My Trojan War: An OTB Chess Epic (PC version)
Hi!
One of the most famous legendary armed conflicts that have made it into our collective cultural memory is the Trojan War. This war is a conflict that has supposedly taken place between 1194 and 1184 BC. History is unclear about the details of the war, but archaeologists generally agree that a city known by the name of Troy was destroyed in war around 1200 BC. Many of the details in Homer's Iliad are intended to embellish the story and fit the polytheism of the time. Incidentally, these details make it fit for cinematic adaptation in 2004 as well as a 2018 BBC and Netflix production, and I absolutely don't mind conjuring up a host of very handsome actors to visually enrich my blog as I see fit.
Chess is often described as war without bloodshed, which I find rather preposterous. To begin with, the number of fighting units typically isn't equal, let alone fixed. Second, after a game of chess, all the pieces get back in the box and you can start anew with the same material, whereas in an armed conflict, the dead are dead. On top of this, warfare isn't black and white, while the game of chess unquestionably is by definition.
In its form and by its design, chess is very suited to be used as a metaphor for dual conflicts, to which I have already alluded in my first comprehensive blog entry. Although the Trojan war is rather more complex than a linear battle between Good and Evil, in essence the conflict is dual. And as such, a game of chess lends itself perfectly to be used to describe the happenings in the Trojan War.
Having grown up learning about the story of the Trojan War very early on in my life, I've always loved to listen to my dad's talking of Achilles and Hector and Paris and Helen and Odysseus and all the others. I decided to use this opportunity to pick two things that are very dear to my heart: the ancient Greek mythology and the analysis of an OTB game that actually means something to me, and merge them into a new telling of the story that I've loved since childhood.
There are numerous versions of the Trojan War in existence. I'm going with the one that I know, and that Stephen Fry manages to tell in the most vivid way that I know. Whenever I use quotes from Fry, I'll indicate this as coming from Troy 2020. Whenever I use movie quotes, I'll be crediting them to Troy 2004.
The way I did the game analysis for this blog makes it unsuited for a gameviewer. On the other hand, no moves at all makes it harder to follow the analysis. As such, to accommodate you the reader, I've decided to decouple the gameviewer from the analysis, present the analysis in the blog body and have the moves and graphic illustrations in a fixed gameviewer in the top right corner for you to view while you're reading the analysis in the main body of the blog.
Unfortunately, I found that this makes it unreadable for mobile phone users. I've tried to make the gameviewer expandable and collapsible, but this messed up the gameviewer itself. So, at present I'll be presenting the blog in two different forms: one for PC and one for phone.
The Gods
The Greeks
The Trojans
Other noteworthy characters
The Apple of Discord
Helen of Sparta
The Achaean Alliance
Whenever you read a historical text, it will rarely ever be completely impartial. There's a large tendency to favour the victorious side in the retelling of an armed conflict, and an equally strong pull to condemn the initial aggressors. Because of this it is hardly appropriate to consider anyone a "protagonist" or "antagonist" at all: it depends on many layers of your perspective. None of the participants is completely infallible, and everyone is an anti-hero in his or her own sense.
It would go too far to call anyone a protagonist or antagonist in the epic of the Trojan War: several important figures on either side survived, many perished, and atrocities were committed on both sides. I have no business to favour either side, even though I played the chess game with the black pieces.
Before we're diving into the story, let's first meet the most important pieces on the chess-board that defined the conflict. Their names might be dazzling a bit, but you can read the story without knowing all the ins and outs of every individual. The only thing required to follow the story is that you know who is on which side.
The gods play a very important role in every tale of the Greek mythology, and the Trojan War is no exception. Below is a short overview of the gods that play an important role in the conflict.
Zeus
|
Hera
|
Athena
|
Aphrodite
|
Ares
|
Poseidon
|
Hades
|
Apollo
|
Artemis
|
Hephaestus
|
Throughout Homer's works, the alliance has been known by several other names, most importantly the Achaeans. For simplicity's sake, however, I'll mostly refer to the attacking alliance of kings, soldiers, warriors as simply "the Greeks."
Menelaus
|
Agamemnon
|
Odysseus
I love that they chose Sean Bean for this role. Finally a movie in which he remains alive. |
Achilles
|
Patroclus
|
Calchas
|
Protesilaus
|
The Greeks didn't fight only one city. The city of Troy has had several alliances throughout the ancient world, from Macedonia and Thrace (present-day Bulgaria) to Ethiopia. One notable allied tribe were the Amazons, an all-female warrior tribe who were the first warriors to be able to fight on horseback.
