Haste makes waste

Now with only two games left, all eyes turned to the game between the masked man and Maestro Alexandre. However, this game had already been decided ever since the 6th move.

...

Going back in time to the start of round 7,The game has begun with the masked man opening by moving his pawn to e3. Upon seeing the move, Alexandre went into a long think, baffling commentators and observers as to why he was spending so much time on his first move, but there was a catch. Alexandre knew what the masked man might have in store for him and began to weigh his options. Twenty minutes later, he finally moved his pawn to e5.

Then much to his shock, the masked man moved his pawn to d4. "Huh? Is he not going to play the Nakamura? Then why... The reversed French... So he's mocking me," Alexandre thought as he captured the pawn at d4 with his e-pawn.

"No, this isn't a mockery... Or perhaps it is. It all depends how you view it," the masked man thought as he captured the pawn at d4 with his e-pawn.

"You're reading my mind beneath that mask, aren't you. I've never liked you. Check," Alexandre glared as he moved his queen to e7.

The masked man remained silent and moved his bishop to e2, and from there, things went down pretty normally. Knight f6, knight f3, h6, a king's side castle, it all looked normal, and so did pawn to d5. Yet that seemingly natural move was actually a mistake.

"Alexandre, you've got a great ability to see the right moves, but it doesn't carry you all the way," the masked man thought as he moved his rook to e1.

All according to plan, Alexandre made the natural move of knight to c6, unintentionally blundering away the game. He didn't realize it, especially given the fact that he was preoccupied with the masked man's play of bishop to a6. Believing he could capture it later, he first moved his knight to e4, then after the masked man seemingly forsook the bishop by moving his pawn to c4, Alexandre happily captured said bishop at a6 with his b-pawn.

The masked man captured the pawn at d5 with his c-pawn, prompting Alexandre to move his knight to d8. The masked man moved his knight to c3. Alexandre moved his bishop to f5. Yet despite the two both playing so intently, only one of them was aware of the true state of the game. But after bishop f4 and g5 were played, Alexandre realized it too little too late.

"Check. Sorry, but your chances at avenging the women's team are looking just about impossible now," the masked man taunted as he moved his queen to a4.

Alexandre brushed the taunt and the check off by moving his bishop to d7, but quickly realized just how bad his position truly was after the masked man captured the knight at e4 with his knight. "That man's evil. If I capture the bishop, I get humiliated with a smothered mate. And if I continue on... Ugh."

It had started back at move 6, and by move 10, Maestro Alexandre had completely blundered into a losing position. He knew the masked man was not someone to be taken lightly, yet he had miscalculated greatly, which would only hurt his team. Glancing over towards Alouette and Le Mime's boards only further served to frustrate Alexandre.

"I should have been more pushy with Arsene. Why must he be so difficult at times," he thought as he moved his knight to e6.

For the next few moves, both players played perfectly. Queen captures a6, g captures f4, d captures e6, f captures e6, knight e5, all was perfect until rook d8. To be fair, the only worse Alexandre could get at this point was blundering into mate, but with how white the eval bar currently was, it looked like a forced mate could come at any move.

D5 was the masked man's next plan of attack, with Alexandre desperately searching for counterplay with bishop g7. But the one who ended up getting countered was Alexandre himself, who found himself closer to outright resigning after the masked man moved his knight to g6.

"A nasty fork... I want to resign, but I have a public image to fight till my last," Alexandre thought as he moved his queen to f7, allowing the masked man to capture the rook at h8 with his knight.

Alexandre promptly captured said knight with his bishop, but the masked man was already busy setting up another nasty fork by capturing the pawn at e6 with his d-pawn. Once again, Alexandre chose to save his queen, moving it to f5, and allowing the masked man to check him by capturing the bishop at d7 with his e-pawn.

Seeking to clear his mind, Alexandre got up and walked around, not returning to the board until nearly an hour later. "I'm surprised everyone's games are still going on," he thought as he sat back down and moved his king to f8.

The masked man moving his a-rook to d1 quickly reminded him of why he didn't want to play anymore in the first place, but at this point, he had no choice, and forsook resignation in favor of moving his pawn to h5. But after the masked man moved his queen to c6, Alexandre finally had enough.

"I won't resign... but I'm done trying to defend an already besieged fortress," he thought as he captured the pawn at b2 with his bishop.

The masked man nodded, but decided to take his time, waiting a good hour before finally moving his rook to d5. Alexandre refused to resign, yet hastened his demise by moving his queen to g4. The masked man moved his knight to g5, yet rather than give a petty check, Alexandre opted to instead move his bishop to e5.

"Check, going to go until mate?" the masked man asked as he moved his queen to h6.

Alexandre begrudgingly nodded as he moved his bishop to g7.

"So be it. Check," the masked man nodded as he moved his rook to e8, forcing Alexandre to capture said rook with his rook.

"Check. Pardon the underpromotion, but I have a habit of "flexing" as they say," the masked man stated as he captured the rook at e8 with his d-pawn and promoted it into a rook, forcing Alexandre to capture said rook with his king.

The masked man then waited until his time was down to 5 minutes before delivering another check in the form of queen to g6. Alexandre in turn waited until his timer had nearly run out, finally moving his king to f8 with just a second left on the clock. By this time, both Okisato and Ginji had won their games, and with the Zago and LVM game still ongoing, but reaching it's conclusion, this would be the game that ultimately decided the match.

"Checkmate. You got too carried away in the opening. Do that once more, and Mimoko will blitz you when she gets the chance to challenge you," the masked man stated as he moved his queen to f7, winning the game.

Japan had now won the match regardless of what happened at the final board, but eventually, Zago managed to convert the win, meaning Japan would win the match with a perfect 4-0 score.

"Ugh, that was a long one," Zago groaned as he got up.

As he did, he turned to notice Vonnie, staring intently at him with an eerie grin on her face.

"... Finally... I made it," she giggled before vanishing into the shadows.

The full game:

White: The masked man (101) Black: Maestro Alexandre Bealieu (3100)

1. e3 e5

2. d4 exd4

3. exd4 Qe7+

4. Be2 Nf6

5. Nf3 h6

6. O-O d5

7. Re1 Nc6

8. Ba6 Ne4

9. c4 bxa6

10. cxd5 Nd8

11. Nc3 Bf5

12. Bf4 g5

13. Qa4+ Bd7

14. Nxe4 Ne6

15. Qxa6 gxf4

16. dxe6 fxe6

17. Ne5 Rd8

18. d5 Bg7

19. Ng6 Qf7

20. Nxh8 Bxh8

21. dxe6 Qf5

22. exd7+ Kf8

23. Rad1 h5

24. Qc6 Bxb2

25. Rd5 Qg4

26. Ng5 Be5

27. Qh6+ Bg7

28. Re8+ Rxe8

29. dxe8=R+ Kxe8

30. Qg6+ Kf8

31. Qf7#

Match score:

Japan: 4 France: 0

Japan wins 4-0