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James Bond enters M's office.

 BOND: I came as quickly as I could, sir. What's the emergency?  

 M:    It's those fiendish SMERSH agents again. They've stolen my chess pieces.  

 BOND: They've stolen *what* now?  

 M:    And they've hidden them in this poem!  

 BOND: With all due respect, sir, when was your last mandatory drug test?  

 M:    I have an extremely important match coming up. You must find them!
       If you are successful, you can have this bonus cheque.

 BOND: That's the most ludicrous... you know, I'm rather intrigued by 
       all the zeros on this cheque. May I see the poem?

Obviously, a man like Bond is too busy to do his own crypto-acrosto-steganography so he is counting on you to unravel this mystery. The words "pawn", "rook", "knight", "bishop", "queen", and "king" are hidden in this poem, disguised in a variety of ways (along with one other chess-related word as a bonus). Find them before M comes to his senses and cancels the offer.

Go tear the fourth rotation's bane
Right on our knees we fall, insane.
He skids in oil, ignites the street
With fierce, oblique encircling heat.
Go now. I keep my land, my own
To mists and tempests ever prone

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  • $\begingroup$ Great puzzle, still haven't figured it out entirely but I love it. $\endgroup$ – Vincent Apr 19 '16 at 7:50
  • $\begingroup$ Done! I see that @Vincent Advocaat was on the same track :) $\endgroup$ – Wu33o Apr 19 '16 at 7:51
  • $\begingroup$ Ye, @Wu33o I needed your answer for king though, and i haven't figured out knight, i thought it might be something with Right on our knees if you put ight on kn you'd get knight, so if right were to fall on knees or something? i dunno, it's a bit weak :P and we also have rook from that sentence so probably not $\endgroup$ – Vincent Apr 19 '16 at 7:56
  • $\begingroup$ @Vincent Advocaat Yeah I'm also not quite sure yet, still looking for a better option... $\endgroup$ – Wu33o Apr 19 '16 at 7:59
  • $\begingroup$ @Wu33o but i think you're on the right track, that knight should come from the 3th sentence. $\endgroup$ – Vincent Apr 19 '16 at 8:00
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I think the answer is:

Pawn:

When you use a rot -4 (or rot 22) on 'tear', you get the word 'pawn'

Rook:

The first letters of the first four words on the second row spell 'Rook': (Right on our knees)

Knight:

The second letter of the words in the second sentence (except from the first one) form 'knight':
skids in oil, ignites the street

Bishop:

The first letters of the last words of each sentence form the word 'bishop':
(bane, insane, street, heat, own, prone)

Queen:

oblique encircling

King:

The first letters of the words in the fifth row form 'Gnik', which is 'king' inverted: (Go now. I keep)

Hidden word:

You can find the word 'mate' when you take the first letters of the second to fifth words in the last row: (mists and tempests ever)

Title:

The puzzle is 'chess themed' (marches swiftly to the median)

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  • $\begingroup$ Nice, that knight makes sense, well done with the mystery word as well. $\endgroup$ – Vincent Apr 19 '16 at 8:16
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    $\begingroup$ Well done. Make me happy and explain the title as well. ;-) $\endgroup$ – Hugh Meyers Apr 19 '16 at 8:25
  • $\begingroup$ @HughMeyers Ah I should've seen that haha. I was focusing too much on the 'Median' part -.- $\endgroup$ – Wu33o Apr 19 '16 at 9:12
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Pawn can be found in:

"Go tear the fourth rotation's bane", if you rot-4 the word pawn you get tear (and vice versa tear becomes pawn).

Rook can be found in:

Right on our knees we fall, insane.

EDIT: See Wu33o's answer for the Knight.

Bishop can be found in:

The first letter of the last word in every sentance: bane, insane, street, heat, own, prone

The queen can be found in:

With fierce, oblique encrypted heat.

The king can be found in: thanks to Wu33o for this answer, I couldn't figure it out.

"Go now. I keep my land, my own" it is inverted (gnik - king)

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