"Celestia can't win" Celestia: throws pillar in Snezhnaya

Despite all the heroic deeds that the Traveller has done, they only managed to slow down the Fatui's plans. I like this because it shows how powerful are the villian faction, and rising new stakes for future stories.

*Tsaritsa:* Are ya winning, gang? *Fatui:* Yes, my queen.

Talk about lore: In the trailer we saw white's knight moves to take a pawn (specifically the move Nxf7). It is believed that that pawn symbolizes signora (the crimson butterfly came towards the fallen pawn). From your chess analysis, prior to that move, white has a considerable amount of advantage. But after that move, as you have proved, white is dead lost. So maybe the lore is somewhere along the line of killing signora is a huge blunder to whoever opposing fatui's side and it will start going downhill after that

The old man who I am assuming is the leader of the Fatui said "however , on this board , check mate is not the end" , which I think it means that for the Fatui to truly win they would need to get rid of EVERY. SINGLE. PIECE. ON. CELESTIA'S. SIDE.

Everybody forgets the most important lind by jester where he says that checkmate is not the end of this game and if crimson witch of flames and scaramouche are denoted by pawns that that means that 8 out of the 11 fatui are pawns so only 3 are central peices. Add one more as tsaritsa. We still have 4 undisclosed peices on the black side so does that mean that we still dont know the real enemies

CN script for people who want to look for slight differences: Pierro: The sages think themselves to be all-knowing. But only then did those of us started to understand the virtue behind those foolish actions. Pierro: There's no such thing as an expendable one (弃子 "a piece that can be thrown away") in this war. Pierro: Because when it comes to this particular game of chess, [Checkmate] is not the finish line (终点: the finish line, the end). Columbina singing~ Pulcinella: We are gathered here today to honor our good comrade. Pulcinella: To the entirety of Snezhnaya, her sacrifice is worth a whole half day of "Halting Work and Mourning as a Nation". Pantalone: Heh, merely half a day? Pantalone: People say the currency that circulate within the Northland Bank are blood, tears, and the screams of agony. Pantalone: But Mr. Mayor, with due respect your sense of value is even more twisted and warped than me, a banker. Arlecchino: Rosalyne fell from grace in an foreign (or unfamiliar) land.... Arlecchino: To you lots, the rich businessmen and important dignitaries, who not only lack empathy, but also know only about how to find excuses to turtle up inside snezhnaya, her experience is something that you probably cannot even imagine. Arlecchino: So why not be good and keep your mouth shut, or else the children are going to cry. Tartaglia: Aye aye, even I don't think this is the right time or place for [fights]. Sandrone: humph, utterly risible (ridiculous/laughable). Capitano: Though her method tarnished honor, Lohefalter's sacrifice is still a great pity. Capitano: Her departure will not stop our steps. But rather, [Dottore], Where is [Scaramouche] and Inazuma's Heart of God (神之心)? Dottore [Unknown life segment]: The common sense of this world all think that [The Gnosis of God] (神之智识) is divine knowledge incomprehensible to reason and rationality. Dottore [Unknown life segment]: After conquering [The Gaze of God], he will be taking a brand-new step forward. Pierro: It's time to end tonight's foolish theatrics. At the moment, you guys have no audience. Pierro: Let all noble sacrifices be carved in ice, and endure for all time together with this nation. Pierro: Under the command of her noble and pure majesty, the Tsaritsa, we shall seize the authorities of the gods.... (Tsaritsa uses her power to entomb the entire meeting room, where the harbinger were placing the coffin, in ice) Pierro: Absolute peace. Pierro: This is the blessing of the Tsaritsa, this is her benevolence. Pierro: Even though you will slumber within this coffin, slumber within this layer upon layer of ice. Pierro: But Rosalyne, I promise you..... Pierro: Your catafalque, shall be the entire [old world]. Columbina: Doctor, you are looking very young today. Dottore [Unknown life segment]: You should know, that sentence doesn't exactly count as a compliment when it comes to me. Columbina: Then that [biopsy/slice/segment] of the prime of his life, where is it at this moment? Dottore: Humph, he's at an experiment related to [Blasphamy]. Then Collei part is the same.

