an excerpt from a gamefaqs poster on dullindal's chess; be wary, spoilers r ahead
CHESS ANALYSIS
"Actually, Freedom is the pawn...Kira (Archangel on a broader sense) is the king, Lacus is the white queen. Therefore, when they said that Freedom was confirmed to be destroyed, but Archangel unconfirmed, the chessboard showed the position of black pawn (Shinn) on g3, ready to kill white pawn on h2 (trapped Freedom), and give check to the king (Archangel/Kira) on g1. Also take note of the white bishop on g2, which may very well be the remainder of the Orb fleet, since it did not partake in the battle. So going by episode 34, we have gxh2+, with Durandall asking "is this checkmate? No. The white queen is still formidable." First of all, it is nowhere near checkmate, since the white king (Archangel) can just respond with Kxh2, but that may put Archangel out in the open for the Minerva (the black queen, not shown) to attack, which very well MAY lead to checkmate. Therefore, the white queen is still a formidable piece, which means that the queen is most probably upon the h file, or just got into position along the long the h2-a7 diagonal, which will mean that the next move is most probably Qxh2, which means that either Shinn is going to be "captured" by Lacus's moving words, or...he's just dead."
And
"No...in terms of chess, KIRA is the king. The thing is, if Kira dies, Lacus is empty, and she has far less, if not no, purpose since she lost the dearest person to her. Lacus is INDEED the queen since she has AMAZING mobility and agility, and her power is all-encompassing, since one moment, she's in space causing a ruckus, the next moment, she's going to be on earth with Strike Freedom and Infinite Justice. Gilbert knows that, and I think the chessboard in this episode (black pawn checks white king, but is able to be captured/killed by white queen) confirms this knowledge. Perhaps Gilbert realizes that Shinn's time is coming for Shinn's ultimate test, whether he is loyal to Durandall...or himself. This is why Durandall gives him the Destiny and treats him like a king, so that Shinn will continue to fight for Durandall, but if Durandall does something crazy like order a full-scale assault on Orb, black pawn checks white king, white queen captures black pawn. Lacus makes it down in time, speaks to Shinn, and "captures" black pawn, aka the Destiny gundam, and Shinn with it. Durandall, if he does not expect this, is disrespecting his opponent, and because of that, he will lose the game"
wat do u guys think of this analysis?