Priam
|
Hector
|
Paris
|
Deiphobus
|
Cassandra
|
Aeneas
|
Cycnus
|
It is hard to put the two characters in this section into any of the three groups, but they are too important to the story to not mention them at all. As such, they have their own separate entry here.
Helen
|
Briseis
|
This section serves to provide a small historical and mythological background against which the scenes of the game take place.
The story starts with love, and to be more precise: marriage. Peleus, King of Phthia, marries the sea nymph Thetis. In the banquet that Zeus has hosted in their honour, all the gods and goddesses are invited. However, to keep everyone happy, upbeat and in harmonious spirits, the goddess of strife and discord Eris was not invited. To revenge herself upon the festivities, she tosses a golden apple between the feasting guests on which the text "καλλίστῃ" (kallistēi, "to the fairest") was written. I've talked about this in an older blog post to discuss the element of envy, which lies at the heart of the story. I won't delve too much further into this aspect and refer to this older blog for those who are interested.
Zeus is wise enough to refuse choosing between the three goddesses that were deemed most suited to receive the apple (Hera, Athena and Aphrodite). For this reason, Zeus coins that the handsome Trojan prince Paris is more than capable of deciding between the three goddesses.
Paris, upon hearing the offerings from each of the goddesses, succumbs to the prospect of marrying the most beautiful woman in the world and gives the apple to Aphrodite.
Within the Greek world lived the most beautiful woman alive. Her name was Helen. She had many suitors who all wanted her hand, including but not even remotely limited to Menelaus, Agamemnon and Odysseus. She was to be married to one of them (and, as was unfortunately customary in those days, didn't have a say in the matter). The prospect of Helen marrying one of them could potentially lead to a bloodbath among the men that would be left behind with hurt pride. What to do with a situation like this?
Odysseus proposed a very cunning solution. The marriage was decided by raffle. Everyone who wanted to have Helen's hand was to swear an Oath before submitting his name to the raffle. The Oath entailed that everyone who participated in the raffle would 1) accept the result without moaning, and 2) pledge to fight to protect Helen's marriage against any attempts at disruption. It's a perfect plan with no backdoors or loopholes, and all suitors accept the terms.
Fast-forward a couple of years. The Trojan prince Paris, who has heard that the most beautiful woman in the world lives in Sparta, visits the city. He meets Helen, who was the most beautiful woman of the age indeed. In the absence of her husband Melenaus, Paris seduces (or abducts) Helen and makes her his wife.
Paris's act has disrupted Helen's marriage with Menelaus, which means that the Oath will be set in motion. All the Greek suitors of that faithful day gather to avenge the breaking of Helen's marriage with Menelaus. Lead by Agamemnon as their war general, the Greeks prepare to set sail to Troy. And they would certainly have done so, if only the wind had blown.
Agamemnon's seer Calchas arrives with the bad news. Shortly before the expedition was to begin, Agamemnon had offended the goddess Artemis by shooting one of her stags. Because of this, Artemis has commanded that the winds do not blow unless Agamemnon sacrifice his own daughter Iphigenia.
Reluctantly and after many attempts to circumvent the demands of the Divine Huntress, eventually Agamemnon relents and sacrifices his daughter to the goddess. Shortly before the knife lands, however, she is rescued by the goddess and replaced with another stag. The goddess is appeased and the wind begins to blow.
The journey to Troy begins.
As the Greek armada approaches, the Trojans prepare for battle as well. According to Stephen Fry's Troy 2020, both armies counted somewhere between 100 000 and 150 000 men, although it's hard to tell how many exactly.
For the sake of this version of the story, we condense the forces on both sides to 16 fighting units, each with a distinguished armour of either solid bronze white (the Trojans) or titanium black (the Greeks).
White: The Trojans (Opponent)
Black: The Greeks (Nova Stone)
Asia Minor, 1194-1184 BC
1.e4
Knowing that the Greeks will commence war, the Trojans have already taken up a position on the sands that separate Troy from the sea.
