Shatranj | D. Al Ghul

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The rules of chess are simple.

There are two sides, light and dark, set to battle against each other. Both sides are controlled by external forces and their goal is to win.

Winning however is not as simple as it sounds.

In chess, the main target is the king and each piece is moved on the board to facilitate the final checkmate. The side that manages to checkmate the king wins. And the other side loses the game.

Just like in every other game, both winning and losing comes with its own price. Both sides have to sacrifice their pieces, either pawns, knights, bishops, or castles in the battle. Sometimes even the queen takes the fall.

But it is the queen that has the power to determine the outcome on the board as it is the most powerful piece of all the sixteen pieces set on a chessboard.

Even the king has not enough power when compared to the queen.

Capable of taking down each and every piece, the queen is the deadliest chess piece on either side. And if the player knows how to use the queen well, victory will be written in his favor.

However, when compared to real life, the rules of chess do not always apply. There is no truce in chess, both sides fight till the very end. Unlike real life when enemies eventually come to a ceasefire, there is no such thing in the world of chess.

One side has to win and the other loses or else the game will continue forever.

Damian Al Ghul had played chess ever since he was a child, sitting in front of his grandfather and learning the rules from one of the deadliest men alive.

He had been taught that life is but a game of chess and every person is a chess piece. Only the ranks are different as some fulfill the role of pawns, initiating a move to get taken down. Some serve as knights, some as bishops, some as rooks, and some even as the king and queen.

He had been taught that the king could be anyone he wished to protect including himself. The only difference was that he had to think like a chess master while protecting that piece and not as the king himself.

The king of a chessboard can only move four places, putting it at risk. The queen can move countless places thus making it the perfect defender and attacker.

But if he was the king, instead of waiting to be saved by the queen, he would have to set the game so that the queen ends up doing exactly what he wanted and fulfilling the role to the best of its ability.

To others, he should appear as the king, helpless and reliant on his pieces to save him. While in reality, he should be the chess master himself, administering the game in his favor.

A lesson taught at such a young age was bound to get rooted in his mindset. Such that he couldn't help but see every other person as a piece on the board of his life.

However, he wasn't the only person acting as a chess master in his own life. His mother had long since held the task of making sure that everything went in favor of them, using the pieces around her son to ensure his safety and lasting reign.

Talia Al Ghul had taken every decision to make sure that her son benefited from it. She had declared him the successor but instead of waiting for him to inherit the title of the Demon head, she had decided to assign it to him herself when he came of suitable age.

She didn't want him to tread on the paths she had to choose in the past to prove her worth for that position. She decided to give it to him herself and observe from the sidelines.

In a few years' time, her son would be the one leading the League of Assassins, he would hold the power and prestige that came with the title of the Demon Head. As a result, he would have both allies and enemies; the light and dark sides of a chessboard set out in front of him.

From then onwards, each decision he was going to take would be like a move on his life's chessboard. There would be pawns to claim, rooks to defend and knights to capture the other pieces.

And Talia would be there to guide him until he was able to maneuver his decision on his own. She was training him to be the strongest and most powerful Demon Head the world would ever see and she needed him to learn everything she knew and more.

She wanted him to be undefeatable.

A king that could never be checkmated, a ruler whose reign had no end and a son who would make his mother proud of him.

Little did she know that bestowing anyone with that extreme power resulted in a demise eventually. She felt she would be able to steer him away from every single thing that had the potential to hurt him. She felt she would succeed in making him strong enough to defeat all obstacles in his way.

But making him too strong that he forgot what it was like to be human was perhaps her biggest mistake.

Her son, the king on her chessboard, could not be checkmated by any other opponent. That was why the one having the power to take him down would be someone from his own side.

The rules of chess may be simple but the game in itself is deadly when played by a chess master in real life. Because in real life, fate and destiny have bigger roles to play than the controllers of the game.

There's no knowing what the future may bring and sometimes even the most thought-out moves can result in chaos and self-destruction.

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