Critical moment

That night, Mimoko stared in amazement as the blue began to vanish from her skin and hair. Even her outfit that had been soaked in the juice had returned to normal.

"Just what is this stuff?" she mumbled.

"Primo content farm, that's what!" Iori grinned as she filmed everything.

"It's actually a trade secret, but one that can be known if you have enough WWCF points on hand," Daria winked. "Now, let's begin our formal strategy meeting..."

...

Once everyone had fallen asleep, Daria snuck out of the room to meet up with Miga.

"It was a complete bust. In fact, it was a trap. Who gave you that info again?" Miga asked.

Daria pulled up her WWCF card and pulled up Mimoko's game logs. "Ireland's Keira O'Doherty. She's the biological mother of Sorcha Glas."

"O'Doherty? We just signed on a DSPCM for Ireland named O'Doherty. Saoirse O'Doherty, to be exact."

"Green hair, and an inability to speak, yes?"

"That's right, but how did you know?"

"She was in the library when Mimoko and I encountered Keira. In fact, she was the catalyst for how we even came in possession of that knowledge..."

As Daria explained everything that happened, Miga began to scowl. "I thought things would be easier with Scharlachrot gone, but either she left behind a detailed instruction manual or the Fairies have a new chief strategist. I guess things worked out in the end as I managed to nab some fairy grunts, but that there shows that the Fairies are serious about guarding her. I also found out Sorcha herself is a registered participant of Northern Ireland's women's team."

"Northern Ireland's part of the UK, yes? I guess that shouldn't come as a surprise. But that does add some more factors to things... Hmm, Miga, what if we..."

...

The next morning, Mimoko awoke to find her mother had already left the room. Noticing a new message on her phone, she checked it to find it was from Daria and read, "Already at the venue."

"Weird, but I wonder if there's something going on behind the scenes. It did seem like she had something she was trying to do yesterday. Well, I guess since she's not playing, she doesn't need to worry too much about things. Though speaking of which, I myself should get going to the venue," she thought as she got out of bed.

...

At the playing hall, Mimoko noticed Xiu smirking as she sat in the spectator area. "You're not being hauled off to WWCF HQ?"

"Nope, they're allowing me to stay, but I have to watch things from here. Guess us shaking hands fixed some of that shit after all... I still hate you though."

"I'm not surprised. Nor are you one of the first to hate me, but that doesn't excuse poor sportsmanship. Ishika-chan from India also despised me, yet she had no issues shaking my hand before and after our match."

"That nerd? Well whatevs, I'll shake your hand from now on."

Mimoko nodded and headed off, passing by the table where China was facing off against the New Kingdom of Simien.

"Mimoko-nee!" Noa waved.

"Noa-chan, how are you doing?"

"Fine, actually really motivated!"

A quick glance across the board told Mimoko all. Noa was up against Xiao Lin. Taking advantage of Xiu's suspension, Orit had decided to swap boards with Noa and was now seated at board 3 against Jia. Shoshana was facing off on board 4 against Tao, while Golda was up against Bao.

"What a farce of a strategy. At best it'll get you a draw," Xiao Lin scoffed at Orit.

In reality, Xiao Lin actually didn't mind the fact that she was up against the 2052-rated Noa. All she wanted after her stinging loss to Daria was a quick win to reassert her dominance, with Noa appearing to be the perfect sacrificial lamb for the task.

"Do your best, Noa, and if you start to get nervous, just wait a bit to calm down," Mimoko smiled as she patted Noa on the shoulder before heading off.

Noa blushed and smiled. "I will, Mimoko-nee."

A few minutes later, round 7 of the Chess Olympics officially began.

Noa opened the game by moving her pawn to e4, to which Xiao Lin responded to by moving her pawn to e5. Pawn to d4 and e captures d4 quickly followed, but that was the end of normalcy as Noa's next play was to move her pawn to f4.

"Huh? Are you making a mockery of me? I'm a maestro!" Xiao Lin scoffed in her mind as she moved her knight to c6.

