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Chessville
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Mirror Mirror - Part Two by S.D. Tortorice
* * * * Move and countermove. Such was the nature of chess. Slova grunted to himself. Annoying bishop. It's going to cause a wrinkle in his development plans. What was it that soldiers like to say? Ah, yes, no plan survives first contact with the enemy....
4. Bd2 Nc6
The chess pieces marched on. * * * * General Lenowski's XXIII Corps was nearly all deployed into optimal battle formation. The enemy response, thus far, had been timid, relying mostly on harassing fire to slow him down. An intense artillery duel was taking place on his left flank, in and around the area of the 4th Recon, but that was it. Lenowski guesstimated that the enemy was holding back until they could discern the main thrust of the Russian offensive, which was standard doctrine. It was almost time to unleash that thrust. Lenowski keyed in the video feed from his right forward infantry division's command armored personnel carrier. As he watched, the armored infantry to its front was using its electro-optical camouflage and a snow storm of increasing intensity to inch forward towards the enemy, while avoiding the inaccurate Chinese harassment and interdiction fire. Suddenly, night turned to burning day, causing Lenowski's video feed to drop from his vision for his protection. The mammoth command tank began to rock on its treads and a huge roar penetrated the sound-proofed interior of the vehicle. "General, the Chinese have popped a nuke! We have a cluster of additional tactical nukes descending on our position!" shouted Tivi. "Move us to our second redoubt!" Before Lenowski even completed the sentence, he could feel the fusion turbine engine come to life and propel the large tank forward at great speed. A second nuclear warhead detonated to their right, closer this time. The enemy was blanketing the area in the hope of getting the XXIII Corps' commander. Were they guessing? Or had they penetrated his electronic defenses and homed in on his transmissions? His mind raced through all possibilities as the tank dashed to safety. * * * *
7. O O Bxc3
Slova felt confident. He believed his pieces to be deployed in nearly optimal positions, while Leng seemed content to build a mild pawn-based defense. Slova dominated more space on the chess board and that would translate into greater mobility for his chessmen. With the exception of Leng’s g4 knight, Black was projecting very little power. Did Leng make a mistake by choosing the St. George opening? Perhaps it was a bluff, meant to throw off Slova’s preparations much as the former Russian president and Nobel Laureate Garry Kasparov tried to bluff Deep Blue with an unexpected Caro-Kann opening in the historic man vs. machine match of the late 20th Century? Well, it didn’t work for him and it wasn’t going to work for Leng. Time to start the attack. He grabbed a pawn.... 11.d5 Let Leng chew on that for awhile. * * * * Lenowski and his tank had avoided the ChiCom nuclear strike and was now safely intermingled with the units of his right flank. To his front, elements of three infantry divisions were occupying strong defensive positions, while a heavy tank armored division, the most powerful land force on any battlefield, guarded his left. Together, the infantry and armor protected Lenowski with a heavy umbrella of air defense units. And just to be on the safe side, Lenowski had Tivi switch to a new encrypted frequency to guard against a breach in communications security that may have triggered the attack. Lenowski also dispatched some of his executive officer’s tanks to other parts of the battlefield, both to protect the chain of command against another attack, as well as to keep the enemy guessing which tank was the tank of the XXIII Corps’ commander. The general barely had time to catch his breath before the first major ChiCom strike occurred. The 8th Infantry Regiment, a.k.a, the Palace Defenders, was besieged by enemy armored cavalry units. From one second to the next, red laser flashes were cutting down his infantry that had decloaked to provide maximum power to their weapons. A few enemy hovertanks were disabled as a result, but not nearly enough. Individual smart-munition rifles were no match for multi-point high power laser repeaters. With a torrent of fire, flashes of mere light cut his armored infantry literally in half. Colonel Astrev tried to rally his troopers, but an enemy hovertank fired its close-in antipersonnel cluster weapon that released an expanding wave of depleted uranium penetrators that cut down any soft targets in their path. Astrev didn’t hit the dirt in time and the wave neatly removed his helmet-encased head from his shoulders. With that, the remainder of his men panicked and started to flee. Lenowski ordered his own cavalry to respond. Taking the enemy in the rear, his own light tanks started blasting away. Before long, tall black columns of smoke dotted the landscape as enemy vehicles burned. The Chinese had killed one of his infantry regiments, but it cost them some armor as a result. The general smiled, happy with the trade. * * * *
