Sigil: The City of Doors

The tent wasn't there the day before. It would be somewhere else by the next day. No magic at work though, just a set up easy to assemble and dismantle for a veteran crew. They had come at dawn to set up the poles, spread the flysheet, put together the planks and the sawhorses to make the tables, spread the folding stools. And finally, from the only one of their transport chests closed with an actual lock, they had pulled and put on display their treasure: A dozen of sets of chess pieces, chess boards, chess clocks.

The Sigil Chess Club was now in session.

Cynical people might point there was certainly more than one chess club in Sigil, and that this one was not really the most prestigious. But it was most certainly the most open, allowing anyone to come at any time to pick a game or a couple.

The club lived in a state of perpetual chaos, rarely two days in a row at the same spot to deal with the either changing value of spots in the ward, relying on donations to pay for its materials, and on the good will of volunteers to get anything done. Somehow, it still worked good enough most of the time.

Today was no exception, and Dare found herself sitting at one of the tables, reviewing a few standard openings while waiting for the next person looking for a game.

To her left, the Club President, an old goblin of an original mind even by goblin standard, was being completely obliterated by an orc young enough to be smaller than him. To her right, money had apparently been bet on the outcome of the game, tension was rising, and cheating suspected.

All in all, a pretty ordinary day by that club's standards.

Art source:
https://www.svgrepo.com/svg/484626/chess-piece + https://www.svgrepo.com/svg/354455/torus

Ikkit had barely gotten a proper start on his day, but his morning's work had been profitable enough that he hadn't been at the bazaar long.

He was thinking of wandering back to the Lower Ward and maybe doing a bit more proper salvaging, but, well... the need wasn't there, since he was actually sitting on a decent pile of savings.

He cocked his head at the weird tent. The piece looked something he found in bins in the Lady's Ward sometimes, and looking into the tent, he saw that it seemed to be some kind of... game?

Ikkit the Bastard was no great player of games, but he saw that the pieces and boards were made out of the sort of materials he inevitably found plenty of.

I learn the game, learn the pieces, make I can make some and sell 'em cheaper'n these fancy ones...

He wandered into the tent, looking around to try and figure out where to begin.

Fekt climbed out of his pocket and perched on the brim of his hat with a small croak.

Dare declaimed the standard club speech to the newcomer:

"Welcome friend, to the Sigil Chess Club. Free access at all time as long there's room and you're respectful of the equipment and of other players. Do you know how to play?"

Ikkit blinked, sized up the human- no uglier than the average, tiny ears, weird narrow head, freakish height, nothing he didn't see all of the time- and reckoned the greeting was, by being a form greeting, not especially condescending.

And respecting other players... meant they had to respect him too, at least a bit. This could work!

"Nope. Never even seen a game played all the way. Find the pieces sometimes. Salvage. But bein' a game, I assume there're rules. Figure I can try'n learn."

Part of why he usually gave games a miss, being honest. Cheating in life was simply being smart. Cheating in a game defeated the whole damn purpose.

"You'll find chess to be pretty straightforward. Starting with the white, each player moves one of their pieces in turn, until the other's player king, that is their taller piece, is trapped, under attack and unable to escape to a safer position.

When the fun begins compared to a game like checkers is that each piece has its own way of moving around the board. There all summed up on that slate board there..."

She points to an ensemble of diagrams indeed detailing the abilities of each piece.

"But if it's your first time, we'll review then together. First, the pawn..."

Usual discourse about how the knight moves in a L shape and so on.

"So corner the tall bastard and make him quit. Story of my life..."

But he appeared to pay attention to the basics. Fekt would croak from time to time, but otherwise, Ikkit was remarkably attentive. After all, if this human were coming to him for trapping or sneaking advice, he' want the same.

It was completely unlike reality, of course. All orderly and ruled, and he figured that might be why a Guvner would like it, but... as an exercise, he could also see the appeal. A level playing field, where skill would determine the outcome. With maybe a slight edge based on who got to go first, and a bigger one for knowing how your opponent played.

He tipped his hat back slightly, which caused Fekt to have to shift his (or her- Ikkit wasn't really sure of how to tell) position a bit.

"And these knights, they can kinda... sneak past, jump things? That seems handy."

He could already tell one thing for a certainty.

"Reckon I'm gonna lose a lot to start with. Lotta pieces, lotta angles. Plenty to keep track of."

He paused. Glanced at the game that appeared to have a wager connected with it.

"Definitely not placing any bets!"

"It's undeniably a game with a learning curve. Which helps in making it addictive, as you always feel like you're just one game away from becoming way better at it.

For your first game, I think it's best you play without a time limit while I use the shortest one, that is one minute total for me."

She sets up the clock accordingly.

"There. You've got the white, open the ball."

Ikkit frowned down at the tabula rasa of a fresh chess game.

His first.

He didn't really have a plan, as such, but he took a minute to try and remember what all of the funny-shaped pieces were allowed to do. The pawn-things were in the way of most of the second-line ones, so he'd probably start with one of them.

After re-confirming that they could move two spaces on their first turn, he took one in front of the rook on his right and did so. He blinked his beady red eyes at the changed board state, trying to figure out what he could do on his next turn, while Fekt croaked again.

Dare moved her queen's pawn two steps forward without a single hesitation and hit the chess clock button in the same breath.

Opening with one of the pawns on the side was abysmally bad. But, for a first game, the focus was getting the basic vocabulary, that is the movement of the pieces, right. Grammar would come later.

Okay, rooks could move in straight lines and straight lines only. Made 'em predictable, but they had some legs to 'em.

So he moved the rook up behind the pawn he'd just moved. It was almost as fast as Dare's move, but he was already getting a bit nervous. This was a bit like trusting a piece of driftwood to see you across the Ditch...