With less than a quarter of his pieces remaining and seemingly desperate John moved his queen to a square adjacent to Tom’s king tempting Tom to capture her.
“Although I could win this game right now,” Tom announced as he took the bait removing John’s queen from the board and giving the plastic piece a messy kiss, “I’ll take your queen, you senile fool, just like I took that Miriam of yours long ago.”
After Tom’s capture of John’s queen, John moved a pawn to Tom’s edge of the board with a diagonally unobstructed view aimed right at Tom’s newly exposed king and with the right to exchange that pawn for any piece he wanted. John replaced the pawn with a diagonally powerful bishop as nursing home aides entered to wheel them back to their respective rooms.
“Why didn’t you get another queen, idiot?”
“I had one, Tom, until you took her away, but I only needed a bishop to checkmate you.”
Denise offers the prompt word “quarter” for this week’s Six Sentence Stories.
Poetry, Short Prose and Walking 
Frank,
That was a game played on several different levels. Tom seems the winner of them all.
pax,
Dora
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Thank you, Dora!
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Very good. And, it reminds me, I have completely forgotten how to play chess.
Blessings.
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I don’t remember much about the game either. Thank you, Michael!
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That is brilliant …a story that speaks on so many levels, the prompt used so creatively and just 6 sentences!
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Thank you, Pragalbha!
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Small recompense for the love of his life, I think.
Clever piece, Frank, but I struggled to picture that end game in my mind.
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It was small recompense. Thank you!
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Quite chilling they’re still battling all those years later, and that fate has found them in the same nursing home.
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Some coincidences seem on purpose. Thank you!
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The winner takes it all
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Thank you, Cassa!
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And the feud goes on.
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Yes, it continues. Thank you!
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I really like the parallel between life and the game, Frank.
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Thank you, Chris!
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Two tales in one. Very clever, especially given the six sentence limit.
My Six!
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Thank you, Keith!
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A clever story, well executed. I enjoyed it. Although… Poor John. A hollow victory all these years later.
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Thank you, Jenne!
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We can only hope that Tom retained sufficient mental horsepower to appreciate the ‘burn’ from John.
But, I suspect, no matter their mental condition, neither would be inclined to ‘change their stripes’ this late in the game.
Good Six.
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If he didn’t see that pawn, I’d wonder about him. Thank you, Clark!
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Fabulous Six, Frank. Life’s irony. It makes one wonder sometimes, the purpose.
Beautiful picture. Looks like a lovely place to walk.
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It is a lovely place to walk. Thank you, Denise!
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Nice!
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Thank you!
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YW!!!
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