Overview
Chess is a Thornwood student with a pattern signature unlike any the academy has recorded. He phases in and out of solidity -- sometimes fully present, sometimes translucent, sometimes absent entirely except for what Alice describes as "a residual probability of smile."
His Gift operates in the space between Pattern Magic and something that doesn't have a name yet. He sees the world in a way that makes other Unraveling students uncomfortable, because his patterns include the gaps between patterns -- the spaces where logic breaks down and something else takes over.
At Thornwood
He and Alice develop a rapport built on mutual recognition. She is the first person who can see his pattern signature clearly enough to understand what's happening to him. He is the first person who doesn't look away.
Notable
- Grove: uncertain (his Rooting was... complicated)
- Phases in and out of solidity
- Named by Alice, after the game -- because he moves in angles nobody expects
- The nature of his condition may be connected to the Loom's structural integrity