I…
...Wait. I’ve totally read this! Shit, I didn’t even notice it was you that wrote it at the time. I read this a few months ago when I was on a FIM comedy kick, trying to hunt down amusing fics to peruse on my phone during huge amounts of downtown on the go.

Okay then, I can do most of this from memory, as it would seem with just a slight nudging, most of this work returns to mind with considerable clarity. Firstly, major props on your characterization, specifically your handling of Twilight’s distress, and Fluttershy’s evolution as she steps up and into the role of an increasingly competent player. (… on that note, we should have a game sometime. I adore chess.) I especially enjoyed how you, with Twi, took her from her pompous asshattery (not intentional, but as an inherent aspect of her character, which works) in winning every game, every time, to a gradual respect of her friend via her prowess in the game and increasing ability to see ahead. Twilight’s frustration and downright terror over the black queen was wonderfully executed, as well as her various neurosis in general.

The foreshadowing with the black queen was a thin veneer at best, but I don’t get the feeling you were really trying to run with that. It would have been a hell of a hard sell to even try it, as I imagine most people would have reactively thought of Luna anyway.

You do a great job illustrating the nigh inarticulate fury of a player that is consistently outmatched in every way, again and again.

> Sicilian
I liked this mention, as variations of the Sicilian Dragon is my favored strategy.

I had to skim over this again to remember how just how many variant points of shining hilarity are interwoven in this piece. I’d place it amongst my favorites (and I shall) in the humor genre.

>the chances of victory were at least twenty-three percent, give or take ten
That’s an extraordinarily huge margin of error for a percentage analysis.

Welp, I suppose I’m done gushing. Cheers Cass, this is an excellent read.