The Kingdom of the Seven Stars: Chaturanga

Chapter 12

"I take it the last game Three Player Chess, Chata?" said Alice, looking at the hexagonal board.

"What else is it going to be?" said Chata. "It's only fitting. As far as we know, it's the first ever chess variant. The game is all three of you against all three of you, with no interference from me this time. The one who defeats the other two gets the notebook."

"No," said Lord Blackstar, holding up his hand. "That's a very fair offer, computer, but we must decline. I'll stay and play the Sirians, but please transport the prince and princesses and the captain outside..."

"No!" said Alex.

"Don't listen to him, Chata!" said Ellen. "We won all our games. We've got the right to be here."

"The only people I'm transporting anywhere, Lord Blackstar," said Chata, "are the losers. And they won't be going to the lobby, they'll be going to the muddiest part of the swamp. Now enough whining. Choose your colour and let's get started."

"Thank you. We'll play white," said Alice.

"I claim grey!" said Mendoza.

"In the names of all seven of the... Very well," said Lord Blackstar. "Black it is."

They all turned around to face the board. Alex let himself relax slightly. He wasn't sure how he could tell, but he knew that this time, Chata was telling the truth. There was nothing in this room that she was going to try to kill them with. All they had to do was direct the pieces. They were playing against both Lord Blackstar and the Sirians, but two human opponents would be better than one mad supercomputer any day.

"The rules are mostly the same as normal," said Chata. "White goes first. Afterwards, black and grey alternate so no one is always going last."

"OK. Thank you," said Alice. "Pawn to E3."

Alex watched as their first piece slid across the board. Three Player Chess was a game he had tried a few times at his school's chess club and he remembered how the notation worked. Ancient descriptive notation, which was based on the starting positions of all the pieces on an ordinary chessboard board, would not work very well on a hexagonal one, so instead each column of hexagons was given a letter from A to N and each hexagon in the column was numbered from one through to fourteen. It was strange to watch a pawn move diagonally when it was not capturing – though it was technically going in a straight line from E2 to E3 – and the final game began.

"Pawn to M9," said Diego Mendoza.

"Pawn to G11," said Lord Blackstar.

Chata watched in silence from her screen as Alice, Lord Blackstar and Mendoza calling out the moves. Alex was not sure if Alice ever had played Three Player Chess before, but she called out their moves with her usual confidence.

"Knight to K12."

"Bishop to G6."

The hexagonal chessboard was much bigger than a normal one and had more than sixty four squares. Alex quickly did the maths in his head. They were playing over at least one hundred and forty hexagons. But with three players, each with a full set of pieces, the board was already feeling crowded.

"Rook to G7. Rook captures bishop," said Lord Blackstar, as Mendoza's piece was teleported away.

"Curses!" said Mendoza. "Queen to I4."

"Knight to G10," said Alice.

"Pawn to F9," said Lord Blackstar.

"Aha!" said Mendoza. "Knight to E8! Knight captures pawn!"

Lord Blackstar muttered under his breath and they kept playing. Alex fought the urge to fidget. Captain Zachary was doing the same. Ellen had given up and was pacing backwards and forwards and adjusting her sword belt. Will was shifting his weight from foot to foot. Darla looked more bored than curious. This was the most important game they had played so far, but – with nothing threatening them this time – it was actually as slow and unexciting as watching other people play chess normally was. Alice, Lord Blackstar and Mendoza were all completely absorbed in choosing their moves. There was nothing he could do to help. He just had to wait and see if Alice could win.