The Jadwiga gambit

Shortly before round 3 began, the women's team held a last-minute strategy meeting.

"To be honest, Jadwiga showing up essentially means we're back to our original plan," Daria sighed.

When the Polish team initially showed up without Jadwiga, Daria had some hope that the team could handle the without her. Daria was still weary of the 8-game limit imposed on maestros, but since she only had one game left she had to sit out for, she was hopeful Japan's first 3 matches would be easy opponents that the others could handle. That wasn't the case, as France and Italy were strong teams, yet despite that, Japan managed to score two perfect 4-0 victories over both without Daria playing.

If Jadwiga hadn't shown up, Daria would have had no qualms sitting out, but with her back, there was no chancing it. Even in a frenzied and fatigued state, Jadwiga was still a threat. Iori disagreed though.

"She looks wasted, and according to Oki-kun, she got knocked out by the sleeping gas with him right after the game ended. There's no way her psych's improved. I bet if I played the same moves Oki-kun did, she'd break."

"You raise a fair point, but Jadwiga is a rock solid player. In fact, I imagine she'd play harder if she saw the same move," Daria sighed.

"Nah, I think it would be perfect PTSD, so sit out and let one of us humiliate her."

"I call dibs! If all it takes is the sequence of moves from her game with Tanabe-sensei, I can break her," Azenira grinned.

"Your performance has been well, but I can't risk it. If the gamble doesn't pay off, you'd need to play perfectly and hope she blunders once more. For a player of your caliber, that's too high a hill," Daria sighed.

"I could pull it off," Iori pouted.

"No, I want to beat Jadwiga. She might think that game last night was all a bad dream. Thus, if she saw the move again from some of you, she'd punish you. The boy was higher rated than her too, so I doubt she'd be phased by any of you playing the move, rather it'd be the opposite. Now if you were rated at least 2500, different story. But for now, I'm on board 1. The other players are strong too, and with Jadwiga back, their weakest player, Maria is likely to be benched."

"Surprised baldy even made the team. Thought Tami-chan said her rating was sub-2000."

"Like all of you, she improved in order to get her rating above 2000, and achieve the women's candidate master title. She's not the same opponent that suffered a humiliating smothered mate checkmate at the hands of Utami."

Thus, the matter was settled; Daria would play on board 1 against Jadwiga, Mimoko on board 2 against Wiesława, Azenira on board 3 against Urzula, and Iori on board 4 against Zosia with Tenju and Marie presumably sitting out. Over on the Polish side though, trouble was brewing.

"I will not sit out for another game! You will let me play!" Maria fumed.

"We want to win. Heck, you only got on the team cuz your daddy's the president, and big sis threw a tantrum," Urzula snarled as she shot Wiesława a glare.

"She improved and now has the women's candidate master title. Besides, who knows what happened with Jadwiga. I don't think she's fit to play, so we should have her sit out! It might also spare us from having to face the maestro, who I'm certain could beat any of us," Wiesława scowled.

"But that's why we need Jadwiga. She's our best hope of beating the maestro. I don't think they're going to bench her now that Jadwiga's here, regardless of if we bench her or not," Zosia frowned.

"Please, she's still fast asleep! She'll lose on time if we let her play!" Maria fumed.

"Then I'll wake sleeping beauty," Urzula growled as she slapped Jadwiga's cheeks.

The sudden pain on her face roused Jadwiga from her slumber. "Ugh, what's happening?"

"Round 3's about to start. You up for playing, sleeping beauty?"

Jadwiga clutched her head. "Was all that just a dream? Yes, it must have been," she thought as she turned to face her team.

With a haughty smile, she proudly declared aloud she'd fight at board 1. The declaration was not well-received amongst the Wykształciuchys as both felt Jadwiga shouldn't play today. Both made the threat that should Jadwiga lose, they'd shave her balder than Maria, to which Jadwiga scoffed at.

"You expect me to lose? Rubbish. And need I remind you, that this is a team event. Should I sacrifice myself and we prevail regardless, the shaving of my head would be an unjust act."

The others agreed, causing the Wykształciuchys to begrudgingly back down. However, Maria began raising a fuss over not being fielded, prompting Jadwiga to suggest having her play on board 3.

"A queen like me is magnanimous. Urzula, rest from the sidelines as we trample over our adversaries."