Genshin: "The fatui are winning" Celestia: Time to deploy the Tennison gambit, intercontinental ballistic missile variation [drops nail]

i think a missing piece (heh) is really what celestia needs to turn the tides, that being the electro gnosis which is currently missing with scaramouche, the problem is that scaramouche is more of a wild card than a piece on the board because we dont know how much loyalty he has to the tsaritsa or the fatui, we have to remember while pierro is playing this game the pieces can decide where to move.

Funny how venti is the archon of freedom but his queen chess piece is trapped

Before: The fatui are screwed Aster: Nooooo New trailer got release: Aster: YES

By the grace of her Majesty the Tsaritsa, I hope that they will keep winning as much as possible. I know that their ultimate loss is unavoidable but I hope that it will be a grand loss, not one created out of stupidity, blunders and forced plot moments. Praise the Motherland, and may the Land of Ice and Frost crush the Abyss.

From a post in NGA (chinese forum) I read that if the one taken out the signora (peon) was the rock (morax gnosis) then the winrates would have turned and instead the white would be the winning side. Also it is already mentioned in the comment section but the victory condition of this game is not checkmate. Consider that venti and morax have "given up" their gnosis, their pieces would not act normally and instead go afk or even turned to the fatui side.

“We finally see a board!” -ChillWithAster 2022

I believe that, even if the Fatui are "winning" the Traveler will be allways there biggest Problem. And not just because we are the Protag. its because we are the unknown piece. The Fatui made there plans a long time ago but they could never forsee a person from another world. I think that is our position at the Fatui Board. The unknown piece with no real side.

HELP U FLEW RIGHT OUT AFTER CLASSES I LOVE THE DEDICATION U PUT IN UR CONTENT OvO

Can you analyze how this chess game would affect the story? (Like how the knight is probably ei who killed Signora (pawn) and how zhongli (rook) would kill the other rook iykwIm)

Sandrone/Marionette is one of the few Harbingers that does not wear a mask. This may imply that Sandrone is NOT the girl but the machine itself, and she is just a *living corpse* (doll/puppet) of someone's tragic loss (father daughter relationship?) The way Sandrone was shown highly implies that it's a puppeteer, and the way she is held closely resembles to that of a glove puppet. If this is true, then Sandrone's mask may be the girl itself

I was wondering about a line in the trailer, saying that the game does not end in mate. Is it possible that Pierro is saying that their “game” will continue even after they capture the king/the pieces/gnosis? For me, it solidifies the fact that this current chess game is NOT the fatui playing against celestia, but the fatui collecting the gnosis and fighting the other archons. Once they win this game, their fight continues and they need to fight celestia after this checkmate. So this might mean that yes, while the fatui will eventually win all gnosis, it’s still up in the air what happens with celestia

Theory: From what I see, just like what you've said, the Fatui are winning against the Gods of Celestia but what if they were wrong? I mean what if in reality the Gods of Celestia are the ones who were actually winning by making the Tsaritsa and the Fatui think that they are winning the war and in reality the Gods are actually making a 𝗙𝗢𝗢𝗟 of them so that they can lure the Nation of Snezhnaya into Trap. 🧐

Never in my life I would imagine a free gacha game would teach me infinite amount of real-life lore 😭😭😭

