Sophie’s team in the world of Chaturangi

Editor L. B. Mironova

Illustrator A. Yu. Mishina

Illustrator Yu. S. Kvartalova

© Elena Shatrandzh, 2024

© A. Yu. Mishina, illustrations, 2024

© Yu. S. Kvartalova, illustrations, 2024

ISBN 978-5-0060-0995-0

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

Elena Shatrandzh

Three worlds: Earth, Rukkhaya, Bellas. Three teams of chess players, three eternal comparisons: Russia, West and East. Sophie, Keira, Mark, Artem and Alisa, a team of young winners, end up in Chaturangi, a world of chess full of mysteries, wonders and magic. The children stand to learn the secrets of other worlds, get acquainted with creatures originating from different parts of the Universe… Will they, just children, be able to take the varnish off, defeat evil thanks to friendship and protect their world? To do this, they must win the main match of the Grandmaster Tournament. On the other hand, would our Russian boys and girls refuse to play chess? A game that bestows clear consciousness, analytical thinking and the geometric art of moving chess pieces?!

Chapter 1.
Sophie’s team feeling bored

A year ago, Sophie’s team won all the competitions held in Russia and now it was in Cuzco, an ancient city in Peru, hosting the famous Secret Games tournament that gathered together children’s chess teams from all over the globe.

“Why are all tournaments held in the most remote corners of the planet? In the most boring cities, where there is absolutely nothing to do?”, Keira, the second board and Sophie’s right hand, the most courageous and cheerful girl on the planet, said, whining as always. Certainly, it is difficult to stay put in one place for a long time if you have such a fiery competitive spirit. She was an attacker playing lightning-fast, attacking games, ready to give up all her pieces so that they didn’t prevent her from checkmating her opponent in a few brilliant moves. This, however, was also her weakness. Therefore, the team would not let her play against opponents who loved positional styles.

“Keira, such places are needed so that we cannot focus on anything but chess, plus, you must admit, there is a certain magic about small towns”, the captain tried to reason with her.

“Sophie, only the high stone jungles of Singapore or New York have magic to them. It was there where really cool tournaments were held last month! Mark, tell her we need some adventure to recharge our batteries before the final round and make sure to get out and explore every dark secret corner of this ‘magical’ town,” Keira finished sarcastically.

“Keira is still a nuisance, but now she is right”, Mark a merry fellow, the soul of the company, always ready for adventure, said, agreeing with Keira. His playing style was attack. However, he didn’t attack as violently as Keira did. His style was more of an advance and retreat, kind of probing the opponent. Magnus Carlsen was his favorite chess player. Mark had a passion for difficult games and complex end plays that required the quick calculation of a lot of moves without a single mistake.

Virtually from her birth, Sophie could not do without a chessboard. Chess was an inseparable part of her life full of constant tournaments, different cities, all kinds of gatherings. She was 11 years old. She was just about to finish elementary school, but she was already a world chess champion among her age mates, just like her friends – a dream team – were champions of city-wide as well as Russian and world championships.

Sophie united all the guys by pure accident, since she always considered herself a loner. Playing in a team was a big responsibility and, most importantly, she never wanted to lose just because someone couldn’t keep up with her or let the team down by losing – the worst thing that could happen. The mood of each team member was important for everyone. They were like arms and legs of one organism. Sophie was the leader of her team, a real captain. She was strong in spirit, responsible, kind, fair. Her playing style was ‘creative’. She liked to mix different styles, set brilliant traps. She liked to play for the sake of art and the beauty of the game and not just for the sake of winning. Sophie dreamt of becoming a doctor without giving up participating in major chess tournaments and, perhaps, she was already obsessed with the Hippocratic oath that invoked huge responsibility she felt for her team. So, when Mark agreed with Keira, there was no option but to find an adventure for everyone.

“I would quote Alice’s favorite Shakespeare now: “These violent delights have violent ends…”, the Captain started.

“Oh nooo, no more of Shakespeare, Sophie! Suffice it that Alice always quotes him!!

“I won’t”, Sophie said, laughing. “Yesterday, after the game, I found in my room a handbill for an underground labyrinth that only the ‘most worthy’ can pass”.

“And you didn’t say a word?”, Keira even leaped up in anticipation.

