Chapter 419:

Alouette, gentille alouette

En Passant Grandmaster

As Mimoko, Iori, and Barbro accompanied the Mexican women's team on the bus, another game in the Japan vs France match finally reached it's conclusion.

"Ugh, that was a slog. I think this might be one of the most annoying chess experiences of my life," Okisato grumbled as he handed his scoresheet to the arbiter.

...

Going back in time to the start of round 7, Alouette opened the game by moving his knight to h3, as Okisato responded by moving his pawn to d5. As soon as g3 was on the boar, Okisato instantly realized what Alouette was going for.

"The Paris gambit..."

Deciding to comply, Okisato moved his pawn to e4 as Alouette shot him a mocking grin while moving his pawn to f4. "No need to taunt me, I'm giving you what you want," Okisato thought as he captured the knight at h3 with his bishop.

Alouette in turn captured said bishop with his bishop, while Okisato continued to humor him by capturing the pawn at f4 with his e-pawn.

"Hon, hon, hon! Now ze Paris gambit shall flatten you worse than a wildebeest!" Alouette thought as he castled king's side.

The pleasantries were over though as Okisato wasted no time in capturing the pawn at g3 with his f-pawn. Alouette captured said pawn with his h-pawn, but now that Okisato had an advantage, he refused to give Alouette an inch, and moved his knight to f6. D3, bishop g6, and rook f3 were then played before Alouette abruptly got up and headed off to watch the other games.

Not in any worry whatsoever, Okisato moved his knight to c6 before getting up to go take a look around the playing hall himself. It was at this point that he ended up stumbling upon the Croatia vs New Republic of Paeonia match in the women's section, leading to him hearing Biljana speaking a language he never heard.

"It sounds Slavic, perhaps similar to Serbian and Montenegrin, but it also sounds too distinct to just be dialect. The accent, the words, just what was that language?"

As he headed back to his board, Okisato noticed that Alouette was still nowhere to be seen. "Well, guess I'll go check on the girls to return the favor to Inoue-senpai," he thought.

Little did he know that Alouette had just made a very underhanded play.

"Hon, hon, hon! You are in check, and you do not even know it! Moving ze rook over to e3 just a square away from where it was had ze effect of making it look as though ze board was the same as you left it, but it wasn't! Now you will wander until ze time runs out. Monsieur Ginji might get an obligatory win, but ze rest of us will crush you for ze ladies," Alouette thought as he watched from afar.

While Okisato would return and catch on to Alouette's plan, moving his king to f8 to stop his clock from ticking down any further, the ploy had successfully shaved a good 35 minutes off Okisato's clock, and that was just for that one move. Alouette tried his trick again, this time by subtly moving his pawn to c3 when Okisato was away from the board.

However, Okisato only ended up losing 5 minutes of time, and after moving his pawn to h5, decided to just remain at the board. Alouette caught on, and changed tactics, returning to the board to move his queen to a4, yet that didn't mean he'd stay at the board until the match ended. Okisato's play of pawn to h4 kept him from immediately leaving, as he first decided to capture said pawn with his g-pawn.

"I'm not letting you leave just yet," Okisato thought as he moved his pawn to d4, setting off a chain reaction of captures on the square, starting with c captures d4, knight captures d4, and finally queen captures d4 before ending in bishop h2, check.

"Hon, hon, hon? You sacrifice ze bishop to me? For what?" Alouette thought as he captured the bishop at h2 with his king.

The answer to that was the queen, yet Alouette didn't show any shock or dissatisfaction after witnessing Okisato capture his queen at d4 with his queen. Instead, he simply moved his bishop to g2 and proceeded to head off wandering again.

Once he was out of sight, Okisato decided to give him a taste of his own medicine and capture the pawn at h4 with his queen, putting him in check. He then got up to walk around, though made sure to always keep his board in view.

However, Alouette didn't return until nearly everyone else in the playing hall had finished their games. Just under 7 minutes remained on his clock, completely erasing the time advantage he had over Okisato, but he didn't care.

"I will just offer him a draw. With how late we're dragging this out, he must crave ze hot soup of the cafeteria," Alouette thought as he moved his king to g1 and attempted to head off again.

Okisato was done with the tricks, and promptly returned to the board to move his rook to e8. "And with that, it's mate. Now I just need to keep an eye on my clock, and we'll have a win under our belts," he thought as Alouette returned to move his rook to h3. "Check. I'm done with your games," he growled as he moved his queen to e1.

A scowl finally appeared on Alouette's face as he moved his bishop to f1, and continued to intensify after Okisato captured the rook at h3 with his rook. He began mumbling something in French under his breath as he moved his knight to d2, and came close to letting loose a vocal outburst after Okisato gave him one more check in the form of queen g3.

Alouette was now forced to move his bishop to g2, but as soon as Okisato captured the pawn at e2 with his rook, the smug smile returned as Alouette got up and headed off, without even bothering to move a piece.

At this point, this match was the only one still taking place in both sections. Deciding it was best to just stay put, Okisato glanced over to see the state of the other's games.

"Ginji's in a winning position, but whether he actually chooses to win is a different story. Zago's locked in a really long endgame, which isn't surprising considering LVM is really fighting for that draw. And the masked man... Hmm?"

"Hon, hon, HON! Zere is no full moon, but ze wolf comes out," Alouette snickered as he returned and turned into a werewolf before Okisato's eyes before moving his pawn to a4 with just a second left on his clock to spare.

Okisato's clock began ticking down, however, there was still plenty of time left on it. Thus, he decided to wait for a bit, which allowed him to witness the end of Ginji's game. However, he didn't choose to win immediately. Rather, he forced Alouette to wait until his own clock had ticked down to 10 seconds before finally winning the game by capturing the bishop at g2 with his queen.

"And that's checkmate. Also, fuck you for what you did."

Alouette responded by blowing a raspberry before returning to human form and storming away. Japan now led the match 2-0, but based on how things were looking at the other boards, it was likely the match wouldn't be decided for a few more minutes.

The full game:

White: Alouette Baguette (2007) Black: Okisato Tanabe (2700)

1. Nh3 d5

2. g3 e5

3. f4 Bxh3

4. Bxh3 exf4

5. O-O fxg3

6. hxg3 Nf6

7. d3 Bd6

8. Rf3 Nc6

9. Re3+ Kf8

10. c3 h5