Yesterday's episode where Maaneet played "Snake and Ladder" reminded me of a scene I wrote for one of my Michi fics. I thought I'll give the Maaneetified version of it here for the benefit of those who had not read it. Hope you like it.
A Game of Chess
It was a bright Sunday morning. After his Tai Chi session, bath and breakfast, in that order, Maan spent an hour pouring over the Sunday newspaper while Geet got busy cleaning up the house. Once he was done with the reading, he felt bored and asked Geet if she could play chess with him.
"Chess?" asked a surprised Geet. "But I don't know how to play it," she said sadly.
"I will teach you," he said excitedly.
Geet did not look too enthusiastic, "I don't know Maan. For me games are for relaxing one's mind. I suck at games which tax the brain."
"Don't worry, with me as your instructor, you will not suck at anything," he said with confidence. "Moreover, I feel so bored Geet and I have no partner to play with. You'll be doing me a big favour by playing with me."
Geet could not refuse him after that impassioned plea. She would do anything for her husband. She smiled and nodded her head. Maan enthusiastically hunted out his chess board and chess pieces.
"You'll require a lot of patience with me. I'm quite dense, you know!" she warned Maan as he came out of his study, armed with the chess equipment.
"Not a problem. I'll not snap at you," he assured her and placed the chess board on the centre table.
He started with the rudimentaries of chess. "In chess we have two players, each controlling an army of 16 pieces - one white and one black. Before we start to play the game, we need to make sure that the board is set properly. Look at the square in the lower right-hand corner for each player. This should be a light-coloured square. An easy way to remember this rule is the phrase white on right."
Geet leaned forward to check the board. The bottom right hand square was white for both of them.
Holding up a chess piece, Maan continued, "We now need to place these pieces in their proper places. Would you like to play with the white pieces?" he asked quizzically.
She nodded her head in the affirmative.
He instructed, "Put the pieces which look like small towers in the four corner squares of the board. These towers are called rooks or castles."
After she placed the four rooks in the four corners he said, "Place the knights, which are the pieces that look like a horse's head, next to the rooks of the same colour."
She did as she was told.
"Now place the bishops next to the knights of the same colour. Bishops are the ones which have an onion shaped head. Yes, that is the one," he said as Geet picked up a white Bishop.
"Pick up the queen. This is the second tallest piece in the set and which has a crown. Good. Now, place it at the centre square of its colour. For instance the white queen should be placed in the centre white square. A good way of remembering this is queen on colour."
When Geet placed the two queens in their respective places, Maan said.
"Good. Now pick up the tallest piece in the set and which has the cross on its head. That is the King. The King's place is always next to his queen, isn't it? So place the kings next to the queens of the same colour."
After this was done, he said, "Now all the major pieces have been set. Let's go on to the smaller ones. These short pieces are the pawns," he said, picking up one of the small pieces. "You should have eight pawns of each colour. These pawns should go in each square in the row in front of the other pieces of the same colour."
Geet deftly set all the pawns on the board. After all the pieces were set on the board, the chess board was ready to be used.
"Now that our board has been set up so beautifully by my fair lady, let's move on to the next step in learning the game."
Geet felt happy that he praised her effort and referred to her as 'my fair lady'. She eagerly listened to him.
"Starting with the white pieces, the players take turns moving one piece each turn. Since you have the white pieces, you will have to make the first move."
Geet immediately tried to move one of her pieces.
"No, wait. There is more to learn before we start the game. Each piece moves in a unique manner. You need to understand how the pieces move in order to be able to play the game. The rook can move any number of squares, horizontally or vertically in a straight line, as long as there are no other pieces before it. Like most pieces, the rook cannot jump over other pieces. However, it can land on a square occupied by an opponent's piece, removing that piece from the board. This is known as capturing a piece. All pieces are capable of capturing in this manner."
He demonstrated how this is done.
"Now, coming to the bishop, this piece moves any number of squares diagonally in a straight line. Notice that the bishop will always remain on squares of one colour during a game. For example, if the bishop is on a dark square it will always stay on dark squares. At the beginning of a game, each player has both a light-squared bishop and a dark-squared bishop."
Geet nodded her head understandingly.
Maan continued his discourse, "The knight moves in the shape of an L." Seeing her confused look he hastened to explain, "This means that the knight moves two squares horizontally or vertically, and then turns at a right angle to move one more square. The knight is the only piece that can jump over other pieces. However, the knight can only capture a piece if it lands on the same square as that piece. It cannot capture all the pieces it jumps over while landing in a square." He demonstrated this move too.