Urzula begrudgingly agreed and line-up was settled. Now Maria would play Azenira on board 3 instead. Daria sat down across from Jadwiga and noted that she seemed fine, exactly as she had thought.

"I had a restless dream, but it was just that, a dream. Now, allow me to claim that maestro crown you wear as it will adorn my throne room nicely."

Daria let out a sigh and shook hands as the round began. Jadwiga opened by moving her pawn to e4 as Daria moved her pawn to e5. But as soon as Jadwiga moved her knight to f3, Daria took a deep breath.

"Mimoko, Caïssa, forgive me for the sin I'm about to commit," she thought as a confident smirk spread across her face.

Slam!

Everyone in the vicinity stopped and stared in horror; Daria had moved her queen to h4.

Jadwiga's eyes widened in horror as her heart began to beat faster. "No... NO! That was all a dream... ALL A DREAM! She's messing with me, but she's a maestro... AHHH!" she agonized in her mind as she opted to capture the pawn at e5 with her knight.

"Well what do you know, she was spot on, check," Daria smirked as she captured the pawn at e4 with her queen.

"NO! I'm not losing my queen!" Jadwiga frantically thought as she moved her bishop to e2.

Everyone else simply stared in shock as Daria mercilessly captured the knight at e5 with her queen, but this was only the beginning. Jadwiga's next move of pawn to c4 was truly symbolic as it showed the earlier 2...Qh4 had truly caused her to implode. Daria on the other hand was playing as she always did and moved her bishop to c5.

Jadwiga continued to play as if she didn't know how to play chess by moving her queen to a4. Daria then brought her knight out to f6, hoping for a swift victory, yet Jadwiga wasn't going to allow it.

"HAH! You can't beat me!" Jadwiga shouted aloud as she castled king's side.

Daria shook her head and simply captured the bishop at e2 with her queen, yet to hers and everyone else's shock, Jadwiga confidently slammed her rook down on e1.

"HAH! Your queen is now mine! Kneel before me, foul whore!"

Daria stared in disbelief, as did everyone else. They couldn't believe a player of Jadwiga's caliber had just played such horrendous chess.

"Checkmate. I hereby dub the 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Qh4 sequence of moves, the Jadwiga gambit. Enjoy having your humiliation immortalized in the chess books," Daria scowled as she captured the rook at e1 with her queen, winning the game.

Tears poured down Jadwiga's face as she snapped back to reality. "No, this is a nightmare, A NIGHTMARE! I... I can't lose to that opening twice..."

With a loud thud, Jadwiga fainted and fell out of her seat to the floor. In just 8 moves, Daria had felled a 2600-level player with a reckless blunder of a move, yet it had paid off as true to Iori's hypothesis, Jadwiga hadn't recovered from her humiliating loss to Okisato. And with this, Daria ensured that Jadwiga would continue to play horrible chess for the rest of her days, should this opening ever be played against her.

The true success of this laid in the fact that Daria was the one who played the move. Had a lower rated player played it, Jadwiga likely would have retained her cool, maybe even played better than she normally did. But since a high-rated player like Daria played the opening, it caused PTSD to consume Jadwiga, breaking her mind. Now whether a beginner to chess or a grandmaster played the Jadwiga gambit against her, it would forever cause her to play chess like a 100 elo rated player for said game.

"I suppose Bruno will be pissed to learn there's now someone else like him thanks to me. Wonder if he'll tell me to mop the floors if he sees me again. Hmm, not a bad idea for a reward video," Daria thought as she got up.

The game was now the first one of the entire round in both sections to conclude, and would forever go down in history and immortalize the Jadwiga gambit for the ages. For Jadwiga, this was humiliation. For her team, it was a gut punch. Not even 3 minutes had passed, nor had any of them even made their first move, yet their strongest player had lost in humiliating fashion and Japan led 1-0.

Urzula buried her head in her hands as Wiesława looked up and shot her a glare. "Thanks a lot, dumbass. Now we're 1-0 in the hole. This is why she should have sat out," Wiesława angrily thought.

The full game:

White: Jadwiga Abgarowicz (2646) Black: Maestro Himitsu (Daria Inoue) (3200)

1. e4 e5

2. Nf3 Qh4

3. Nxe5 Qxe4+

4. Be2 Qxe5

5. c4 Bc5

6. Qa4 Nf6

7. O-O Qxe2

8. Re1 Qxe1#