In the intervening moves, Leng had opened some lines of attack on his king side of the board. With his weakened pawn structure guarding his king, Slova was a bit concerned about Leng attacking with his queen and bishop. Slova decided to launch a harassing attack of his own and placed his knight on h6, attacking Leng’s rook. If nothing else, it would give him a little time to think. So far, he had no concrete plan in mind to win the game. He was waiting for his opponent to make that one move that often decides every chess game, the move that clears a path for victory—if one has sufficient perception to spot it. 15.Nh6 Bg4 Leng offers a rook for a queen. No dice! Slova counters with a knight for a bishop. 16. Nxg4 hxg4 The captured pieces were beginning to accumulate with the Russian grandmaster having an advantage with one extra knight for a pawn. Slova thought it was now time to add to his material advantage. 17. dxc6 bxc6 Another captured piece in exchange for a partially open b file for Black’s rook. Slova sat back and took time to study the big display board to his left. He was very satisfied. White now had captured all of Black’s minor pieces while retaining both his bishops. However, all was not rosy for White. Leng maintained an advantage in pawns. He still had all eight, plus they occupied advanced positions on the board. As a result, Slova’s white pieces were feeling a little cramped. It was not good to have many pieces when you had no place to put them! It was time to free up some room from the rampaging black pawns. 18. Qxg4 The audience murmured. Good, bad, indifferent? It didn’t matter. It was his game, and he was calling the shots. Let the audience kibitz all it wants, he was the one in charge.
* * * * Lenowski accessed AIRNET, the theater-wide air support communications network. The upper right portion of his display was now occupied by a simple black box with AIRNET spelled out graphically, using simple ASCII characters. Despite the ultra-advanced nature of the Russian air force, AIRNET chose to remain aloof from the other virtual reality inter-networked services. As a result, the AIRNET interface was strictly voice operated and text-based. Lenowski began the process of requesting assistance. “XXIII Corps requesting air support at grid g4.” After a brief pause, the AIRNET box blanked then textually repeated Lenowski’s air support request and queried ‘STATE MUNITIONS PREFERENCE,’ while the green cursor blinked expectantly. “Mixed load, anti-armor, anti-personnel,” answered the general. The screen blanked yet again. After a few moments, fresh text scrolled onto the AIRNET screen. ‘17TH AIR WING DISPATCHED. TAC AIR ETA 5 MINUTES. TARGET: GRID SQUARE G4. CAUTION...CAUTION....TYPE 6 MUNITIONS ONBOARD...TAKE APPROPRIATE PRECAUTIONS.’ Lenowski immediately notified all unit commanders to hunker down and await the tactical air strike, even though he knew that AIRNET had already forwarded its own warning to friendly units in the area. Lenowski added an additional warning to make sure that all units were broadcasting their IFF—Identification Friend or Foe—signal so that they wouldn’t be mistaken for enemy forces. His units had just enough time to go to ground when his virtual reality battle map indicated trans-orbital craft dropping into the region, closing on the enemy infantry regiment at g4. Just as the 12 Y-shaped Wolfhound 2 craft descended to 124,000 feet, they began to ‘prepare the battlefield,’ as the air force liked to say. A salvo of 36 SEAD—Suppression of Enemy Air Defense—missiles were deployed from their internal bomb bays and homed in on any signals associated with ChiCom air defense (AD) units. Despite strict precautions with electronic emissions, there was invariably some leakage from units, and these were the first to be dispatched. Other AD units were identified visually—the Siberian Wind SEAD missiles stored a complete visual catalog of all known enemy