Santa Kļava's comin' to town

Okisato moved his bishop to f5 and scowled as Arun captured the pawn at d5 with his c-knight. "Ugh, I didn't think he'd punish me THIS badly, but I guess I brought it on myself for trying to play the Důras like Peter did back then," he thought as he captured the knight at d5 with his knight.

Arun naturally recaptured said knight with his knight as Okisato flung his pawn to e5. This begun the pawn trade as d captures e5 and knight captures e5 ensured both sides left with a pawn. Arun then moved his knight to e7 as Okisato scowled and moved his bishop to h7.

It was beginning to look hopeless for Okisato, and he himself knew it. Arun was a merciless opponent in a similar vain to Peter.

"And it's looking like India's gonna equalize," Běla exclaimed as Arun moved his h-rook to e1.

"Okisato's been down ever since he opened up with that blunder of an opening. Perhaps maybe this will teach him not to rely on such petty tricks," Laila huffed as Okisato captured the pawn at f3 with his knight.

"Not a fan of him?" Běla smirked as Arun moved his rook to e6.

"Not in the slightest, and that's a fact!" Laila huffed as Okisato moved his king to g5.

Back on the board, Arun was inching closer and closer to victory. He continued his assault with rook to d5, sending Okisato's king to g4, allowing for the powerful rook to h6. As soon as the play happened, Okisato let out an audible groan and moved his pawn to c6. Arun slid his d-rook to the safety of h5, and at that moment, Okisato had a complete lapse in judgement and moved his bishop to g8.

"Check," Arun calmly stated as he moved his pawn to h3.

Okisato sunk his face into his hands and moved his king to f4 with a heavy sigh. He knew it was over now, yet he decided to play until mate. Rook f6, check, king e4, knight g6, knight g5, rook captures g5, rook f8, rook captures f8, bishop f7, rook captures f7, king d4, and finally it was over.

"Checkmate," Arun stated as he moved his rook to f4, winning the game.

"Well there goes our shot at winning," Okisato sighed as he shook hands and began resetting the board.

Sure enough, his statement rang true as Zago fell to Hanuman a second later, giving India a 2-1 lead. And with the only member of team Japan left being Ginji, chances of victory were close to zero.

"Well looks like Oki-chawn blew it. Makes things easier for me, but I don't want to resign. In fact, drawing would actually net me elo since this brat's higher rated than me," Ginji thought as he stared Govindrao in the eye. "How about a draw?"

Govindrao blinked in confusion and turned to look at the score. Seeing that a draw was all India needed to win the match, he accepted the draw, albeit with a surprised look on his face. And with that, India had won the match, 2.5-1.5. The perfect win streak of Japan's men's team was over. However, hope was still alive for a perfect sweep on the women's side.

With the India vs Japan match over on the men's side, the commentators naturally shifted their attention elsewhere. Some points of interest included the Italy vs Latvia match and the Belgium vs Romania match, both for different reasons.

Following the cheating scandal which saw Isabella Elena suspended for the remainder of the tournament, Margarita Verde had also been handed a suspension due to being named as being part of the scandal, though her ban was subject to change if no evidence could be produced that truly implicated she was compliant with the cheating. As such, Italy was now playing with only 3 team members, meaning they started each match 0-1 in the hole. The three had miraculously managed to claw out a 2.5-1.5 win over Tanzania the other day, but things weren't looking so good now. And the reason for it was ironically rooted in a seemingly harmless compliment, Laura had directed at one of Latvia's members.

Going back in time to the start of round 4...

Laura smiled as the Latvian team approached the board. Things all seemed normal with the team introducing themselves to one another.

"Ilze Barons," a bespectacled girl with short blonde hair in a ponytail smiled.

"Dzintra Zvirbule, but guess I'm getting some rest," a girl with short blonde hair and tattoos covering her arms and legs smirked.

"Ausma Upatnieks. Mind telling me what your psych is at the moment?" I'm a scientist, you see," a bespectacled girl with wavy blonde hair giddily smiled.

"G- Gundega Kalniņš," a girl with long blonde hair and tattoos covering her shoulders and midriff mumbled.

"And I'm... Santa Kļava!" a cheery girl with white hair smiled as she struck a pose.

The girl was also sporting red sneakers, green pants, and a red bra top, which coupled with her white hair and name, gave the impression that she had an affinity for Christmas, which led to Laura saying with a smile. "Wow, I love the Christmas charm you've got going on."

All the other Latvians froze in horror as an enraged scowl appeared on Santa's face.

"Huh? Da FUCK you just say!?"

"Uh, that you've got a cute Christmas-"

"YOU MAKIN' FUN OF ME CUZ MY NAME'S SANTA!? Well Santa's a common girl's name in Latvia! Ilze, sit your ass out! I'm kicking this bitch into a pile of shit!"

While Santa Kļava normally adopted a cheerful persona, any linking of her to Christmas, or worse, Santa Claus triggered her and brought out her true delinquent personality.

"Wow, you got a Krampus side too. That's really cute."

The remark only further enraged Santa, leading to her teammates desperately trying to hold her back. They were successful in preventing physical bloodshed, but once the match began, it was war.

It started out with e4, e5, then knight f3. However, Santa decided to play a Latvian gambit and moved her pawn to f5. Laura decided to just capture said pawn with her e-pawn, but Santa immediately pushed her pawn to e4, sending the knight to d4. Next was queen f6, prompting Laura to defend her knight with pawn to c3. Santa however, just moved her knight to c6, causing Laura to hesitate for a bit before moving her queen to g4.

This invited Santa to play d5, though Laura countered with bishop to b5.

"Santa Kļava's comin' to town, and she's making a list, n' checkin' it twice," Danny smirked as Santa moved her knight to e7.

