Topic: Strategy

Solange LeClerc

Date: 2006-08-16 12:59 EST
Concerning the Queen

The Queen is so powerful and important a Piece at chess that she should rarely be employed to defend or attack any point if you can do it as well with a subordinate.

It is not good to play the Queen out in the game at the beginning, because she can be attacked by inferior Pieces, and is compelled to retire with the loss of many moves.

Be careful, too, when about to capture a distant Pawn or Piece, that you do not remove your Queen too far from the immediate point of action. A skillful player will often permit you to win a Pawn with the Queen, that he may prevent her returning in time to rescue your King from his attack. The power of the Queen is wonderfully greater when she is aided and protected by other Pieces than when she goes forth unsupported; it is generally injudicious, therefore, to make an attack with her unless in combination with some other of your forces.


Solange had met with more resistance than welcome. At this she found herself surprised, but not dissuaded. It was supremely difficult to reroute someone who had such a strong sense of destiny about her.

What she would have to do, however, was rethink her strategy.

After all, what good was it to spend all of one's moves (especially the best moves) all in the opening of a game?

Lay back in wait...

Create a swell of movement in the inferior pieces, to make them believe that the small victories they accomplished were actually worth something.

Yes, that would work well.

Solange LeClerc

Date: 2006-08-21 13:49 EST
So, she had finally met up once more with Jerhyn D'Mourir. Of the men of this clan, and the Clarendon clan, she had the fewest dealings with Jerhyn. Not because he was the least involved, necessarily, but because he was the hardest to locate. As long as she had known him, which was not an eternity in any sense of the word, she had known him to be as headstrong as Alain, as ambiguous as Basil, but with the added flair of elusiveness that was distinctly his own.

Solange had taken time out of her strangely light schedule to stop by the Inn that the D'Mourirs had seemingly come to cherish in the hope of re-whetting their pallets with the idea of time spent at her villa. She had, after all, commissioned both a dressmaker and a personal grooming specialist to make them feel more at home, if not cleaner. And while she knew that this would most appropriately entice the girls rather than the D'Mourir men, Solange concluded that keeping their sisters happy was the way to win over the likes of Basil and Alain.

Jerhyn, of course, was a different story altogether. He had no siblings to speak of, certainly no sister to protect. He had always exuded something of a "lone wolf-black sheep" status, that was not lost on the leggy attach?. In truth, she had been the most uncertain about winning him over. However, this last meeting would prove that he was not the hardened rebel she had theorized him to be.

He had been with his cousins, Alain and Ellyna, when she came upon them in the early afternoon. Ellyna was a ray of light, as she always was; and Alain...well, Alain was as patronizing as ever. Although Solange wore his ribbing as good-naturedly as she could, she was more than discouraged when Jerhyn joined in. Her chin held high, she deduced that Alain had poisoned his mind against her. She still couldn't understand why Alain had found such fault with her. After all...was she not only trying to help his family?

No sooner had the thought crossed her mind, however, did Jerhyn change his tune. He had paid her a compliment, and even a 'thank you.' Even Alain seemed to lighten up...but only by the most infinitesimal of margins. Perhaps it was Ellyna's will that would win out over the strength of the D'Mourir men.

Isn't that always the way, though? A woman's strength, while not so often seen, is always felt.

Solange LeClerc

Date: 2006-09-29 16:36 EST
The idea had occurred to her quite quickly and relatively simply. She had passed a sundries shoppe which was selling copies of the latest issue of the city's news journal. Solange, dressed in a pencil-thin wool skirt, crisp blush blouse and immaculate silk stockings, felt that this was no place to stop and peruse the tawdry events of this God-forsaken place. However, something called to her, perhaps an epiphany awaiting birth, and she turned back to pluck a copy of the paper.

As she turned the inky pages of The Oracle, she remained thoroughly unimpressed. That is until she floated across an article by one of the D'Mourir twins, Ellyna. At first she was simply astonished at the girl's gumption; though that sentiment soon gave way to enlightenment.

Having the D'Mourir name in print...publicized...that would definitely start the political ball rolling, to use an aged metaphor.

Later that afternoon, Solange made her way to The Oracle offices and spoke with a female reporter by the name of Tera Destre-Starfire. The woman had made quite an entrance with body guards, shopping bags and an air of certain significance. Solange could tell this would be the reporter to "break" the story to.

Over the course of a shortened afternoon, the attach? regaled the noble and philanthropic plans of the D'Mourir family and how they planned to aid the city of Rhy'Din. (Even if they had yet to come up with the ideas Solange had for them.) The story would be published in the new issue, for all of the city to read. It was going to be a wonderful, powerful plan; and the political arranger was once more on the top of her game.

"La vie," as they said, "est douce."