CHECKMATE, DARLING
He had learned to carry himself with a different kind of grace, less like an aggressive tournament speed-player and more like a scholar adjusting to a quieter tempo.
He set a mug of black coffee beside my hand and pulled up a heavy oak chair, sitting beside me.
"Look at the base, Daniel," I said, pointing with the tip of a pencil. "It isn't a standard Staunton design. The bottom edge is weighted with lead, but there’s a shallow circular recess carved into the felt."
Daniel leaned in, his hazel eyes narrowing. He picked up the piece with his left hand, turning it over. "It's an insert slot. Like the ones used in mid-nineteenth-century automaton chess tables. The piece was meant to trip a mech