Chapter 141: Brilliant Move (1))
A martial artist’s life is a kind of Sword Debate Chess.
Those who abandon fundamental manners for momentary pleasures deserve neither victory nor life, and will ultimately lose both.
- Benjamin Franklin -
Watching Her Majesty the Queen’s incense burn down as she sat lost in thought, I could not hide my thrill.
A master of the Unstrained Realm was thrown into confusion witnessing my very first move, someone who has only reached the Peak Realm.
I, who couldn’t win a single duel against my master in Sword Debate Chess (though I crushed him in classical chess), was already beginning to gain the upper hand against Her Majesty.
In terms of the time given to Her Majesty — that is, the length of the incense — the opening went smoothly because it shortened considerably from the first move.
As time dwindles, the pressure on a player’s stamina and composure only increases.
Protecting my time while siphoning the opponent’s is one way to prevent them from executing tactics and strategy, thus it was a path to victory in Sword Debate Chess.
The incense burns down steadily even as the duel proceeds.
Even though Sword Debate Chess grants more time than ordinary chess, the very fact that she was already pondering the second move this long would make Her Majesty anxious. If I induce mistakes from the marching phase before the duel even begins and exploit gaps, my chances of winning will rise greatly.
“A move I’ve never seen before. Strange indeed….”
The Indian Defense is a defensive method that Indian riders who came to Great Britain during colonial times began to use.
Unlike the romantic-era openings that fight brutally over the Dragon Vein from the start, this responds to a pawn advance by moving a knight, indirectly controlling the vein.
Thus, White cannot push the pawn on the e-file into the Dragon Vein, while Black, having not moved a single pawn, gains more strategic options.
“A cowardly move, really. In the end you still must clash over the Dragon Vein.”
Her Majesty chuckled as if to provoke me, but I could see through the confusion she felt.
Not knowing what trap I might have set, she would be compelled to be extremely cautious when making the second move.
‘She must already be maddeningly confused.’
The eight-by-eight board contains a universe.
Every piece moved, unfolds a number of possibilities greater than gathering all the grains of sand in the world.
Masters who navigate that infinite sea with experience, strategy, and instinct may well be called challengers to human limits.
Meanwhile, what about Sword Debate Chess?
As its name implies, Sword Debate Chess, which combines duels and chess, carries even more complex rules.
The biggest difference is that combat between pieces does not necessarily end in victory for the player who moved that piece on their turn.
‘It is still the duel that decides victory or defeat.’
A piece that controls the central Dragon Vein and fights an outside piece gains a rank-up effect due to the vein’s natural energy.
Additionally, as pieces advance into enemy territory and get closer to the opponent’s king, they are considered to have gained combat experience or insights and receive rank-based bonuses.
Taking the pawn — the only piece without a growth cap — as an example: for White, from rank 5 onward, once it crosses the boundary into enemy territory, each advance grants a multiplicative 73.5% rank bonus.
For this reason, every duel in Sword Debate Chess is decided not only by the base value of pieces but also by rank bonuses, the Kung-Fu clans assigned by the player to each piece, and various other variables.
‘Because the duel is crucial, there are even more factors to consider.’
There’s no need to labor the point about how high the entry barrier is for a game that combines chess’s near-infinite permutations with the sum of all Kung-Fu knowledge in the martial world.
However, because of these differences, the advantage relationship between Black and White in Sword Debate Chess often differs from that in standard chess.
‘You must understand and apply this difference to strategy, but never forget the game’s basic nature is chess.’
In ordinary chess, White, having the first move, is considered worth about one-third of a pawn in material advantage.
By utility, a pawn is 1 point, a knight 3, a bishop 3.5, a rook 5, and a queen about 9.
Sword Debate Chess treats each piece’s internal energy similarly — 1, 3, 3.5, 5, 9 units — and applies rank multipliers multiplicatively to these numbers.
However, Sword Debate Chess is a game that can miraculously overturn material disparities created by conventional rules.
The convention that White is always superior does not apply 100% in Sword Debate Chess.
‘Still, I can’t say White’s advantage has been completely erased, so I can’t be complacent.’
There is a specific reason Black is known to be disadvantaged in Sword Debate Chess.
Black’s disadvantage compared to White is due to Sword Debate Chess’s most finicky rule.
White players may only use orthodox-style Kung-Fu in duels, but that alone isn’t why White would be disadvantaged.
Generally, it is Black who suffers disadvantages.
For Black, the proportion of orthodox techniques used in duels cannot exceed fifty percent.