"The queen combines the abilities of the rook and bishop. A queen moves any number of squares in a straight line, in any direction. This mobility makes the queen the most powerful piece in chess," he explained.
Geet looked suitably impressed. Looking up at her, he said jocularly, "Much like you. You, as my queen, are more powerful than me, aren't you?"
Geet hit his hand lightly. Maan smiled and continued, "Queens and rooks are known as major pieces and bishops and knights, which are considered of equal value, are called the minor pieces of the set."
"Unlike the powerful queen which can move in several directions, the king can only move one square in any direction. But the king is the most important piece in chess because if the king is under threat of capture, the game is over. Hence, when a king is attacked by another piece, you must avoid capture immediately. If the king is attacked, it is said to be in check. If the capture cannot be avoided, it is known as checkmate and the game is over. The king is not actually captured in chess. The king also has the ability to perform a special move known as castling, which I will teach you later.
The pawns are the least valuable pieces because they can only move in one direction, i.e, forwards; they cannot move sideways or backwards. They also can move only one square at a time. The pawn which is still in its starting square, however, has the option to move two squares directly forward. Pawns cannot capture while moving forward. They can only capture the pieces lying one square diagonally ahead of them. Although pawns may be the weakest pieces on the board, they have the potential to become much stronger. If a pawn manages to make it all the way to the other end of the board, that pawn can be promoted to any piece its owner wants, other than a king. Most of the time, a pawn will be promoted to a queen because queen is the most powerful piece. However, the player can choose to promote to a rook, knight or bishop. Promoting to something other than a queen is known as under-promotion."
Geet listened to all this information with rapt attention.
"There are more complicated rules for the game which I will explain as we proceed. But are these basic rules clear to you?"
Geet nodded her head in the affirmative.
"OK then, let's start the game and see how much you have understood. I'll address any problem you may face as we proceed," he said and asked Geet to begin as she had the white pieces.
Over the next one hour, by making several mistakes which Maan patiently corrected, Geet slowly got the hang of the game. In between though, at one point, Maan nearly lost his cool when she kept making the same mistakes while moving her knights. He soon kept a check over his temper, realising that he will only scare her off the game if he yells at her. His patience and perseverance paid off because Geet finally learnt to play the game without prompts from him. He let her win the first couple of games to help build her confidence. As expected her wins were a tremendous boost to her confidence and she started playing the game more cheerfully rather than fearfully as she did at the beginning.
In time, Geet developed such a liking for the game that every Sunday she would come up to him with the chess board in her hands and call him to play with her. Maan was very happy to see her interest in his favourite game. Nakul brought in hot pakodas and bhajjis for them to munch while they played the game.
Chess soon became the regular Sunday morning activity. Geet became so proficient in the game that Maan once lost to her without intending to. The game was evenly poised when Geet moved her rook up and locking her gaze with his, she gave him one of her dazzling smiles, making his heart go flip-flop. He momentarily lost his concentration and made the wrong move which exposed his king to attack.
"Check," she said confidently.
Maan looked from her face to the chess board. She was right. His king was indeed in check. He hastily tried to move his king away, only to find that he was completely cornered.
"Check-mate," she said in her sweet voice.
"Damn!" he cursed. "I forbid you from flashing one of your dazzling smiles whenever we play chess," he said thoughtlessly.
Geet looked at him in surprise.
He soon realised how foolish his order sounded and went red in embarrassment. She broke into a peel of laughter when the full import of what he just said sunk in her mind. Maan joined in her mirth and they laughed together till they cried happy tears.
The following Sunday they were both absorbed in the game which was critically poised, with Geet slightly in a weaker position than Maan. Geet stared at her husband's bent head as he surveyed the chess pieces, wondering what move to make next. Just as he was about to make his move, he looked up at her and she promptly flashed him her smile in order to distract him. He immediately raised his palm in front of him so as to blot out the view of her face.
Shaking his head, he said, "No, no, no madam. You cannot fool me so easily. I refuse to be swayed by your smiles."
She pushed his palm down, and retorted, "OK, if you will not get swayed by my smiles then why are you avoiding seeing my face?"
"Well, I am not taking a chance, considering the potency of that killer smile," he laughed and moved his queen next to her king. "Check," he said confidently.
She tried protecting her king but in two moves the game was over.
"Well, I may have lost this king," she smiled ruefully, toying with the chess king in her hands, "but I have a much stronger, more handsome and extremely loving king by my side. So why should I fear." She then leaned forward to kiss his lips. Maan held her face and reciprocated the kiss with equal fervour.
(for the information on Chess)
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