There's been a vague idea for a story shifting around in my head for awhile now, but I need a little help with the chess component. I felt the way I planned and structured my fics needed improvement, and I'm really stuck without inspiration for my current one, so I thought I'd set myself a ten chapter story all planned out as something to spark off some new ideas.

The basic premise is that each chapter corresponds to a move on a chess board from each side, the players being either the Light or the Dark. For example, a scenario in which the black knight takes the white pawn would equal Bellatrix killing Emmeline Vance, thus giving me a set of confines to work within and create the plot. It would end with the defeat of either side, though I'm not sure yet which. The problem is that I suck at chess and really can't work out how to get enough major pieces into play (knights, bishops, castles) and still end the game in ten moves. I even sat down with a chess board for half an hour and drew diagrams, so...anyone any good at working this sort of stuff out? I'm not really keen on making it longer than ten chapters, because it'll start to get out of hand, but I figured it might be possible to do it in ten.

Naturally, it'll feature a dark independent Harry, though where it starts from I'm not really sure about. Not OotP at any rate. Maybe GoF or HBP. Harry would have an epiphany when regarding a chess piece, and decide for whatever reason (dark spell sending him a bit loony perhaps?) to play the war like a game of chess. He will be using the Black library as a resource and learning at an accelerated rate by some handy means, allowing me to get in a battle hopefully every chapter (another thing that I need to get better at writing).

This isn't intended to be a deadly serious watertight plot, more of something that'll help me thoroughly plan and finish a story, and hopefully improve my writing skills whilst I'm at it. The chess moves are what I really need help with, but any opinions or ideas such as where might be a good starting place are appreciated too.

 

The idea isn't new, but I don't know a HP-fanfiction realizing it well written.

You don't need to stick to one move per chapter. Bellatrix preparing the attack on Vance is moving the bishop in a position to strike. The attempt to save the endangered piece is Vance's unsuccessful attempt to flee. Her death is the final move of the chapter. Thus every chapter covers several moves.

You don't need to describe every move on the chess board to create the atmosphere. You might start with a move and end with a move, and - with 5k words per chapter - perhaps one or two other moves described as a response or the beginning of an important sequence.

For example: A moves a pawn and B responds moving a bishop out of its way. Make that a paragraph at the beginning of a chapter.

Now you focus on the wizarding world describing how some random Death Eater attacks the Grangers and some Order members appear, rescuing Hermione just in time. Then continuing describing the wizarding world, until Moody kills Rodolphus Lestrange. Now focus on the chess board, white moving a tower and beating a black knight.

Between both incidents several pieces have been moved - nobody knows which - but everyone knows the events are related.

You could follow a real game, but you don't have to. You don't even need to describe the moves precisely. It's enough if you tell how the hand hovers over a knight, hesitates, before the forefinger touches its head and moves him across the board. Nobody knows where it stood before or where it stands know. It might become a problem only during the last three or four moves.

Chose the pieces wisely. Which piece represents Dumbledore, Harry, etc. Who is the King? The problem is, that the king isn't a powerful figure, so Voldemort shouldn't be represented by the black king. Instead it could represent the Horcruxes - or just the idea of blood purity.

 

Wow, this is a very original idea. I have never seen it before.

Minion: Link?

 

Nice idea. Agree that you don't really need to make the moves realistic. It's very hard to describe a chess game in written form without telegraphing the moves; not that many readers would be interested in that, or even know what stuff like "Tg5" means.

As for 10 move combination, remember, you don't start with blank board. Whether you start off after OOTP or HBP, the game has already been in play for a long time; there should already be some pre-set position when Harry takes over. Maybe Harry finds a chessboard in Dumbledore's office (post-HBP), or sees one in a vision from Voldemort (post-OOTP)?

Either way, only thing you need to do then is go to some chess site, find some interesting finish with several smart twists and use the ending for your scene template.

Anyway, nice idea. Good luck with it.

 

What would make the premise really stand out for me is if at the end of each week/month/timespan Harry or Voldemort physically come to a room with a chess board and move the piece. Perhaps after HBP Harry is sent a letter that only contains a set of apparation coordinates. He arrives and finds the chessboard, the White Queen has just been taken (aka Dumbledore dies). Another note simply says "Your move."

The problem for Harry of course is that he does not know what each piece represents in the real world, or if there even is a real correspondance. Two players, Two games, too many coincedances...

Imagine, Harry get to the room after a major victory and prepares to make his move. Maybe he thinks "Rook takes knight". Instead he stares down at the board and finds that his opponent has a moved as well. Rook takes Knight, but it leaves the Queen (or sub in some other piece) in check... We see the "this battle was a distraction" move in almost every good fic but now it can be used to add a bit of horror and suspense between chapters.

