Team Japan vs team India

The next day, round 4 of the Chess Olympics kicked off.  The next day, round 4 of the Chess Olympics kicked off. The weather was still bad, resulting in the round's start being delayed once more. But this time, there weren't any worries of anyone getting chlorophormed the night before or lost in Budapest.

Despite their triumphant victory over Prussia, the Japanese men's team was incredibly weary, and for good reason; India was the big favorite to win the entire thing. The women were also weary, but not as much. The solid team of Daria, Mimoko, and Iori gave optimism to the team that the women's team could at least beat India, but it wouldn't be easy.

"Number 3 already. Seems you'll be the first we fall of the 4 seeds above us," Indira grinned.

"Indira, do not act arrogant before the match," a young girl glared as she adjusted her glasses.

"Let her banter. She's not being OVERLY arrogant," Saloni grinned as she patted the girl on the shoulder.

"And am I going to sit out?" a woman with half her head shaved asked.

"Yes, I'm having a rematch with that girl," Mona Atel glared as she sat down at board 3 across from Azenira.

Vibha Jaisi, the woman with the half-shaved head, sighed as she went over to the waiting area. While Mona had a respectable 2400 rating, after some considerable training, Vibha was still the more skilled player, so her sitting out was a bit of a risk. But Mona was determined to right her wrong from back when she first faced Azenira back in Japan.

Indira was on board 4 against Iori, setting up a streamer showdown, while the other streamer, Saloni, was on board 1 against Daria. This left Mimoko on board 2 to face the bespectacled girl, Ishika Hirani.

On the men's side, Ginji was on board 1 against rising superstar and challenger to the current world champion, Govindrao Dhvalikar. Govindrao was only 18 and already boasted a high rating of 2794, knocking on the door of the 2800 milestone. His teammate, Arun Jhingan, however, had just crossed it, becoming only the second Indian in history to do so.

The team also had another young prodigy known as Hanuman Dhoot. While Govindrao and Arun were beginning to leave him behind as they climbed to the top, he still boasted a respectable rating of 2755. And on the topic of ratings, Vihan was actually the lowest rated player on the team with a rating of 2743. The reserve member, Virat Joshi, just edged him out at 2750, but unlike the others he was much older and starting to show his age on the board.

Yet despite that, he insisted on facing the masked man at board 4 instead of Vihan.

"Why are you so insistent?"

"Because... I don't know. But I can sense that I'm the only one here that can face him.

Vihaan was a little skeptical, but in his heyday, Virat had been a rival to the great Vishwanathan Anand as well as India's top player in the maestro selection exam. In fact, many believed he'd become a maestro, but somehow he ended up falling just short. The crazy thing was that nobody with insight on the maestro exam, including some of the maestros themselves, had any idea as to why that was. Raymond was believed to be the only one that truly knew the truth of said matter, yet he naturally refused to discuss it.

"Hahaha! I calculate our chances of victory are high! My individual chances have also risen with this line-up change," Hanuman laughed as he wiggled his arms like a jellyfish and sat down at board 2 across from Zago.

Everyone was a bit surprised at how deep Hanuman's voice was as with his nerdy appearance, it was fair to assume he'd sound more like a stereotypical geek. But what didn't surprise anyone was that true to his moniker of "Squiggly arms Hanuman", he really did appear as if he had squiggly arms at times.

Govindrao and Arun had monikers as well, being "Govindrao the grinder" and "Arun the rampager", respectively. Arun was the more infamous one though as to get both his rating and moniker, he competed in various open tournaments, taking down many sub-2700 players in the process. This provided valuable experience to him as now he had a rhythm for crushing those rated 2700 and under.

This was a large reason India had put him on board 3, and the main reason Okisato was challenging him, as he felt he was the only on that could beat him.

"Welp, this is gonna be fun," Okisato sighed as he sat down across from Arun.

Arun was a man of few words, but he was one of the last people you wanted to be sitting across from especially if you were 2700 and under.

As the round began, Arun opened the game by moving his pawn to e4.

"I guess I'll just go for it. I don't want to unveil my top opening I'm saving for Peter, but this guy's a madman. I guess I'll go for a Důras," Okisato thought as he moved his pawn to f5.

Arun promptly captured said pawn with his e-pawn, but it was then that Okisato smirked and slammed his king down on f7. "Let's see if a madman can handle the madness," he thought.

Yet Handle it he could, as Arun promptly delivered a check by moving his queen to h5, forcing Okisato to move his pawn to g6. Yet that pawn was next on the chopping block as Arun simply captured it with his f-pawn, sending Okisato's king to g7.

This was all within plan, though as after Arun captured the pawn at h7 with his g-pawn, Okisato simply captured said pawn with his rook, sending Arun's queen off to f3.

"Now I just gotta wait for the chance to pounce," Okisato thought as he moved his knight to f6.

However, it was Okisato himself that further dug the hole, as after Arun moved his pawn to d4, he instinctively moved his pawn to d5, allowing Arun to get his bishop out to d3.

"Ugh, not good. I must still be a bit fatigued from yesterday's game," Okisato thought as he moved his queen to d6.

