A Short Medieval Chess Tale

King Stephen woke up late in the morning on a cold and rainy day. Clearly nervous, he had some kind of bad feeling he couldn't explain, but it looked like it was going to be no ordinary day in his kingdom. After he ate his breakfast and brushed his teeth, he decided to relax on the terrace and admire the whole view of his estate. Far away, he saw something odd, a strange movement in the distance, but he couldn't identify what it was.

"My Queen, could you please bring me the binoculars?"

Queen Mary Black sat on her bed and finished combing her hair. After a few minutes, she took the binoculars from the drawer and brought them to her husband. When he pointed and looked to the north of the castle, he saw the scene he feared so much, and that explained the bad feeling he had. Stephen immediately spoke to his queen in panic.

"The enemy is attacking us! I knew that damned King Evans would do it sooner or later!"

"What are you talking about?", replied Mary.

"Look over there! They are already positioning themselves for their attack. Italian formation, a classic battle strategy. Our sentry gave the warning and moved forward to try to block them. I see Knight Stewart is trying to help, but I'm afraid it won't be enough."

The queen took the binoculars from him and exclaimed:

"Oh, my dear God. We must inform our knights and bishops!"

"I will take care of it. You go down and get our other seven soldiers ready!"

Queen Mary Black ran downstairs to keep everyone alert for the imminent attack. Meanwhile, the king complained to himself.

"What the hell are my soldiers doing? I told them to defend my castle using the strategies we learned in Sicily... or France. I cannot believe that they chose this nonsense frontal approach. All its weaknesses have been known since the time of the legendary General Ruy Lopez."

He ran to his own wing of the castle, known as "The Kingside," to alert his loyal bishop, who was still sound asleep and unaware of the danger approaching.

"Waleran, wake up, we need your help! The enemy is attacking us. Go help Knight Stewart in sector C6. You can cover the spaces in the middle that he cannot! Stay in front of him and have your arrows ready. I want you to aim them directly at King Evans' face"

The bishop immediately obeyed the order and went to the battlefield. They knew that they could not allow the enemy army to advance too far in a frontal attack. Meanwhile, another opposing soldier began to advance. As Stephen looked through the window to think of a counterattack, he saw that King Evans had already begun to build a strong fortress for him.

It was time to discuss battle strategy with his knight, who was also his right-hand man. Percival was already aware of what was happening after the queen's warning, but had not yet taken any action.

"Knight Percival! Don't just stand there. I order you to go forward and protect me. And tell the soldiers of this wing to build a fortress as a matter of urgency. I need protection as strong as the one our enemy has just built. They are coming fast!"

Percival obeyed his order, and everything was done quickly. King Stephen now felt much more protected, far from the main action in the center of the battlefield.

"I can capture one of their soldiers, Your Majesty! No one is protecting him! Let us show them who rules this kingdom!"

But the king was no fool and knew his enemy quite well.

"NO! It is a trap! Opening the center is just what they want! They will attack you and make us lose precious time! What we need is to make some room for Bishop Phillip. What is he doing still in his quarters? Hasn't he realized the seriousness of the situation?"

Queen Mary Black was still paralyzed, but she knew it was not a good idea to go into battle at the beginning. Capturing the enemy's queen always brings a lot of morale to any army, so she decided to save her energies for later and coordinate her men to help her king.

"I told Phillip to attack their knight, sir! He has to protect his queen and won't move for a while!" She exclaimed.

"OK, OK, good! Let us keep calm. I need a secret emergency exit in this fortress here. Otherwise, if the enemy arrives at our rear, I will have no way to escape."

The king knew that building this emergency exit might be important in the future, but at the same time, he wondered if it was really a good idea to do it now, giving the enemy time to prepare an attack. However, the soldier in charge of guarding the flanks of the fortress quickly fulfilled His Majesty's wish before he could change his mind.

"Done, sir!"

But the enemy was moving fast, and Stephen understood their strategy. After all, the Italian formation was not too different from the classic strategies of General Ruy Lopez, whom he had studied so well since childhood.

"Their two knights are coming to get me! Oh, my God! Tell Bishop Phillip to eliminate one of them now!"

"Are you sure?" asked Knight Percival. "We may need him to help with our defense. I suggest we counterattack on the other side of the battlefield."

"Shut your mouth! I am the king! You all do as I say!"

Without many options after such a strong statement, Bishop Phillip killed the enemy knight. However, he did not expect their queen, Lucy White III, to kill him immediately after.

The guard in charge of the tower watched the battlefield from above and turned to his king. His air was tense and anxious.

"Bishop Phillip is dead, my king! Their queen is also a warrior and comes to attack. All their nobles are pointing at our fortress. What shall we do now?"

"Knight Stewart must come here to protect me and my queen!"

"Aren't we being too passive? I can tell our soldiers to advance in the center or on the other flank."

