Chapter 437:

Striving to lose

En Passant Grandmaster

Back on the men's side, Ian scowled as he moved his knight to c6 and took notice of the score update. On one hand, he was glad Rasputin had lost, but on the other, he was beginning to get frustrated with his own game. The masked man was all smiles though.

"So you chose to bring out your secret weapon, and what a marvelous choice it was. Your fight against grandmaster Morphy might get harder, but your mission to popularize your opening will most certainly take off after this," the masked man thought as he moved his queen to d1.

Ian scratched his head and gritted his teeth in frustration. "What the hell is he doing!? He's not hitting me with dubious opening nor a normal one. But this opening doesn't feel like it's one of his trademark "disrespectful flex openings" as he put it. Is he assuming he can use me as a guinea pig under the assumption that I won't play my best due to my hatred for the tsar? I have pride... I'm a maestro... Don't think you can belittle me!" he thought as he moved his knight to e5.

The mystery only deepened for him though, as the masked man decided to capture the knight at e5 with his knight.

"Is he trading now? What the hell is his plan!?" Ian thought as he captured the knight at e5 with his queen.

"You must be thinking, "What is his plan?", well I'll show you," the masked man thought as he moved his rook to e1.

Ginji meanwhile was furious. Perhaps more so than Rasputin at the current moment. While he had never intended on winning his game, he did feel he at least had to mimic his 3rd round performance and lose in convincing fashion. But with Japan now up, he had to be careful.

"At the very least, it looks like Avian's going to win, but that means I gotta throw this match fast! Let's see. The tsar started off with b3, I went knight c6. Then d4, d5, bishop b2, grr, this is just a dead even game! I resign now, I won't be able to talk my way out, especially given the circumstances. I'll have to just play this one out and hope I get an opportunity to make an easy loss," Ginji thought as he moved his knight to f6.

Things continued naturally with knight f3, bishop f5, and a3 all being played. It was then that Ginji sensed another opportunity to play a weaker, but still natural move in the form of pawn to h6. Grigori took the cue and moved his pawn to c4, allowing Ginji to capture it with his d-pawn. Grigori captured said pawn with his b-pawn, then after the natural moves of e6 and g3, Ginji finally saw an opportunity to throw. It wasn't much, but queen d6 did provide a gateway of sorts for him to maneuver into a losing position.

Grigori moved his pawn to e3, doing his best to help Ginji lose inconspicuously, but even he was a bit flustered about what had just happened. "I didn't expect the oni-tiger to win so quickly. If Ian decides to throw in protest, all will come down to Avian. He's not my closest ally, but he is one of our nation's best players. He'll need to win this match as I won't settle for having anything less than 2 points," he thought as Ginji moved his knight to e4.

Now the exit ramp was beginning to take shape, with Grigori just needing to put the finishing touches on it in the form of bishop g2. And now, Ginji could move his bishop to g4, and have a viable excuse for losing. Of course, resigning right at this moment might still drawn suspicion, thus the two played on, starting with Grigori moving his queen to a4. Ginji followed up by castling queen's side, making things much easier for Grigori as now he could set up a nasty fork by moving his knight to c3.

"Excellent. You're a good collaborator, Mr. Tsar. Now let's end it off with a nice dramatic finish. That should hopefully push Zago-chwan into the red," Ginji thought as he moved his bishop to f5.

Now free to initiate the nasty fork, Grigori moved his knight to b5, prompting Ginji to move his queen to d7, and allow the check to occur.

"Check," Grigori stated as he captured the pawn at a7 with his knight.

Ginji quickly captured said knight with his knight, but Grigori quickly captured said knight with his queen, putting Ginji on the verge of mate should he make a mistake.

"Perfect, now we just touch move, and touch take," Ginji thought as he extended his hand and touched the pawn at b7.

Now came the theatrics as Ginji quickly tried to move the adjacent pawn at c7, but Grigori called the arbiters over to explain that Ginji had violated the touch move rule. Thus, Ginji was forced to move his b-pawn, choosing to move it to b6 before covering his face with his hands and pretending to cry.

"Checkmate. You should know that you can't try to break the rules under the lawful eyes of a tsar like me," Grigori chuckled as he moved his queen to a8, winning the game.

Russia had now equalized, and would likely take the lead if Avian managed to convert his win against Zago. If this did end up being the case, a draw was the best result team Japan could hope for.

"Damn you Ginji. I knew you'd throw. You really are nothing but a giant hindrance, especially with your theatrics. Now I can only hope the masked man wins. He damn well better considering he decided to play the opening I had saved up for Peter. Ugh, facing him will be so much harder now, assuming we get the chance to," Okisato thought.

Ian was also unhappy with this result. "A 2700-leveo grandmaster playing so sloppily? I have grounds to suspect foul play, but I fear bringing up the issue could backfire on team Japan. Grigori, you are truly despicable," Ian thought as he moved his bishop to c5.

The masked man wasn't phased in the slightest though. "So Ginji threw and Zago is on the ropes. Nothing to worry about. At worst, this will be a drawn match," he thought as he moved his queen to f3.

Ian was beginning to share a similar, but not identical sentiment. "This game looks like a draw. Perhaps I overthought things. Very well, I'll play for the draw as you wish," he thought as he moved his pawn to f5.

Though he was unable to hear it, in the commentator's booth, Danny was going crazy.

"Th- That move... DID YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENED!? The maestro... THE MAESTRO JUST..."

The full game:

White: Tsar Grigori Ivan Vasilyevich I (2818) Black: Ginji Inohara (2722)

1. b3 Nc6

2. d4 d5

3. Bb2 Nf6

4. Nf3 Bf5

5. a3 h6

6. c4 dxc4

7. bxc4 e6

8. g3 Qd6