Just for a slight critics to your content, i myself play chess and you can't really say that it's winning by looking at top engine move alone. Yes its winning but most chess positions can't be evaluated easily by a human as you know, computers will do calculations much better than human. Here is a better way to explain: If you look closely at the evaluation bar im pretty sure from that starting position of the video, computer is saying that black has an advantage of about -9. To address the elephant in the room what that means, each chess piece has value. Pawn has a value of 1, bishop and knight has 3 (objectively bishop always slightly valuable than knight but that's another discussion), rook has 5, and queen has 9. The evaluation is in negative meaning black has the advantage. Value being minus 9, meaning black has an advantage basically equivalent to having one more queen than white despite the material count is almost equal (chess is not always about material evaluation but also positional evaluation). To further prove how much dominating is black compared to white, i have tried to play this position myself, against a computer. Im playing as black and i used lichess computer lv 8 which is the highest level to play against me. For comparison i have never beaten lv 6 computer playing normal chess, but in this position against lv 8 computer i can win everytime as black. Of course im a human, and not that good as a chess player myself, playing sub-optimal moves as opposed to perfect chess you has showed your video but i could still beat it. It also proves that you dont even need to play perfectly and there are so many ways for black to win that position

I'm sure that Hoyoverse probably even looked into the meaning of the chessboard and the placement on the pieces when designing the trailer. Could you look into the board state prior to the White Knights capture of the black pawn? Is it possible that the prior board state could show that sacrificing Signora was the correct move and that trying to save the black pawn will result in black's defeat?

Here's one thing I think people here are forgetting. There is one statement in that video that changes things around and make the situation completely unpredictable. "This game doesn't end with a checkmate" This is extremely important, because it has multiple implications. 1- It means that the Fatui can't lose because the fall of their king, Tsaritsa, will not impede their plans 2- It means that the white king which represents celestia cannot be defeated even in a checkmate position. Showing that the Fatui know full well that tactics are not enough to beat Celestia even if they do drive them to a corner. 3- it also shows that the harbingers are realizing that there is another factor at play. An unknown player or army that could completely overthrow any result for that game. Which implies that the Fatui are cautious towards either the Abyss Order, the Traveler, or both( but most possibly the Abyss for now). 4- It may also mean that this battle in specific will not end any war and is just one single step towards victory Another important point to notice is that Pierro may also be implying that he does not care about what happens to their leader Tsaritsa. And this may create a divide in the future between the Fatui members that are actually loyal to her, such as Tartaglia and many field agents( some other Harbingers possibly, but we don't know all of their motivations, only Childe's), and those that only joined out of self interest.

Let's not forget that this is an in-universe chessboard based entirely around what the harbingers actually know. Of course they'd be winning. It's their abstract representation of their plan to win. There's a lot to see here though, like that the kings are very close together and the black queen has to get very aggressive now.

For me, the "chess pieces" are more of a symbolic meaning rather than being played as literal chess pieces, or a game of chess in that manner. Pierro mentioned that "in this war, not a single pawn may be spared; because in this chessboard, checkmate is not where the game ends" is already a telltale that the win condition is different from a standard chess game. So maybe the game end conditions are met if all pawns are removed from the game through all necessary means. And by that, Signora being a 'pawn' served as a necessary sacrifice in the grand scheme of things. Also, there are few instances that there is a black pawn beside the Gnosis Rook and then suddenly vanished after the white knight made its move. Coincidence or oversight on Hoyo's part? Or was it to symbolize Scaramouche? This trailer leave us so many questions.