 

First you'd have to categorize all the people for units on the board. Here's how I see them in my mind:

Kings - The basic ideals of the light & dark.
Queens - Voldemort (black) and either Harry or Dumbledore.
Bishops - Lucius Malfoy (black), Bellatrix Lestrange (black), Kingsley Shacklebolt (white ) & Alastor Moody.
Knights - Snape (black, cause he's evil), if not Snape then Walden Macnair (black) & definately Augustus Rookwood (black). Harry/Dumbledore (white, depending on who the Queen is) & Nymphadora Tonks (white)
Rooks - Mulciber (black), Fenrir Greyback (black), Sirius would have been one (white) but I'll say Rebeus Hagrid (white), Remus Lupin (white).

Pawns would be of your choosing, but I would insist on Pettigrew being one, as he brought Voldemort 'back to life' in GoF.

Hope you find help in this, and for the actual game I'd say skip all the small moves and go for the main kills (recap the series with the moves/deaths in each). Like saying "the black pawn had almost made it to the edge, intent on bringing his Queen back onto the board, but was taken just in time by the white knight - Quirrel gets to the end of the PS challenges but Harry stops him just in time. Or "the white bishop moved in a surprise attack against the black rook, taking it out of the fight" which would be Moody fighting against Mulciber in an ambush against a Death Eater raid.

Hope I helped.
Aekiel

 

Darius: The idea is sometimes used in sf and fantasy.

At the moment I recall

Perry Rhodan (a German series): Two uber-entities are playing, their pieces and moves representing mankind and some other races. The moves are setting the stage and offer help to the battling parties involved. Both the moves of the two players and the actions of Perry Rhodan and his crew influence each other - so the humans are able to counter a move of the evil uber-entity.

Star Trek: DS9 first season: Quark is playing some sort of 3D-chess, not realising the pieces are representing crew members placed in some kind of labyrinth. The moves are setting the stage for the crew, and the actions of the crew determine its outcome. In the end the crew is not able to overcome the obstacles, so Quark loses the game.

HP-fanfic: At the moment I only found this one: Fated Chance, Fate and Time are playing, the pieces representing Light and Dark. White lost but gains the chance to restart the game, moving the trio back into the Marauders' era. Same as above - the moves are setting the stage and offer support (Invisibility Cloak etc.) but the trio is able to fight on their own will, thus determining the outcome. The start of the story was ok, but it went downhill. At one point, I think, even Ginny appeared in the past. I stopped reading it.

I read one or two other HP-fanfics based on the theme, but both weren't good either - or even so bad, that I don't remember anything anymore.

The difference between these stories and a chess game is, that the 'pieces' - the involved characters - are able to think on their own. It's not only the move on the board that decides their actions but also they themselves. The link between the board and the characters is bidirectional.

A true game of chess leaves the pieces helpless. Wizard chess allows the pieces to complain, but they have to follow the orders of their master. To write it that way, like a game of wizard chess, and having the characters realising, that their own abilities don't matter much, would add a special twist.

 

Hmm my input would be have the whole thing play in flashback, you could use Caitiff's idea but make it like a flashback.

Voldy and Harry are in a dimly lit room, maybe its an all dark and empty room except for a table, two chairs, a fireplace (which should be lit), Harry, Voldy, and like a each have like a glass of brandy. Maybe the walls could be decorated with the heads of the victims, or a picture of their bodies. Voldy could have like Ron, Hermoine, Dumbledore's heads on plaques or something while the light side could have snape, bella, and dolohov or something. The story could be told with Voldy telling how DE #1 killed order member #6 or something, chapters should alternate between POV with each side giving the story of one's death. Maybe you could even throw a twist in their like have Harry think that Snape is dead only to have him come up behind him in the end and stun him or something..

As for the chess part, i know nothing of chess sorry.

 

An idea to help you write the chess game.

Reverse engineer it.

You know the out come, Harry wins and Voldemort loses. You then decide which people you want to be alive and dead on both side. I'd imagin both sides would have about 70% casualties.

So you know who's left who's dead. From then you place the remainder of the pieces on the board in a fitting configuration and then play the game in reverse. Adding players who have died until you reach your start point half way through the game (post OOtP).

It will still be hard but much easier than starting from scratch.

 

Dark Minion - Interesting. I hadn't actually planned to have a real game going on between players, e.g Fate/Random God/Devil playing chess against each other, more like it's all in Harry's head, at least in the beginning. Say perhaps that he picks up some book in the Black library that's cursed and his logic and reason are messed up by it, or he has some startling epiphany, so he starts thinking of everyone on both sides as chess pieces and responds accordingly. I was planning to put Harry and Voldemort as the queens, but I like the idea of the king representing a horcrux. Maybe having Harry create one, or the white king ending up as someone politically powerful but largely useless in battle.

IP82 - Thanks, I wouldn't have thought about beginning with the game already in play. Harry finding a board already set up would be a good starting point.

