Undertale: Tales from the Dreemurr Family

Checkmate

(Aria's POV)

This morning, I was so excited for what would come today! Asriel was going to teach me how to play chess! I'd seen one member of my family play this board game against another in friendly, but competitive, spirit. Man, I wanted to play it so bad!

It was 2 in the afternoon when Azzy brought down the chess set, but it felt like years since this morning!

"You ready to learn, Aria?" He asked hopefully.

"Am I ever!" I exclaimed.

Asriel let out a small laugh, and started unpacking the board and pieces.

"There's a simple trick to orienting the chessboard properly," he said. "The white square in the corner goes on the player's right. Can you remember that?"

I nodded. "'White on right.' Simple enough."

Asriel continued. "There are three ways a piece can move on the board. When a piece moves forward or backward on the board, it's referred to as moving along the file. When it moves from side to side, it's moving on the rank. When it moves diagonally-"

"Let me guess," I interrupted. "It's going to refer to it as moving along the diagonal?"

"How'd you know?"

"Lucky guess?"

Asriel laughed. "Luck has nothing to do in the actual game. It's purely dependent on strategy and skill."

He began introducing me to the pieces. He picked up a piece of which there sixteen total—eight white, eight black.

"This is a pawn," he said. "The pawn is a somewhat weak piece in the game. It moves forward one square forward one square at a time. However, there are two major exceptions to the rule."

I listened intently. "What are they?"

Asriel smiled. "First, pawns capture on the diagonal, making to the only piece in-game that captures differently than it normally moves. Secondly, if a pawn hasn't moved yet, on its first move, it can move forward two squares instead of one. Neat, right?"

I grinned happily. "Let's move on!"

"Hold up," said Asriel. If a player gets a pawn to the end of the chessboard, he can promote it to become a knight, rook, bishop, or even a queen!"

"Seriously?" I asked.

"Yep." Asriel put the pawn down and picked up a piece that somewhat resembled a pawn, but was taller and had a little curved notch on top.

"This piece is the bishop. It moves along the board—and captures enemy pieces—on the diagonals, forward and backward, and as many squares as desired—provided there are no obstructions. With the rook, which we'll get to later, it can pose a great threat. Each player gets two bishops, and each bishop covers either the black squares or the white ones."

I nodded. "So whatever color square a bishop starts out on, it stays on that color square for the rest of the game?"

"Yep."

Asriel set the bishop down, picking up a piece which had a horse's head on it.

"The knight is a pretty useful piece, especially on a crowded board. It's the only piece that can jump over other pieces. It moves in an L-shape: 2 squares in any direction, then one square to its left or right. It then captures whatever enemy piece is on it."

I listened as Asriel explained all the pieces: The rook, which could only move along the rank and file over any desired distance; the queen, the most powerful piece on the board, which could utilize the rook and bishop's movement patterns; and the king, the most important piece in the game, for once he was in inescapable danger, the game was lost.

He also taught me about capturing enemy pieces, the relative value of the pieces, and castling, a strange technique in which the king moved two squares to the rook, and the rook jumped one square past the king. He taught me how to set the board up, and how the queen goes on her color.

"You got all that?" He asked.

"Yep!" I nodded. "Let's do this for real!"

Asriel nodded, suddenly grim. "Just warning you, if you lose, it's your own fault," he said in an ominous voice. "There is no throw of the dice or luck of the draw. All there is is skill. Raw skill."

I snorted. "Geez, when did you become such an edge lord? Try to be edgy all you like, but you're still Prince Floofybuns to me."

"Let's just get the game going already."

Asriel chose to be white, so he had the first move. He moved the pawn in front of his king first. I mirrored his movement.

For the first few moves, it seemed as though I was copying him, and then the Midgame occurred. We were capturing pieces left and right, and I thought I had the upper hand at one point. That moment of pride was shattered when I realized my queen was in danger of being captured by his knight, but by then, it was too late.

"Dang it!" I cried out as Asriel took my most powerful piece.

Asriel just shrugged.

I'll make him pay for taking my queen, I thought bitterly.

In the end, Asriel checkmated me by using the double-rook technique, first making it so my king couldn't escape the back rank, and then by moving his second rook to that rank. I had lost my first game.

I couldn't stay mad at Asriel. I thanked him for a fun game, and he returned the thanks.

"I'd recommend getting some practice in," he said. "If you keep up the good work, you'll be able to beat me one day!"