But what troubles me is something else entirely. When they take an Archon's gnosis, the chess piece isn't actually removed from the board. Losing a gnosis doesn't mean that the Archon lost. We can clearly see in the video that there are some white pieces off the board, I guess some of them are the Archons who died: Makoto is probably the other white Knight that's not on the board since the one on the board is Ei who killed Signora. The bishop might be the God of the Wood, the former Sumeru Archon who died (did he really die, though? Is he the giant tree that Dottore's going to burn down as per Collei's premonition? A tree that contains the Gnosis that Kusanali doesn't actually owns?). The other Rook could be the former and deceased Hydro Archon that was substituted by the God of Justice. There's one elements that is recurrent among the Archons: They are all paired with someone important to the who is already dead. Think about it: Makoto and Ei, Zhongli and Guizhong, Venti and the bard during the revolution in Old Mondstadt, Kusanali and the God of the Wood, The God of Justice (the current Hydro Archon) and the former one. I guess the Tsaritsa also lost someone she loved in Khaenri'ah. She's the only one who can understand Pierro's pain since he's from Khaenri'ah and he lost everything and anyone he's ever cared about and she completely changed after the cataclysm, losing all her love for her people. I suppose Murata is going to have someone close to her who died in the past. Now, there are also two white pawns off the board and two more pawns and a bishop that are nowhere to be seen. Who are they? Also, the Queen is Barbatos, the Rook is Morax, the Knight is the Shogun, the King might not even be any of the Archons (Celestia itself perhaps? I don't think it's the Primordial God because Pierro wants to go back to the "Old World", which seems to me that he's talking about the pre-Celestia era, when Enkanomiya was above the ground and Celestia hadn't arrived yet). Who are the pawns? I could believe that Kusanali might be a pawn, maybe a promoted pawn, but who are the other ones? Now, let's try this again from a completely different point of view: ON THE BOARD we have: King/Celestia, Queen/Barbatos, Rook/Morax, Knight/Ei (the one who has always been the most Archon of the two twins since she actively defended Inazuma). We have 4 pawns of which 2 are Kusanali and the God of Justice (the current Hydro Archon) who are just recent substitute Archons. Two pawns are of unknown identity. OFF THE BOARD and nowhere to be seen, we have a Knight and a Bishop which are the former Hydro Archon and the God of Wood (Dendro Archon), the ones who where supposed to have the gnosis, the original Archons. One of the pawns is Makoto, the original Archon who wasn't actually very Archon-like, a placeholder for Ei until she was actually ready to be an Archon. We don't know who the other Bishop and three more pawns are. Now, do we really believe the Tsaritsa and Murata are still alive? On the web, Murata's whereabouts are unknown and everything is told in past tense. We know nothing at all except for what Venti told Vanessa. The Tsaritsa might not be dead dead but she might be so dead inside because of what or who she lost that she's not even considered part of the chess game anymore. There you have the Rook and the Bishop who are off the board, and two more pawns are going to be whoever is taking their place. And, yes, even though the Fatui are the black pieces, I think the Tsaritsa is still part of the white side of the game because she's still an Archon. There's just one single white pawn that is unaccounted for. I could think it's the traveller but I don't really believe he's supposed to be on that board in the first place. If the traveller twins are on the board, I think (this is very twisted in my mind) that the one we command is a black piece while the one that works with the Abyss is a white piece. Why? We try to help the Archons against the Fatui, but in the end we always indirectly help them obtain the Gnosis. Signora took Venti's Gnosis when he was tired and further depleted of his powers after he helped with Dvalin and she took the Gnosis right in front of us. We tried to stop Childe from taking Morax's Gnosis but in the end we were fighting the wrong Fatui and Signora did everything behind our backs, even using us to convince Morax into giving her the Gnosis. We got trapped by Scaramouche and Yae Miko had to give him the Gnosis to save us. It's not like we've been any help at all to the Archons... The twin traveller, on the other hand, acts as a God/Goddess for the Abyss order, the ruler of the former nation of Khaenri'ah, so I feel the white piece is more fitting... Sorry for the university thesis I just wrote XD

One mistake I have been seeing a lot is about the sides of the board. The bottom side is not the black side, it's actually the *white* side. We know this because the captured black pieces appear right next to It on the preview.

i hope someday we'll see a cutscene at the final battle between the fatui and the celestia, meanwhile, a mysterious chessboard automatically moves itself, with each chessman down represents a fallen chara, and at the end of the game, the last pawn(traveller), will have to decide which king to kill

Eh,From venti unused voice line for pyro archon (available when natlan release only) venti asked traveler to protect him because pyro archon gave traveler her power and he heard about it,that could mean pyro archon might give traveler the gnosis as well consider the fact that pyro gnosis is the last one they need. So those fatui must fight traveler which has literally all element and power from pyro archon ,fatui definitely not winning this ,only if traveler some reason join fatui side and give it

Now that we know that the fatui are winning and what the chess means. I wonder how everything will play out. Specially with the archons and the gnosis

What if every time a pawn makes it to the other side for a promotion….it’s actually a futui getting a gnosis?

