A Short Medieval Chess Tale - Part 3
This story is the third and final installment in the Medieval Tales series. Below are the links to parts 1 and 2:
A Short Medieval Chess Tale – Part 2
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Humiliated, defeated, and dishonored. That was how Queen Lucy White felt after her army lost the battle to what she considered to be the pathetic and harmless warriors of King Paulsen of Sicily. At that moment, she could not understand where Queen Mary's will and bravery came from, nor how it could be enough to defeat her husband's army. However, she now realized that the desire for revenge was greater than any other emotion she had ever felt. If this was how Mary felt too, then everything was explained.
Lucy could not avenge the death of her beloved Evans against the woman who caused it, she was dead as well, after sacrificing herself to complete her mission. Nor could she do so against Knight Philidor, who also committed suicide after his lady was gone forever. That left her only one possible target. Though she knew that he was not the main cause of her suffering, she promised to make King Paulsen, Mary Black’s brother, pay for it. He was now married and consolidating his kingdom in Sicily.
From that day on, her every move was meticulously planned. First, disguised as a temporary servant at the castle, she poisoned the Queen of Naples. After her death, she seduced the now-single King Lasker and married him. There was absolutely no love involved, at least not on her part. Her heart was a cold stone that would not rest until the mission was accomplished.
In the middle of the next summer, under the warm Mediterranean sun, she decided for herself that it was time to act. Without even asking permission from her king, whom she always ignored anyway, Lucy spoke to the most important soldier, who was her loyal servant.
"We must attack the Kingdom of Sicily and kill Paulsen! Orders from King Lasker!"
"Are you sure, Majesty? Usually, our king gives us orders directly and..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Lucy looked at him with the angry eyes of a vengeful woman. He was instantly frightened and confused.
"I am the queen here and I order you to attack them now! Or it will be you who faces the guillotine!"
Without many options and frightened by her expression, the soldier began the offensive.
When Lasker realized what was happening, he ran to his queen for clarification.
"What the hell are we doing? Why are we invading the enemy's territory without my permission?"
"I'm not interested in their territory, dear. I will go out there and kill Paulsen myself!"
"Are you crazy? They are as powerful as we are! Without a good plan and strategy, we have no chance..."
But Lucy did not seem to care. She was focused and nothing would distract her from her goal. King Lasker noticed the fire in her eyes and decided not to argue with his wife, even though he knew that what she was doing could be suicide and perhaps even the end of his own kingdom.
The first moments of the battle were intense, with many movements of both armies, deaths in the center and near Paulsen's castle, and warriors positioning themselves better. It was only after much back and forth on the battlefield that Queen Lucy looked out the window and decided it was time to act.
"Our knights and the bishop are well positioned and pointing at his fortress. I'll go out there and finish him off!"
"Lucy! I forbid you to do that! It is dangerous and..."
Lucy White once again ignored her husband and without further hesitation placed herself in the middle of the battlefield. It took only a few minutes until she was in front of the well-protected fort, guarded by a bishop and two powerful soldiers.
Queen Anna, the wife of King Paulsen, noticing the tense situation and reading the fire in Lucy's eyes, desperately left her room and ran toward the fortress, hoping to help in the wild battle that was clearly about to begin. Lucy watched the scene, but her air was indifferent, and her expression showed nothing more than anger. She turned to the knights and the bishop beside her:
"I'm going to break through the entrance and kill that bastard!"
"My queen... please be careful. You can't handle them alone! Let us help you!"
"No! This is my business. Stay out here and I will return with his head on my hands."
The queen ran to the entrance and began a fierce battle with the soldier guarding it. He was determined to protect his king to the last second of his life, which made the task much more complicated than she expected. But his loyalty was nothing compared to her thirst for revenge, and after much sweat and blood, Lucy killed him by plunging her sword into his throat.
Already feeling her body tired, she broke down the door and came face to face with Paulsen.
The face-to-face combat was long, hard, and exhausting. For the next 15 or 20 minutes, King Paulsen and Queen Lucy frenetically exchanged sword blows, curses, and a lot of blood. Neither of them seemed to accept defeat as an option.
"You killed my husband! It's my duty to send you to burn in the flames of hell!"
"You rant and rave as if you were not a ruthless murderer who killed my sister's husband. I will give your death to him and my beloved Mary!"
Queen Lucy, tired after the first battle with the soldier, began to succumb to her fatigue. Both were already extremely injured and without much strength to continue. When she tried to raise her sword one last time, her arm didn't respond, and her muscles jerked and locked. King Paulsen saw his chance and used his last breath to cut off her head with a powerful and precise stroke.
Lucy was dead, to the shock of King Lasker and his warriors, who watched King Paulsen emerge victorious outside the fort.
Watching the scene from afar, King Lasker, incredulous to see his wife dead in front of the enemy, became enraged and ordered his warriors to act immediately.
"He killed my wife! I order you to bring that devil to me alive! No one does this to the wife of the great King Lasker and gets away with it.”