While Xiao Lin was regarded as the weakest of all the maestros, she was nevertheless a maestro. Despite the fact that her entire team expected her to lose to Daria, they had complete faith in her ability to beat anyone else aside from elite players like Mimoko, Xiu, Peter, and Okisato to name a few, in addition to the other maestros.

Noa however wanted to buck that trend, which was why she decided to open with the Israeli/Simien gambit. It was a big risk though as Xiao Lin was more than capable of seeing through it.

Noa pressed on and moved her knight to d2 as Xiao Lin moved her pawn to d5. She then advanced her pawn to e5, while Xiao Lin decided to bring her knight out to h6. Knight b3 came next from Noa, but Xiao Lin responded to it with the odd play of bishop to g4, an attack on the queen Noa easily thwarted by moving her bishop to e2. Xiao Lin was clearly in the mood for trading though as she promptly captured the bishop at e2 with her bishop, to which Noa responded to by capturing said bishop with her queen.

"You think you're hot shit just because Daria's daughter praised you? Well I'll destroy your dreams and plant your face into the ground! Check!" Xiao Lin fumed as she slammed her bishop down on b4.

While the players couldn't hear it, the commentators watching the match were naturally up in arms about this play, mainly questioning why this move wasn't played earlier. Especially after Noa moved her bishop to d2, perfectly defending herself from the attack. Yet when Xiao Lin decided to capture the bishop at d2 with her bishop, everyone went quiet. A devious trap had now been placed, which nearly worked, but Noa stopped herself just before her hand made physical contact with her knight.

"The queen... I take with the queen," she thought as she captured the bishop at d2 with her queen.

Xiao Lin's eye twitched in fury as she moved her knight to f5, but still felt at ease overall due to being a pawn up. Noa moved her knight to f3, while Xiao Lin opted for yet another head scratching play in the form of rook to c8. The two players each castled king's side before Noa moved her a-rook to e1, and Xiao Lin moved her knight to e3.

"I bet you're feeling confident, but here's where I outplay you. A player of your caliber will never be able to get out of this mess!" Xiao Lin thought as she smugly stared down at the board.

Noa began anxiously tapping her foot. This was a critical moment, and she could not afford to blunder here. Time began to tick by, but a revelation soon found it's way to Noa as she steadied her trembling hand before moving her rook to f2.

Xiao Lin's smug grin vanished. "Little shit, how about this!?" she thought as she moved her knight to c4.

Noa took a deep breath before moving her queen to e2, dodging Xiao Lon's attack. The onslaught was far from over though as Xiao Lin captured the pawn at b2 with her knight, leaving Noa with a choice.

"The f-knight or the b-knight? ... The f-knight," Noa thought as she captured the pawn at d4 with her f-knight.

Her nerves were slowly beginning to calm, while on the other side of the board, Xiao Lin's anger was beginning to crank up. "You're pissing me off! I'm pissed off enough thanks to Daria, so piss me off anymore and I'll really get physical with you!" Xiao Lin thought as she captured the knight at d4 with her knight.

Noa in turn simply captured said knight with her knight, prompting Xiao Lin to move her knight to c4. Now it was Noa's turn to go on the attack which she did by first moving her queen to h5. Xiao Lin completely ignored it though, instead opting to move her pawn to c5, attacking the knight. A knight which Noa simply moved away to the safety of f5.

"HAH! You just blew it! Say good bye to one of your pieces!" Xiao Lin cackled in her mind as she moved her pawn to g6.

Noa's eyes widened in shock, as did those of everyone currently watching the game. They couldn't believe what had just happened.

"... She blundered... She blundered!" Noa thought as she moved her queen to h6, her nerves beginning to reignite.

But these nerves were nerves of excitement. And on the other side of the board, panic was beginning to manifest itself in Xiao Lin.

"No... NO! THIS ISN'T OVER YET!" she thought as she captured the knight at f5 with her g-pawn.

There was now only one viable move Noa could make, but it was so easy to see, she didn't hesitate in the slightest while moving her rook to f3. Now Xiao Lin was in trouble and everyone knew it, yet she fought on and moved her queen to b6, desperately hoping for a chance at reversing things.

