Chapter 7: Armin Justice vs George Johnson - Round 1
It wasn't until I was fifteen years old that I was finally ready to face my grandfather. Of course, I tried playing against him time and time again, but I was never even close to beating him.
However, as my fifteen-year-old self sat across from him at the chessboard in his garage, I knew that day was going to be the day I finally won. I was ranked in the top twenty in online chess and I'd won my fair share of in-person tournaments by then. I was actually making quite the name for myself and some called me the greatest blind chess player of all time.
Regardless, none of that meant anything to me. My goal wasn't to climb the ranks or be the best. No, I wanted to beat my grandfather and become a boxer.
"What's the score now? Two hundred and twelve to zero?" My grandfather was a shit-talker, but I let him do his thing.
"Keep talking old man. You're white, so shut up and start."
My grandfather was quick to grab his pawn clad in white cloth, commanding it to move forward.
The two of us went back and forth, commanding our pieces until my Indian Defense was set in place to protect the king. My grandfather chuckled once he read my setup.
"Interesting. I haven't seen you try this before in those two hundred and twelve losses. You're really getting desperate."
"Shut up and move old man."
The reason I decided to use the Indian Defense was because it allows the player to command the black pieces to defend the king from almost anything white does. My grandfather was an offensive player, one who specialized in winning wars before they even began. Most of my losses were quick, lasting only a few minutes and ending in a handful of moves.
I asked my grandfather if he also saw timelines when he played chess, but he only laughed at me and called me a poindexter, which was an old man's way of calling his grandson a nerd.
"Grandpa. I know I asked you about seeing timelines when we played chess when I was little, but you never told me what it was that you do see. What is it? There has to be something."
He exhaled humorously as he toyed with one of his bishops. "I see the strings of a puppet attached to each of my fingers."
"And those strings control your pieces?"
"No."
I could feel my grandfather moving his body, then I could feel his finger digging into my chest.
"They control you."
That was the moment when I realized why I had been losing to my grandfather after all of these years. I viewed chess as a battle between minions, between armies on a battlefield. I did what I could to control both my army and my opponent's, but what I failed to realize was that all of those commands weren't chosen by me.
No, they were chosen by him.
George Johnson, my grandfather, was the puppet master pulling all of the strings.
Once I made this realization, I began to overthink all of my moves.
I couldn't differentiate which moves were my own and which moves were being controlled by the puppet master himself. To make matters worse, my grandfather, the puppet master, the shit-talker, made it known that he knew that he was in my head.
"That's why I hid the answer from you, Armin. I knew you weren't ready for the truth. Look at you. You don't know what moves to make, do you?" As those words parted his lips, I lost sight of the battlefield before me. I no longer saw the personification of soldiers and peasants fighting for me. No, I saw the field for what it was: A wooden board with sixty-four squares on it, floating in an infinite void of darkness as the puppet master grew larger with each arrogant syllable.
"Your eyes are blind, but they still scan the board as if you could see. Your eyes are locked onto your knight on h4. You want to take that pawn of mine, don't you? But you still don't know if that is your decision or your grandfather's choice for you. Maybe I want you to take that pawn, maybe it's the last piece of the puzzle I need to win this game. So tell me, Armin Justice. What will it be?"
There were so many thoughts going on in my head, so many timelines of possibilities where I take the pawn or I don't but all of these alternate realities in my head led to failure over and over. There were seemingly infinite directions for this match to go, all of which ended in me resigning or my king being assassinated by either one of his pieces.
I searched and searched and searched, wading through the void in my head looking for the light, but I could only find myself in the shadow cast by the puppet master. My own body, floating in the world between worlds, the space where timelines intersected and clashed, could feel the strings pulling me along.
Even in my own head, the puppet master was in control.
"Time's ticking, Armin. Make your move."
My inner self became desperate, flailing his arms through space as if that would make him go, but the strings were still bounding me...
I had nearly given up.
'I'm not ready to face my grandfather yet...'
My inner self let go, allowing himself to be guided by the puppet master's strings. I thought perhaps with his guidance, I could learn something. Only then could I best him at his own game.
But just when I felt that all hope was lost, I could feel a warm light shining on my face through the puppet master's shadow. Inside the void of my mind, I opened my eyes to see that fabled timeline I had sought after, but there was something strange about it.
Every other timeline showed me the end result, but this one only showed me the very next step and it hit me.
The reason why the puppet master was in control of me this entire time was because he could see the timelines too. Not because he had my ability to predict, but because he could read it through me. I was showing him exactly where I was going.
'It's my eyes.'
My grandfather told me the answer himself. My eyes were showing him the timelines I could see. That was my tell. That was how the master controlled my strings.
"I see."
I closed my eyes, and I could immediately feel the puppet master's strings snap, releasing my limbs from their grasp.
I was free.
I looked into this new timeline without the puppet master's influence and I could see everything...
I saw the path to certain victory.
"Knight takes g2."
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone