He had just started to settle into the fact that she had fallen for the trap and was about to resign himself to having to find amusement elsewhere when she made her counter move. He couldn't help but stare at the piece she'd moved for a few seconds. Well, that was certainly surprising that she made an offensive move to counter the trap. True he wasn't as versed in chess as she was, he hadn't really studied the tactics of the game for long. He'd studied them long enough to take the ones that would suit his game and enough to even come up with some of his own. The game had just gotten a thousand times more interesting to him, as had Svetlana. That move had shown she had a fire within her, that she had a calculating mind of a sort. He smiled. "Brilliant move," he congratulated her. After all, it took a lot for a human to impress the Master, and she had just impressed him. And piqued his interest in her. The poor Russian had no idea what was to come as he set about making moves to counter hers, all the while setting up a clever defense for himself. Protect the King. And the Master had developed an interesting plan of defense always leaving at least two pieces within striking distance in case of a Check. But while he did that, he simultaneously set up another attack, going for another trap. It was an ambitious plan setting up both defense and offense, one that might come back to bite him in the ass, but he wanted to see what she would do. He did mix up his moves, moving one piece for the offensive trap, then the next move moving his defensive piece. He didn't know how long it would take her to pick up what he was doing, but he only had a small window of opportunity to get his pieces in position, and he was taking it.
"It is good that I only play it for recreation. The people that find it as a means to make money do not honor the spirit of the game. They are much the same as politicians. Never taking a moment to think of what they're doing, only taking the money and fame." That statement could have been ironic since he had once been Prime Minister of England and had only used the position to, well, try to take over the world. Which he had succeeded in doing until that pesky Martha Jones had found a way to break into his headquarters and free the Doctor and Jack Harkness and thwart that whole plan. Though he'd never been in politics for the money or fame, he'd only used it to take over the world. It had been fun to have other country leaders under his thumb.