AD units and compared those 3D images with live images captured via onboard high-zoom, image-stabilized CCD—charge coupled device—cameras, as well as images taken from other friendly battlefield assets. These were the next to die. Soon the enemy regiment’s patch of ground was dotted with expanding fireballs as Chinese men and machines were incinerated. A handful of Siberian Wind missiles remained overhead, prepared to loiter around the battlefield and engage any surviving AD units while the main strike took place. Such a ‘residual presence’ helped to keep enemy AD assets suppressed for as long as possible. The main strike now went in. Screaming overhead at an amazing 1800 knots, the TAC AIR strike force flew over the enemy regiment in a flash, leaving in its wake a mixed bag of munitions. First to make their presence known were the most fearsome in Lenowski’s opinion. The Type 6 munitions were code-named NERVE DANCE, and they did just that. Upon reaching a preset altitude, these spherical munitions would cast off their protective casing, exposing 36 extremely high output light emitting diodes that completely covered their exteriors, and deploy a drag chute that slowed their descent. Within 1/100 of a second, these exposed lights would begin blazing with all the intensity of the sun seen at extremely close range. The net effect of all this brilliant light would be to overwhelm the central nervous system and induce convulsions, temporarily rendering the enemy helpless. Properly shielded eyes would easily protect against NERVE DANCE attacks, allowing friendly troops to remain unaffected. Unfortunately for ChiCom forces, such protection was not standard issue equipment as it was for Lenowski’s units. As the night turned to brief day over grid square g4, the general saw individual enemy soldiers succumb to the effects of NERVE DANCE. Chinese infantrymen encased in their exo-armor battlesuits would suddenly become rigid as the occupant lost consciousness—forcing the battlesuit to remain in a stationary and upright position until its wearer could regain his awareness and control. This, of course, was ideal for the second type of munitions—old fashioned high explosives. With a deafening roar, grid square g4 burst into flames as the armor defeating bomblets, deployed from ‘mother bombs’ dropped by the attacking Wolfhounds, scattered over the area and cut down or blasted everything they could—especially immobile armored infantry. Within seconds, g4 was a burning and demolished mess. The ChiCom infantry regiment was no more. * * * *
Slova offered his rook to Leng. An old chess dictum stated that when ahead in material offer to exchange pieces. The advantage would go to the player with the lead in material—usually. Of course, this was nothing more than the strategic principle of attrition as applied to chess. Would Leng go for it? 20...Rxh1
Yes! Slova replied in kind. What would Leng do next? 21...Qf6 That was a quiet move. What was his game? Slova pondered the board for a minute, time that would be deducted from his precious allotment. He stole a quick glance at Leng who’s face betrayed nothing. Let’s see where this goes.... 22.
Qh3 Ke7 Clearly Leng was trying to regain some momentum by launching a hasty attack, one that he, no doubt, hoped would decisively weaken his left flank. Slova decided that the best way to disrupt an attack was with an attack. He moved his queen. 24.Qh4 Keep dismembering his army---that is the way, thought Slova. He hated to lose his queen, but the removal of Leng’s strongest piece would greatly ease his mind. 24...Qxh4 And Leng’s too, it would seem....
* * * * The battle had momentarily switched to the skies as Chinese trans-orbital craft dropped into the region and engaged their Russian counterparts. From the relative comfort of his command tank, Lenowski used his virtual reality vision to follow the deadly ballet that was taking place far up in the dark and snowy night sky. Aircraft zigged and zagged, twisted and turned just to stay alive for a few more seconds. Clearly not all were successful as an occasional fireball would erupt, signaling the doom of a pilot and his war machine. Before too long the battle was over with both sides suffering a serious mauling from the other. The two teams of enemy aircraft disengaged and egressed in opposite directions, the battle a stalemate for the moment. Well not a complete stalemate, thought Lenowski. The Chinese did deprive him of his TAC AIR for the rest of the battle, no doubt. * * * *
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