The Last Pawn: the full story
Part One
Nora had joined the school chess club in September, but she had never won a game. She was the quietest player in the room. She always chose the same seat at the end of the long table, where nobody would look at her board. Every Thursday she set up her sixteen pieces, bowed her head, and waited to lose.
Ms. Dana, who ran the club, liked to say that the pawns were the heart of chess. Nora did not believe her. A pawn could only move forward, one square at a time, and it could only capture a piece that stood diagonally in front of it. It could never go backward, and it was the smallest piece on the board. Nora thought of her pawns as little soldiers who were bound to be lost.
On the last Thursday before winter break, she was paired with Eli, who had beaten her four times in a row. They traded pieces quickly, and both queens were gone by the tenth move. Eli's bishop swept across the board along a diagonal, and her rook slid after it. Soon each side had only a few pieces left. Nora's king stood alone in the corner, with a single pawn marching down the board in front of it.
Eli's rook hunted for her pawn, but Nora moved it one square at a time, with her king close behind to guard it. Every move felt like a small, brave step. Ms. Dana walked past and paused. She did not say a word, but she smiled at the pawn as if it were an old friend. Nora's heart beat a little faster.
Then Nora saw it. Her pawn was only two squares from the far side of the board. She remembered something that Ms. Dana had said at the very first meeting: a pawn that reaches the other end is not stuck. It is exchanged for a new piece, a queen, a rook, a bishop or a knight. Most players choose a queen.
Her hands shook as she pushed the pawn to the last row. Eli frowned. "It is promoted," Nora said quietly. She lifted the pawn off the board and set a spare queen from the box in its place. The queen could move in any straight line, as far as she wanted, and suddenly Nora's lonely corner was the most powerful place on the board.
A few moves later, the queen and the king trapped Eli's king in the corner, in check with nowhere to go. "Checkmate," Nora whispered. Eli stared, then laughed and shook her hand. On the way out, Ms. Dana said, "The smallest piece, the biggest surprise." Nora grinned all the way home, thinking about her first win and the pawn that had marched across the whole board.