1...c6
Agamemnon's seer Calchas foretold: "The first Greek to set foot on Trojan soil will also be the first to fall." As such, Achilles is not allowed to be the first to enter the battlefield: he's a warrior far too precious to allow to fall. In his stead, the young soldier Protesilaus is the first to step forward. He paves the way for the other warriors to join in and fight.
The Caro-Kann has been my go-to for about a year now. Black's initial strategic idea is to challenge white's pawn on e4 with ...d5, and to be able to recapture with another pawn in case white decides to trade. By so doing, black accomplishes one of two goals: either establishing a foothold in the centre, or removing white's strong pawn on e4.
2.d4
The Trojans reinforce their manpower in the middle of the board and signal very clearly that they are not afraid of the Greeks. Shoulder to shoulder they stand.
Since black has indicated to fight on the light squares first, white is absolutely free to take aim at the other half of the centre. Putting the pawn on d4 provides white with control over the dark squares in the centre, which for now goes uncontested.
2...d5
After Protesilaus, the other warriors on both sides join the battlefield. This is of course the logical consequence of Protesilaus's brave endeavour, and the d-pawn follows the logic of black's opening move.
3.e5
Early on, the Trojans establish a superiority in space. However, the pawn move relinquishes the battle for dominance over the light squares, which black has now won: the Greeks manage to establish a beachhead from which to set up camp.
In an unpublished scroll, Homer admitted that he would never have written the Iliad if white had played either 3.exd5 or 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 here, because the entire story would have collapsed right here.
3...c5
With the light squares secured, black seeks to exert pressure against the other central colour complex. If the pawn on d4 falls, the pawn on e5 becomes notably weaker: the troops in battle need a communication lifeline with their home base; without it, the legions may find themselves encapsulated, surrounded, and annihilated. White's chances in a pawn chain battle like this largely depend on the capability to maintain control over the e5-square.
4.c3
Rather than giving up the central space, white opts to protect and reinforce the central pawns, thus providing the brave Trojan warriors at the forefront of the battle with their lifeline of support from the home base.
4...Nc6
Naturally, the Greeks bring out their forces and try to question the Trojan war phalanx. If the chain can be broken, the battle for terrain may be won and might result in a solid advantage to the Greeks.
5.Nf3
A brave Trojan warrior enters the battlegrounds. "I am Cycnus, son of Poseidon, and no spear, sword nor arrow can pierce my skin." - Troy 2020
5...cxd4 6.cxd4
With this move, Calchas's prophecy has come true: the brave Protesilaus has perished as the first Greek warrior.
In the wake of Protesilaus's death, morale on both sides soars, and the minor pieces join the battle in rapid succession.
6...Bg4
The bishop happily moves out of the pawn chain and pins one of the defenders of the d4-pawn.
7.Be2 e6
This move cements black's central setup and control over the light squares in the centre.
8.Be3 Nge7
The knight is on its way to f5 to put pressure on d4.
If instead white had no pawn on d4, it makes more sense to put the knight on g6 to attack the pawn on e5.
9.O-O Nf5 10.Nbd2 Be7
Both sides have commanded their troops onto the battlefield to their maximum effect. For the time being, white's space is secured, but black will try to undermine this space advantage. The reason why black doesn't play 10...Nxe3 is because 11.fxe3 would reinforce white's central construction and open up the f-file. On top of that, white also gains the option to put another pawn in the centre with e3-e4.
With all pieces now in place on the chess-board that is the Trojan War, the time has come for what martial artists would call "playing chess:" the phase in which both sides will be playing for position. They try to out-manoeuvre, mislead, feign, strategise, and prepare for the phase afterwards, in which the dynamic equilibrium explodes into a rapidfire of exchanging blows. The side that is most likely to emerge victorious will be the side that does the best job out-preparing, out-manoeuvring, and outperforming the opponent.
The situation is such that white has more space in the centre, but the pawn on d4 lacks some support from its home base. Black's goal is to chip away at the defence of white's centre and try to bring the centre down. If the d4-pawn turns up weak, so will its brother-in-arms on e5. White wants to maintain the central space and use the extra space to launch an attack on one of the wings, preferably the kingside.
