Читать книгу Sophie’s team in the world of Chaturangi - - Страница 6

«My team consists of winners. Remember that for future reference, Voice, and do not impede us in winning!» the captain replied angrily.

After a mental journey into their fantasy worlds, the strength and self-confidence of the team noticeably increased and anger at attempts to confuse the team gave the necessary strength to win. Alice, as usual, turned out to be right and urged everyone to concentrate at the right time since the figures wearing the cassocks of the monks of the Dark Ages, about three meters tall, were sitting hunched over their own chess boards obviously for a reason. Actually, everyone guessed what the next stage of the labyrinth was before the nasty voice began to broadcast:

«Dear players of two different worlds, get ready to take your seats at the chess boards. Each of you will have to play with an opponent to be able to go further, the losers will be instantly teleported to their worlds. Since you are all fighting for the opportunity to perform at our galactic Arena, both win and lose of each participant are important. After all, if one of you loses, then the winner will take your place.»

«Don’t be ridiculous! Are you saying that if I lose, then that lanky monk will automatically become a member of our team instead of me?» Keira exclaimed.

Everyone echoed her showing indignation and unwilling to play by someone else’s rules. The voice, however didn’t care, as did the labyrinth the more so since rules are rules. For that reason, instead of answering questions, the voice simply activated a countdown timer until the start time of the game: everyone had 30 seconds to choose a seat and an opponent. The guys rushed to take a closer look at the monks to at least intuitively determine the playing style of each of them and choose a suitable opponent based on that. Of course, they were all «versatile players» and Keira could play tediously long by engaging in a positional battle while Sophie could opt for a wild attacking style, but why strain when you can take it easy?! A quick analysis did not help, especially since the guys could not see the faces of the monks: all of them wore long hoods and their faces were behind some kind of haze, either a strange holographic mask or they didn’t have faces at all… Only the chairs differed in color. So, they all shrugged the shoulders and took the chairs of their favorite colors, that’s, exactly where the labyrinth wanted them to be seated, thus, perhaps falling into a trap or perhaps simply where everyone should have ended up. When the countdown time hit zero, several new scoreboards lit up above each table and the countdown began.

«1) e4 e6 2) ♘f3 ♝d6 3) ♗c4 ♞f6 4) ♘c3 ♞c6 5) d4 O-O 6) e5 ♝b4 7) exf6 ♛xf6 8) ♗e3 ♛g6 9) O-O ♛h5 10) ♖e1 d5 11) ♗b5 a5 12) ♗d2 b6 13) ♗xc6 ♝b7 14) ♗xb7 ♜ab8 15) ♗a6 ♜be86,» no thoughts, no feelings, the mind is working at its limit and, at the same time, the subconscious is showing the best of what has been learned. Each of Sophie’s team believed in other team members, there was no need to divert attention, everyone focused on their chess games, playing in overdrive, because they did not want to leave the team without each other’s support. When Sophie gave mate, it must have been her first breath like she had not breathed all this time. And before her very eyes, the monk that lost the game really disappeared in a portal that emerged out of nowhere. It was probably that moment when she believed the voice and the labyrinth 100 per cent for the first time because it was simply impossible to make such a trick or cause such an illusion.

After the monk disappeared, Sophie allowed herself to look around and check how her friends were playing. They also won their games in less than no time. Mark won his game with a nice move to h2, Artem with a pawn mate, Keira with a knight-and-bishop mate; only Alice continued to play. So, everyone came closer to her to evaluate the position and share their mental streams of strength and confidence with her.

In fact, the position was a draw for both players, but the voice did not say anything about a draw… Therefore, they had nothing to do but wait for the end of the game. The players repeated their moves several times and everyone saw how the chess clock stood still.

«Well, congratulations, Sophie, your team has been replenished with one more player. Now your team has as many members as required to be eligible for the Tournament in our world. You may access the road to the interstellar portal. Bring victory to your world and protect your planet for the next hundred years,» the same voice said.

And the monk who was Alice’s opponent joined our players as a full member of the Earth team.