It was the final game of the chess world championship and it was anyone's game. The competition was between two chess legends. David, a masterful attacker who had the white pieces for the final game, and Gary, a masterful defender with the black pieces.
While this may have seemed like any other ordinary world championship, there was bad blood between the two competitors. It was not just that both of the competitors had grown up playing each other, or that each had never been world champion. Their competitive relationship had gotten personal.
As the match was about to start David thought about the bad blood between them. First starting with when David's wife left him for Gary. He thought about how he did not blame his wife for leaving him. After all, she was an independent woman with an associates degree who could make her own choices. Additionally, David realized that he was not the most supportive husband. But the real gut punch was the fact she left him for Gary, his mortal enemy.
"What did I ever do?" David thought, "For as far back as I can think Gary has been a thorn in my side. Not just in chess, but in life, as well. Nonetheless, today will be the day I defeat Gary once and for all."
Gary also thought about the bad blood between David and him. How Gary did not even like chess, but the only reason he had decided to begin playing chess was to get revenge on David, the chess club president at the time, for calling him fat in middle school. He also did not even like David's ex-wife, in his opinion she was uptight, but the only reason he had agreed to date her was to get revenge on David.
"Words hurt," Gary thought, "And today I will get my final revenge on David."
The game then started and David made his first move.
Author's notes:
This story is based off of the battle between Ravana and Ramayana in the Ramayana. I decided to have David represent Ramayana and Gary represent Ravana.
The story has many parallels between the original story. In my story Gary "steals" David's wife similarly to how Ravana steals Ramayana's wife. Also Gary is a masterful defender and David is a masterful attacker which parallels how Ravana is defending against Ramayana in the battle.
Also I had the beginning of the beef between Gary and David be because David was mean to Gary similarly to how the reason Ravana even begins to mess with Ramayana is because he was mean to his sister.
Bibliography: "Myths of Hindus and Buddhists: Ramayana" by Sister Nivedita
I think it is interesting that you chose to make a chess match the ending battle between Rama and Ravana! Chess is a very strategic game and includes a lot of intuition. I think that these characters did not put a lot of thought into their Ramayana battle (haha) but giving a Bobby Fisher approach to revenge is so fun! I think it is interesting that you chose to put Sita at fault, when Ravana physically carried her away. Very interesting POV of having Ravana steal his wife in a more modern way.
ReplyDeleteHey Caleb,
ReplyDeleteI really loved your idea of incorporating chess in this story. I would have never thought of it. I have been obsessed playing chess on chess.com lately, so, I was intrigued. The way you incorporated little elements from the Ramayana is genius. You really nailed it! Your author's note was also super informative! Good job.