“That’s what we need!”, Mark agreed.

“Great, since you agree, get prepared in 15 minutes. Have Artem and Alice prepared as well. Keira, since it’s an underground labyrinth, a white dress will not be a good idea…”

“Yes, I’ve got the point,” Keira shouted leaving the room.

When Marka and Keira left, Sophie quickly found that handbill, put it in her backpack, having first memorized the approximate location of the entrance to the labyrinth, put on her favorite purple sneakers, wrote to her mother a note that the next couple of hours she would be busy getting prepared for the next game and made for the exit from the hotel. Indeed, the guys were already there waiting for their captain.

“Keiiiraa!!” they had nothing to do but exclaim since the main attacker was wearing a knee-length white dress with rhinestones and a bell skirt, shining like a New Year’s tree laden with her neon bracelets.

“We tried to reason with her, but you know if someone wears a white dress, only another white dress can make her take it off,” Alice said, joking. “You know, Sophie, I’m almost sure that today we’ll need luck, and Keira is our Caissa.”

“Does the goddess of chess, Caissa, have any idea that she is being compared to our Keira?” Sophie said and gave a smile. “And if this is the case, Alice, then maybe we should all wear white?”

Not that the team believed in the paranormal, but Alice was not by chance the team’s intuitivist, psychologist and a game planner and played many other roles; but most importantly, if she believed that luck was needed, then it would be needed for sure.

“No, I think one white dress will suffice, and one more thing: we have to go, tick-tock”.

Alice literally felt what would happen next, knowing when to retreat and when to attack. Her playing style was indefinite. She, like a chameleon, skillfully adapted to the opponent she played with. The style resembled something between that of Alexandra Goryachkina and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Her excessive gentleness was a flaw that had become a virtue, deceptively tempting the opponent into a trap.

Sophie led the guys quite confidently – Cusco is a small town, so memorizing the approximate location of the labyrinth was not so difficult; the guys smoothly got to the place, almost in silence, as if everyone expected something important to happen, and, therefore, tried to remember the exciting sensations for future victories, like when you recall the nights and mornings of Christmas in order to achieve a feeling of complete happiness and tedious waiting for a miracle. What makes us think that something magical is about to happen? We do not analyze our happiness; we just feel it, hoping for the best. That’s what the guys felt for the time being. So, they seized the moment to take part in the important last game the next day full of strength and energy.

It was only when they approached the place, they kind of woke up and looked at each other in surprise.

“Do you feel the same?” Sophie asked.

They had no secrets from each other and shared everything from their personal family lives to fears, dreams, wishing someone good or even bad luck. So, they weren’t afraid to be ridiculed in front of each other just like one couldn’t laugh at their own arm or leg or head.

“It’s great, but it’s also strange that we all froze, feeling the same thing at the same time. We, however, walked confidently across a foreign town and, most importantly, came to the right place,” Artem, the team’s analyst, said. “Sophie, show me the handbill for this place,” Artem said in a very calm voice. He was thoughtful, kind and compassionate. His playing style was positional. Sergey Karjakin was his favorite chess player. His favorite opening was the Caro-Kann Defense. He took losses as life lessons.

Sophie took the handbill out, opened it, and only then they realized that it was written in the Quechua, and that standing there, in front of the entrance to the labyrinth, they did not understand a word, although before that Sophie had somehow managed to understand both the map and the attracting handbill that led them directly to that increasingly mysterious and strange place.

“It looks like we are in for not just an adventure but something more,” Alice intoned.

“Well, since we are here, it means that someone wanted it this way, and how fortunate that the desires of the Universe have coincided with ours! The stars shine and we all need it,” Alice decided to calm herself and others down by paraphrasing the words by Vladimir Mayakovsky from his immortal poem “Listen!”.

“I and Artem will lead the way followed by Sophie and Kiera with you, Alice, bringing up the rear. If something happens, then you, Alice, turn around and run away. It’s only you with your power of suggestion who can send the entire Peru into a tizzy and make them rescue us,” Mark said and entered the labyrinth without waiting for the team to realize the whole horror of his words.

The guys had no choice but to follow the team’s intellectual and main prop to immerse themselves into the biggest adventure that would change their lives forever and – they did not know that yet – the life of the whole world!

