Neville could not play chess, or at least was not good at it. Harry had never seen him play against anyone, either.
Hermione was fairly good, or at least Harry thought so. When they battled each other, they each won about half the time. Ron, on the other hand, was an absolute master.
As the little wizard's chess champion whom no one in all of Gryffindor would play unless he offered them a handicap, Ron displayed outstanding skill.
Although Harry was a little worse at playing himself, he could still pick up on a few things as a spectator.
The chessboard, controlled by some unknown system, was reasonably intelligent. Harry felt that in an ordinary game, they would not even need Ron; he and Hermione would have a sixty or seventy percent chance of winning.
But there was another problem now. All four of them had to be on the board before the game could begin.
Ron had tried earlier. Unless all four of them were on the board, the pieces would not move.
Left with no choice, Hermione replaced a rook, Neville replaced a bishop, and Harry took the queen's position. Ron was the most unusual: he wanted to replace a knight, but the knight actually dismounted from its horse, so Ron climbed on.
Well, Ron looked quite excited about it.
But the game that followed put Ron in a difficult position.
The reason was simple. This was wizard's chess, and it was brutally violent!
Ron could not and would not let Harry and the others get hurt, so whenever an exchange of pieces became possible, he could only avoid it if Hermione, Harry, or Neville was involved. This greatly limited his room to maneuver.
But Ron lived up to his reputation as the master who had beaten everyone