An important metaphor in the Unabeauverse, and provider of much in the way of plot and scene setting.
Following a convention established in Dwimordene's (non-Unabeauverse) story Star and Stone, "bishops" are named "captains". The word rook, from the Haradric rukh, is used to refer to castles.
The Sindarin phrase I aran fern ("the king is dead") is used to conclude a game, the equivalent of our "check mate".
Faramir's chess sets[]
Faramir was in possession of three chess sets. The first, which had been his father's, was an heirloom of great antiquity, "made of metal and glass". During Faramir's time as Steward, this set was unused, and stood on display in a bay window of the library in the Steward's House in Minas Tirith (see Old Soldiers).
Faramir's personal chess set was a gift from his father on his eleventh birthday, in 2994. By that point, the set had been in the possession of the House of Húrin for over a century, having been taken as spoils of war by his great-great-grandfather Túrin, the twenty-third ruling Steward of Gondor, when he defeated the Haradrim at the crossings of Poros in 2885. The set was made of ivory:
- with bright shards of stone sparkling in the eyes of the horses of the knights and crowning the kings and beading the rukhs, all of them glossy with the handling of a thousand campaigns (see Red River).
According to family lore, when the set came into Túrin's possession, it had three pieces missing which Túrin had replaced with pieces made from ivory taken from mûmakil killed in the battle.
The King is Dead by Kasiopea
Túrin was a master of the game, and wrote a history of chess, a copy of which was held in the Steward's library. Túrin offered two accounts of the game's invention. In the first account, it was created to teach the strategy of war to Haradric nobles. In the second account, which came from Khand, it was invented to end a long and bitter war between two ruling families. With both sides exhausted, but no clear victor, the wisest men from each family together created the game, and the winner of that game was named ruler of Khand.
Denethor's father, Ecthelion, learned chess from Túrin and taught it to Denethor. Denethor encouraged Faramir's interest in the game, and gave this set, in the hopes of making a bookish and absent-minded boy more focused and more mercenary (see The King is Dead). Faramir ultimately bequeathed this set to his great-grandson Beren (see In Passing).
Faramir was also in possession of a third chess set, a travelling set which he used to play correspondence chess during his time as a Ranger and, later, Captain of the Ithilien Rangers. This set was a gift from Boromir, who had the set made when Faramir joined the Ithilien company. Faramir believed this set to have gone missing at some point between leaving Ithilien and being attacked by Nazgul on the Pelennor in March 3019, but the set was later discovered in Faramir's old rooms in the Steward's House. Faramir gave this set to his son Léof (see Old Soldiers).
During his time in the field, Faramir played correspondence chess with his father (see Five Moves that Denethor and Faramir Never Made) and his cousin (see Doggerel). He later began playing correspondence chess with his younger son, Léof (see War and Peace). They kept up these games until Faramir's death.
Faramir considered chess a tradition in Minas Tirith (see Black Captain), and was acknowledged to be one of the best players in Gondor. Nevertheless, he only beat his father once (see Five Moves that Denethor and Faramir Never Made). He was a better chess player than Aragorn (see Black Captain and Red River), although not as good as Arwen whom, he claimed, had the "benefit of experience" (see In Passing). His cousin Amrothos was an evenly-matched competitor. Faramir's grandson Barahir was able to play chess, as was his second son, Léof .
(Artwork by Kasiopea for Altariel's story The King is Dead.)