I make my first move, as though this is normal chess: Pawn to E-4. The opponent makes an unorthodox move, moving a knight out instead of allowing the bishops room to move. Understandable, I think to myself as I ponder my tactics. This isn't normal chess, after all.

I move a bishop out. They move a pawn. The queen is moved forward a space. And so forth until one of us does the unthinkable: a piece is moved back in time to right a wrong. But this creates a potential violation of causality, and thus a branching reality forms to preserve the space-time continuum.

"Oh-ho!" I say to myself, already well acquainted with the forces of space and time. The third eyes on my left and right heads open, assessing all the moves possible. The tails extending from the backs of my three heads thrash in anticipation, wondering what this AI will do next. It has no chance against me, a Primal of Space and Time.

Unfortunately, my cockiness gets the best of me and I, Trevor Gaius Conti-Nüum, am defeated at the game that I have played in some way for my whole life. Perhaps there are some things I cannot foresee, especially when I am mortal myself. I turn off the computer, assuage my three foreheads, and prepare tactics on a battleground with far more meaningful consequences. Chess is complicated enough without time travel, but adding a couple more dimensions to the mix does my mind some good. Someday I will beat the strong AI, and that is enough for me.