CHECKMATE

~ Iain Kelly

The kid moved his white pawn to e4, Eddie matched him, moving his black pawn to e5. White King’s knight to f3. Black Queen’s knight to c6. Eddie sat back. He was on comfortable ground playing the King’s knight opening. He didn’t want to beat the kid too quickly; he would play along for a bit.

Among the commuters and tourists in Union Square, the rows of fold-up tables sat, each with chess games at various stages. Eddie had been coming here for over a month now, since he’d lost his job. Soon he’d have to find work to pay the bills. Eventually he would have to tell his wife.

The young boy leaned forward. He moved his pawn to g3.

‘The Konstantinopolsky Opening,’ the boy said. ‘You know it?’

Eddie blinked. Five minutes later it was all over. The boy called ‘checkmate’ and Eddie’s King fell. The boy’s mother took his hand and led him off.

The next day Eddie passed by the chess tables and headed into the Union Square Job Center.

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Written as part of Flash Fiction for Aspiring Writers. The challenge is to write a flash fiction story, in around 150 words based on the weekly photo prompt. For more information visit HERE.

The Konstantinopolsky Opening: wikipedia.

To read other stories based on this week’s prompt, visit HERE.

Published by Iain Kelly

39 year old writer, avid film viewer and book reader, employed in the media industry as a television editor.

44 thoughts on “CHECKMATE”

  1. Pingback: CHECKMATE — Iain Kelly – All About Writing

    1. Thanks PJ. Some kids have the ability to be chess geniuses! Thanks for using my photo – hope it wasn’t that that caused WordPress to malfunction!

      Like

      Reply

      1. I doubt that it was your photo. I have no idea what made WP malfunction. I finally had to recreate the challenge again and resend it. It worked the next day. So whatever problems they were having must have been on the day I tried to publish it.

        Liked by 1 person

  14. Thank you for the photo this week. I am horrible at Chess and remembering rules and even google and wikipedia didn’t help me. Even with little understanding of the game, your story was easy to comprehend. I really like the voice here and how the narrative moves along with the game until Eddie’s epiphany at the end. Nicely done.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  16. wonderful lessons to be learnt here and I hope your man in the story does just that, can’t win in life without being consistent and thats what chess is, consistently playing and getting better at the strategy. Well thats what I got from your story, good writing as always, a joy to read.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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