Opening

Tryismo chess club, Burik, Tsaria, Ascossian, Rhombodian, August 20th, 2006*, 9:00 A.M

*Approximate date on the Australian calendar

Margaret Yigal and her husband Joseph Yigal were up at the podium. Margaret was 30, she looked younger than that, she had a case of babyface. She wore no makeup, her lips were not cracked, but they had their original colour, so she never wore lipstick. Her hair was a brilliant orange, and her eyes were sapphire. Joseph had black hair, taller than his wife and brown eyes. He was 30 as well and he looked his age, he had facial hair. They both wore the same clothes, brown shirts and pants adorned with chess pieces.

"May we have your attention please." Joseph announced.

"We are happy to announce that the practice rounds will soon begin. You can either choose your opponent or let us choose." Margaret announced.

"I would like to be the first to choose!" Grand master Leonard Raycloth announced.

"As you wish Leo." Joseph spoke.

"I choose Liam Blake!" Leo spoke.

Silence.

More silence.

"Is he ignoring me?" Leo inquired after becoming impatient.

"Wang!" Margaret called out.

Wang Chutz, a short man who looked like he had some Asian heritage approached the podium. He wore a black suit and a tie with a diamond king piece on it. His pants were long, and fancy and his shoes had a white pawn piece on each of them.

"Yes?" Wang asked in a normal English tone.

"Did you not have a meeting with Liam at 8:30 for a private game?" Joseph inquired.

Wang nodded. "That is correct. But when I went into his room he was not there at that time."

"Oscar Blake, go get your brother." Joseph instructed.

Oscar, a youthful man with an almost bald head, and bronze eyes and beautifully tanned skin approached. He had his black hair cut extremely short quite recently. He was wearing some casual clothes, a blue shirt with a red bowling ball knocking down 3 pins. Teal shorts with some floats imprinted on them. It looked like he was planning to visit the pool later as Oscar was a swimmer, but he was not remotely close to being famous. His eyes were brown, and he had no hair on his face or even up his nose. He had very tiny eyebrows and short eyelashes.

"Yes?" Oscar spoke in a voice too deep to belong to someone who usually takes to the pools.

"Go see what is taking your brother so long." Margaret added.

Oscar went to Liam's room and knocked on the white door.

He knocked and knocked.

He shouted; he kicked the door. But nothing.

The door was locked shut. Oscar took out the access card his brother gave him so he could visit the room and clean it up. Despite Liam being a chess expert and Oscar being a swimmer, Liam was the messy one and Oscar was the neat and tidy one.

Oscar slid the access card and the door opened. What Oscar saw shook him to the core. His brother was lying dead upon the chessboard carpet, there was blood on his back, and he was lying face down. There was blood on Liam's finger too and he left a message.

Zugzwang.

Why were these eight letters written here? Who was the victim implicating?

There was a glass king on the chessboard on a small table nearby. Nobody knew it yet, but this king was the murder weapon. The deadly king.