Pawn Play

Yes, unlikely as it may seem, Pinkie pie was not only my first opponent, but also my first tutor. My hyperactive friend was indeed the one to introduce me to the studious game. I was at the toy shop buying a new rubber ducky for Spike. He really enjoys his bubble baths. I swear it's unhealthy. I don't remember how exactly the topic came up, but after I mentioned that I never once played, she dramatically gasped and ran off. Only moments later had she returned, beaming a smile at me as she presented a set.

"Oh no, Pinkie, I really couldn't I-"

"Oh but you HAVE too Twilight! If word got out that you didn't know how to play chess, the smartie-est game in history then ponies will start getting..." She paused "Suspicions." I gazed in confusion once again at my friend.

"Suspicions? What do you mean?"

"They'll start thinking that you're not as smart anymore. Rumours will keep being passed round..." She began to use several mock voices: "Oh look there goes that Twilight. I heard she's only of average intelligence." "I heard she doesn't like books anymore." "I heard that I'm smarter than her, and I'm a chicken! BU-CAWK!" I sighed. Once again my friend had gone off on one of her crazy paranoid tangents.

"Okay, Pinkie. I'll play. But just one game, okay? I really need to get back. Spike REALLY enjoys his bubble baths."

"YAY!!!" She squealed, before abruptly throwing off the lid and emptying the box's contents.

"Okay, so before we begin, you need to learn about all the different pieces."

Great I thought. Looks like spike was going to have to wait for his bubble bath...

"Now, The first piece you should learn about is the King!"

Oh. I bet you're wondering what these are. Well, chess games are going to be essential to the plot. Now, If you're like me then you can just whip out a chess board and survive on notations. (more on those later) But, I realize that not everyone has a chess board, so I'll be posting these throughout the story as a visual aid. I shall not provide an image per turn, but they will be common enough to keep track of. Anyway, back to the scene.

She placed the black king down on it's starting spot.

"The king is the most important piece. You need to defend it at all costs! If the king is attacked then you're in check, and you must defend it! If you can't do that, then you are DOOOOOMED!" I could just hear the threatening music in the background.

"Okay, so the king's super important. Anything else?"

Pinkie nodded. "The king can only move one space horizontally, vertically or diagonally.

"That's it?"

"I think so... OH OH OH, One last thing. The king is in no way related to any famous pop stars, past, present or future in this world or any other."

"Whatever you say, Pinkie. So, what's next?"

"Well, every king has a great queen!" she said, pulling out another tall piece.

"The queen is a super important piece! It can travel any amount of squares in any direction!" She was right. The queen is by far the most agile piece in the game. It has a value of 9 points, at least 4 more than any other piece in the game. The king has no value, as it is priceless.

"Okay, King one space in any direction, Queen all spaces in any direction. Got it. What's next?"

"Next, we these two happy guys!" She said, pulling out a pair of small pointed pieces.

"These are bishops. They are silly things. They can move any amount spaces diagonally. Problem is, they can't get off their own colour!" That is the one overbearing flaw of the bishop: it can only attack 32 spaces on the entire board. It is worth 3 points despite it's long range.

"You have one on each colour though, so it's all right." Once again Pinkie spoke with more wisdom than she could ever intend. Having two bishops is far better than having one bishop one knight. (another piece worth 3 points) Speaking of knights...

"Next pieces are the knights!" She said, brandishing two horse-like pieces.

"These knights are even sillier than bishops! They go two spaces in one direction and then one space in another, or vise versa, but the two directions must be perpendicular." Now that was sentence that surprised me

"Pinkie, since when did you know what perpendicular meant?" I asked, my focus taken off the tutorial.

"Everyone knows what perpendicular means! You'd have to be stupid not to!"

Don't shoot the messenger. Knights move in a very strange pattern, they move two spaces in one direction and one in another, but the directions they travel in cannot be opposite to one another. Say if you moved a night two spaces up, you wouldn't be able to move it one space down. All you could do is move it one space left or right. I hope that clears things up.

"Good thing about these cute guys," Pinkie continued, "Is that they can move over other pieces!" And are the only piece with the ability to do so.

"Well, that's four down, two to go. Next up are the rooks!" She said, revealing a pair of very small castle-like pieces.

Let's just get this out of the way right now. Rooks are also know as castles. But here's the thing: There is a certain type of move in this game called castling. (more on that later) This can lead to some very confusing descriptions. So, throughout the course of this story, I shall be calling these pieces rooks for the sake of simplicity.

"These guys are all serious looking. I don't like them. They can move any number of spaces horizontally or verticaly, but can be hard to move because they're trapped in the corners." Rooks are worth 5 points, and are very useful in endgames.

I nodded. "Okay. So, just a recap, King's are priority no.1, Queens can move freely, Rooks move sideways, Bishops can move diagonally and knights can hop around."

"Yes yes yes yes and yes! And last but not least is the pawn!"

Pinkie arranged the remaining 8 small round-headed pieces:

"These guys may look small and aren't able to do much on their own, but they're actually the most complex piece in the game! When you first move them they can go either one or two spaces forwards, but after that they can only go one space per turn. They can't take other pieces by moving forward, but they can take pieces on their forward diagonals. And the best part is that, when they reach the end, you can promote them into a bishop, rook, queen or knight!"

"Woah woah woah, slow down Pinkie, all of that went over my head. What was that rule about when you move them first...?"

All of what Pinkie just said was true, and very easy to understand if explained correctly:

The pawns on the left can be moved forward one or two spaces. However, the pawns on the right can only move 1 space forward. The next thing Pinkie said was about pawn's attacking abilities.

The black pawn here is attacking the queen and the rook, however it is not attacking the king. It's path forward is blocked unless it takes one the pieces. The last thing Pinkie said was about pawn promotion. When pawns reach the other end of the board they have the ability to be promoted into one the 4 back rank pieces (excluding the king, of course) However, there is never any need at all to promote to a bishop or a rook, as the queen combines both their movement patterns. And the times where promoting to a knight is the right choice are so few and far between that it's practically guaranteed that you'll be promoting to a queen every time.

"So, is that it?" I said to Pinkie, growing more and more eager to play the game.

"Eeyup! All you have to do is set up your pieces parallel to mine and-" In moments I had levitated the white pieces into place, creating the natural start position for any game of chess:

"Wow. That was fast." Pinkie said flattly. "Well, white always move first, so good luck!"

I don't remember exactly how the match with Pinkie pie went, but I do remember generally destroying her. Oh, and one other thing came up, though again I don't know how. Castling. Castling is the only move in chess where you can move 2 pieces at once, and will normally put the king in a very safe position. In this move the king gets to move 2 spaces either left or right, and the rook he moves towards hops over him. In other words, you go from a position like this:

To a position like this:

Or this:

However, there are limitations to this move: If the king, rook, or any square in between them is being attacked, then they can't castle. Also, if the king has previously moved then again, no castling. If either of the rooks move, then it means no castling on that side. Castling is a very useful defensive move, and you'll see it come up quite a lot in the games I play later on.

Pinkie actually gave me a chess set free of charge that day. I thanked her thoroughly, and went home, unaware that poor old spike had been missing out on his bubble bath for nearly half an hour. I played a couple of other unscored games after that with friends, but the story didn't really begin until HE came to the Library...