Caitiff - I like that idea very much as a way to set up suspense in the story, although it could pan out two ways. Either Voldemort could invite him into the game like you said, or Harry could start one against Voldemort in a similar manner, meaning that Harry has the upper hand (however briefly). Opinions?

Aekiel - I'll definitely include Pettigrew as a pawn. I agree with most of your placing, but I see the Bishops as the 'thinkers' and the rooks and knights as the 'hackers and slashers'. Thus, Bella would probably end up as a knight.

killingginny009 - Personally I really dislike flashbacks, because they usually feel to me like they're taking away the suspense of the plot, as everything has already happened and the narrator has obviously survived. If I did it this way, it would pretty much only work if it was told as a flashback up until the last chapter, whereupon it switches to the present and Harry is brutally killed by Voldemort. But, ya' know, I kinda want Harry to win .

The Erotic advetures of S - Ah, now that might work. I'll try do it in reverse, and if that doesn't work then I guess I'll just follow the suggestions and only highlight the critical moves.

Thanks for the help people. I'll start planning it out, and run the basic plot by you when I've got it a bit more sorted.

 

I saw the bishops as the primary attack pieces, because they are generally the most used pieces on the board, bar the queen. The rooks I see as being the solid foundations that defend the king, hence why I chose Hagrid & Mulciber - they aren't seen in the battles too often because they are primarily defensive pieces. Plus, an Imperious Curse specialist is something too valuable to throw away in a melee.

Aekiel

 

Ahh but we wouldn't know who wins if both harry and voldy were still left alive at the end.... Randomly, the guy who writes "Litany of Blood" whos name i can't remember has like 1 or 2 chapters of a story titled "Chess pieces of the light and dark" or something like that..

 

Rooks are much more useful pieces than Knights. The Knights limited movement, while useful in its way, does not help in the end game of a match, where the Rook's ability to cut of rows is extremely useful. So, you should probably take that into consideration when assigning pieces to characters.

 

I'd say that depends on the player(s). When I started to play, I used the rooks too much (often with brute force as crowbars) and neglected other pieces. Meanwhile I play more balanced - still rather chaotic, but more successful than before.

If both players are playing on a similar level, then often only few pieces remain until the end. It depends on the progress of the game, which pieces are taken out. One side has perhaps a rook and a knight, the other side perhaps the queen - or something like that.

So for the end of the game, I'd say it doesn't matter much, who represents which piece.

 

Then I will beat you every time in chess. The flaw of the knight is that some people are only capable of thinking laterally. Every other piece on the board moves in a straight line. Line of sight, be it forward, back, side to side, or diagonally. Meanwhile the knight will slip through the cracks and hit when you thought you were safe. And it's in that way that I really think Harry is a White Knight, he doesn't think in straight lines. Luck, shear bloody minded determination, and a willingness to sacrifice himself are impossible to plan for.

When I play, 70-80% of the pieces I take are because people think laterally. Whether its the knights directly, or keeping them pinned with knights while the other pieces serve as hitmen, thats where I win games. Knights are deadly important to a good chess game.

 

This is very "lateral" play in it's own right. Saying the Knight is better then the Rook. The Knight is generally used often in most standard openings and such but aside from the Queen Rooks are the best in the end game.

Horses are more for capitalizing on your opponents mistakes after the opening then actually setting up your own attack. At least in my experience.

 

Perhaps, but its a different way of thinking than most people choose so it works sometimes. I'm no grandmaster (not even close) but I win against casual players with that strategy.

Everyone thinks, "King's Pawn, Queen's Pawn, Knight, Bishop/Knight(seems to be a matter of taste)," and then the game begins. It's a great opener (get the whole sequence and it's a solid defence/retaliation), but very predictable and relies on that line of sight thinking again. Moving King's Knight first gives a distinct advantage over that opener, you can tear it apart before it ever gets opened.

The knights are versitile like that, combined with a bishop they'll break all of the standard strategies we learn when we start chess. Then you have to fight improvisation and cunning, much more fun.

 

I tend to bring out the Queen's knight first, then send in my white bishop, them two are the most useful pieces in the start game. Middle game you can't really plan for against a good opponent, end game depends on whose winning. If I'm winning I'll try and get the rooks out to keep the King near his side of the board. If I'm losing I'd go for guerilla tactics to take out some of his lesser units, then hit him hard with the rooks (which I rarely ever use in the start/middle).

Most people do think laterally, I admit I used to when I first started, and for a good bit after that, but then I started developing a bit of cunning and started trying to lure them in to traps and such. Good fun

 

You could always write it as Future!Harry. The wars over and now he's telling his story to someone, his son, a reporter, a student, whoever you want, over a game of chess. Each time a piece is taken the story goes into a flashback of the corresponding persons death.