight-and-bishop mate; only Alice continued to play. So, everyone came closer to her to evaluate the position and share their mental streams of strength and confidence with her.
In fact, the position was a draw for both players, but the voice did not say anything about a draw Therefore, they had nothing to do but wait for the end of the game. The players repeated their moves several times and everyone saw how the chess clock stood still.
«Well, congratulations, Sophie, your team has been replenished with one more player. Now your team has as many members as required to be eligible for the Tournament in our world. You may access the road to the interstellar portal. Bring victory to your world and protect your planet for the next hundred years,» the same voice said.
And the monk who was Alices opponent joined our players as a full member of the Earth team.
Chapter 5
A new member of the team is a monk chess player?!
Immediately after these words were pronounced, the door opened and the team saw a room with a real portal. It sparkled with gold glitter, and inside it, somewhere in the depths of outer space, another world waiting for the guys to test their minds was visible.
«Did everyone understand the words about protecting the Earth for the next hundred years?» Artem asked.
«Seriously, the interstellar portal is right in front of you and nobody is concerned about people or «non-people disappearing into nowhere?» Sophie said.
«Do I understand correctly that the monk is now in the same boat with us?» Mark said in his turn.
«My name is Tkhanguriedil,» the monk said suddenly. «You think in a very funny way, but I like your team. I will try to be of service to you. Earth protection means that if we win, it is your team from Earth that will become the owner of the Streams of Power, an artifact capable of protecting your planet from almost any external threat and enabling its unprecedented scientific and spiritual development. Your planet is very strong. For many hundreds of years, the artifact belonged to you, but you have not participated in centenary tournaments for five hundred years. The Inca emperor Atualpa was the last holder of the Streams of Power from your planet. After he voluntarily handed over the Streams of Power to other participants of his teams who were residents of another planet, there has been no single worthy player from Earth for five hundred years and the artifact has not been on your planet for the same period. Its a miracle that you have managed to think in the Chaturangi language without the Streams of Power.»
«We will call you Edie. Thats the first thing. Secondly, Im Sophie, this is Mark, Artem, Alice and Keira. Thirdly, what do you mean saying that we think in the Chaturangi language? And who wants to blow up our world? What are the Streams of Power?» Sophie asked.
«Edie? Hmm, I like it. Chaturangi it is the world of chess, world game, illusion world. No one knows where Chaturangi is or how to get there. It chooses residents by itself; it sets up teams and designates players by itself. Chess, as you are accustomed to seeing it, is just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, it is not just a game, it is a certain device of consciousness, thinking, ability to retreat from the world into a cocoon and enter the direct flow communicating with the Cosmic consciousness that you call the subconsciousness. They want to blow up not only our world. A few years ago, children from planet Akkhshvar won the tournament and the Streams of Power artifact went to their world. We dont know what happened, but after some time the Akkhshvar team literally went insane and tried to destroy Rukkhaya, my planet, and they were ready to do it but we froze time by opening the portal to the labyrinth. Our only chance was to initiate the Tournament of True Power ahead of time and try to win in a fair chess battle, because during the Tournament, the Streams of Power go back to the world of Chaturangi, and in case of victory, the artifact goes to the winner. We hope to catch the explosion on time and transmit it to an empty space where there is no time.
«That is, Edie, if I got it right, when you dare the winner of the tournament, a portal to this labyrinth opens and you can get to the arena, where you will fight for some kind of artifact that can destroy a whole planet?» Mark asked to get things straight.
«Not really, Mark,» Edie replied. «Only one of the worlds that has ever won the Tournament can challenge ahead of time and it must use all the energy of the planet for this. That is, if our team wins, the Streams of Power artifact can save the life of my planet, and if we lose, then my Rukkhaya planet will inevitably be destroyed by an explosion. When the labyrinth opens, all worthy teams of the Universe automatically get into it from different time parallels and time in the rest of the world freezes. Someone just gets sucked in and I take it that you were virtually led by the hand by Fate. But all of us here must go through the primary selection to be eligible for the main game that will consists of several rounds and the main games prize will be the Streams of Power.
«Still, it is not clear how dangerous this artifact is for our planet because it is no coincidence that we have not had it for five hundred years,» Alice inquired.
And naturally none liked that it was Alice who asked this because it could mean only one thing the artifact was really dangerous. At the same time, everyone felt that they could trust the monk who was not a monk at all
«Dangerous, but if you managed to start thinking in the Chaturangi language again, learned how to control your consciousness and subconsciousness, the Streams of Power artifact will not do harm but enhance your abilities,» Edie answered.
«Thinking in the Chaturangi language again? What do you mean?» Artem asked.
«Atualpa was the last owner of the Streams of Power from your planet, he won the Tournament as a member of his team. It was a long time ago, and chess was a little different game with different rules. Not children, but adults, accomplished grandmasters or just players with great potential for analysis could play it. Atualpa rewarded each of his subjects with the light of the Streams, laid foundation for strategies and clarity of thinking and then handed over the Streams of Power to other members of his team from another planet. The reasons for this are unknown. However, as far as we know, it was his ability to be the best player on your planet that Atualpa angered those who came to take his lands and they killed him, following which the Chaturangi world made the Tournament for children only,» Edie explained.