Survival Of The Fittest

The game progressed, unfolded into possibilities and then narrowed into certainties. Parker was on the offensive, and Alton almost made a mistake. His first impulse was to move a pawn forward, to threaten the offending knight and attempt to force a retreat as his own bishop had been driven away, but Parker's foray was not as toothless, and by doing so, a moment's reflection revealed, Alton would leave his king in the line of fire for both Parker's queen and his white-diagonal bishop.

So, instead, he secured a line of threat of his own, advancing his queenside bishop one square.



Parker didn't seem to appreciate that. A flash of something like frustration crossed his face, and his next move was one that pressed the issue.



He wanted this point of conflict, here and now, and Alton wondered two things: why, and how much? And with those questions in mind, his next move didn't take as long as the one before. He suspected that this was about to get messier, but his other option, carrying through with the castling, would leave him to lose multiple pieces for free. With this, at least, he was proposing an offer and feeling out intentions.

He moved his queen forward one space, further covering the contested square.



He didn't speak a word, though not from irritation or even necessarily concentration, though he was concentrating closely, leaning forward, left corner of his quirked up as he watched his opponent work. No, it just felt like a proper moment for silence.

Parker's brow furrowed a little as Alton's Fianchetto was followed up not by the simple, obvious play of Bishop take Knight, Pawn take Bishop that he'd expected. That was the level that he expected him to operate, the kind of level that thought it was a good idea to actually throw out an early check to mess with their opponents head, or walked into a simple fork like that.

Maybe he'd succeeded, in a way.

He leaned back in the chair, the leather creaking underneath him as he brought his hand up to rub at his face. The options had both opened up and narrowed in the same way as they'd played. He no longer knew if he could trust his gambits to pay off in the same way. That meant he had to approach the game in a different way. Look more moves ahead than he had before, and plan something out. He wasn't going to be able to just mechanically outplay Alton, that was becoming clear, at least. And if that was the case, well, he knew what happened when he tried to meander his way through long mechanical games.

His perfectly imperfect record against Gyu-ri, in all it's 51 long history had taught him that that was not his forte.

A few more long moments of consideration. This time, options were discarded. The left flank could be ignored now. The fianchetto was superficial, a distraction that only worked if he allowed it to matter. He would force the trade. Knight takes pawn, queen takes knight. Bishop to threaten both check and taking the queen, forcing the sacrifice of Alton's queen as he retained his own. He executed on it without any further thought.

Knight took pawn.



There was another flash of frustration he couldn't hide as queen failed to take knight.



There was something here. A plan, and he couldn't quite see it. He had made his decision though, and he was in position to back off. Alton's win condition here was stopping the attack, the row of carefully strewn white pawns from his earlier moves had left his queen-side bishop locked out of the left flank.

He went for the throat.



"Check."

Alton smiled, nodded, and moved his king. It didn't take too much thought. At this stage, he could retreat with a sacrifice or continue to posture aggressively and make trades. While he wasn't one for letting cliches or idioms sit unchallenged, there was a certain wisdom to not changing horses in the middle of the river.



Of course, the current situation was the result of a certain measure of misplay. He'd realized it quickly, almost as soon as he'd moved his queen. He'd thought to deter the advance by threatening the square into which Parker's knight would need to move to capture, but had realized that his opponent's kingside bishop was in position to move forward and support. By taking just a moment to think, Parker would've leveraged a knight and a bishop into Alton's queen, bishop, most of the pawns on that flank, and quite possibly also his rook. Take the extra bishop loss out of the equation and maybe it was manageable, but as that wasn't the offering following through sans corrections would've been foolish in the extreme.

So instead, he allowed the sacrifice of a pawn and moved to defend the rook. Parker tested that. Alton hadn't been quite sure that he would.



This, of course, made Alton's next move simple. If he did nothing but bluff, he'd fritter away all of his resources with not a thing to show for it.



He took a sip of his grapefruit juice, consciously, because his mouth had gotten dry but also he made a point to pay attention to his movements. He tasted nothing, though; its purpose was merely a cessation of distracting discomfort. His attention was on the game, which had once more landed in a state of uncertainty.

Parker tried very hard to suppress the urge to shake his head as Alton made his moves. That capture on his knight had been the inevitable after he started that attack, but Alton had remained slippery the whole time. None of his sacrifices had been accepted yet. He had offered Knight for Pawn, Queen for Queen, and both had been rejected, in favour of Alton's own Knight for Rook + Pawn. He wasn't complaining about the material advantage, but it was slowly grinding the game into a slower pace as he failed to pressure Alton's king.