Chapter 2
The mystery of the labyrinth in Peru

In the labyrinth, they came face to face with creepy silence and darkness.

“Erm… Did it occur to anyone to take a flashlight?” Alice asked.

“Well, apparently, there is one in every mobile phone,” Sophie sneered, taking out her mobile phone and turning the flashlight on.

When the labyrinth was illuminated by the phones, the team saw walls covered with symbols, which, upon a closer look, turned out to be pictures of chess pieces, frayed in some places, intact here and there. Whole game notations or chess problems could be seen elsewhere.

The guys moved forward beckoned by these amazing themed walls as if they were created specifically for them. Sometimes they stopped, puzzling over a problem or trying to figure out a solution for a chess study.

None of them noticed how much time had passed and how long they had been walking, but at some point, mobile phone flashlights became completely unnecessary and the team ended up inside some kind of a room that looked like a secret room in a cave. Suddenly it became light. However, it was impossible to determine where the source of light was. It seemed to go from the very space around the room.

The room was substantially a circle, in whose center there was a chessboard with pieces on it in a position enabling a checkmate in one move (Black’s move)¹:

“The queen moves to f1, checkmate in one move,” Mark said confidently and before the team had time to stop him, he did exactly what he said.

In an instant, a loud voice from nowhere said:

“The first round is over, the second one will begin in 5 seconds, but if you want to finish, leave the thing that is the most valuable for you and leave the room forever.”

“It’s optimistic and strange at the same time,” Keira muttered. “Who even uses such terrible voices for children’s quests?!”

“Keira, you’re reading my mind. It’s like you’re at your parents’ party when they are watching an old American movie with a terrible one-voice translation,” Sophie said.

“And I’m concerned about what is going to happen next given that after the first round and the scholar’s mate in one move, we have to leave the most valuable thing?” Artem puzzled everyone.

Once the promised 5 seconds lapsed, the pieces on the board changed into quite a simple position: checkmate in two moves (Black’s move)²:

This time, Keira stepped up to the plate. She apparently was eager to find out what would be requested after the second round.

“Congratulations on passing the second round. The third round will begin in 3 seconds, but if you want to finish the game, leave your intuitivist and leave the room forever.”

“Me?… How do they even know about me?” Alice appalled.

To put it bluntly, everyone experienced a wild fear as if at some point it had occurred to the guys that they were not playing a computer game or dreaming. Everything was really happening to them and it could very well be that they were trapped by a psychopath who specifically lured smart, but not very smart, kids there?!

They did not have time to panic or try to comprehend something, when a more difficult position appeared on the chessboard – “mate in three moves” (White’s move)³:

Alice solved the problem faster than anyone else and already raised her hand to rearrange the pieces but this time Sophie was on the alert:

“Stop! Alice, we do not know how much time we are given to solve it, but intervals between tasks become less and less, why? And if our time is not limited while we are solving a problem, then maybe we will discuss what is happening right now?”

“That’s not quite right, Captain,” the voice out of nowhere said. Everyone had already been pretty much annoyed with that voice, and the word Captain was said with such a mockery that the guys felt like becoming wrestlers or whatever they called them instead of chess players.

“In fact, you really are not limited in time while solving the next problem. However, if you talk about anything but the position, you will lose and will not be able to win the next game and, therefore, continue your way through the labyrinth, pending the most important and final win.

“Great, Voice from Latrine, why do we need to pass these tests at all, and how come you know who we are?” Keira said in an angry voice.

“Your victory will save your world. We, however, cannot give this chance to unworthy. Consider this a pure test for strength.”

“What about your threatening words: “Leave the most valuable thing or a member of your team? What a lot of rubbish!” Mark also joined in.

“Defender, we didn’t build the labyrinth. More likely, it built itself between your world and ours. It has its own rules and laws and if you enter it, you must keep trying till the end and win to prove that you are eligible for the Main Battle in your life or lose to confirm that the Earth has not participated in the Great Tournament for hundreds of years for a reason. And you may not just turn around and leave at any moment since you have to pay for everything. That’s the law of this Interworld. Your time is running out, players, make your move and don’t bother me again.”

After that the annoying voice deactivated. And the guys had nothing to do but to nod Alice to the chessboard and everyone would continue to play by someone else’s rules.