Thank you! I knew those pieces weren't arranged haphazardly. And your... animated voice earlier in the live reaction for the reveal was... :3

It’s difficult to say the Fatui are playing a normal game of chess in regards to the story because they’ve stolen two archon gnoses for themselves (not how chess works) and the electro gnoses is on the loose (also not how chess works). There are now nine harbingers but only seven black pieces on this board, and the harbingers all work for the Tsaritsa who has the cryo, geo, and anemo gnosis. There are too many black pieces missing for this game to line up to the actual game’s story.

"Unless they horribly blunder trying to save their horse" That actually might be relevant. The electro gnosis is the horse, and scara currently has it. What if they goof up horribly by trying to get the gnosis back from him

I love that the Chess board actually has representation instead of just being random. Hoyoverse's attention to detail with it is amazing.

My personal prediction is this: We have Scaramouche in Sumeru, who is hunted by Childe. At the same time one of Dottores clones is experimenting with something in Sumeru as well. It is possible that Dottore is controling Scaramouche to perform his experiment in blasphemy and that the fatui boss of sumeru will be Scaramouche and Dottore at the same time, with the Traveler freeing Scara from mindcontrol and him reluctantly siding with Traveler for Revenge. Than Childe shows up, agreeing to let Scara leave alive in exchange for the Gnosis. As for the other Harbingers: Sandrone is fatui boss in Fontaine, who is better suited to pull strings behind a maskerade than a puppeteer? Capitano is fatui boss in Natlan, like a general marching his army into the nation of war. Pierro or Columbina is the final fatui boss when we walk into the Cryo Archons palace. Arlecchino is basicly like Raven from Honkai making her very likely to be playable. Even same VA as far as i know. Pantalone could see the Traveler as an important piece in his pesonal agenda, siding with him for profit. As for Pulcinella ... no idea and Signora is confirmed dead. And we know that having a harbinger as boss and them be playable does not cancel each other out.

It is indeed very surprising and h expected that they revealed all of the harbingers in one vids. But the most important thing is that about the boards. It could mean something. The moves and stuff yknow. Besides, the harbingers themselves seems to have a very interesting backstory.

But Aster you forgot something, this chess game does not end with a Checkmate or simply killing the king. For this Chess game to end you have to wipe the board completely off your opponent's pieces. That means no enemies survive. Also this match that's shown in the teaser might not be considerung Celestia at all By that i mean winning this game (the one Piero's playing) will only give them the right to play against Celestia (gathering of all the Gnosis) Also

The video said that "Checkmate is not where the game ends", so maybe there will be some plot twists, i guess

I have a feeling that the burning tree vision from one of the sumeru characters is caused by that Giant fricking Ruin Guard.

Aster showing me how a chess board reveals a ton of lore how the Fatui are winning Me who doesn’t know how to play chess and just thought the harbingers looked cool: yes 👍

This setup is strikingly very similar (other than the king and queens switching places) to the match with Deep Blue vs. Kasparov 1996 game 1 where this was the first time an AI has defeated a reigning world chess champion. This was because Kasparov changed his more aggressive style of playing with a "wait and see" approach which was taken advantage of by Deep Blue. In Winter Night’s Lazzo, we can also see the knight moving on it's own to take out the pawn (Signora) which can further imply that white is the AI (Deep Blue/representation of Celestia). This match also consisted of 6 games meaning that the game didn't really end at checkmate and although the AI won the first game, Kasparov ended up winning the 1996 match. This along with the 1997 rematch was also considered the "Chess Battle for Humanity".

