Rook at a4 disappears

A very strange thing happened the other day, I must clarify that it is so clear in my mind that it really cannot be referred to as any other day, so I will be specific here. It was 22hours.35min.36secs Wednesday night of April 22nd, a hot humid night quietened by sudden spell of pre-monsoon rain. The parched earth wafted the scent, petrichor, the gust invoking the pleasant hope of survival as it moved across the window shaping relentless patterns with rain drops. I poured the beer, tilting it to control the carbonation, while contemplating the next move. My white rook a1 was being pursued by g7 bishop camouflaging behind e5 pawn while intending on f3 knight. A deception that could well intrude into my g2 pawn and trapping h1 rook if I didn’t take any defensive action. So, to a2, occasioning it a moment of safety. The street light fluttered before coming back to full brightness. The raindrops igniting into darts of sparks under the lamp that moved one way, then the other with the wind, sometimes creating little directionless weak eddies before resolving a direction and vanishing into the night. Soon pawns have cleared the way, so now a2 to a4 to get some fresh air and strengthen the centre pieces. It was while I contemplated this manoeuvre and pushed the rook a2 to a4 that it vanished. The rook has disappeared. En passant capture is a double stepping pawn caught in the maiden flight, but rook, how? This was shocking. I tapped the screen, checked the notations confirming the coordinates. Ra4. There it was mentioned in unflagging bold, but the rook had just vanished from the flat surface of 8x8 grid.

Life exists in overlapping worlds. You sidestep one dimension and enter the other, sometimes there are many dimensions as many as twenty-six we are now told and are also tangled. So which dimension has the a4 rook disappeared, or has appeared in? The chessboard quivered a little from its corners. Knight had started to hop and trying to find a rhythm from f4 to d5, and then to b4, nodding his head agreeably to wonderstruck pawns. Very soon it was commotion, but it must be pointed out that there was a meaning in the chaos as if an underlying force stringing it together. All the pieces followed the rules of the game. So, knights didn’t hop from b4 to b6, nor the bishops crab walked furtively from white to black or vice versa and like the rook maintained the decency by not jumping over others. Even the ‘dead’ pieces hopped onto the board in an ecstatic display of purpose. Very soon they congregated in a disciplined way, in rank and files, at the assigned places. All 31 of them except the a1 missing rook. Both the kings called a truce and conveyed to each other that this is a serious matter, it has never happened before. So, the king’s white pawn double ranked into e4 while black pawn into e5 and facilitated the meeting of the kings.

“I say your white rook has vanished your majesty” said the black king, hinting at sarcasm with elaborate flourish.

“We must set up a team to enquire into the matter urgently. Your majesty will agree” the white king ignored the obvious attempt to shallow him but concurred on the gravity of the matter. Knights were ordered to investigate as they both stepped back, followed by the pawns who had never learned to walk back but now occasion demanded that they lax their marching rules, only slightly so, on chess board rules are etched in time, questions blasphemous, punitive action harsh.  g1 white knight was first on feet, the mounted soldier galloped the horse to f3 and d4, trotted to b3 where white b1 knight waited at a3 and nodded to him. g8 knight was swiftly behind, landing at f6 to d5 and cantered effortlessly to b4, the muscles of the colt rippled in the night light. b8 black knight was slow to start and mis-stepped from c6 to d4 in his enthusiasm, while others watched in mix of consternation and irritation, before retracing to b5 as the reluctant mare was dragged in. They congregated around a4 column, the site of disappearance. b2 knight scrutinised the column while the sturdy stallion tapped the column edge with his steel shoes.  

“It is shocking. How could this happen?” b2 knight said as he bends down to have a closer look at a4 column.

“Scandalous” added g8 knight as he surveyed the scene. There were no signs of struggle and the edges where the white column met the adjacent three black columns too were smooth. b8 knight wandered across to the boundary of board that was shared with a4 as the forlorn mare gazed onto the bleak horizon, it was too dark as if end of the world. He noticed something quite unusual for a fine wood carved set. It had splayed, as he stuck it with his iron rimmed boots it gave in and opened to what looked like deep dark hole into the abyss. The knights gathered around it, b1 knight gasped and was taken in by the proximity of the breach from his dwelling, though he mostly sidestepped this column, nevertheless it was too close to comfort. It was clear that someone had planned an escape from the battlefield.

“What kind of coward would do such a thing? We are born to fight. Everyday every game is our fight for the king. Why would anyone run away from it?” g8 knight was genuinely puzzled, he just couldn’t conceive any reason or life beyond the chess board. “We have to prove our worth every day, by winning, by sacrificing ourselves for the bigger causes, bigger games. That’s our duty that is why we are born. There is an eternal design to everything” for a moment he was pensive then he shook his head and looked around and said, “this is truly scandalous”. It was decided by the knights that this need to be reported to the kings at the earliest. So, again the ceremony of pawns stepping forward into the centre as the kings met while the knights arranged themselves around them at c3, c6, f3 and f6 respectively. After few minutes of discussion, which included moments of silence and utter disbelief (when was the last time a piece vanished from the chess board that too during the fierce confrontation?) it was decided that a search party of six pieces be formed headed by the wise bishop, includes two knights and three pawns. As the pieces left for the search white king and queen sat across black king and queen, the queens displayed their powerful armoury that was feared by any player however reputed -some have even quit the battle after losing queen, while four pawns stood vigilant on each corner. 

“Which game has been your favourite in all these years?” asked the black king as a conversation starter. White king didn’t take any time to think and was excited with the answer

“Well ofcourse the evergreen game!”
"Anderssen Vs Dufresne, 1852. Yes, i recall that Rad1...Qxd7 terrific" Black king nodded.

“When rooks are on adjacent positions and aim for the king it’s like multi barrel attack, no place to hide!” White king elaborated. Black king was none too impressed with the analysis.

“Fischer Vs Tal 1959 is also interesting. Tal was a magician, elegant player”. White king added sensing there is an attempt to upstage him by his eternal adversary. “Kubrick knew his chess you could tell that HAL is up to some mischief, queen to bishop 3 was an illegal move…

 They continued their discussion while the banter disguised to establish as superior. The white squares in the board had become intense in the darkness and gave the illusion of having risen while the black squares plunged around it. 32 towers rose into the dark sky like a grim hope trying to reach eternal light. They sieved the dark space for truth.

The hole broadened into a tunnel as they entered a4 column. There was a gush of cold air. “There must be opening at the other end” g8 knight speculated, as the search party checked for footing in the blinding darkness. Pawns moved in the front. Very soon they could see faint light at the far end as dust motes flickered around. There they saw bone white figure of rook hunched on the rock next to an underground spring. The water still and surreal mossy green contrasting against glistening brown rocks.

“What kind of black and world we live in” said rook, barely raising his head but very much aware of their presence as if anticipating them “fighting battles of victory and defeat, helping someone to become a grandmaster or just a piece in the hand of a novice trying to challenge his mind. Hopping from black to white and white to black. Nowhere to go just trapped in this miserable board. It’s a dark cave of ignorance”.

f1 bishop stepped forward and found a place to sit next to rook, who didn’t seem to notice and continued with his monologue “Many decades back I looked at the black night sky as I lay captured and wasted in the side lines, sacrificed for a pawn…ah the ignominy of it…recall the night of Spassky’s crazy rook sacrifice? The white stars all arranged in the black sky like chess board black and white all drab and dull then the space exploded with colours an immense mixture of red, green, orange. It was as if the sky was on fire. The fire of spirit world lit by northern lights. I saw these colours whirling in the space and I started to see truly like a translucent wayside puff of life”. The reflection from the pool played on the stalactites above, they created their own faint patterns of reflections.   

“I understand you rook. You have taken the right decision, something I would have done too had this old body supported. You have come out of the board. You have seen the light, and now you cannot unsee it”. Bishop put his hand across rook’s shoulder lightly and with immense compassion continued “You will tell others about these beautiful colours but nobody will listen. You are now condemned into your own beautiful world” nodded bishop wearily.

Before we go on further it is important to give a small background on wise and trusted f1 bishop, and why he is held in reverence by others. Recall what Kasparov said after conceding defeat in the second game in 1997? He said DeepBlue played ‘unlike a computer’, a human move, and for many this was beginning of Artificial Intelligence, but little did anyone consider that it was much more of a historic moment for chess pieces, it was the day they decided to take their own decisions -atleast one of them, to express his humanity and stand up and be counted as a human. To move from disposable pieces in the annals of history to assert as humans through reasoning and passionate leaps of faith. It was an occasion of claim by the neglected world that were for long reduced to as ‘pieces’ and dictated through king’s orders -which he got from superior force above (read the player).  Every move was scrutinised and dictated from above. And indeed, left on their own they exhibited intelligence that even baffled the world champion. They assumed it to be super computer. But every chess piece across the world knows the secret that it was not the brute force of the machine intelligence that surpassed the best human mind that day. It was the triumph of free will. f1 bishop’s move to e4 was well thought out, it might have baffled the world, and indeed stumped Kasparov, but for f1 bishop -now an elderly wise man, this was something that came naturally. He had his instincts perfected over decades of collective memory on a brilliant mind.