11.h3 Bxf3
The warrior Cycnus does meet his end after all. Right after he exhales his final breath, Poseidon turns him into a swan, which flies away. The English "cygnet" and the French "cygne" are derived from this name, as well as a beautiful piece of music from the Carnival des animaux by Camille Saint-Saëns:
This trade of bishop for knight tends to be fine, although there is an alternative in 11...Bh5. White will be unable to benefit from a potential fork with 12.g4 because black can play the Zwischenzug 12...Nxe3!, taking the bishop in-between. The difference between doing it here and doing it a few moves back is the fact that with the two pawn moves 11.h3 and 12.g4 white has loosened up the position in front of their own king, and after 13.fxe3 Bg6 the option to pry open the kingside with h7-h5 will be very tempting indeed.
12.Nxf3 Qb6
Achilles enters the fray. His presence has an immediate effect and compels many Trojans to retreat. If it weren't for...
13.Qd3
...Hector! The great Trojan hero, son of Priam and Hecuba. Many fear the great Trojan general, and Agamemnon, the King of Kings, immediately seeks refuge behind the lines of his own army:
13...O-O 14.a3 f6
The effect that the appearance of Achilles has on both armies is immediate and overwhelming. With 14.a3, the Trojans indicate that they barely dare approach the Greek army. On the other hand, the Greeks experience an immediate boost in morale and belligerence and seek to clash with the Trojans right away.
With the pawn on d4 properly secured, black needs to find a different way to attack the centre. Pushing f7-f6 here is a completely sensible move: it questions white's control over the e5-square and if anything it forces lines on the kingside to be opened.
15.b4
Relatively best for white would be to exchange on f6. After 15.exf6, black's best is to go 15...Bxf6 because seeking to gain more influence over the centre with 15...gxf6 leaves black with a slightly more exposed king and a currently unemployed bishop on e7 that simultaneously won't be able to exert pressure against d4 and will be in the way for black's rooks.
15...Rad8 16.g4?!
The initial wave of awe that Achilles has induced has died away, and the Trojans find renewed energy. The slow nature of black's 15th move created the spark to expand on the kingside as well. Troy's walls have never been breached, but white is playing with fire here.
16...fxe5!
16...Nxe3 transposes, but the current move is somewhat more flashy.
17.dxe5
White barely has any choice. After 17.gxf5 e4 18.Qb5 (on any other move, 18...exf3 and 19...Rxf5 wins a pawn) 18...Qxb5 19.Bxb5 exf3 20.fxe6 Rd6, black will be a pawn up, and given the semi-closed nature of the position, the bishop pair will not provide adequate compensation.
17.Nxe5 might look appealing at first, but it's antipositional for two reasons that are interlinked. This is best understood if we look at the pawn structure that emerges from the forced line 17...Nxe5 18.dxe5 Nxe3 19.Qxe3 (forced, because 19.fxe3? Bg5 picks up a pawn) 19...Qxe3 20.fxe3:
If we look at the difference in pawn-structure, some things may be immediately striking. White has doubled pawns on the e-file and somewhat extended pawns on both wings. Almost all of these pawns might turn up weak in some capacity. The only thing that they provide is space, and in order for space to be useful, white needs to keep pieces on the board, most notoriously minor pieces. For this reason it makes little sense for white to voluntarily offer another trade of minor pieces. Next to this, the g5-square would be immediately available to the bishop, which isn't the case if white had preserved the knight.
17...Nxe3 18.fxe3
The pawn structure is as in the diagram above, with the difference that the g5-square is unavailable for the black bishop.
18...a5?!
The Greeks had the initiative, but they got caught up in side hustles around Asia Minor. Two noteworthy captives from these raids were Briseis, a princess of the city of Lyrnessus, and Chryseis, the daughter of a priest of Apollo. Ransacking the temple of one of the gods isn't a wise decision: by so doing, Achilles has incurred the wrath of Apollo, and from this point forth Apollo will do whatever it takes to cross Achilles's plans.
The f-file is a useful field of operation and both e-pawns are juicy targets. I could've banked on this with 18...Rf4! with the intention to play Re4 next, if only I had looked at it at all. The idea is backed by latent threats such as Nxe5, Rdf8, and Bh4+.
19.bxa5 Nxa5 20.Rab1
20...Qa7?
Nobles' sons are one of nature's great destructive forces, like floods or tornadoes. When you're struck with one of these catastrophes, the only thing an average man can do is grit his teeth and try to minimize the damage.
- Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind, Chapter Thirty-One: "The Nature of Nobility"
After a quarrel with Agamemnon over Briseis, Achilles retreats to the back edge of the Greek camp, withdraws his men with him, and refuses to fight any longer even if that'd mean slaughter among the Greeks. From a7, he just sits and stares at the scene. Black no longer has any advantage after this waste of time, and the Trojan army once again has time to reorganise itself.
Rather more advantageous for the Greek cause would have been if Achilles had remained in the battle for the centre with 20...Qc7. But he wants nothing of it.
21.Nd4 Nc4
The threat is stronger than the execution.
- Aron Nimzowitsch
With Achilles abstaining from battle, his favoured companion Patroclus offers to join the battle in Achilles's armour and helmet, as a presence that Stephen Fry beautifully phrased "The Pseudo-Achilles." From f8, he came to the battlefield as a menacing presence, with a direct threat to infiltrate the enemy ranks and deliver a direct assault against the Trojan king Priam.
22.Nxe6 Nxe3
This move is possible because of the powerful idea 23.Nxf8 Nxf1+.
Strengthened and morally boosted by who was believed to be Achilles, the Greeks manage to launch a new attack. Until...
You are not destined to sack Troy.
- Apollo
Refusing to step back, Apollo strikes Achilles's helmet off Patroclus's head to unmask him as an impostor. With renewed energy that comes from the fact that this was not Achilles, the Trojans advance with renewed energy and take Patroclus out.
23.Rxf8+
It is suiting that it is a rook that takes the Pseudo-Achilles off the board. Rooks are historically speaking chariots (the Persian word for chariot being Rukh), and Patroclus was killed by Hector who approached Patroclus on his chariot.
23...Rxf8
Following the death of Patroclus, the inconsolable Achilles swears to revenge himself upon Hector. Hephaestus crafts Achilles a new armour, shield and helmet, and Achilles marches on the grounds screaming for his adversary. He wants but one thing: revenge. And he gets his chance forthwith:
24.Qd4
Hector shows up, standing outside the Scaean Gate. There is no way that Hector was unafraid. This was the clash between the two aces on either side. Neither hero knows any equal within their ranks. As warriors always know, death can be only a second away at any time. Of course Hector is scared. But he acts in spite of it.
There he stands. Achilles. In the armour and weaponry crafted by Hephaestus. A magnificent and terrifying sight indeed.
After a brutal fight in which he's left abandoned by the goddess Athena, Hector knows that the bell tolls for him now. Whereas Hector is man, Achilles is demigod, the most skilled warrior to ever have lived, the Greatest Of All Time.
Two fun facts about this fight.
As described in the Iliad, most 1-vs-1 duels are decided in a handful of strokes at best, and the battle between Achilles and Hector is no exception. As it is, Homer knew very little (if anything) about 21st century cinematic battle choreography. Had he done so, I'm sure that he'd have brushed up this battle to make the movie historically more accurate. Maybe he'd even have added a 25th book to his Iliad just for the moves of this fight.
As recorded on IMDb: Brad Pitt and Eric Bana (Achilles and Hector respectively) had a gentleman's agreement about the fight. They didn't use stunt doubles, and they'd pay the other for every accidental hit that landed: $100 for a major hit, $50 for a minor hit. Eric Bana didn't have to pay anything, and Brad Pitt owed his colleague $750.
In terms of chess, white shouldn't overpress their greed for war spoils, because 24.Nxf8? loses to 24...Nxg4+ with a deadly check on f2 next (given by either the queen or the knight, depending where the king goes).
24...Qxd4
And so Hector falls.
There is a lot within the Iliad that describes what happened next. Achilles ties the war belt around Hector's ankles and with his chariot drives him around the city of Troy. Priam leaves the city to plead with Achilles to return the body of his son home where Hector can be paid the proper funeral rituals. Achilles relents, upholding the etiquettes, the decorum, and the respect that is owed between the greats of their time. In a twelve-day truce (the movie got that part right), the bodies of Hector and Patroclus were cremated.
Homer's Iliad ends here. But the war does not.
- Troy 2020 (audiobook version)
After the truce was over, Apollo decided that Achilles's time had come as well now. He instructs Paris to take up bow and arrow and shoot at Achilles. The arrow hits its mark: right in the only vulnerable spot on Achilles's body: the tendon that we now know as the Achilles tendon.
25.Nxd4
Achilles staggers, falls to his knees, and dies.