As bad as I would feel for the characters I feel like theres a chance that the Traveler is going to fail spectacularly when they get to Sumeru. Not only losing another gnosis but there could also be a lot of damage done and quests we get afterwards could be us just trying to clean up the aftermath.

That's why Aster is my favorite genshin theorist because she is really, really dedicated in making them. Imagine doing this hours after the video dropped. And going to school right after! All the best.

The electro gnosis is a knight/horse, since it's the piece that took out the pawn representing la signora.

I’m ready to come back to this video every few months to see if the events of the chess board line up with the story!

This was interesting!!! I’d love to see a video of who you think each harbinger we saw was in accordance to their Italian theater counterparts. We know some of them for sure but not all. You might say in your reaction, but I haven’t gotten to see that yet. I’ll be sure to do that soon!

Someone in the Teyvat Historya's stream pointed out that the white knight is moved by a Kryo force .... so it looks like Pierro is playing against the Tsaritsa. Not really a fair game if the Tsaritsa plays for the Celestia side.

I noticed something while looking through some things, that I thought I’d just write here to get my thoughts out. So this game of chess seems to be ongoing because there are multiple pieces on the board that are not present, and can be seen outside of the playing field. But that leaves the question of, how did these pieces fit into the story? We already have a pretty solid idea about one of the knights being the electro archon, so what about the 2 bishops? I’m guessing these would both be the dendro & Cryo archons since they both possess divine knowledge of sorts, but both seem to be off the board alongside the second rook, ( most likely the hydro archon,) and the 2nd knight, ( most likely the pyro archon, ) which brings up a lot of questions, especially since both sides are missing the same pieces, bar the pawn (signora) that was just taken. So if these pieces have supposedly been captured already, does that mean that the next 3 archons gnosis are already taken? Or will they be put on the board as they’re retrieved? Also, Zhongli’s gnosis has a black cover, while Venti’s is white. Does this mean that not all the archons are on the same side? And if that’s the case, then who do the other pieces represent? We know that some of the black pawns are harbingers, but who are the white pawns? It honestly makes me wonder if this game of chess is actually going to follow the typical rules of the game, or maybe there’s something we’re missing here? IDK, I just wanted to dump my thoughts out. I know technically that this is more of a chess analysis than a lore analysis, but I can’t help but think of the lore implications here.

CORRECTION: THE A2 PAWN HAS TO BE ON A3. I USED THE WRONG TIMESTAMP.

We do have to remember that not all pieces are known who they represent and that there are more people outside of just those pieces.

Im curious to know if the abyss and traveller fits in on this board. The abyss has a similiar goal to the fatui and indirectly helped them in the seizing of ventis gnosis. And although Traveller is opposing the fatuis plan i wouldnt be surprised if after they discover the truth of celestia they turn against celestia. they could be on either side.

the white horse is ei´s gnosis, and it falls next, scaramuche is in danger

Was not expecting this video and am amazed at how much I needed this 😍

okay, totally unrelated but i think ik what the seed in the chasm will be for!! like, after the tree burns (the tree of knowledge??) that shrivelled seed will probably be used to plant another one bcuz sumeru's probably confusing knowledge with wisdom and they'll learn that the hard way so it's like they're renewing themselves as a nation!! it can also be used just as a sign of hope, still i'm pretty sure that the seed will be used to plant a new tree

The interesting thing here is that the person playing white is likely the Tsaritsa herself

Another thing to consider is Celestia's ability to simply "over-write" things, as the Fatui could be mistaken in the value of their strategy meaning anything when faced with potentially greater and currently unseen higher powers. Celestia might be in a Chess dimension higher than the Fatui can currently conceive.

Game doesn't end when checkmate. It continues until all the pieces are off the board.

Yesss the video I've been waiting for!

