Giant Chessboard Array

The room was pitch black, and nothing could be seen in the field of vision.

Just as Albert stepped inside, the torches on the surrounding walls suddenly burst into flames, creating a scene reminiscent of fighting a boss in a video game, and the illuminated scene was equally astonishing.

At this moment, they were standing beside a huge chessboard, with two rows of black statues taller than themselves in front of them.

At the other end of the room, facing them, were two rows of white statues.

Fred quickened his pace, trying to pass by the statue.

However, he quickly stopped and retreated back to the group.

"Could this be... Wizard's Chess?" Fred muttered, looking at the pawn that had drawn its sword and blocked his path.

In fact, the four of them had a vague idea of the answer when they saw the neatly arranged statues.

"Wow, that's spectacular!" George exclaimed. "It must be really fun. This is my first time playing this kind of large-scale Wizard's Chess."

"Your Wizard's Chess skills are really terrible," Fred muttered, "You can't even beat Ron."

"You talk as if you've ever beaten Ron." Although George was reluctant to admit it, his useless brother, who was afraid of spiders, was indeed quite good at Wizard's Chess.

"What do we do now?" Lee Jordan muttered.

"Isn't it obvious?" George curled his lip and pointed to the wooden door behind the white chess piece. "As long as you win the Wizard's Chess, you should be able to pass the level smoothly."

"I remember Albert was quite good at Wizard's Chess!"

The three of them looked at Albert, waiting for him to make his final decision: whether to force his way in or to win this game of Wizard's Chess.

"I can't guarantee I'll win!" Albert looked at the giant chessboard in front of him, his brows furrowed slightly, seemingly lost in thought.

"This isn't like you, just a game of Wizard's Chess." Lee Jordan patted Albert on the shoulder.

"What's wrong?" George sensed something was amiss. Was it really just as simple as winning a game of Wizard's Chess?

"We might need to play as pieces. If not, we might need to win one piece at a time," Albert said, offering his speculation. He wasn't sure if he could win with a three-piece handicap.

"This is not a good idea!" Although George also wanted to try it out, the thought of the wild gameplay of Wizard's Chess made him instinctively hesitate.

After all, it wouldn't be fun at all to be swept away by the weapons of these chess piece statues if they really needed to act as chess pieces.

"Could it be that we have to go together?" Fred muttered, his brow furrowed deeply.

The Black King next to Fred suddenly moved, startling them all. The king statue nodded at Fred, indicating that everyone had to participate in the Wizard's Chess Competition.

"Should we force our way through?" Lee Jordan asked tentatively. With their skill level, using spells to blow up all the statues and brute force their way through shouldn't be too difficult.

"If we do that, those statues will probably all come and attack us." Albert didn't approve of brute force. How could Professor McGonagall not have thought that someone would try to force their way through? The previous challenge could have been solved by simply picking the lock; it was entirely because the wizards didn't understand Muggle.

Although he felt that the statues did not pose much of a threat to them, he decided not to take the risk, as who knew what might happen if they forced their way in.

Perhaps the wooden door across the street can't be opened at all?

Even if we ultimately have to force our way through, we should wait until the number of chess piece statues has decreased to a certain extent before making any decisions.

"Who do you think designed this mechanism?" Lee Jordan asked, tapping the statue next to him.

"Of course it's Professor McGonagall." George said with a smirk, "These chess piece statues must have been created by Transfiguration. I don't know how they did it, but it's really amazing."

"Can Albert do that too?" Fred looked at Albert expectantly, hoping to get a positive answer from him.

"I do know a bit about Wizard's Chess. Although the principle of this Giant Chessboard Array is similar to that of Wizard's Chess, it uses a more advanced Transfiguration."

Albert said to Fred, George, and Lee Jordan, "We're afraid we'll need to replace the four black pieces here."

"You take charge. What should we do?"

"Let me think about it." Albert's mind was racing as he began to devise a plan; this was an unequal competition.

"Take your time to think it over." The three of them weren't in a hurry. They began to study the chess piece statues and, incidentally, observe the surrounding environment in preparation for a violent passage later.

"Alright." A few minutes later, Albert clapped his hands and, after the three of them looked over, said, "Fred and George will replace the two knights, and Lee Jordan, you will replace the King. As for me, I will replace the Bishop."

The pieces seemed to understand Albert's words; the two knights, the bishop, and the king turned and stepped off the chessboard, leaving four empty spaces for them.

Let's begin! The most interesting Wizard's Chess Competition of the century has officially started!

