A/N: just to clarify, "red as the blood of the fallen" was one of the more poetic ways to describe the colour of the Soviet flag. Okay, now we're set. Reviews are always welcome. Enjoy!

You remember a faint shade of gray in the snow on the forest floor, the brown trees surrounding you, waiting for the spring to bring back their green leaves, which will turn yellow and reddish brown as season change, then fall again lay for a while beneath the light blue sky. You remember dark purple berries, and the golden rays of sunshine, and the orange light dancing in the fireplace, and oh so many colours. They were all so bright and beautiful and fascinating. And yet, you saw the beauty in black and white.

At first, they did nothing; your father trained you, your mother kept encouraging you. Oh, how proud she was, smiling and calling you "my little world champion" with a slightly different accent.

You started playing at school as well, first just against your classmates, then against the older kids, and sometimes even against 10th grade students or one of the teachers. Soon enough, it became more than just a game; it was a lifestyle.

It was time for them to step in.

First they challenged you, then invited you to "join the best" in Moscow, where you began to challenge them and quickly climbed to the top.

It was too late when you've realized that all colours but black and white and red-as-the-blood-of-the-fallen were lost on the way.

The next years were a blur, and you don't remember much except for boards and pieces; somewhere between this game and that tournament you've found a wife and had children - perhaps you even loved her, but this love wasn't colourful enough - thus becoming the "ideal Soviet man". But none of these has brought the colours back to your life.

Funny, how they managed to take away the colours that they had gave you in the first place. How you lost it all exactly where you've found it.

How a stranger in another land reached…

And the more you thought about her, the more colors you could suddenly see again.