This is a commentary on The Pawn. There will be spoilers.

Origin: The concept came to me a few months back on a Fictionmania message board that drew the connection that an ordinary male pawn would become a female queen if the game were real life. The Red Guards from Star Wars Last Jedi prompted me to brainstorm more on this idea.

Why?:The chess game idea was inspired by an original Star Trek episode where two warring people sacrifice a few members of their society each in a ritual suicide rather than outright war. Captain Kirk proceeds to break this system, because the current system would never lead to peace and reconciliation of the two people. Only if war is horrible, will we strive to truly end it. It was also inspired by another original Star Trek episode where alien races hated each only because of the color of their skin: White or Black. In this society, the elites have decided to play a deadly game of chess rather than outright war. As one can see, sacrificing a few commoners each month will have no effect on the lifestyles of the elites.

How?: Magic that's how originating from the field itself.

When?: Medieval times.

Where?: England

What?: When I thought of a chess game I discovered that all the pieces are equally likely to be destroyed in any given chain of battles. While sacrificing unlimited commoners seemed reasonable, the same cannot be said of the tiny minority of elites that would be your knights, bishops, rooks, and queens. I thought it ridiculous for the king to constantly acquire new wives after every other game. So, I made the elite pieces immortal and the pawns totally mortal to solve this plot hole and to create a class divide.

With this in mind, the game had to be changed. If elite pieces are immortal, then the game is completely centered on killing pawns. The legendary sword levels the playing field making all pieces vulnerable to death like a real chess game but for only one side. With this advantage, Black would be expected to win every single time and drain White of elite talent.

In a regular chess game, pieces do not "battle" so to speak on the board. If the queen reaches your piece, that piece is destroyed immediately. A piece cannot struggle against this. However, I was not satisfied with "instant" death and was inspired by the US Marine Corp commercial from the 1990s that have chess pieces struggling against each other in battle before being destroyed.

So, I hope the rules of the game were explained well enough. If not, I'm open to continually revising it until it is, but I don't want there to be several paragraphs of boring regulations as that ruins pacing. It is becoming more to my liking to write stories and implant the TG element rather than the other way around. I want horror, adventure, comedy, sci-fi, and so on in the stories that I write.

Sequel: Probably not. This was meant to be a one-shot. I can't think of a scenario where I would need to bring back these characters for another round of chess fighting since the game itself was dismantled at the end. I could see a scenario where I would do a similar piece but for Stratego but that wouldn't really be a sequel, more like a series of board-game related pieces which I am open to doing.