So, now back to where we were. Rook was initiating dialogue to a world that had never had any use of thinking or introspection, hence were easily manipulated and exploited. “Violence requires the other, the target, the immediate solution, that then is sensed through segregation through separateness, the shifting opportunistic boundaries that contours the other. Whether one is black or white, and then fight over these imaginary differences. These inane superficialities and juvenile thoughts shouldn’t be defining my identity, nor should I be trapped in a column as ‘a1 Rook’ for rest of my life”. He had so much to say that he didn’t pause or wanted any response “Identity is dynamic that develops with experience of life and not something that is given once and for all. Skin colour as an identity is limiting world that narrows life’s possibilities to chance of birth, hence a grave injustice and crime on humanity. White or black rook is too narrow a definition to identify with. We are not fixed beings. We are limited by lack of our own imagination”.

Bishop listened to these thoughts with sense of elation while the knights didn’t know what to make of it nevertheless they were keen to listen. While the pawns showed no sign of interest as they stared into the darkness for imaginary enemy or ambush, though it is very likely they too were listening.

“Life must be ambiguous and not prescriptive. I want to experience the exhilarating anxiety that comes with freedom and not the anxiety of trapped life that constantly worry about protecting the king, and whose existence is defined by the king. The moment king is checkmated, and it is over for us. We are taken to be valueless, dead pieces whose sole worry is to protect the king”. He raised his voice “We need to have an existentially urgent battle for nonconformity. We must always question the most powerful and the most vulgar. We cannot be pawns for other’s game”. Surprisingly pawn1 showed distress on being mentioned in such desultory manner but didn’t utter a world as they stood with their weapons equipped. Rook couldn’t hide his irritation for the fatalistic values that was so ingrained and so easily morphed as courtesy but what it really did was to embolden feudal values and exploitative mindsets.  

“Are they robots? Don’t they have feelings? Are they alive if they cannot respond to their feelings, respond to their emotions?”

Pawn1 peeped at pawn2 to check any reaction, he seemed oblivious to comments and was content to the life he was fated. Pawn1 couldn’t take any more. He turned around from his sentry position to confront the renegade rook.

“But we can rise in rank, some of us have even become queen. We are not robots” pawn1 asserted, meanwhile pawn2 showed no indications of wanting to involve but was seen to be attentive. Wise bishop smiled, rook had succeeded in eliciting some response from the pawn while he was about to give up

“You don’t have any identity, even the notations only refer the column you are in, it is as if you don’t matter, you don’t exist” rook was itching for this confrontation “even if you are ever acknowledged it is only to sacrifice you for the sake of bigger plans”.  

“That is not correct we have played significant roles in many crucial games”.

“Only supportive role. You always need back up. Pawn checkmate is so rare that it is only of academic interest" rook dismissed the pawn with brutal clarity "Lack of freedom goes to the heart of consciousness. Even when I am chained, humiliated and my body mutilated my attitude is my singular assertion to freedom. Your justifications are slave morality, life negating. We must take the risk to overcome us and our situation. We need to transcend towards a self-chosen goal”.

“Pawn structure has won many games by blocking and frustrating the opponent. We have prevented fatal checkmates” pawn1 was in no mood to give in. Pawn2 too nodded but refused to take side in this battle for honour of pawns. He thought it to be too adventurous having been trained in a strong sense of wrong and right.

Here the bishop interjected to take the debate forward from where rook had left, adding his experience and understanding “You need to assert who you are, and not what you become. This identity of yours, not as a collective but you as an individual, is the most important possession that connects you to the humanity and in it is your redemption. You have to create your being, your own identity, that changes with the situations and not stuck as pawn with defined role” Here he addressed rook “There is a clamour of identities within us that seeks adoption…and we must simultaneously choose all the identities in us that binds us to humanity, creating an affiliation with the universe, varying it to bear a unique identity that defines us and nurture our souls. For that uniqueness to arise in us we must actively involve with life, and not be just a piece in the chess board without any free will. You have to become what you are”.

The knights too joined in enthused by the words of bishop, b1 knight barely able to contain himself, overwhelmed as he was as if some sort of revelation that quickly connected him into a source he was so far unaware of, and unshackled him, said “we may have different qualities, talents, but we meet as humans”

“On equal terms, carrying all the wonders and possibilities of life” rook added as he settled into his usual calm bearings of a sentinel having achieved his mission.

“Yes, rook you are right we have to create our own self from our own actions. We have to shape our own humanity. We are no longer condemned inside the chess board. We are now condemned to our own self. Condemned to our freedom” said the wise bishop and observed the aurora light dance through the slit of a4 column into the tunnel, he was taken in by the quietness of the astounding display. 

The rook was at peace with himself