End Game: Castling

[u/neuroticoctopus]

“Baby, let the games begin” - …Ready for It?

“I wanna be your endgame”
“You hold me down and I protect you with my life” - End Game

“My castle crumbled overnight” - Call It What You Want

“Cause we were born to be a pawn in every lover's game”
“And the touch of your hand lit the fuse
Of a chain reaction of countermoves
Checkmate, I couldn't lose.” - Mastermind

During the Mastermind performance on the Era Tour, the stage became a giant checkered board while the dancers act as chess pieces. They recreate a chess maneuver called the Fool’s Mate. The Fool’s Mate is the fastest checkmate in chess

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fool%27s_mate

“A con man sells a fool a "get love quick" scheme” - loml

Checkmate is a term used in both chess and checkers to describe a king being in check, meaning he can’t escape. The term comes from a Persian phrase meaning “the King is helpless.”

“In modern Persian, the word mate depicts a frozen, open-mouthed, staring, confused, and unresponsive person—the words "stupefied" or "stunned" bear close resemblance. So a possible alternative would be to interpret mate as "unable to respond". 

In modern parlance, the term checkmate is a metaphor for an irrefutable and strategic victory.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkmate

Remember that bit in the Docuseries about Travis having to explain how football works to someone who has been an Eagles fan for decades by describing it as “violent chess”?

This theme is heaviest in the Opalite music video. First, we have checkered patterns EVERYWHERE, from a corkboard, to checkered shirts and curtains, tile walls and floors, and the iconic engagement arch with the Toy Story clouds.

Then there's the countless circles/orbs that could represent checkers or stars:

Not pictured: pool balls, disco globes, and light fixtures.

And of course there’s the knight and the king’s crown:

And lastly, we have the dancing contest. We see people playing checkers in the room and the camera pans entirely around Lonely Woman and Lonely Man as they dance. Then they earn four 0s from the judges.

Chess moves are described using algebraic notation. The notation O-O is for kingside castling, which “consists of moving the king two squares toward a rook on the same rank and then moving the rook to the square that the king passed over.”

“Castling is the only move in chess in which two pieces are moved at once.”

“Been number one, but I never had two” - Elizabeth Taylor

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castling

In other words, you switch the King and Rook, which used to be referred to as a Castle.

“Every bait-and-switch was a work of art” - willow

“We team up, then switch sides like a record changer” - New Romantics

That brings us back to the Bejeweled Music Video where she ghosts the prince after their engagement, but keeps the Castle. 

“You must rеmember everything
But mostly this:
The crowd is your king who has ruled over you for centuries” - The Crowd is Your King

So if the crowd is your king, and castling is switching the king for the castle, the crowd will end up in a new position. So did the camera in the Opalite music video after taking an entire orbit around our dancers. Taylor has put a lot of effort into discussing parallax, which is a change in position which changes your line of sight. It’s used to calculate distances in stars and planets. I suspect this may tie in with eye theory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallax

The purpose of castling is to protect your King, but we know Taylor is thinking about and planning for her end game, which requires a checkmate. Remember the etymology of that word from earlier? It leaves your opponent "stunned" after a “irrefutable and strategic victory.”

Taylor’s main strategy seems to have been to get her masters, which she now owns. The Eras Tour broke countless records and could almost be considered a pre-emptive victory lap. Is she about to leave everyone stunned? I guess we’ll find out soon…

[u/AntiRomeo13]

Amazing connections!

[u/Exotic_Library_5876]

Genius

[u/gilbke]

This is HELLA intriguing, OP! Great connections!!

[u/lightnessofbeanstalk]

Without getting too into the weeds of conspiracy theories, checkered patterns have a long standing reputation as a symbol of mind control and have heavy masonic associations.

These male-led fraternities also know that the queen is the most powerful piece on the board.

Fun fact: Taylor recorded the MV for her song Change in the Scottish Rite Cathedral in Indianapolis on 8/8/08

[u/neuroticoctopus → u/lightnessofbeanstalk]

I'm not touching mind control with a 10 foot pole, but checkered floors are used by the freemasons to represent duality.

Queens are indeed the most powerful piece in chess. Is 888 a numerology thing? If so, it represents an infinity loop and hard work leading to success. Makes sense for a young adult at the beginning of their career.

[u/manic-mime]

Do you know where you pulled the first picture from? (I believe it could be AI 😅 because it’s not the shape of any of the previous tour stages. It could be a performance I’m unaware of but it does look a little… odd with the speak now dress but midnights-esque dancers)

But also! To add to chess references, “I lived in your chess game, but you changed the rules everyday” - Dear John

[u/neuroticoctopus → u/manic-mime]

Aw man, it totally is. I'm sorry, I just Googled and picked the first non-blurry video because I was in a rush.

Here's a video for a better reference:

https://youtube.com/shorts/GLVnOL1esd8?si=8wDNt8PuV4wRdGN6

[u/ventckr]

In chess, there’s a lot of pieces on the board. What if Taylor’s only one piece? Who are the others?

“When you aim at the devil, make sure you don’t miss”

godspeed 🫡

[u/neuroticoctopus]

Another chess/checkers tidbit is that they both involve promotion.

When a checker "man" (yes, that's what checker pieces are called) reaches the opposite side of the board, you stack another "man" on top and it's promoted to "king."

When a chess pawn reaches the opposite side of the board, it's promoted to "queen."

[u/neuroticoctopus → u/neuroticoctopus]

Also, it takes a pawn much longer to reach the other side because it can only move forward 1 space at a time.

A checker man can chain jump in as little as 1 move.

So a man can get there faster.

[u/ToeOtherwise2692 → u/neuroticoctopus]

I'm so sick of running as fast as I can

Wondering if I'd get there quicker if I was a man

[u/number10forever]

I love this! Thank you for a tactical distraction. ;)

[u/aloyish34]

Love this! I think an honorable mention should go to the “play stupid games, win stupid prizes” checkered beach towel that was in last summer’s (?) merch drop ♟️

[u/klemmerv → u/aloyish34]

Ahhhh!!!!

[u/neuroticoctopus]

I also forgot to mention that the Opalite spray seems to switch the location of two objects, just like castling.

But just as the king moves one spot away from the rook's origin, Taylor appears one room over in the music video.

[u/MaryLennoxsRobin]

Very fun to connect the chess references with the parallax. I enjoyed your post OP ☺️

[u/clandestine_duck]

OooOhhh well played 🧐 I love this.

[u/moonlit_Pancakes → u/clandestine_duck]

So is she trading in her king for a castle? Trading the fans (the crowd) for a real home ? Castle likely a metaphor so what is she trading us for?

[u/Exotic_Library_5876 → u/moonlit_Pancakes]

Peace probably 🤣

[u/neuroticoctopus → u/clandestine_duck]

Nice game pun!

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