Following the death of Achilles, the Trojan War enters its final stage: the endgame. With so many warriors fallen, Hades must be content. Over nine years of war have been fought, and neither side has made any significant progress:
The game sees a new dynamic equilibrium, with both sides having two connected pawns on the kingside and two loose ones in the centre and on the queenside respectively. Neither king is in immediate danger, and although it might seem that the war is almost over, it is certainly not. Opposite-coloured bishops means that both sides still have plenty to fight for.
25...Nc4 26.Ne6 Rb8 27.Rb5 Kf7
White's pieces appear to be better positioned, but the luck is that there are no real targets to press on. As such, the game goes on, and more soldiers fall, but neither side makes any real progress for a number of moves.
28.Nf4 Nxe5 29.Rxd5 Nc6 30.Bc4 Ke8 31.Ne6 Bxa3 32.Nxg7+ Ke7 33.Nf5+ Kf6
There are two imbalances to work with, at least: opposite-coloured bishops, and an asymmetrical pawn distribution.
34.Rb5 b6 35.Kg2 Bc5
Odysseus opts to gather the Greek generals because he wants to propose a plan. A plan so ingenious that he believes that it must have been put in his head completely and with all the details worked out by the goddess Athena herself. It will take some time to materialise the plan, but it is ingenious indeed. So ingenious, in fact, that over three thousand years later a very elaborate bit of malware has been named for this idea.
In the mean time, the Greeks will keep attacking with whatever they can spare to divert the attention of the Trojans.
36.Rb1 Ne5 37.Bb5 Ra8 38.Kg3 Ra3+
39.Kg2
Of course 39.Kh4?? loses on the spot to 39...Ng6+ 40.Kh5 Rxh3+ and mate. On the other hand, 39.Kf4 is playable even if it loses a pawn after 39...Ng6+ 40.Ke4 Rxh3.
39...Ng6 40.Rf1 Kg5 41.Rf3?!
I was anticipating 41.h4+ Nxh4 (41...Kxg4? loses to 42.Be2+) 42.Nxh4 Kxh4 43.Rh1+ Kxg4 44.Rxh7 and although I have every right to play on and try to bring my pawn across, the ending should be a theoretical draw even if white is compelled to sacrifice the bishop for the pawn at some point. This is an opposite-coloured bishop position in which the result hinges on getting the pawn across rather than attacks against the king, and here the lack of control over the other colour complex means that white will be able to remain alive.
41...Ra2+
King Priam wakes up, looks over the lands around Troy, and sees absolutely nothing. The land is deserted. There is no single Greek vessel in sight. The Greek camp has been burned. It would appear that the entire Greek armada has vanished.
However, there is one thing visible on the horizon: an enormously large wooden rabbit horse.
The Trojan king Priam goes to have a look at the remarkable wooden steed. He wonders what to do with it. Deiphobus is there with him. As a Trojan seer considers that the horse must be burned and is attacked by snakes, Deiphobus explains this as a sign of the gods and persuades his father that the horse be taken into the city.
We must destroy it! Destroy it, burn it, before it destroys and burns us all!
- Cassandra about the Trojan Horse (as in Troy 2020)
Now that Cassandra predicted correctly what it would mean if the horse was left intact, the Trojans of course have to do the opposite. They fetch the horse and bring it within the city walls:
42.Kg3??
White could've maintained a more or less equal position with 42.Kf1. Dumb, stupid idiot Cassandra! If only you had kept your face shut, who knows what would've happened? Couldn't you have been quiet for just this once?
42...Nh4!!
Odysseus's plan was as follows:
- We build a large wooden rabbit horse on the beach, supposedly in honour of Athena, for having guarded over us for all these years. We make it so that it has no outside holes, except for the mouth. This signals strength to the onlooker while simultaneously giving us a constant stream of fresh air.
- Within the belly of the horse, we hide 30 men. I, Odysseus, volunteer to be within the belly of the horse myself. I'd also have Achilles if only he'd still be alive, but unlike what the Hollywood movie playwrights would have you believe in about 3200 years of time, he's dead now. On the other hand, Menelaus isn't dead so we can install him in the horse. We need a group of strong warriors who don't smoke, because that'd likely give us away. Also, Agamemnon stays with the armada.