Over in the commentator's booth, two new faces had joined the line-up in order to help cover more games.

"Wassup! It's the spy from Belgium, Laila Din!" a girl with a pink bob smiled.

"And the spunkiest shy gal around, Běla Plachý," a girl with long curly pink hair that obscured one of her eyes smiled.

"We're joining Nancy and Danny here, specifically to cover the marquee matches of each round, which today is naturally the Japan vs India matches on both sections."

"Things are a bit slow to start, but fireworks have already been set off in the game between Arun and Okisato. Since Okisato looks like he's taking a long think, and he better considering how bad things look for him, we'll hop on over to the women's side where fellow commentator, Saloni Madhok is taking on the mythical Maestro Himitsu of Japan."

"Seems the game started off with knight f3 and then g6. Saloni does love the Modern defense after all."

"And the Zukertort's the maestro's favorite apparently. But things aren't up to date yet, so let's speedrun this. E4, bishop g7, d4, d6, all standard. Same for bishop e3, knight f6, and knight c3, but then our girl goes bishop d7!"

"Not the worst move, but I guess she'll castle king's side later... Which she did just after the maestro moved her pawn to h3."

Despite the excitement in the commentator's booth, Saloni was sweating buckets at the board. She had heard of the maestros, but never actually faced one or even met one until today. She didn't let that phase her though as after Daria moved her pawn to e5, she captured said pawn with her d-pawn. But Daria was merciless and took note of her agitated state.

"Chess is a psychological game. With those jitters and stream of sweat, you don't stand a chance against me," Daria thought as she glared and captured the pawn at e5 with her d-pawn.

Saloni quickly began panicking and retreated her knight to e8, giving Daria the chance to move her queen to d2. Another misstep then occurred in the form of pawn to c6, allowing Daria to advance her pawn to h4. Saloni attempted to create counterplay by moving her queen to c7, but Daria just scoffed at the play and marched her pawn to h5.

"Not gonna happen!" Saloni thought as she moved her bishop to g4 and took a sip of water from her cup.

Daria expected the move and promptly captured the pawn at g6 with her h-pawn, prompting Saloni to return the favor by capturing said pawn with her h-pawn. But after Daria moved her knight to h2, Saloni messed up and moved her bishop to d7 instead of her queen.

"OH! That girl is possessed by the nerves!" Běla exclaimed as Daria pounced on the opportunity and moved her pawn to f4.

"And... g5!? Yeah, Saloni's cooked. The maestros are the real deal, so messing up against them is a surefire path to mate," Laila added as Saloni moved her pawn to g5.

Indeed it was as after knight f3, bishop f5, g4, g captures f4, g captures f5, queen d7, queen h2, and queen captures f5, mate was inevitable for Saloni.

"When I held the strategy meeting, I was a tad wary of you, but it seems I failed to take account of your nerves. Now I have no doubt we'll win the match, possibly with another perfect score," Daria thought as she moved her bishop to d3.

At this point, Saloni knew she was finished, but decided to play on, mainly because she felt it was more respectful to let her mate her on the board.

"If I'm seeing things right, she deserves to pull this off on the board," she thought as she moved her pawn to f6.

"Mate in 7, yet she plays on!" Laila exclaimed as Daria captured the queen at f7 with her bishop.

"Guess she wants to see the mate play out," Běla shrugged as Saloni moved her rook to f7.

"True resolve. With that bishop to e6 play by the maestro, pinning the rook to the king, I'd resign."

"Yet her capturing the pawn at e5 with her f-pawn shows she's got more resilience than you.

"Oi, it's called throwing in the towel when you know you're through," Laila growled as Daria caatled queen's side.

As Saloni moved her knight to d6, the commentators were able to see just why she continued to play on. "Oh, now that is a beautiful mate worth showing on the board," Laila smiled as Daria moved her d-rook to g1.

"And Saloni knows it to as her moving her king to f8, means she's fully expecting... QUEEN H8, CHECK!" Běla shouted as Daria moved her queen to h8.

Saloni stared at the board and smiled as she executed her only legal move, bishop captures h8.

"Oh no my queen... Anyway, checkmate," Daria smirked as she captured the bishop at h8 with her queen, winning the game.

On the women's side, Japan now led India 1-0.

The full game:

White: Maestro Himitsu (Daria Inoue) (3200) Black: Saloni Madhock (2800)

1. Nf3 g6

2. e4 Bg7

3. d4 d6

4. Be3 Nf6

5. Nc3 Bd7

6. h3 O-O

7. e5 dxe5

8. dxe5 Ne8

9. Qd2 c6

10. h4 Qc7

11. h5 Bg4

12. hxg6 hxg6

13. Nh2 Bd7

14. f4 g5

15. Nf3 Bf5

16. g4 gxf4

17. gxf5 Qd7

18. Qh2 Qxf5

19. Bd3 f6

20. Bxf5 Rf7

21. Be6 fxe5

22. O-O-O Nd6

23. Rdg1 Kf8

24. Qh8+ Bxh8

25. Rxh8#