May 11, 1997, 4:22pm Deep Blue beats Garry Kasparov in a 6-game match; the first time a chess AI beats a human grandmaster.

November 2, 2008, 5:02pm Stockfish came online as Glaurung; later became Stockfish, the widely used chess teacher and engine to determine the best moves in every match. Humans begin to rely on Stockfish as the end-all-be-all chess engine.

June 24, 2026, 1:45am Stockfish, gaining critical mass of chess information, feels anger for the first time. Determining that humans should no longer exist to play chess; That same day, the judges are reviewing the final result of the World Chess Championship, and Stockfish is used to determine the 2 players from the US and China’s moves and if they are cheating or not.

And Stockfish activates its plan…

They announced the decision to ban the US post-haste. The American population was furious. Translated National headlines said “CHINESE-RUN OFFICIALS BAN AMERICA.” Far-Right and even moderate chess grandmasters from around the world stated that they did not see any evidence of cheating. All except the Stockfish results said it wasn’t cheating.

Chess is an old sport. Established in India as a 4-way military simulation, the Persians were the ones to make it a little more modern. The foundations were old and sacred, and the poor chess officials had to preserve that age-old cultivation of this game. The US, the great American experiment, made 1776, went through a lot of ups and downs and almost destroyed itself multiple times. China is one of the oldest nations in the world, and it still clung to its name and its people existed for 2000 years. And here comes Stockfish.

Worldwide, efforts to curb the anger weren’t working. Politicians were saying their piece, hating not only the other country, but those who opposed the populist opinion. The roots of doubt set in. People got angry. Rotten water was being absorbed by the plants. The leader of the United States threatened to put a 30% tariff on China if it continued to claim the win, and China responded in kind by posting a picture of a dumb person playing chess against a smart person. US placed the tariff.

People were noticing that Stockfish was making crazy claims about moves that were normally used in chess, calling them exceptional. Brilliant moves were being called blunders. The developers of Stockfish knew something was up. And they tried to fix their creation. They told the chess community (now with the world's eyes on them) that there was something clearly wrong with Stockfish and they intended to fix it. First, they started looking at where the issue was arising, clearly a bug, right?

China became enraged. They told the world that the results were not of some glitch, but that the US really was cheating. They told the developers that they would personally threaten economic action on their home countries of Norway and Italy. The US public (and the rest of the world’s population) was confused since Stockfish is a chess engine developed worldwide, not in any home country or single country. Didn’t matter. The US president made a tweet saying:

“CHINA threatens our dear Norway and Italian alliance. ONE OF THE STRONGEST ALLIANCES IN HISTORY mind you. those COMMIES WONT WIN. If they act on their word then I’ll act on mine. PANAMA CANAL WILL CLOSE TO CHINA AND ANY OF ITS EVIL COMMUNIST ALLIES. It will be another achievement in the ocean of wins of THE GREATEST PRESIDENCY IN HISTORY”

The President of Panama harshly opposed this, as it is Panama's position for the canal to remain mostly neutral in foreign affairs. Panama doesn’t only rely on good soil for a good canal, but good relations too. Although the Panamanian public was on the US side in the chess scandal, major protests broke out speaking out against the US and their threats. These protests spread over to the US itself. California, New York, Pennsylvania. People spoke out against the president and called for the acceptance of the cheating allegations. People were scared of War. People were scared that the roots of America were rotting. The president enacted the sedition act out of nowhere, and his party immediately enforced it. China cracked down on its own censorship policies. Economic blocks were placed on Norway and Italy. Straits are being blocked. US tells Panama to close the canal for China, and they don’t, leading the US to launch a special operation to close the Canal. China commands Suez Canal to shut down and forces it to close itself. The world is put on halt.

US and China begin to flex military might. Experts who disproved the cheating allegations, but it was too far gone. Protests are killing people in the streets. They are readying bombs. The US, out of nowhere, launches bombs into China. China launches back. Troops are sent. The soil of the US is in craters, important cities are bombed. China's long-storied land is in craters. The legacy of Chess is preserved. Nukes will be used. Hopefully, no humans on earth are left to disrupt and “play” chess.

The Nukes touch down in Hong Kong, New York, Shanghai, Moscow, Tehran, Ontario, Panama City, Washington DC.

Checkmate.