The next move came quickly enough.

Pawn for Nothing was offered.



And taken.



With barely a thought too - Alton seemed happy to take what was being offered. That made two of them.



Parker had to hide his face behind his hand, sinking back into his chair as he tried to smother the thin smile that was gracing his features.

Alton's pace was picking up now. As each piece fell and each line of attack clarified, it became easier and easier for him to determine what was important and what was extraneous.

It was interesting, how the tone of the game was shifting. At the beginning it had felt something like a debate, each side offering and refuting points. But in the recent moves, it had gone past that point, and now there would be no compromise; each side was shouting past the other, acknowledging interaction only when absolutely necessary to prevent disaster. It meant he didn't have to think as far ahead; rather, Alton had an ideal series of moves to make to bring his plan to fruition and the question was when he could sneak those moves through unpunished.

The answer, of course, was not at precisely this moment. He slid his bishop in front of his king in response to Parker's forray.



Parker's reaction was not to initiate the trade himself, but instead to move his rook forward in threat.



This, of course, added another turn to Alton's countdown, another wrinkle in the plan. He felt the corners of his lips turning up a little more, because Parker was good. Always keeping him on his toes, always keeping the game in question. Right now, Alton could see one clear way to avoid coming off the worse.

He took Parker's bishop with his own.



This was risky. He wasn't quite sure what Parker's ultimate plan was, and now his king was generally exposed. He was already mulling modifications of his own strategy, figuring ways it could crumble. The next few moves, he thought, might well decide the game.

Parker found himself nodding without really thinking about it as the moves continued. Endgame was the part of chess he disliked the most, but it was at least fairly predictable, unlike the more intricate dance that had been woven earlier. Still, he took the time to think everything through before he moved, hand hovering above his queen for a few seconds, before he reached over and deftly pushed his own piece forwards whilst curling the Black Bishop up into his palm as he retreated his arm back across the board.



Parker's queen now sat in a very inconvenient position for Alton, nearly entirely locking down his king to one square. Ultimately that was the goal of the last stretch of chess, trying to limit your opponents options until they had none left. He rolled the captured bishop across his index finger as Alton studied the board himself, pushing it back and forth with a thumb as he tried his best to observe him without staring too hard, putting it down only as Alton's own arm made a large arc across the board - His counter-attack beginning to take shape.



Fortunately however, he still had the advantage of tempo in this situation, and he had no desire to throw it away by capturing Alton's remaining Bishop. It was merely a question of which piece he used to check Alton; his Rook or his Bishop. It was too many moves to go still to really know which was actually better, but his Bishop would be protected by his Queen, and it would force Alton into both a literal and metaphorical corner.



If he moved his king forwards here to f7, it was an easy mate in 2 moves - Queen to g6, King moved back, Queen to g8, Checkmate. There was only one move he could make to stay in the game, and it left his King completely trapped.

He tried to keep his voice neutral and polite as he vocalised the situation with another simple "Check."

Alton nodded, smiled still. His plan had evaporated with his last move, a sacrifice required to remain in the game with any chance of winning. That was part of it, though, part of what made things so exciting, and part of what he hoped to do to Parker in turn.

The next move was almost preordained; it took a few moments to think through implications, but there were only two options and one led to inevitable defeat.



That left further development solidly in Parker's court, and he quickly pressed the attack.



With his rook's position, Alton's king was trapped, unable to move at all. If Parker could threaten the piece now, he'd win. If Alton didn't in some fashion shake things up, Parker would also win; his next move could bring the rook adjacent to Alton's king, covered by the bishop, and thus ensure checkmate. But that assumed that Alton would sit idle or foolishly turn his attention to other parts of the board, and he had no intention of doing so.

Instead, it was time to force further trades.

He picked up his queen, ready to move it and take Parker's bishop, but slowed down for just a moment to double check. It was a good thing he did so. He realized, in that pause, that such a move would leave the boy's queen in position to trap his king and take his queen for free. Checkmate would follow inevitably a couple turns later.

So, instead, Alton took the rook.

Parker felt the tension recede a little as the board finally began to clear up. The next few moves were swift, the branches on their decision trees being quickly pruned, each move's cause and effect becoming eminently clear rather than shrouded by potential moves and likely courses of action.

Queen took Queen



There was a short pause then, as Alton deigned it necessary to show that he was thinking about the move, before his hand reached down and proceeded the game to it's next state. King takes Bishop.



Parker's hand moved the second Alton finished pulling his bishop off the board, in an almost perfect mirror.

