Team Japan vs Team France

As the round began for the women, the board assignments was as follows, with Daria and Fleur were sitting out, while Mimoko was manning board 1 against Collette, Tenju on board 2 against Alice, Azenira on board 3 against Fifi, and Iori on board 4 against Mimosa.

Collette opened the game on board 1 by moving her pawn to d4, prompting Mimoko to respond with e6. Collette didn't stop to think for a second though, responding with pawn to c4 almost instantaneously. Mimoko in turn moved her pawn to d5, turning the game into a Queen's gambit declined game.

Since both were top players, knight f3 and knight f6 were shortly on the board. Collette then opted to go for an English opening: Anglo-Indian, Queen's Knight variation by moving her knight to c3. This caused Mimoko to think for a bit, and as she did, Collette got up to go look around.

While talking amongst players, aside from brief moments when checks were called, was forbidden, walking around the playing hall was perfectly permissible, so long as players didn't interfere with any other games.

Since only a few minutes had passed since the round's start, Collette decided to remain close by, simply taking a better look at her teammates boards. So far, everything looked fine, aside from Mimosa who had a look of pure disgust plastered on her face, and for good reason.

In her game, she was playing as Black while Iori was White. It had opened up simple enough with Iori moving her pawn to e4 and Mimosa responding with e6, the French defense, but that was as far as things would go normally.

"Lol, she's playing the lame-o French defense. Shit's boring as hell. Guess she's gonna play for a draw, and hope I screw up to get a win. Well sucks for you, but I hate the French defense, and will wreck everyone who plays it against me," Iori thought as she slammed her king down on e2.

With a move like that on the board, it was no wonder Mimosa was so angered. "You trying to act arrogant? Well I'll pay you back in kind," she thought as she moved her pawn to d5.

Collette shot Iori a glare before heading back to her board, feeling confident in Mimosa's chances. Indeed, Mimosa had the edge, but keeping it was a whole different issue. Iori responded by moving her pawnt to d3, prompting Mimosa to capture the pawn at e4 with her d-pawn. Not the best move since Iori was now able to simply capture the offending pawn with her d-pawn, opening up the d-file, however, the edge was still Mimosa's.

"Check. Now while I can get some words in, allow me to admonish you for that disgrace of an opening you just tainted this fine chessboard with," Mimosa glared as she captured the queen at d1 with her queen.

Iori smirked and grabbed her king, tauntingly hovering it around before capturing the queen at d1 with it.

"Insolence! I call for an arbiter!"

An arbiter quickly headed over and listened to Mimosa's case. Mimosa was arguing that the move should be king e3 instead of king captures d1, as Iori had hovered her king over e3 before capturing at d1. However, Iori pointed out she never took her hand off the king nor set it down on e3. The arbiter confirmed that Iori was right, and thus the capture stood, though Iori was warned not to engage in such taunting behavior henceforth.

With an annoyed click of her tongue, Mimosa moved her bishop to c5, unknowingly shrinking the slim advantage she currently held over Iori.

"Trying to cheese me into a mate by calling for the ref. I'm gonna drink your tears for days after I spank your ass with the Bongcloud paddle," Iori thought as she moved her pawn to f3.

Back at board 1, Mimoko had finally decided to move her bishop to b4, prompting Collette to move her pawn to e3. Mimoko quickly castled king's side as Collette moved her bishop to d3. She then moved her pawn to b6 as it was now Collette's turn to castle king's side.

At his point, the game was practically even with Collette having the slimmest of an advantage which continued to hold after bishop a6, c captures d5, e captures d5, bishop captures a6, and knight captures a6.

"Damn this bitch. She's good, yet why couldn't she save Mizuse!? I bet she killed her off with glee, and she has the gall to wear Mizuse's clothing like she's Miss Universe. Mizuse was THE woman of our time, and she just killed her off! I hate her. I hate that maestro too for allowing it to even happen. She was with Mizuse, yet Mizuse got brainwashed!? I bet she's in on it. Fifi and Fleur need to wake up and see the damn truth. Those bitches were in on Mizuse's murder," Collette thought as she moved her knight to e5.

While Mimoko was unable to hear Collette's inner monologue and refute it, she could see Collette's misperception in a sense on the chessboard, and wholeheartedly prove her wrong there, starting by capturing the knight at c3 with her bishop.

Collette stared at the move for a bit before thinking nothing of it and capturing said bishop with her b-pawn. Indeed, she had little to worry about, unless Mimoko found c5, which she did. Though even after Collette moved her bishop to b2 and Mimoko moved her pawn to c4, Collette wasn't in too much trouble yet. While Mimoko now had the advantage, it was barely an advantage at that, essentially making the game dead even. Perhaps it wasn't what Collette wanted as she was pining for a 4-0 sweep, but if the chips were down, she'd put the team first and go for the draw. After all, things were looking good on the other boards, with her expecting Mimosa to win handily thanks to Iori's Bongcloud.

If Mimosa won, and Collette drew, all it would take to win the match would be for either Alice or Fifi to win or both to draw. Since Fifi's and Alice's games were both about dead even, the latter appeared to be the more likely winning strategy, but that was all under the assumption, Mimosa would win.

While Mimosa had the advantage, it had rapidly shrunk as she continued to unknowingly make missteps. Neither her nor Iori could see the eval bar for the game, but the commentators watching from afar certainly could.

They had only just checked in to watch this match, but as soon as Danny went through the moves up to that point, he became laser-focused on the game.

"This is just like the one over in the men's section. If she wins, that would be a major upset!" Danny declared as Mimosa moved her knight to c6.

"I heard there was a bit of banter between the two teams before the match. Collette reportedly requested of her teammates to play for a 4-0 victory on the spot, so it would be an understatement to say she has a beef with team Japan," Nancy noted as Iori moved her knight to d2.

Mimosa then errored and moved her bishop to e7, giving Iori a slight advantage. However, in practicality, the game was dead even, which was bad for Team France as now none of them had a winning position. Though for the moment, none were in losing positions either.

Iori continued on as usual and moved her knight to h3, while Mimosa moved her pawn to e5. This prompted Iori to move her knight to f2, which Mimosa responded to by moving her bishop to e6.

"Looks like things are dead even, Nancy. And not just here, but in all the match-ups here. Wanna shift our attention elsewhere for the time being?" Danny asked.

Nancy paused and stared at the games on her screen. "Just a bit longer here. I feel things could be decisive."

Indeed her prediction was spot on. For the next few moves would ultimately send one of the games to a decisive end.