Psychological gambit

As Chaya resumed her game with Quojin, she noticed Orit staring directly at her board. "I'm not doing THAT badly, so why's she staring at my board- ...!"

Chaya's eyes widened as she stared at the state of things over on Orit's board. Orit was currently facing off against Mongolia's number 1 female player, Checheyigen Khan. Despite sharing her name with one of Genghis Khan's most famous daughters, she was 100% a woman from the current era instead of an undead visage like some of her teammates. But to understand why Orit was staring so intently at Chaya's board, one would need to go back in time to when the round first started.

...

The game had started off simple enough. D4, d5, knight f3, bishop f5, and c4 made it a Queen's Gambit Declined: Baltic defense. Orit however was an aggressive player, especially if her opponent was someone she felt NEEDED to be taken down. Thus, she made the bold play of capturing the pawn at c4 with her d-pawn.

The next two moves of knight c3 and knight f6, did little to sway things, but Checheyigen's seemingly innocent pawn to e4 play tilted things slightly in Orit's favor as now she could capture the pawn at e4 with no worry.

Checheyigen then made another mistake, yet a perfectly human move, in the form of knight captures c4. Without an engine and eval bar on hand, this would look like nothing, but bishop captures e4, bishop captures c4, and bishop d5 later, and it all becomes clear.

"I did things in the wrong order. I should have captured c4, first!" Checheyigen angrily thought as she moved her queen to b3.

Orit immediately captured the bishop at c4 with her bishop, resulting in Checheyigen capturing said bishop with her queen to stay even.

Now was the point Orit felt it was necessary to rely on the chip. Unlike other executive board members, Orit did not have her chip implanted in her brain, rather it was in a mechanical eye concealed by a veil of hair. Pewler was the only other executive board member that didn't have a chip in his brain, though unbeknownst to him, he did in fact have the EXBD chip, as it was known, in his system.

As for Raymond, he didn't seem to have a chip, though he was the source of them, raising more mysteries as to just who he really was. But while he might have been the origin of the EXBD chips, he wasn't the chief distributer of them, nor was he technically even a member of the executive board despite his purple WWCF card and 2999 rating. Rather, the one in charge of the seemingly 18-member executive board was the one in charge of distributing the chips. Their identity was unknown, though whoever they were, they had connections to the Desperado, Phantom, as he was the one that gave Orit and Gudit their chips.

Orit stared at the board as her mechanical eye glowed purple, causing a faint outline of it to shine through the veil of hair concealing it. Checheyigen took notice and promptly called for an arbiter, however, the arbiter dismissed her concern.

"What she's using... is perfectly legal, despite what my personal opinions on the matter may be," the arbiter sighed as Orit moved her pawn to c6.

Checheyigen scowled and moved her bishop to d2 as Orit seemingly turned her eye off before moving her pawn to e6. Despite the heightened tensions, things continued on relatively normally. Queen c2, bishop e7, a king's side castle, but then came the aggressive queen d5 push from Orit, sending Checheyigen deep into thought before she decided to just go with pawn to h3.

Orit decided to muster her forces and moved her knight to d7, seemingly unnerving Checheyigen to the point where she made the head scratching, king to h1 play.

"So any idea why that came to be?" Nancy asked Danny as Orit castled king's side.

"No clue. Looks like Checheyigen just moved her f-rook to c1, further baffling me as to why she went king h1. I don't know. But I do know Orit's chances are looking good."

"It looks like Orit just moved her f-rook to d8. With that, her battering ram so to speak looks far more solid compared to Checheyigen's."

"And Checheyigen's play of bishop f4, doesn't look to be doing any favors as now Orit can go... can go... Hmm..."

Danny pinched his lip as he tried to figure out at a glance what move Orit could possibly make. Nancy did too, but gave up and decided to pull up the engine analysis on her screen.

"Knight f8, is the best move according to the engine."

"Yeah, no way she's finding that. No human could."

Yet lo and behold, Orit moved her knight to f8, leaving the commentators speechless.

Checheyigen meanwhile began to seethe with fury as the purple outline of Orit's mechanical eye glowed once more. "Damn cheaters. Us humans had to go through intense training, yet you're allowed to just pop a chip in your eye and get an exclusive peek at the best possible moves!? Appalling!" she thought as she moved her bishop to c7.

Orit once again turned off her mechanical eye and moved her rook to d7. This was deliberate as she only used her eye when necessary so as not to overload it. But her turning it off after using it also came with another benefit as doing so sent the message to her opponent that "I can now handle you naturally".

Said message seemed to have been received loud and clear by Checheyigen as she angrily moved her bishop to e5, her frustrations only growing after Orit moved her a-rook to d8. "She's cheating... CHEATING! I thought the WWCF was on top of this stuff! Do they bend the rules for these so-called "executive board members"!? They weren't even publicly revealed until the tournament began! It's unfair... UNFAIR!" Checheyigen thought as she slammed her rook down on e1.

Orit meanwhile was calm and collected. "She's losing rational. Perhaps a resignation might come soon, but nonetheless, I play on, assuming she won't resign," she thought as she moved her knight to g6.

At this point, Checheyigen decided to take things to an endgame and moved her queen to b3, prompting Orit to captyre it with her queen. Checheyigen immediately captured said queen with her a-pawn, but Orit countered the rook with a now open a-file by simply moving her pawn to a6.