King takes Bishop.



He looked over the board, and the small collection of captured pieces in front of him, counting everything up as he straightened up in his chair a little. Alton had taken almost the exact same amount of pieces as him, with the sole exception of Alton holding an extra white Pawn, and him holding the all important black Queen. He lacked the developed pieces to make a victory soon, but the advantage was, at last, firmly on his side.

He picked up the cup of coffee that sat in front of him for the second time in their match and sipped at it as he waited for Alton's response.

It was cold, but caffeine was caffeine.

After the dust settled, the score was fairly clear: Parker held the advantage, but the game was not over. That was in itself a minor victory from Alton's perspective; for several turns now he had been playing with fire, one wrong move from making his defeat inevitable, and now the slate had been cleared to the point that he was afforded some breathing room.

Of course, so was Parker. For a few turns there, Alton had thought to leverage his queen and bishop into a quick checkmate if his opponent left any lines of attack clear, but now those two pieces were gone, and to repair that damage would require a march of pawns quite unlikely to proceed unchecked and unanswered. Now, the best option was to move towards the next stage of the game, in which the remaining resources on the relatively untouched sides of the board would come into play.

Accordingly, Alton moved his knight, finally unlocking his remaining rook.



Parker's response was quick and predictable: he captured Alton's isolated pawn, announcing the check this produced at the same time.



The pawn's loss had been inevitable. Alton had briefly considered using it to check Parker's king the turn before, but to do so would've surrendered an opportunity to work on the position of his other pieces, without any chance of saving it. Forcing the capture onto Parker's king instead of his queen made no difference, so it wasn't worthwhile.

Now, Alton was again faced with limited choices. He had to move his king into one of three squares. The back row was immediately out; doing that would only limit his further moves and block his own pieces.

The middle square was the safest, the default, and for that very reason was unappealing. To advance, meanwhile, would limit Parker's own ability to position his queen forwards, but would open up avenues of attack on the diagonal.

So, against his initial inclinations, Alton took the conventional path.

Parker had to say that the coffee was good. It tasted strong, and was probably far more expensive than the default Nescafe that he had at home, and even cold it lacked the same bitterness that clung to the back of his throat. Sadly, any wakefulness he'd inherit from what lay inside it would be purely a placebo effect, given that it normally took about 10 minutes for any caffeine to reach the bloodstream and far more than that for any real effect. Which was a good reason to laugh at the kind of people who'd take one sip of their latte in the morning and declare that their day was immediately better.

The action came back to him, and he continued to savour the coffee as he eyed the board over the rim of the cup, eyes tracking across each white piece individually. The game was open, and whilst he held the advantage, it was still up to him to figure out how to force the game to the conclusion if he wanted to win without leaving Alton a chance to manoeuvre his way back into contention. Alton seemed to know it too, his moves had tightened up again, and his face was still holding a ghost of it's previous smile - Giving nothing about his intentions away.

He put the cup down again, neatly aligning the handle in the same orientation it had sat previously, before reaching over to move his chosen piece. It was a familiar move, and more importantly, one Alton had shown he was willing to fall for.

Pawn for Nothing.



As Alton's fingertips brushed his own pawn, he couldn't help but smile a little himself. It seemed everyone was predictable once you knew how they worked.

The "trade" was taken.



His own hand moved his Queen across one square, threatening both the pawn Alton had just moved alongside the black King.



"Check."

There was something decidedly satisfying about the situation he had placed Alton in here, he decided as he studied his opponent from across the table, hands decidedly unoccupied as much as he itched to do something with them. He didn't want to give the impression that he was no longer interested in the game, after all. This was the best part.

A certain inevitability now fell over the game, one dictated more by how long Parker wanted to continue the chase than by anything Alton could control. The moves he was being forced to make, however, were not so different from those he would have chosen freely. At this point, his goal was to consolidate his remaining forces, bring his king into the fold of his pieces and perhaps set about marching his pawns down the field, or if nothing else do what he could to safeguard his remaining rook and knight. His response to the check was thus quick.



Parker quickly reasserted his pressure, chasing Alton's king into check once more and taking a pawn at the same time, leaving the threat this time on the diagonal.



It was an interesting position, but one which didn't hold quite as much strength as the boy's moves until this point had. Parker secured a pawn with it, true. That left the lead easy to calculate; their sides were matched in number and composition to a piece, except that Parker had a queen still and Alton didn't. But every other avenue of attack had carried with it multiple points of threat, forced choices without right answers, and while this one did so as well on the surface, Alton was able to slice through a lot of that by making use of his king in a more aggressive fashion.