If Black manages to checkmate White in a duel but the duel record shows orthodox techniques exceeded fifty percent, the game is declared a draw.
This rule exists because if a Black player’s orthodox-technique usage exceeds half, it’s judged that the Black warrior was moved by the sacrifice of White warriors and thus brought peace to the martial world.
Therefore, aside from heterodox Kung-Fu or demonic arts, the techniques Black may freely use are limited to the secrets of a few clans and families classified in the Grey Zone.
If you use a Grey Zone group’s techniques, you must explain them one by one before the judges, and if the opponent claims their piece already knows that technique, you cannot use it.
The problem is that even if you know those sects’ or clans’ secrets, explaining them in a setting where secrecy is hard to maintain is tantamount to committing suicide.
Just as the Lily Swordsmen might try to bribe or kill me for knowing the indulgence talisman’s secret, Gray Zone groups do not look kindly on outsiders who know their esoterica1.
Thus Black players had to master a wide range of Kung-Fu knowledge — from outcast heterodox Kung-Fu and esoteric arts to demonic arts— and sometimes lost because they were forced to hide techniques they knew.
This is why, in amateurs’ games and especially matches between orthodox martial artists, White’s win rate far outpaces Black’s.
‘Of course, that’s not a concern for me.’
I am the prodigy of the Heavenly Demon, versed widely in orthodox and heterodox Kung-Fu, demonic arts, and the concealed Kung-Fu of Grey Zone forces.
Above all, this is Her Majesty’s private study, not a hall watched by hundreds, and the judges gathered here are among Great Britain’s most tight-lipped masters.
Westminster Abbey is also called the Tomb of the Living Dead.
It is the headquarters of the Ancient Tomb Clan, a gathering of great warriors who are alive in secret but believed dead by the public.
Seeing Sir Newton and Lord Maxwell alive and well after their funerals, they must be members of the Ancient Tomb Clan.
Charles Dodgson — or rather Lewis Carroll — is still known in university halls as the man who holds the lectern, so he too must be operating with a stand-in.
That means there’s no worry of what happens in today’s match leaking from their mouths.
Here, whatever I do won’t cause trouble.
That means I can deploy all my weapons against Her Majesty.
‘Still, since my opponent is an Unrestrained Realm master, even a single mistake could be fatal.’
The key is to steer the game from the opening to the middlegame and then to the endgame in the way I want.
It’s true that various Kung-Fu slumber in my mind.
Without demonstrating those Kung-Fu directly before Her Majesty, merely presenting the formulas and principles and adding a bit of Kung-Fu explanation will make the judges believe the piece actually executed the technique.
However, that doesn’t guarantee victory against an Unrestrained Realm master in a duel.
In Sword Debate Chess, every duel grants the initiating piece a multiplicative 200% initiative bonus.
The rule that the player who moves first has an advantage applies equally on the Sword Debate Chess board, and overturning it is not easy.
Unless a piece has the late-arrival-advantage characteristic held by certain clans— like the Wu-Tang Order of White or the Alter Clan of the Wu-Tang Order offshoot — there’s little to be done.
Given the vast disparity in rank between Her Majesty and me, reversing the result by attacking pieces would be rare.
It would require multiplicative rank bonuses from entering the Dragon Vein and enemy territory, and perfect exploitation of Kung-Fu affinities.
Either way, this match won’t be easy.
“It’s decided. I’ll match your move.”
Meanwhile, Her Majesty finally roused herself as if having made a decision.
The second move I expected from her was to develop a pawn to strengthen control of the Dragon Vein.
The most likely immediate candidate was the standard c4….
-Thunk!-
That’s what I thought, but.
Unexpectedly, Her Majesty moved a knight with Poltergeist.
♜♞♝♛♚♝♜♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♞龍♙脈♘3♙♙♙♙♙♙♙♖♘♗♕♔♗f♖
Nf3.
A mirror move — exactly the same as the one I had just played.
“It seems this will take a while anyway, so let’s play leisurely. That is, if your internal strength can hold.”
“…It seems you’ve modified your opening.”
“I still have plenty of ‘time’.”
It was, as expected, a move that indirectly guards the Dragon Vein.
The ‘time’ the Queen referred to was not the incense burning away in Buddha Fire.
Because moving heavy pieces with Poltergeist consumes energy, the longer the match, the more the Elixir Field empties.
And Her Majesty is an Untrestrained Realm master whose reserves of internal energy are unfathomable.
‘…She chose the vilest move I could imagine.’
It seemed Her Majesty intended to drag out this game to exhaust my internal strength.
- TL/L Secret Martial Arts ️