"The next time you make one of your foolish suggestions, you will end up on the guillotine!

King Stephen panicked inside his newly built fortress. Knight Stewart quickly appeared to help defend the entrance. This could be good news, but unfortunately for him, his queen did not seem to be as brave and fearless as Lucy White. In fact, she looked just as frightened as he was, refusing to even leave her own room.

Suddenly, the other enemy's knight, supported by a soldier, rushed fiercely onto the battlefield. A knight in such a position was known to be very dangerous. Stephan's cousin in Russia, Tsar Kasparov, loved to use this strategy.

"Their knight has entered our territory! Red alert! Where is the guard in the other tower? Can't he help?"

"There's no time for that! Queen Mary is not allowing him to come here! I told you to attack the center. Now it is too late!"

Chaos reigned in the castle, but King Stephen tried to stay positive and think of a way out. He knew he had to use his low-ranking soldiers to attack the enemy nobles, who were obviously more valuable warriors.

"Oh, come on! Our army is stronger! Tell those guys on the queenside to get off their b*tts and attack that bishop in the white tunic who is aiming his arrow at me right now..."

Knight Stewart actually hated his king and his stupid decisions, but having nothing else to do, he ordered the desperate and late attack. However, he did not expect that Queen Lucy White would attack him in the meantime.

"I am now under attack!”

"Move! Don't stay there!"

"I can't! Can't you see that Queen Lucy is ready to kill you if I move? I am the only shield you have right now!"

"Oh sh*t. Come on guys! Then tell our soldiers to attack that bishop right now! We have to get rid of him!"

"No, no... don't...!"

But before anyone could say anything against it. The young soldier, who was much more loyal to his king, obeyed his command. Stephen did not expect something... No one but Stewart had noticed it yet. One of the castle guards cried out in despair.

"Lucy White killed Stewart!"

"And what? Kill her now, you useless pig! She is standing right in front of you!"

The guard began to cry...

"I can't, I just can't, my king... I have to protect you from the poisoned arrow coming in diagonally. If I move, you will be killed."

"Didn't I order the guys to attack that archer bishop of theirs?"

"It was too late... too late...", the guard said in a voice of defeat.

The situation was out of control. An important warrior had just been killed in front of them, and no one was able to do anything about it. The counterattack on the opposite flank was too slow, and the king's priority now was to defend himself and try to survive.

"Ok, no need to panic. Knight Percival, fall back and protect me and my guard! She wants my blood!"

He did so, but they were surprised by another unexpected move of the enemy army. The knight attacked the king, breaking the secret emergency exit he had built a few hours before and killing the poor soldier guarding the entrance.

"They found the secret exit! I'm under attack! Kill that knight!"

"What can I do, my king? I am too busy protecting you from Queen Lucy! Just run! Just run!

King Stephen ran away in desperation, only to find that he was actually cornered in the fortress with very little room to escape.

And the situation was about to get even worse. The enemy knight had just killed another of his soldiers and was threatening him again. The guard on the tower was speechless and could only mumble a few words as he watched his friend die right before his eyes.

"Soldier... Smith... is... dead..."

The only remaining soldier was still fighting Queen Lucy, but he realized the desperate situation they were in. 

"He is attacking you again. And he attacked our queen too! Come back, my king, come back! We will try to protect you."

Terrified, King Stephen returned to the protection of his now very few defenders, but he also lost hope.

Everyone thought that the brave enemy knight would now kill Queen Mary, but he was not interested in her. His only goal was to cut off King Stephen's head. He jumped back with his horse and prepared to strike the decisive blow. Now the king had no protection against the arrow coming straight to his head. The guard on the tower decided to sacrifice himself for his majesty and stepped in front of him.

"I shall protect my king and his kingdom with my life!"

But at this point, everyone knew it was useless. His queen could only watch in disbelief. Knight Percival was shocked, and there was nothing he could do as Queen Lucy White mercilessly killed the tower guard.

Stephen still tried to run away, but he was cornered.

"Resign, my king, resign! We must surrender!", cried his knight.

"NO! I am a king, and I must die with dignity to the last minute of my kingdom."

Refusing to raise the white flag, King Stephen went to the corner of his room and awaited his fate. Queen Lucy White approached him and gave him the fatal kiss.

[I hope you enjoyed the dramatic story. I thought it could be fun to describe a game as a "real" war. Here is the PGN of the battle:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. O-O O-O 6. d3 d6 7. Nbd2 Bg4 8. Re1

h6 9. Nf1 Bxf3 10. Qxf3 Ne7 11. Ng3 Ng6 12. Nf5 a6 13. Qg3 b5 14. Qxg6 Ne8 15.

Nxh6+ Kh8 16. Nxf7+ Kg8 17. Ng5+ Rf7 18. Qxf7+ Kh8 19. Qg8# 1-0]