"How are we going to defeat these statues later?"

"If that doesn't work, we can just blast them to pieces with Exploding Charm." Albert pulled a candy from his pocket, unwrapped it, and popped it into his mouth, casually offering some comfort. "However, I don't think that's necessary. Once they're 'eaten,' they should step down on their own. If that doesn't work, we can just blast them to pieces."

Albert was a little excited; it felt more like commanding an army than playing Wizard's Chess on the table.

What if we get eaten?

"I will try to prevent this from happening. If it does, you should all run off the board and make sure you don't get hit by any pieces." Albert had already started moving the pieces around.

The initial tactics were the same: exchanging pieces to create more space on the board. Albert discovered that Professor McGonagall's game wasn't as sophisticated as he had imagined.

The game went more smoothly than expected.

The difficulty of the Giant Chessboard Array lies in the fact that players need to maintain a calm mindset and not be unable to think clearly due to the fierce battles of Wizard's Chess. As long as you can perform at your level in Wizard's Chess, you will definitely win.

On the chessboard, Fred and George, who were initially a little nervous, have started to wreak havoc. They used Exploding Charm to destroy many of the pieces they had "eaten" and swept them into the trash heap. Lee Jordan, who was playing the role of the king, couldn't help but want to join the fray.

The pawns were eliminated as soon as the game started, and the scene of the pieces fighting was particularly spectacular. Imagine the image of an opposing piece slicing a piece into pieces with a single sword strike and sweeping it off the board.

If this happened to someone close to you, without enough courage, you would really be so scared that your legs would tremble.

Even if you know the pieces won't attack you, who wouldn't be afraid of being accidentally caught in the crossfire?

Fred was genuinely startled when the opposing bishop knocked the chariot that was Fred's scapegoat to the ground with a single hammer blow.

Albert, fearing Fred might suddenly turn and run away, immediately shouted to him, "Calm down, you're safe."

"It's not safe at all, I'm injured," Fred complained, pointing to his arm where he had been cut by shards.

"Stop complaining, go back to C8."

"Why not eat the White Queen?" Fred obediently stepped back, but couldn't help asking, as he hadn't completely calmed down yet.

"If you want to be eaten, I don't mind at all, since I'll definitely be the one who profits from the exchange anyway."

Watching the fierce battle, and then glancing at Albert was calmly directing the fight, everyone's unease completely vanished.

Judging from the number of pieces on the board, Albert was clearly more skillful than his opponent, capturing far more white pieces than losing black pieces, and even leaving one pawn in the front row.

Albert would try to preserve his pieces as much as possible, using them as cannon fodder in exchanges. He was also hesitant to send Fred and George to the front, always trying to prevent them from being easily captured whenever he used them.

There was no way around it; every time a piece was captured, the pieces would act ruthlessly and mercilessly, as evidenced by the pile of broken pieces lying haphazardly against the wall.

Once the number of pieces on the field has decreased to a certain extent, the issue of exchanging pieces no longer needs to be addressed, Albert begins to think about how to defeat the king as quickly as possible.

He didn't want to linger here too long! After the White Queen viciously knocked another bishop to the floor and threw him off the chessboard like trash, Albert immediately stepped forward and happily checkmated the king.

Just as he raised his wand, ready to blast the White King in front of him to smithereens, this guy actually took off his crown and threw it at Albert's feet.

This means Albert won.

"Consider yourself lucky," Albert muttered, watching the white pieces bow and retreat. He lowered his arms and stopped bothering the White King.

"This is really interesting. It's definitely more fun to command a large-scale Wizard's Chess than to play a regular Wizard's Chess," Fred grinned, having just captured quite a few pieces.

"I just saw your legs were shaking."

"Nonsense, who said my legs were shaking?" Fred glared at Lee Jordan, knowing the guy was probably envious of him charging into battle on the chessboard.

"I saw it all, your legs were shaking terribly," Lee Jordan said with a sneer. He had barely moved during the game, feeling very safe and bored.

"Stop fooling around," Albert stopped the pointless joke.

"You know, if we had just taken brooms and used magic to bombard these pieces from above, wouldn't we have been able to avoid playing this Wizard's Chess game?"

"The most likely scenario is that the door won't open," Albert said after thinking for a moment.

Actually, he had considered this method, but ultimately gave up on it. If the wooden door couldn't be opened and he was surrounded by the chess piece statues, he would be in real trouble.

Since we can get through this hurdle in the simplest way, let's not bother with anything fancy.