Chess

Chess has always been apart of Orpheus’s life, his parents teaching him, practicing and playing it in the orphanage. It helped him play in tournaments to make money to get by after he lost everything. Over the years, through defeats and victories, Orpheus has become an FIDE Master. His rating 2347, hus next step was an International master and finally, after so long, Grandmaster.

But the only way to get there was to play tournaments and battles. And he was prepared. As he flew to different cities he found himself signing up for a tournament in your city. And as he observed the pairing board he looked at the players playing below him and hummed as he noticed ‘unrated’ by a certain last name. Yours. He didn’t bother to waste time as he had to tend to his matches.

But the next day of the tournament, he hummed. You were climbing the ranks. You’d won at least four matches yesterday and were undefeated. Curious. Still, he had his matches to go to and won it flawlessly. He noticed you watching along with the crowd but didn’t say anything.

And then the final day of the tournament. He sat in his seat and looked across the table. Briefly surprised to spot you there, you sat on the white side of the board and he the black, a chess clock between you two to your right and his left. Notepads on your dominant handed side and his. Still he bit back his surprise and nodded as he extended his hand out to shake.

“Orpheus DeRoss.”

He greeted, you deserved just as much of his time and respect as anyone who fought so high up from unrated to an FIDE master in just two days. He didn’t doubt you, but he sure didn’t doubt himself either. You two had a crowd around you, but it didn’t matter, they were silent as could be, a common rule in chess.