Checheyigen clicked her tongue and moved her rook to e2, but Orit went on the attack and captured the bishop at e5 with her knight. Checheyigen captured said knight with her d-pawn, but Orit continued to mount pressure by moving her rook to d3. Checheyigen began shaking in frustration as she moved her pawn up to b4, but let out a frustrated groan as she failed to notice the bishop that swiftly captured said pawn at b4.

She dejectedly moved her king to g1, as Orit marched her pawn down to a5. Out of frustration, Checheyigen moved her rook to e3, giving Orit a chance to possibly end things in a single check.

"Check. I can see the mate," Orit stated as she moved her rook to d1, all while her eye glowed once more.

The ploy had the opposite effect though as the sight of Orit using her mechanical eye once more only reignited Checheyigen's rage. "Alright, punk, you wanna play that way, bring it! I'll turn this into a draw, then get the other half of my full point in trial!" she thought as she captured the rook at d1 with her rook.

Orit didn't seem phased though, anticipating that things would turn out like this as she captured the rook at d1 with her rook, sending Checheyigen's king to h2.

Upon that move, Orit's kingside pawns came to life, starting with the h-pawn moving to h6. Checheyigen decided to try using her king as an attacking piece and moved it to g3, but Orit had another nasty trick up her sleeve, pawn to b5. Now Orit had a high chance of promoting a queenside pawn, but Checheyigen didn't care and moved her king to g4. Pawn to c5 changed that as now Orit had three pawns all lined up on the 5th rank and ready to descend towards promotion.

Now Checheyigen had to create counterplay, moving her rook to e4 in hopes of doing so. Yet Orit simply moved her pawn down to a4. It didn't take a genius to see that Orit would be promoting at least one of her pawns without fail. Checheyigen decided to go for a desperate ploy, akin to what a Desperado would do, by moving her king to h5. The irony being she herself was not a Desperado, nor did she wield a DESPER, despite some of her countrymen like Jad doing so.

Orit also moved her king, but to f8, confusing Checheyigen as Orit hadn't done so with the use of her mechanical eye. "What is she planning? Well whatever, I force a stalemate, I can walk away with pride knowing I foiled this cheater," she thought as she moved her pawn to g4.

Orit moved her rook to d3, resulting in Checheyigen countering by moving her rook to e3. Orit didn't take it though, instead opting to move her pawn down to c4. Checheyigen ignored the action there and instead moved her pawn to g5, but Orit forced her to refocus her attention to that area of the board as she captured the rook at e3 with her rook, forcing Checheyigen to capture said rook with her f-pawn.

"Check. As I said, I saw victory eons ago," Orit snarled as she moved her pawn to g6.

The small provocation worked as with a furious glare, Checheyigen captures the pawn at h6 with her king, blundering into mate in two.

"And that's it," Orit thought as she moved her king to g8.

Checheyigen went silent as she stared at the board. "Where do I go? I don't know," she thought as she settled on moving her pawn to h4.

Despite the mate being there, Orit held off on making her move, in order to observe the ongoing game between Chaya and Quojin. At this point, Noa and Golda had already won their games, while Chaya on the verge of doing so as well.

"She's one move from mate, so why's she waiting on me? Is it because she used that eye thing? Does she want me to win or draw to make our victory look more fair? Ugh, what a difficult woman. Does she have any idea just how exhausted I am? Well, guess another win couldn't hurt," Chaya thought.

As soon as Chaya won her game decisively, making the match score 3-0, Orit moved her bishop to f8, winning her game. "Checkmate. This is what you get for harassing one of my people."

Checheyigen stared at the board with a disappointed scowl. "You're lucky your people carried your ass to victory legitimately, otherwise we'd be in a trial session with the WWCF arbiters right now."

"Then good they won, as it saved you some time; the end result would have been the same either way," Orit coldly declared as she handed in her move sheet before walking away.

The New Kingdom of Simien had prevailed over Mongolia 4-0, though controversy would naturally surround the board 1 game between Orit and Checheyigen. And later that night, said game would become a focal point for discussion amongst the Japanese team as the women's team was set to face the New Kingdom of Simien, next round.

The full game:

White: Checheyigen Khan (2346) Black: Orit Sharir (2960)

1. d4 d5

2. Nf3 Bf5

3. c4 dxc4

4. Nc3 Nf6

5. e4 Nxe4

6. Nxe4 Bxe4

7. Bxc4 Bd5

8. Qb3 Bxc4

9. Qxc4 c6

10. Bd2 e6

11. Qc2 Be7

12. O-O Qd5

13. h3 Nd7

14. Kh1 O-O

15. Rfc1 Rfd8

16. Bf4 Nf8

17. Bc7 Rd7

18. Be5 Rad8

19. Re1 Ng6

20. Qb3 Qxb3

21. axb3 a6

22. Re2 Nxe5

23. dxe5 Rd3

24. b4 Bxb4

25. Kg1 a5

26. Re3 Rd1+

27. Rxd1 Rxd1+

28. Kh2 h6

29. Kg3 b5

30. Kg4 c5

31. Re4 a4

32. Kh5 Kf8

33. g4 Rd3

34. Re3 c4

35. g5 Rxe3

36. fxe3 g6+

37. Kxh6 Kg8

38. h4 Bf8#

Match score:

New Kingdom of Simien: 4 Mongolia: 0

New Kingdom of Simien wins 4-0