- We wait until the Trojans have pulled us into the city and wait until nightfall. Then we descend through the trapdoor at the bottom, kill everyone in our path, and let the rest of the Greek army in. We then finish what we came here for: we end the conflict in our favour, collect Helen, restore her to Menelaus, and set home for Greece.
Painting by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, c. 1760.
43.Nxh4
It is decided upon that the wooden horse is to be taken into the city (and white had no choice because the checkmate threat on g2 was quite deadly). For it they have to breach the walls to let the horse through.
The Greek warriors within the horse wait until the streets are completely quiet, and then get to work.
43...Bd6+
With the Greeks into the city, the game is immediately over. The city walls no longer prove to be any real obstacle, as evidenced by the next two moves:
44.Rf4 Bxf4+ 45.Kf3
And with the obstacle of the Trojan walls out of the way, the remainder of the Greek army, which has quietly sailed back to the Trojan shore, is let into the city and joins the battle:
45...Ra3+
Peter O'Toole's facial expression is perhaps the greatest acting performance in the whole movie.
Troy falls prey to the bloodlust of the Greeks. They leave no Stone unturned. Paris has fallen in disfavour with the gods and bites the dust, as do Priam and Deiphobus and so many other valiant Trojan warriors.
46.Ke4 Re3+
Only a very small group of Trojans will survive and flee successfully: Aeneas and his family, currently safely located on the kingside. They flee before all of Troy is burned down. They don't wait for Troy to be burned to the ground, and my opponent resigned here to let them flee safely.
0-1
The arcs of almost all the characters ended differently than what the 2004 movie portrayed. Of course, many of the leading figures were already dead before the fall of Troy.
The Greeks did win the war wholly: Helen is indeed restored to Menelaus. Their marriage continues after a minor ten-year hiatus, and as the modern fairytales would have it, they lived happily ever after.
Agamemnon, however, did not: his returning home with Cassandra saw both the King of Kings and the Trojan Princess killed by Clythemnestra, who had never forgiven her husband for sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia.
Having incurred the wrath of Poseidon on numerous occasions, Odysseus takes the longest time to arrive back home. This in itself inspired an epic telling by Homer: another 24 books named for the Ithacan king, also beautifully narrated by Stephen Fry. And if the rumours are right, a movie of this name will hit the screen in 2026.
Aeneas, whom Paris must in fact have known for longer than the movie made out because they were kinsmen, went on to successfully flee the city of Troy together with his father Anchises and his son Ascanius. Like Odysseus, Aeneas took a long time to get settled, with an involuntary excursion to Carthage and meeting queen Dido. Before he went to conduct Thunderbird 2 and captain the Dutch national football team, the Latin poet Virgil wrote the Aeneid, twelve books that detail the epic of Aeneas before he remarried a woman called Lavinia and founded a city in her honour. It is through Aeneas's line of descent that the twins Romulus and Remus are born, the former of which eventually founded the city of Rome.
Hector: In a thousand years even the dust from our bones will be gone.
Achilles: Yes, prince. But our names will remain.
It is remarkable how we remember the names of several of the major entities in the Trojan war. The name of Odysseus is connected not to his wit, but to the phenomenally long time it took for him to return home. Achilles is known for his only weakness. Cycnus lives on in the English and French words for swan. Paris is now both the capital of France and the name of an American actress with a questionable reputation.
Several other names that didn't find a way into my blog have also seen their names manifest in some form or another in present-day vocabulary: a mentor, a nestor and an antenna are all derived from names in the Iliad.
This game means a great deal to me: it was the very first classical OTB game in which I employed the Caro-Kann with the black pieces and won. I'd spent the last year or so studying the Caro-Kann as a repertoire choice with black, and I haven't had many chances to confidently put it to practice. I felt that showing the game in the way I did in this blog does justice to my hours upon hours of work and doubts, and the incredible feeling of accomplishment that the game brought me.
The victory, as you can imagine, was incredibly relieving, especially given the way the ending went. The winning tactic with 42...Nh4!! is a delight, of course, and I had seen it well in advance. The most precious part about this game, though, is the realisation that I was never worse. I was never in any real danger of losing, even despite the fact that white did have an initiative around my king for a fair share of moves.
My opponent stalked off immediately upon signing the score sheet. Even though I wish I would've had a post-mortem to discuss this game with him, I don't blame him from fleeing the ruins of his position. Knowing what I know now, he must've had another city to found.
Click here for the mobile version
