The Chess Player (standard:other, 1584 words)
Author: Rattan Mann	Added: Oct 26 2007	Views/Reads: 3385/2321	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
A shepherd vs a king in a game of chess

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story

distance.  Panic gripped him.  How would he play without the sheep?  
How would he know in which direction to move? 

Then he saw a herd of very ugly creatures tumbling out of the king's
palace.  They were very big and noisy and made of iron but they did run 
like sheep.  Were they some kind of sheep he had never seen before? 

He asked bystanders if those ugly creatures were sheep, and if so, why
didn't they look like Christ's sheep.  The sophisticated city-folks 
laughed at him.  They saw at once that he was a village fool who knew 
nothing about science and civilization.  And so they answered him in 
his primitive tongue. 

Yes, they are sheep all right.  But they are not Christ's Sheep.  They
are the King's Sheep.  They are called battle-tanks. 

That eased the shepherd's mind and gave him his self-confidence back. 
He had his sheep for his moves. 

The king was very pleased that some fool had at last fallen in his trap,
and ordered the game to start immediately.  He was so thirsty for blood 
that he wanted to lose very fast. 

And the game started with great fanfare - music and dance, and a feast
with the king and queen. 

Then everybody waited for the shepherd to make his moves. 

The shepherd's moves were the same old Christ's Moves that had always
brought him victory. When he saw the battle-tanks going into the king's 
palace, he moved up on the chessboard, and when he saw them coming out 
of the palace, he moved down.  And as the tanks turned left from the 
gate, he turned left on the board, and as they turned right, he turned 
right.  And when the battle-tanks crossed a bridge, he moved 
diagonally. 

The game lasted for months, but to everybodys' surprise, the shepherd
lost in the end even though the king had played as poorly as he 
possibly could.  Even the king could not beleive that he had won 
against the best chess player in his kingdom, and that too after doing 
everything in his power to lose.  Till now he had never won in chess - 
even against his own children whom he tried his best to impress.  His 
own children made fun of him.  That his why he wanted to wipe out any 
chess player that was better than him. But now he had proved his worth 
against the best.  So it was the happiest day in his life, and he 
wanted to share his happiness with the man he had defeated. 

Instead of killing the shepherd, the king gave him a huge reward, and
told him how lucky he was that he lost - otherwise he would have died.  
He thought that this would make the shepherd very happy.  It had the 
opposite effect. 

The simpleton couldn't beleive his eyes or ears.  He couldn't beleive
that he lost and he couldn't beleive what the king said.  Everything 
began to fall in place.  Now he understood why even strangers invited 
him for supper.  He felt betrayed - first by the chess master and then 
by the king and his Black Sheep.  And the shock of defeat and betrayal 
was far more than any joy of getting a few pieces of gold. 

As he walked towards the gate, he had only one question in mind:  How
could he have lost to such a worthless player as the king?  He went 
over all his moves a thousand times over to see where he could have 
gone wrong.  But there was nothing wrong with his moves.  They were all 
Christ's Moves.  Then, as he reached the gate of the palace he noticed 
a strange coincidence.  If all his moves had been the opposite of what 
they were, he would have won straight away.  At first it didn't make 
sense.  But then he understood why - the King's Sheep were not Christ's 
Sheep.  They were the Devil's Black Sheep who had turned all rules of 
the game upside down. 

He started screaming and hitting his head against the gate in despair. 
He was defeated by his own innocence. 

"How could have I done that, how could have I done that - trust the
grand chess master and then follow the Devil's Sheep?  I should have 
known that the Devil's Sheep don't follow Christ's rules.  When the 
Devil's Sheep moved up, I should have moved down, and when they turned 
left I should have turned right.  And I should have turned diagonally 
only after they all fell in the river and drowned.  Then I would have 
won - remained the greatest chess player in the kingdom." 

And wailing in despair, he hit his head against the gate so hard that he
died instantly. The gold coins fell to the ground and were pocketed by 
the guards even before his body slumped.  Then they threw him into the 
ditch because a proper burial would have been too expensive - both in 
time and money.  And from the next day nobody ever remembered or missed 
him. 

Such was the strange life and death of a great chess player and a true
man of Christ. 

The End 

First published on www.oraculartree.com 

copyright Rattan Mann 


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