Checkmate in 4 moves (White’s move)⁴:

After the fifth round, when the last drawing problem was solved, an additional door opened and the guys continued to move through the labyrinth.

Draw (White’s move)⁵:

Chapter 3
When secrets are needed

“Should we really go further?” cautious Artem intoned.

“Guys, let’s tune up for positive and victory as much as possible! Whatever happens next, we need to be at our best,” Alice said as she took everyone’s hands and quickly gathered them into a circle.

Everyone closed their eyes unquestioningly – Alice felt danger or victory well in advance. Her intuition helped them out so many times that they learned to trust her pretty quickly. Sophie was trained in meditation by her coach at the age of seven, when her uncertainty did not allow her to win even win-win games. The mechanism was simple, but it worked: “Imagine yourself in the mountains (in the forest, by the sea, in a desert, put it another way, in a place where you can feel comfortable and free). You need to feel your entire body: each toe is immersed in the sand, each finger feels the movement of the sea breeze, only the sound of the sea surrounds you and you will stay there as long as your body needs to solve the problem that you have set for it.” Therefore, when Alice told the guys to close their eyes, thereby ordering the brain and body to tune up for concentration, victory and positive attitude, the team did it in a matter of seconds.

When you do self-control exercises daily since the age of seven, this practice becomes almost automatic, even during the gameplay, and allows figuring out a cool move even in a strange and scary labyrinth. This time, Sophie imagined “mountains, height of freedom, clean air, a hovering eagle, freshness of the wind and the most beautiful views in the world.

This was probably the only secret the guys didn’t share with each other – the place where they imagine themselves when meditating. They deliberately didn’t share it with each other, so that even by chance the information would not go beyond the team and no one might undermine their victory, but, most importantly, no one could break their spirit by destroying their make-believe world. For example, you know that a person images themselves in a desert. If every time you meet you tell news about the dangers of a desert, repeat someone’s words about the horrors of sand and in every possible way turn a person against a desert, then pretty soon their subconscious will instill anxiety and fear in that person instead of helping them find sanctuary and a way to self-confidence and victory. And the worst thing is that they won’t even guess the trick right away and are likely to believe that the theory of self-control is nonsense. It took the guys a couple of minutes to start smiling.

“And why did we get scared? So far, the adventure is just the coolest one,” Keira said, laughing. “Everything we need is here: chess, a dark labyrinth, mysterious voices from another world and ‘another world and interworld’! This is an amazing quest, and so far, they haven’t charged us a penny.”

“Uh, Keira, I think there are a couple more pros. It’s obviously free and maybe it’s really a different world,” Artem said.

“Artem, we know your faith in magic, other worlds and all that kind of stuff but you understand that the time for fairy tales will be a little later, it’s only lunchtime, and you’re not your favorite Harry Potter at all!”

“Well, Keira, guys, just think, chess pieces re-arranging themselves and materializing from mist, a voice that knows everything about us, a labyrinth full of prehistoric drawings, but at the same time, kind of from the future… We are like heroes of Marvel Comic books, superheroes! If all this is based on science, do you have any idea how much such a quest should cost?

“Artem, we agree that there are moments that we do not understand or they seem fantastic. But I am sure that there is an explanation for everything, and earthlier than what brought us into the inter-world subspace. Because if this is the case, then guys, we have a little more problems than just going through the labyrinth. We should get out at about the same time that we entered it and not in a couple of hundred years, right?” Sophie joked, or not joked…

“We will deal with problems as they arise. Now we have to go through the labyrinth and, as we can see, it gives the best fit for us since it consists of chess problems. All other issues will be dealt with as they come. But now, we better go through that door because, judging by the slowly fading light, our time here is running out,” Alice reprimanded the team.

The guys looked around and saw that it had got much darker. The light seemed to kind of retreat from the walls towards the center of the room, concentrating there as a bright star with a beam of light emitted towards the open door in which the guys stood and leaving a literally black hole behind.

Despite the desire to comprehend and capture the fantastic moments of what was happening in their memory, they rushed towards the other door that already started closing. Alice managed to escape at the last moment. The door slammed behind her and the nasty voice said: “Sophie, your team will lose if you doubt your every step.”