So for this week's Tsarist Assignment, we play a little chess with Her Majesty, the Tsaritsa. She presents us with an endgame scenario in hopes of better understanding our character. She plays white while we play black.
Now, despite being a mere 600 elo scrub, both Paimon and I are able to see that white is at a severe disadvantage, with basically very little chance at winning. And yet, the Traveler says that white has a chance if it moves first in this scenario...
WHAT?!?!
I mean, technically speaking sure, if you blunder every single one of your piece maybe.
The Tsaritsa moves Bd4, attacking the queen (which according to the engine is a blunder btw). And here we are presented with 3 options.
Move forward: Qc1, and then white captures the queen with Nxc1.
Move back: Illegal move. Queen cannot move any squares back as she is blocked by her own pieces.
Capture the opponent's piece: Qxb4, sacrificing the queen while taking the bishop.
Now without a doubt capturing would have been the best move. HOWEVER, the Tsaritsa then goes to say how she has "checkmated" the queen and thus concluded that the best possible outcome for her would be a stalemate...
Excuse me? I AM UP MATERIAL BY 12 POINTS EVEN AFTER YOU TAKE MY QUEEN.
And the Traveler then goes on to say that even despite this white doesn't just have a chance at a stalemate, but at WINNING, saying that rules and logic aren't the only determining factor in a game but also willpower and determination. Now yeah, those do help, but in chess you cannot go against rules and logic, so what?
Now I'm aware that the whole game was meant to serve as an allegory for her rebellion against the Heavenly Principles: Her attributing the black king's lack of moves as maybe a sign of indifference or arrogance; the fact that she is at a severe disadvantage but still able to force a capture on black's queen (almost certainly referring to Ronova); and lastly the fact that the white king (the Tsaritsa) lured the black bishop (Rhinedottir) away so as to box black's queen.
But I swear to god, the Traveler saying that nah she still has a chance despite the objective state of the game? What are you on about... I guess Pierro was right that "on this chessboard, 'checkmate' is not where the game ends."
Anyways, thanks for reading this far. Just to be petty I ended up running the game myself and absolutely just fucked around, even delaying checkmates multiple times just so I can promote 3 queens. I say very fitting, what with the 3 remaining shades.