"Ah, Mr. Egorov, nice of you to finally join us," a voice said as the man opened his eyes and entered consciousness.

"Who are you?" He learned quickly the room was pitch black, the only source of light came from the lit up table before him that had fluorescent colored chess pieces set up upon it.

"That is not important; what is important is you are going to play a game of chess with me."

The man heard the voice in the darkness, but could not make out any shapes. "Why would I do that?"

"Because if you don't, I'm afraid great harm will fall upon your immediate family." At those words and the sound of fingers snapping a light to the man's left came on, and to his horror his wife and three children were bound and gagged in a room behind a plate glass window. They had large muscular, masked men that held knives to their throats standing behind them.

"Don't hurt them, please, I'll do anything!" The man was terrified. He had no idea why he was here and his family was being threatened by someone he could not see.

"Good, then they will be fine if you are playing."

There was another finger snapping sound and the man's hands were no longer in their previous constraints. Nothing had touched him, no knife had cut him loose, he just had mobile hands. "H-how did you do that?"

"Nevermind that, please, let the game begin." And with that said a fluorescent yellow pawn moved forward two spaces on its own accord.

"How would you know if I even know how to play chess?" True the man had learned when he was a child, but he never took to chess seriously and had not played since he was a boy.

"Well, for one thing Mr. Egorov, I know everything there is to know about you, and anything I don't know I can simply probe your mind or your family's. For another, you are of Russian descent, it is in your blood, only the Russians are formidable opponents, and sometimes the Japanese."

"If you can probe my mind, then you would know that I have not played in a very long. I don't know how I would make a formidable opponent. I don't even know if I still know how to play."

"Ah, a desperate man will take desperate measures under the right circumstances. Please, chess is like bicycling and sex, once you learn, you never forget how. Now make your first move or I'll have my man start carving your wife's neck."

The man moved a pink fluorescent pawn forward one space. "Why are you doing this?" The man tried to think of an escape and a way to get his family out.

"There is no escape, and even if you thought of it, I would of course already know and have action taken to prevent it either way. Don't worry I'm not paying attention to your chess strategy; it is something I have gone to great lengths to practice blocking out over the years. It makes my games less fun if I already know what my opponent is going to do."

"But why?"

"Because I just told you, there's no fun in reading your opponent's mind, less of a challenge!"

"Not that, why are you doing this with me?"

"Oh yes of course, I simply must defeat every last Russian in chess, it's a hobby of mine. That and I'm a sadistic bastard who loves to watch my opponents squirm with high stakes for them."

"If I win, will you let my family go, please?"

"Of course I'll let them go! Whether you win or not, I'll let them go, the quicker we finish our game, the quicker they are released. And yes I am insane, thank you for the compliment, now if you will, let us continue."

A yellow fluorescent knight moved on its own, and it was the man's turn again. Half an hour later after a brutal middle game, the man's opponent only had a knight and a bishop left, aside from the king of course. The man had two rooks left, a clear advantage.

"Very good Mister Egorov. I first applaud you for making it to the end game, and second, having the clear upper hand. I confess this game has been quite a challenge and it's a pity I'm going to have to kill you, even if you do win. I don't know if I mentioned before, but I also like to collect eyeballs.. Oh don't worry, I know what you're thinking, I'll make sure you witness your family being let go, and it won't hurt that much once you're dead. I mean that would just make me really sick if I were to collect your eyes while you were still living and could feel that much pain."

"…But you will let my family go either way?"

"Of course, we've already gone over that. Now please continue, this game is rather interesting and my victory might be hard to accomplish, but not impossible."

The man moved his rooks to trap his opponent's king. His opponent took one of them with his knight.

"Ouch, one down, and one last chance. I assure you, you will not last fifty moves if I take your other rook."

The man, frustrated, tried in vain to corner his opponent's king only to be taken by the bishop.

"That is too bad, let us see how many moves you last with my remaining pieces."

The man tried everything he could to keep the king out of the corner, but his opponent quickly forced him there.

"Check."

The man looked to his left with tears in his eyes; he blew a kiss to his wife. Whether she and his children could see him or not, he would never know, but he did it anyway, to say goodbye before he made his last move.

"And mate. Very good now, as promised, your family." A finger snapping sound and the muscular men all quickly slit their throats.

The man fell to the side in his chair that was still tied to him as he tried to lunge towards the plate glass window. On the floor he screamed out, "you said you would let them go!"

"And I did. I let them go wherever death will take. The pain and hatred in your eyes will make a wonderful addition to my collection." The sound of finger snapping was the last thing the man ever heard.