I prefer to draw the black pawn, and have played chess in a lunatic asylum. One patient versus another. Inside, the signs are not pieces of information, but instructions. Exit doesn't describe where the door but is an order: open it. Every move in chess is examined, dissected for motive, meaning. But if the exit sign's meaning is skewed, king's pawn to open will be portentous, loaded threatening. 

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My fellow patient set up the board; the game progressed, accompanied by gestures and mutterings whose meaning is insignificant outside but inside denotes friend or foe, benign or malign. 

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Check. My king is caught by his knights. A classic scissors. The horse which moves like a crab. The scissors takes forward planning, tactical thinking and patience. 

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But both knights are on a black square. A nurse sees the mounting tension, frustration. The game is null and void. 

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My attempt to keep to the rules of chess as they are outside will gain me my freedom to go there. My fellow patient will never leave.