09/02/2025
King’s Affair presents…
An ancient legend of a land far far away, over which a great King ruled. Of a dark and stormy night, wherein a dark stranger arrived at the gates of the King’s palace, begging for refuge.
The king obliged, and welcomed him inside. The stranger, a sage, presented the king with a royal gift to thank him for his hospitality. A board checked in squares of black and white, upon which moved carved warriors and monarchs and agents of battle. A game in which the fate of kingdoms is foretold in each move, and wherein even the smallest pawn may overthrow the mightiest king . . .
Enamoured by the game’s brilliance, the king bestowed gold and riches upon the stranger. But the sage refused them all. Instead, with a smile, he made a humble request: ‘Grant me but a single grain of rice on the first square of the board, two on the next, four on the one after, and so forth, doubling until the board is filled’. The king laughed at the modesty of such a wish before granting the sage his prize – what a fool was he to play with such skill but beg with such naivety!
However, by the time the king had counted the rice of all the squares, he realised the number of grains surpassed all the rice in the kingdom and beyond…
… distracted by the board, he had failed to realise the sage’s true game.
Legend of the king’s entrapment by his own folly spread far and wide as Chess travelled across the breadth of the kingdom. Just as the sage had ensnared the foolish king, so too did the people learn to entrap the king of the board without escape. When the king was thus defeated, they began to exclaim:
‘Shah mat!’
(translation: the King is Dead // derivation: Checkmate)
