How could I leave her?
Where would I start?
Let man's petty nations tear themselves apart -
My land's only borders lie around my heart!

---

Just a few moves in, and Alioth was already sweating - and not just from the heat of the bright light that shone on the table. He could feel eyes upon him: the calculating eyes of his opponent, the cold eyes of the arbiter, the eyes of his sponsors, the eyes of his country - the eyes of the world, really. This was a battle of East and West, and the tension was palpable. He was representing the free world in a proxy war against the communists, and that proxy war was taking place on the sixty-four squares in front of him. His Soviet opponent was brilliant, and the fox's mind was racing - not a good thing to happen at the start of a high-stakes chess match.

There were so many things going through his mind, not the least of which was his competitor. He'd met Sergey Medvedya two nights before the start of the tournament, the night the both of them first arrived in the idyllic Tyrolean town where the championship was being held. They'd been introduced to each other before the matches by Island, the tournament's lutrine arbiter, and they'd gone for cocktails the night before their battle. Sergey was cordial, friendly, and even sweet - nothing at all like what Alioth had been taught to expect from a communist. Was the bear perhaps not the true-blue... err... red... Soviet that everyone thought? No, that wasn't right, of course; Sergey was as proud to be from the USSR as Alioth was to be from the USA. They were both patriotic, both committed to their national ideals.

But damn it, Alioth liked Sergey, and Sergey had given him every indication that the feelings were mutual. They'd talked for hours that night before, and both had been sad to see it end, knowing that the next day they would face each other in battle. And battle they had - a brutal series of wins, losses, and draws. Now both had scored five wins against the other. If this game did not end in a draw, it would be the determining match. In this last match, however, Alioth felt very conflicted. If he lost, he would be surrendering a considerable amount of national pride, and dashing many hopes in his home country. But if he won - if he could win - he knew that Sergey would face harsh punishment from his superiors for losing such a crucial, politically-charged battle. He'd come to regard Sergey with fondness - the bear was witty, humorous, and engaging, and Alioth had to admit that the bear's solid build and rugged qualities made him quite attractive as well. He wouldn't want anything bad to happen to his friend, communist or not.

Alioth took a deep breath. The arbiter had turned his gaze away from him, keeping his eyes on the board and on his ursine adversary. The fox tried to detach himself from all the stakes connected to this game. There was no America, no Soviet Union, no grandmaster title, no television cameras... nothing. Nothing but the ticking of the timer. Focused on nothing but his opponent and the chessmen that stood between them, Alioth made his move. Somewhere in another world, he heard the arbiter announce, "Pawn to Knight Five." Alioth recorded the move on the notepad beside him, then tapped the timer to start Sergey's clock - and now, all that was left was to wait for Sergey's counter-move, and the cycle would begin again.

It's a sweet, hail-fellow, well-met affair
For both Eagle and Bear
These are very dangerous and difficult times

---

Whew, so I've been wanting to do a Cold War-themed piece for quite some time now, but I wasn't really sure of a good context for it. There are so many "action" pictures out there of stuff like that, and I wanted something more subtle that represented the tension of that time period. And then earlier today, I was listening to the musical "Chess" by Björn Alveus and Tim Rice, and I thought, "That's it!" I felt a bit discouraged because it's not the sort of thing that normally interests my audience, but then I had some friends remind me on Twitter that art should be my passion and that I should draw what makes me happy, let the audience react as they will. And so I did :) This is really the first personal piece I've done for myself in quite some time (the last Christmas piece that I did was somewhat obligatory, to be honest), so I just decided to take today to do some art for myself, for a change. Anyway, I hope you guys like it, and the little story I did to go with it :)

(Guest appearance by  Island as the arbiter. The lyrics at top and bottom are from the musical Chess - you can listen to Josh Groban's stunning rendition of "Anthem" from that play here, and I would highly recommend that you do, because it's amazing.)