//------------------------------//
// 17. It's a Trap! (Twilight) 
// Story: The Twilight Zone 
// by Bad Horse 
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It was obviously a trap.

Twilight scratched her nose and stared at the small marble figure of a guard, pushed forward from its protective phalanx on her opponent’s left flank, right onto a diagonal of Twilight's princess.

She checked again, three moves ahead, then four, for any recapture, pin, or fork.  Nothing. The move would split  her major pieces between the left and right halves of the board. Could that weakness be worth a guard sacrifice?

But it wasn’t even a weakness! Her princess was still on the back rank; moving it would only strengthen her position.  She'd been considering the move even before her opponent put the guard there. So what was her opponent up to?

Wobbly Wisher had said, “I don’t believe in psychology. I believe in good moves.” Taking the guard was the best move.

But evidential reasoning required considering that her opponent thought moving the guard had been a good move. Ergo, there was something Twilight still wasn’t seeing, because she thought it was an awful move.

But her opponent knew Twilight would think it was an awful move, one so bad that it was obviously a trap. So avoiding the “trap” might be the trap! It was a psychological trick to let Twilight let her move the guard through a protected square.

But she also knew that Twilight knew that she knew Twilight knew that it looked like an awful move. So...

Twilight shook her head, scratched her nose again, and started over. If she ignored the guard, she'd avoid the trap--if it were a trap--and still have the initiative, probably a game-winning—

BUZZZZ!

“AAUGH!” Twilight glared at the chess clock beside the board, then slumped her shoulders and let her head drop.

“I WIN AGAIN!” Rainbow Dash shouted, jumping up from the table. She froze in mid hoof-pump and looked at Twilight. “The buzzer means I win, right?”

Twilight sighed. “Yes, Rainbow. The buzzer means you win.”

Dash pumped her hoof. “Yesss! I win, I win, I win, I WIN!”

Twilight frowned and began setting up the pieces again. “One. More. Game,” she said through her teeth, without looking up.

“Naw,” Rainbow said, waving one wing dismissively at the board. “This game’s too easy.”