AHAHAH I AM EARLY this is so awesome i've been watiting for this after they released the trailer

I'd be interested in seeing the whole game played out where each move is a metaphor for a plot point. Also just found you, great videos

Isnt it odd that the fatui arent counting the abyss faction in these pieces? the abyss is probably as big in scope as they are

I think you forgot something very important "In this war not even a single pawn may be spared.. Because on this chessboard "checkmate" is not where the game ends" so you dont play to beat the king but you need to play to defeat EVERY Single CHESSPIECE on the other side..

oh my god, I didn’t realize how quick aster can make a video about this

just a cool detail is that Pierro is playing the chess game AGAINST the Tsaritsa, he moves his piece with his hand and the Tsaritsa moves the white horsey with her cryo magic. :)

I think the reason Venti is the Queen chess piece is because of swirl and its properties of being able to use electro, cryo, and hydro in a way similarly to the way the Queen can move like the Bishop and Rook

Hey Aster not sure whether you covered this before but I learnt today about the KPG Extinction, and the K stands for Kried (chalk), made me wonder about the calamity being an extinction event and Golds role? Idk :)

Mihoyo even sayd somewhere "We finished the story and its for you to play it " meaning they are already set they know what will happen in snehznaya and what will happen at the end of the game

Just droppin by to say Pantalone is daddy material. And its a breath of fresh air to have Pulcinella, an old man that isnt a regular NPC

It seemed to me that the white piece was controlled by a frost like effect so I assumed he was probably playing against the tsaritsa for some reason, the analogy of Signora's fly landing on the taken piece though was great and did make me think of Celestia's role

For now we only know three archons, which in the table are figures, if the black pawn is reppresenting Signora then the white knight, which is a figure, is Raiden Shogun. What i am trying to say is that maybe the 4 white pawns are representing the other 4 archons, if that wasnt true that would mean that the other archons are dead because they are not in the chessboard, I'm thinking that there's a possibility that white pawns may turn into figures( maybe when their gnosis is stolen, which is a contradiction because they would supposedly became weaker but they become figures so stronger) so maybe there are pieces that haven't entered the game yet in both sides, if that's the case the match is far gone to be ended. I also quote sure about the identity of archon chess representation, if you see elemental slimes, there are like one caracteristic to a couple of slimes, example: geo and cryo slimes have "helmets" we know that Zhongli represent a rook in the same way Tsaritsa, dendro and electro have on the top of their "head" this little things Raiden is a Knight so can be Kusanali, three are remaining Venti is the Queen so he is unique, by the exclusion bishops are Pyro and Hydro Archon their slimes have little horns. In the conclusion if my theory about the missing chess pieces can be true, that makes the next move more unpredictable or the appearance of a new piece will block the black queen idk. Sorry for my English I'm still learning :) It's possible that i wrote something dumb but this scheme works in my mind.

Also in the video a horse ate the pawn that was representing la Signora, so probably Raidens gnosis is one of the horses, I'm not 100% sure what that means but it's interesting, now we have seen 4 of the 6 types of chest pieces, pawn like the harbingers, rook(morax), horse(Baal), queen(venti)

Inb4, it's just Pierro and the Tsaritsa casually playing chess games with their pieces, which just coincidentally hinted the knight being the electro gnosis. He made the comment about the "checkmate isn't the end" because the actual Fatui vs Celestia war doesn't end in checkmate, unlike a normal game of chess that they're currently playing.

I think it has onnections for the movements of archons/hatbinger/celestia pieces as well as the twins.

It's a great analysis. The only problems i foresee is that, if the black is the Fatui, then does that also includes the Abyss working with them? Because then having a game mimic reality only holds true if theres only two opposing sides on the board. If the Abyss is separate, and or outside forces like the Traveler decides to remain independent or chooses opposition to the Fatui, the board is then less representative .