But Noa's nerves had begun to calm themselves, as now she could see an easy path to victory. "I'm not going to mess this up!" she thought as she moved her pawn to e6.

And at that moment, Xiao Lin let loose a face of pure anger and frustration. Her only viable move was knight to e5, but instead, she moved her queen to b2, blundering into mate in 8.

"Check," Noa nervously stuttered as she moved her rook to g3.

Xiao Lin let loose a frustrated shriek, drawing everyone's attention, as she angrily slammed her king down on h8. But it was this act that completely sealed her doom as now Noa's nerves had completely vanished.

"I pity you, but you're just going to have to accept your loss with grace," Noa thought as she moved her pawn to c3.

Xiao Lin didn't care, and angrily captured the pawn at c3 with her queen, naturally resulting in Noa capturing said queen with her rook. Xiao Lin in turn retaliated by capturing the pawn at e6 with her f-pawn, while Noa moved her rook back to g3 in preparation for the coup de gras.

Desperate, Xiao Lin moved her rook to f7, but Noa simply captured the pawn at e6 with her queen, further infuriating Xiao Lin. "LIKE HELL I CAN LOSE! YOU'RE ONLY 2052! 2052! I'M 3020! I'M AN ELITE! A MAESTRO! YOU'RE NOT ON THE SAME LEVEL AS ME!" she shouted aloud as she slammed her c-rook down on f8.

Noa shook her head in disappointment and captured the rook at f7 with her queen.

"STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT! I'M A MAESTRO!" Xiao Lin shouted as she captured said queen with her rook.

"If you're a maestro, then I'm disappointed in your behavior, as I'm sure Mimoko-nee would be as well. Check," Noa sternly glared as she moved her rook to e8.

Xiao Lin went silent and sunk her hands into her face to hide the tears that were beginning to pour out. She stayed in that state for a good 5 minutes before finally mustering the strength to move her rook to f8.

"And that's that. Checkmate," Noa huffed as she captured the rook at f8 with her rook, winning the game.

Noa extended her hand, expecting Xiao Lin to swat it away, but to her delight, Xiao Lin managed to fulfill the bare minimum requirement of what was considered a legal handshake before storming off in tears.

The other Chinese players were in complete shock. They couldn't believe Xiao Lin had lost to Noa who was at this point, an unknown in their eyes. But now, not only would Noa's name become far more well known in the chess world, but Xiao Lin's loss would have such a demoralizing effect on her teammates, that it would eventually lead to all them losing and the New Kingdom of Simien winning the match with a perfect 4-0 score.

It was humiliation, but ironically enough, the one who was laughing the most was none other than Xiu. "Xiao Lin botched it and you all got swept! Hilarious! Best of all, I wasn't playing so none of this was on me! And now that I think of it, Mimoko was higher rated than me anyway, so me losing to her shouldn't be unnatural. But Xiao Lin losing to that Noa girl? I think if this keeps up, I'll have a solid case to make for becoming China's new maestro!" she cackled aloud.

The full game:

White: Noa Ben-Horin (2052) Black: Maestro Xiao Lin (3020)

1. e4 e5

2. d4 exd4

3. f4 Nc6

4. Nd2 d5

5. e5 Nh6

6. Nb3 Bg4

7. Be2 Bxe2

8. Qxe2 Bb4+

9. Bd2 Bxd2+

10. Qxd2 Nf5

11. Nf3 Rc8

12. O-O O-O

13. Rae1 Ne3

14. Rf2 Nc4

15. Qe2 Nxb2

16. Nfxd4 Nxd4

17. Nxd4 Nc4

18. Qh5 c5

19. Nf5 g6

20. Qh6 gxf5

21. Rf3 Qb6

22. e6 Qb2

23. Rg3+ Kh8

24. c3 Qxc3

25. Rxc3 fxe6

26. Rg3 Rf7

27. Qxe6 Rcf8

28. Qxf7 Rxf7

29. Re8+ Rf8

30. Rxf8#

Match score:

New Kingdom of Simien: 4 China: 0

New Kingdom of Simien wins 4-0