Knight Andrew, almost as angry, did not hesitate to kill the enemy bishop and attack the king. Queen Anna could have killed him, but he knew there was no time for that, as Paulsen had to run not only from him, but also from the arrow that Bishop Martin had just fired.
The King of Sicily, tired and unable to fight any longer, had no choice but to try to run. He was so proud of his victory over Lucy, but now he realized that it was his life that was in danger when he noticed three powerful warriors approaching him like wolves circling their prey.
Returning to the safety of his fort would be suicide, and he would soon be cornered by the enemy. Therefore, his only option was to run into the forest and risk his life in the middle of the battlefield.
King Paulsen began to be surrounded. The two knights knew they had a task to fulfill for their majesty, and that they had to work together to do it.
With this in mind, Knight John leapt with his horse toward the king and began to attack him with vehemence, forcing him to flee even further into the center of the battle and luring him into the fatal trap they were building.
In panic, Paulsen ran to the only part of the forest where he could not see any of the warriors attacking him. But he knew they were close, and that his soldiers and his queen had no time to come to the rescue. If he couldn't find a place to hide quickly, his fate would be no different than Queen Lucy's.
Being exposed like that was something no sane king would ever do, but there was no other choice, and any rational decision was out of the question while his life was in danger. The forest was dark, and he could sense two enemy warriors on each side surrounding him, but for some reason he felt there were five of them, as if it were the work of a magician.
King Lasker saw his enemy running like a chicken and approaching his own castle. Now it was time to use all his resources and end this as quickly as possible. He ordered two soldiers who were guarding the entrance to enter the battlefield and attack him.
"You have to help our knights! Close in and lure him out. I want him brought here alive in front of me!"
The two soldiers immediately obeyed the order and brought Paulsen even closer to the castle. He was already in the territory of the Kingdom of Naples, and the nearest enemy warrior was miles away from being able to help. A good surrounding strategy was all they needed now.
It was Bishop Martin who surprised him from behind and caught the king off guard, capturing him and handing him over to the soldiers. Paulsen was taken to the castle to receive his punishment. He was exhausted, but alive, as their Majesty wanted.
"Well done, my lords. It did not take long for our king to get his wish.", the bishop said before leaving the rest of the task to the castle guards.
Paulsen was carried to the top of the tower where the king was waiting. The guard grabbed him by his battle-torn cape and threw him into the enclosure like a sack of garbage. He fell to the ground in front of Lasker and the two now stared each other in the face.
Lasker, with his chest puffed out and a confident, angry look on his face, looked down at his rival in tatters, who already seemed defeated and without the strength to try and avoid his fate.
"You killed my beloved Lucy! Who gave you that right?" asked Lasker, his eyes on fire and his heart like ice.
"God allowed it! She killed King Stephen, the husband of my sister Queen Mary. I only gave her the divine punishment.", Paulsen replied.
"I loved her! God will never forgive you for breaking true love! Prepare to burn in hell as soon as I kill you here."
"She didn't love you, you fool! It was all part of her revenge plan after her ex-husband was gone..."
Lasker had always suspected this, but preferred to lie to himself rather than accept the truth. Obviously, no one had ever said that to him out loud, and hearing from a stranger that his wife didn't really love him was like an arrow through his heart. Paulsen went on.
"Who do you think that killed your ex-wife? Would such a young and healthy woman suddenly have a heart attack? Wake up... it was murder! She was poisoned by Lucy White! And you were nothing more than a puppet she used to take out her frustrations on me."
This storm of truth was torturing King Lasker inside, he couldn't bear to listen to it any longer. Like any good powerful man, he did what one should do when someone brings bad or sad truths: punish the messenger!
"Shut up! You will not speak another word in my castle!"
He turned to his squire, who was watching the scene from afar, and shouted at him:
"Kill the liar!"
Lasker stepped aside, leaving King Paulsen directly in the sights of his executioner, who fired the fatal shot.
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[I hope you enjoyed the third and final part of the story. As in life, we will not always succeed in our goals, and I think Queen Lucy was not an example of a human being, so she got what she deserved.
For those who don't know, this game was played in real life in 1912 between Edward Lasker (hence the name of the white king) and George Alan Thomas.
"The Fatal Attraction", "The King's Hunt" or "The King's Kidnapping" are some of the nicknames of one of the most famous games ever played. It is a beautiful combination that continues to amaze chess lovers around the world, and all of the black king's moves after the queen sacrifice are basically forced.
Below is the PGN:
1. d4 e6 2. Nf3 f5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 Be7 5. Bxf6 Bxf6 6. e4 fxe4 7. Nxe4 b6 8. Ne5 O-O 9. Bd3 Bb7 10. Qh5 Qe7 11. Qxh7+ Kxh7 12. Nxf6+ Kh6 13. Neg4+ Kg5 14. h4+ Kf4 15. g3+ Kf3 16. Be2+ Kg2 17. Rh2+ Kg1 18. Kd2# 1-0]