"If she watches a replay of the broadcast, you're dead you know," Nancy glared as Laura moved her pawn to d3.

"Relax, at worse I'll get coal in my stocking, and that ain't a bad thing since coal's got it's uses," Danny proudly huffed as Santa captured the pawn at f5 with her knight.

Things were looking pretty even until Laura blundered and moved her queen to f4, allowing Santa to capture the pawn at d3 with her e-pawn. She further worsened her position by castling king's side, allowing for bishop d6 to be played against her. This caused Laura to make yet another blunder as she moved her queen to f3, allowing Santa to capture the knight at d4 with her knight and fork the queen and bishop.

However, c captured d4 solved all Laura's worries, until Santa captured the queen at f3 with her queen.

"Ugh, check! Is this all because I tried to compliment you!?" Laura fumed as she captured the knight at c6 with her bishop.

Santa shot her a glare and captured the bishop at c6 with her b-pawn, not bothering to give Laura any further non-verbal messages.

"Well guess you're more of a naughty girl. Check again," Laura huffed as she moved her rook to e1.

Santa rolled her eyes and slide her queen to e2, causing Laura to bite her lip before moving her bishop to d2.

Santa castled king's side, prompting Laura to capture the queen at e2 with her rook, which in turn was promptly captured by Santa's d-pawn. She then moved her knight to c3, but Santa countered simply by moving her bishop to a6. Laura then moved her pawn to f3, but Santa launched an attack by moving her pawn to c5.

Laura ignored it though and moved her rook to c1, allowing Santa to capture the pawn at d4 with her c-pawn with no repercussions. Laura attempted to counter by capturing the pawn at d5 with her knight, but Santa simply moved her pawn to c5.

Frustrated, Laura moved her bishop to g5, allowing Santa to fork it and the knight by moving her rook to f5, or so she thought.

"Check! That's a rookie mistake, Krampus-chan," Laura smirked as she moved her knight to e7.

"Yeah, for you," Santa thought as she unceremoniously captured the knight at d7 with her bishop.

A frown quickly began to form on Laura's face as she retreated her bishop to d2. "I didn't see that... I'm going to lose," she thought as Santa moved her bishop to g5.

Now the bishop was trapped and forced to capture the bishop on g5, leading to it being captured by Santa's rook. Mate was now inevitable, but Laura refused to resign and played to the end, starting by moving her pawn to h4.

"Bitch won't resign? Fine, I'll crush her," Santa thought as she moved her pawn to d3.

Laura tried to put up a fight by moving her king to f2, but Santa knew how to win in this position and moved her pawn to d2. Laura slid her rook to g1, while Santa prepared to tighten the screws by moving her rook to e8. Now running out of options, Laura moved her rook back to e1, allowing Santa to capture it with her d-pawn and promote it to a queen, forcing Laura to capture said queen with her king.

That allowed Santa to capture the pawn at g2 with her rook, leaving Laura just two moves away from mate.

"The others aren't looking so great... Sorry for provoking her," Laura thought as she moved her pawn to h5.

Santa moved her rook to d8, preparing for the coup de gras, as Laura sighed and smiled before moving her pawn to a4.

"Checkmate! Fuck you!" Santa snarled as she slammed her rook down on d1, winning the game.

While Gloria managed to get a win, Carla ended up losing, meaning Latvia won the match 3-1.

"You and your big mouth. She might have played less aggressively if you weren't trying to flirt with her," Gloria growled.

"It was just a compliment," Laura pouted.

The full games:

White: Arun Jhingan (2801) Black: Okisato Tanabe (2700)

1. e4 f5

2. exf5 Kf7

3. Qh5+ g6

4. fxg6+ Kg7

5. gxh7 Rxh7

6. Qf3 Nf6

7. d4 d5

8. Bd3 Qd6

9. Bxh7 Kxh7

10. Nc3 Nc6

11. Bf4 Qe6+

12. Nge2 Qf5

13. O-O-O Bh6

14. Bxh6 Qxf3

15. gxf3 Kxh6

16. Nf4 Bf5

17. Ncxd5 Nxd5

18. Nxd5 e5

19. dxe5 Nxe5

20. Ne7 Bh7

21. Rhe1 Nxf3

22. Re6+ Kg5

23. Rd5+ Kg4

24. Rh6 c6

25. Rdh5 Bg8

26. h3+ Kf4

27. Rf6+ Ke4

28. Ng6 Ng5

29. Rxg5 Rf8

30. Rxf8 Bf7

31. Rxf7 Kd4

32. Rf4#

Match score:

India: 2.5 Japan: 1.5

India wins 2.5-1.5

White: Laura Amore (2569) Black: Santa Kļava (2248)

1. e4 e5

2. Nf3 f5

3. exf5 e4

4. Nd4 Qf6

5. c3 Nc6

6. Qg4 d5

7. Bb5 Ne7

8. d3 Nxf5

9. Qf4 exd3

10. O-O Bd6

11. Qf3 Nxd4

12. cxd4 Qxf3

13. Bxc6+ bxc6

14. Re1+ Qe2

15. Bd2 O-O

16. Rxe2 dxe2

17. Nc3 Ba6

18. f3 c5

19. Rc1 cxd4

20. Nxd5 c5

21. Bg5 Rf5

22. Ne7+ Bxe7

23. Bd2 Bg5

24. Bxg5 Rxg5

25. h4 d3

26. Kf2 d2

27. Rg1 Re8

28. Re1 dxe1=Q+

29. Kxe1 Rxg2

30. h5 Rd8

31. a4 Rd1#

Match score:

Latvia: 3 Italy: 1

Latvia wins 3-1