Dads horsing around [Special]

At the beach, Okisato squinted as he noticed a young man with a lobster claw for a hand standing by an old abandoned grill.

Slowly approaching the man, the man turned around and greeted him. "Okisato!? It has to be, right?"

"And you're Snapper, yes?"

"Anyone else around here with a claw hand, other than my gramps and pops?"

Snapper Cuttlefish was an old acquaintance of Okisato's, infamous for the fact that his left hand was a lobster claw due to a mutant gene that ran in his family.

"So why're you here?" Okisato asked.

"I always come here. You're the rare sight."

"I just felt like coming here after recalling a memory."

"Ah right, that one time your pops and my gramps did that weird chess dance."

...

A young Okisato watched as a man with a claw hand and a white beard and white hair tied up in a bun stood before a grill.

"Why your wife playing with plastic?" the man asked as he gestured towards the chess set before Okisato and Kana.

"Ah, chess is her hobby," Yojiro nervously laughed.

"Can the king do squat?"

"Uh, don't think so."

"Then come man the grill."

This was Claw, Snapper's grandpa. Like Snapper, one of his hands was a lobster claw thanks to a genetic mutation.

"Hurry up n' cook the meat," a young Snapper grumbled as he snapped his claw.

"I've got an idea. How about you boys first play chess, and loser cooks," Kana smiled.

"Nah, sounds-"

"10 yen we can get a king mate," Yojiro shrugged.

"10 YEN!? I love 10 yen! I'm in!"

And thus, the game began with Yojiro moving his pawn to e4 and Claw moving his pawn to e5. Then Yojiro moved his king to e2 with Claw mirroring him with king e7.

"My, Double Bongcloud. Who taught him that now?" Kana angrily smiled as Yojiro moved his pawn to d4.

"What's so bad about it?" Okisato mumbled as Claw moved his king to f6.

"Uh, well, hmm... It's not great positionally?"

"Sounds like a skill issue to me," Okisato shrugged as Yojiro moved his knight to c3.

Kana stared in silence before smiling. "Well, I guess maybe if you're smart, you could win with that. But don't try that until you've mastered it," she nodded as Claw moved his king to g6.

"Umu."

As for the game, it seemed more like horsing around than serious play as Yojiro moved his knight to f3 and Claw moved his king to h5.

"Uh, I capture, but how much more until the mate?" Yojiro asked as he captured the pawn at e5 with his knight.

"We gotta be findin' the dun squeeze soon," Claw grimaced as he snapped his claw and moved his pawn to b5.

"Hold on, I think we got it!" Yojiro exclaimed as he moved his pawn to g3.

"You're right! We got ourselves a party!" Claw grinned as he moved his knight to c6.

"Checkmate Yojiro smiled as he moved his king to e1, winning the game.

"My, is your fun over yet? We're all waiting for cooked food here," Kana angrily smiled as she sat with Okisato on her lap.

"I'm hungry too, old man!" Snapper snarled as he snapped his claw at claw.

"Alright, meat's gettin' cooked, little shit. Complain and its lobster, not cow," Claw grumbled as he hauled some meat patties onto the grill.

...

Back in the present, Snapper tapped the old grill with his claw. "Thing hasn't been used for years. Dang old man gave up on this thing for a luxury restaurant."

"Is he still in the country?" Okisato asked.

"Naw, moved to Singapore. Lives in a fancy penthouse. I'm stuck fishing at the wharf just for rent."

"Well, it was nice catching up."

"Yeah."

The full game:

White: Yojiro Tanabe (1012) Black: Claw Cuttlefish (1001)

1. e4 e5

2. Ke2 Ke7

3. d4 Kf6

4. Nc3 Kg6

5. Nf3 Kh5

6. Nxe5 b5

7. g3 Nc6

8. Ke1#