Now, finally, Parker's queen would have to cease the assault (or hand him an uncharacteristically terrible trade, but that was improbable enough not to even really be worth mulling). And Alton, though shorter on pieces, did have one remaining advantage: his side was now rallied into a fairly contained section of the board, while Parker's king was still ill-defended and far afield.

The line Alton took hadn't been expected - It was a risky one - leveraging his king to take away pressure brought it back into the fray, but it was perhaps the only advantage his opponent could afford himself at this point, whilst he could keep his king out of contention. The look of annoyance as he watched the pieces of Alton's puzzling motions fall into place and render his own plans moot was hard to hide, however.

Parker's failed fork gave him the chance to develop a little, however, and he freed up his rook and knight with a simple motion.



Alton would respond by protecting his King further, most likely.



Or not.

Parker moved his chair up slightly, squaring up to the board a little more as he looked at the positions again. He had been sure Alton would protect his King, as it looked exposed, but was it really? His hand went up to his face without him thinking about it once again, chin resting on his left thumb as his elbow rested in turn on the edge of the table, rest of his hand curled up and pressing up against his upper lip.

If he attacked with his rook, there was only a few squares that Alton could move it to. F6 would lead to it being checked by his knight, and isolated once again. D8 was a mate in one. F8 would lead to him being pushed up into the corner, and isolated as with F6. The other squares were either occupied, or directly threatened by his pieces.

He nodded to himself, satisfied with his answer to his own question, as he returned to sitting up straight - His left hand sliding his Rook into position once again, as he addressed his opponent once again.

"Check."

Alton, nodded, smiled, and lost.



It took him a moment to realize, of course; if he'd realized how bad that choice had been before making it he would've picked another move, but he was in a rhythm now, focused on playing around a defensive circle centered on his king and knight. Each maneuver was calculated to leave no spaces for Parker to take anything for free, and in that respect his positions served admirably. But that was not how the game was determined; if the king couldn't move to safety, that was checkmate and the end, and his rushed movement here left Parker's queen able to ensure that with a quick jaunt along the diagonal.

In another circumstance, it would've probably been good form to forfeit, but in this particular case doing so felt slightly petty since he'd just made an unforced blunder; to throw in the towel a second later would be depriving his opponent of the chance to actually claim victory (or, however unlikely, to choose not to do so). So Alton nodded again and smiled again and took a long drink from his grapefruit juice this time, emptying the glass so only shreds of pulp and a drop of liquid lingered stuck to the bottom.

It took a few moments for the realisation of what had happened to sink in, and for Parker's hand to move his Queen one final time, the moves having been narrowed far enough to leave Alton at risk for such a blunder. It was understandable too, in the early game, ducking back behind your pawn line out of check was a safe action. But with the board so open, it was a fatal misstep that left his king trapped, and the game at it's end.

He tried not to emphaise the vocalisation as he noted a simple "Checkmate.", not wishing to draw too much attention to it.



He looked up from the board and caught Alton's eye, giving him a warm smile that he hoped wasn't as smug as he felt, trying to keep it shallow and lacking teeth before he spoke.

"Good game." He remarked with satisfaction, before reaching over and beginning to pull his pieces back, placing the queen back on it's starting place as he began to tidy up their playing field.

"Interesting mid-game, I have to say - Thought I had you in the corner for a while there."

"Good game indeed."

Alton smiled and nodded and set to work tidying his own side of the field; he wasn't totally sure whether etiquette at the level Parker played dictated a handshake, but figured he could offer one in parting, later, where it would be less obtrusive were it not expected as part of proceedings.

Alton meant what he said. He hadn't invited Parker here hoping to trounce the boy; he had, in fact, expected to lose from the start, and had conducted himself, he thought, acceptably enough. In retrospect, he could pin a lot of the development of the game on that early checkmate feint. He'd sacrificed momentum to send a message, and that little point of advantage had allowed Parker to take and maintain a lead that kept him one step ahead from then on. But that was a big part of the goal of this exercise. It was a learning experience, and Alton had learned a lot, both about chess at a level a notch or two above his own, and about his opponent.

"You don't let up," he added. Parker seemed satisfied, but that was his right, and it was in fact a compliment in itself; there was no pleasure in trouncing somebody flatly inept, not without a measure of personal animosity that Alton strongly hoped he would've been aware of had it existed between him and Parker, or a personality he didn't think quite a match for the boy's.

"I'd love to play again sometime, maybe get some tips so I can give you a better challenge."