We walked into our warm room after the long morning. The room felt safe and comfortable. Elphyete walked over to the table and looked at me with a soft smile. She asked me if we could play chess again to pass the time. I looked at her, smiled, and said yes right away. I went to the closet to find the game. I found the brown box that held all of the pieces and the board. I carried them over to the table carefully. Salphy saw what we were doing and became extremely happy. She ran across the room with a big smile because she wanted to watch us play. I placed the square chessboard flat on the table. Elphyete sat down on one side and I sat down on the opposite side. Salphy climbed up onto a chair right next to us so she could get a perfect view of the board. We opened the box and took out the pieces one by one. Elphyete took the white pieces and I took the black pieces. We set them up carefully on the squares. All the small pawns went in a straight line in front of the larger pieces.
Once all the pieces were set up, the first game began. Elphyete made the first move because she had the white pieces. She moved a white pawn forward two squares. I looked at the board and moved my black pawn forward to meet hers. Salphy sat still on her chair, resting her chin in her hands as she watched the board with bright eyes. She looked between us as we moved our pieces from square to square. After a few minutes, Elphyete moved her white queen across the board. She placed the piece down and smiled softly at me. I looked at my black king and saw that he had nowhere to run. I had lost the very first game of the day. Elphyete won the match easily. Salphy laughed when she saw that my king was trapped. I chuckled and took the pieces off the board so we could reset them. We set them up in their correct spots once more. The second game started immediately after that. Elphyete moved her pieces even faster. I tried to protect my king, but her strategy was too good to stop. In a short time, she trapped my king again. I lost the second game as well. Salphy clapped her hands and cheered happily.
We kept playing as the morning slowly changed into the afternoon. No matter how hard I tried, the result of every match was the same. I lost the third, fourth, and fifth game in a row. Elphyete was patient and played with a calm, happy expression. She moved her pieces in smart ways that I could not block. By the time we reached the tenth game, my king was trapped once more. Salphy sat comfortably in her seat, watching every piece move. She decided to count how many times I lost to Elphyete. Every time Elphyete said checkmate, Salphy called out the number of my losses. She called out ten after the tenth game ended. I shook my head and laughed softly. I gathered my pieces and set them up for the next match. The sun was shining through our window, making the table look warm. We started the eleventh game right away. I tried a new plan, but Elphyete noticed it immediately. She blocked my path and took my queen. A few moves later, my king was defeated again. We played from the twelfth game to the fifteenth game without a break. I lost every single match. Salphy just watched me lose from her chair. She thought it was very funny that I could not win. By the time we finished the twentieth game, Salphy called out twenty with a giant smile.
The afternoon hours passed while the three of us stayed inside our room playing chess. The board did not leave the table at all. We kept resetting the pieces as soon as each match ended. I lost game twenty-one, twenty-two, and twenty-three in a row. My fingers moved to set up my pieces for the twenty-fourth time. Elphyete was not tired of playing at all. She enjoyed the quiet games and loved seeing Salphy look happy. Salphy did not get bored for a single second. She stayed in her seat and watched the pieces slide across the board. Sometimes she pointed her finger at a piece and looked at me to see my next move. But no matter what choice I made, Elphyete always found a way to win. I lost game thirty after a long struggle. Salphy clapped her hands and shouted thirty out loud. I cheered along with her because it was still fun to play. We kept going into the forty-first game and the forty-second game as the hours went by. The pieces made soft clicking sounds every time we placed them down. Click, click, click went the pieces as the sun moved lower in the sky. I lost game forty-five when Elphyete used her bishops to trap my king. Salphy laughed happily at my defeat. We set up the board once more for game fifty. I tried hard during this match to find a way to win, but Elphyete won game fifty easily. Salphy yelled out fifty with pure joy.
The sunlight outside turned into a warm orange color as the evening came closer. The room became darker, but we could still see the chessboard clearly. We did not stop our games at all. We went through game fifty-one, fifty-two, and fifty-three without a pause. I lost every single match. My hands were used to the pieces as I set them up for the sixtieth time that day. Salphy was still watching me lose each match with great interest. She had been sitting in that chair for hours, tracking every game. When I lost game sixty, Salphy laughed and called out sixty from her seat. Elphyete looked at me with a loving expression, asking softly if I wanted to take a break. I smiled and shook my head, telling her that I wanted to keep trying. So we started game sixty-one right away. I moved my pieces forward with determination, but Elphyete's defense was like a solid wall. She took my knights and then she took both of my rooks. Soon, my king was left completely alone with nowhere left to run. I lost game sixty-five, seventy, and seventy-five as the time kept moving. The numbers kept going up without stopping. Salphy was having the best time watching this endless cycle of chess matches. She called out seventy-five with a big voice. We reset the board once more as the shadows grew longer. By the time we finished game eighty, the sky had turned into a deep purple color. I lost game eighty just like all the other matches before it.
The night had fully arrived, and the stars were starting to blink in the dark sky outside. We turned on a small lamp that sat on the table so we could see the squares on the board perfectly. The light made the pieces cast small shadows across the table as we moved them. We were nearing the end of the day, but we did not stop playing our games. I lost game eighty-five, ninety, and ninety-five in a row. Salphy was starting to feel a little sleepy, but she refused to close her eyes because she wanted to see the final number of my losses. She kept her eyes wide open and watched the board with total focus. We set up the pieces carefully for the final few matches. Game ninety-six was a quick loss for my king. Game ninety-seven, ninety-eight, and ninety-nine followed right after. I lost every single one of them without getting a single victory. Finally, we set up all the pieces on the board for the one hundredth game. This was the last match of this very long day. I moved my pawns forward with care, and Elphyete moved her white pieces with perfect skill. We played silently for a few minutes until she moved her queen into the winning position. She looked across the table at me and said checkmate in a soft voice. I saw that my king was completely trapped for the last time. Salphy watched me lose my one hundredth game for the rest of the day. She jumped up from her chair with excitement and shouted one hundred as loud as she could. I chuckled and shook my head slowly, happy to have spent the day this way.
After we were finally done with all of the chess games, we began to pack up the table. We picked up all the pieces and placed them back into the box carefully. We folded the board and placed it away inside the closet. Salphy was yawning loudly now, her small body completely tired after spending the whole day watching the matches and counting my losses. Elphyete and I prepared the large bed and changed into our comfortable clothes for the night. We all climbed into the soft bed together and pulled the warm blankets up to our shoulders to stay protected from the cool night air. We lay down together in the quiet darkness of our room, feeling very happy and content after our long and simple day. Salphy closed her eyes and fell asleep right away between us, and Elphyete and I closed our eyes too as we all went to sleep soundly for the rest of the night.