If the king goes d4 black can possibly blunder and the king(probably paimon) or queen(venti) are going to be the key pieces that can guide the pawn(probably traveller) to be promoted and change the outcome, but seeing the board it's a small chance but not hopeless

Actually, it's from Garry Kasparov vs Deep Blue on 1996, First Game

I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS SM

so i saw a theory saying the chill wind movement of the white knight in the trailer was done by the Tsaritsa who was actually present for The Fair Lady's burial and must've been playing chess with the Jester. Chess pieces can carry many symbolisms about range, power, value and sacrifice but chess as a game is best known for mind games, meta games and intellectual classes. Gnosis' are modeled after chess pieces and the Tsaritsa had 2 and was converging to force mate on black.

One problem that even if considered still fatui in lead:in the trailer they said on this chessboard checkmate if not when the game ends

Come to think of it, the White Knight could be the Electro Archon capturing a pawn(Signora) and the defenseless knight could be scaramouche knowing that he currently have the electro gnosis and is cut-off(MIA) from the fatui.

Probably someone else mentioned it, but having the queens protected and the kings in the center makes little sense. If you consider them backwards, the board state actually matches Kasparov v. Deep Blue.

but there's a quote that is really important here- "checkmate is not where the game ends" So probbaly they think that getting that checkmate is only the very first step to achieve their goal, and they are bound to win that game, the difficult part is what comes next owo

The chessboard is actually a real game played by Kasparov VS Deep Blue, except the King and Queen pieces have all been switched. It's not clear if their roles in the game rules are swapped or something else. But in that game Black (Fatui) resigns ~6 moves later due to constant pressure by White (Celestia). Though when Pierro says "Checkmate is not the end" it seems to be implying that the Fatui will fight to the bitter end despite losing their "King" (A queen piece likely representing the Tsaritsa), as Black was actually incredibly close to checkmating White themselves.

AS THEY SHOUDLDD, periodtt /j all jokes aside, I hope they'll kick celestia's ass, they have my full support.

I like the insinuation that the harbingers are only pawns in the power scale

I think the chessboard is only representing the pieces of the two sides have. As the fatui are on the move, so is the other side. And unlike chess, there are outside factors that could affect the envisioned "checkmate" and tip the favor on either side

So is the Traveler like some sort of Pawn or smt? Like as he goes further across the Board Or kinda like How he goes further in his journey regaining his Powers ones he reaches the end of the board he gets a " promotion" or well can get his original powers back

I wonder if there is any meaning to the misplay white makes in the beginning: They take the Pawn with the Knight, while the Rook would do so with delivering check, allowing the Queen to take the Knight and enter the game.

Funny how we have exactly seven pieces on white's side, and only three of them are currently not pawns, and the gnoses of the archons we know. The rest of the four pawns will eventually become other pieces that represent the remaining archons' gnoses

the queen is free to move but perpetually trapped at the same time wonder if this foreshadows anything about venti

THEY ARE WINNING BECAUSE THEY'RE HOT. ARLECCHINO PLEASE OWN ME, QUEEN 👑. GENSHIN SENTI IS REAL. BARK BARK BARK BARK BARK. Edit: Also, it's a really cool analysis on chess, but scara messed up the board and became a third party or something after stealing Ei's gnosis. And this isn't even considering the abyss order. It's like chess but with their own rules.

Newer to chess. Can you explain the rook swap and where that leads? Cause in game application that could make sense if a character swapped where they once stood. Like scaramouche for example. If we believe they went rogue and change sides from antagonistic to the traveller to being companions to them... then it could be like that chess move you showed.

i love chess and i love how genshin is using it as well, im not the most smartest at chess but i am somewhat decent or do i dare say good, and this analysis is very interesting and good inside

Thought it was going to be story related, but I'll this take too! (Pls I wanna hear your thoughts on them not loosing into the story part of it all--)

When I saw this teaser this morning I started freaking out-

side note i think the starting position has a black pawn missing on e7

I wonder if magnus can do a reaction video regarding the positioning of the pieces. 😄

the black pawn at d7(Scaramouche) disappeared from the board game. this is the cause why the white knight at d6(Raiden Shogun) can capturing the black pawn at f7(Signora).