Chapter 457:

King of the hill

En Passant Grandmaster

Anastasia proudly smirked as she stared at the notification for the 6B tournament. "It's time for me to take center stage. But... I'm gonna need a partner. Oksana, down for shaving your head?"

"Sure, sure, but Mira would be more down," Oksana smirked.

Mira shot her a nasty glare. "Never in your life."

"Then what if we play King of the hill with loser having to join Anastasia in going bald?"

The others agreed the proposal was fair, with the exception of Vesna.

"I don't think we should even be participating in this. There's something off about it," she mumbled.

"It sounds like it's just some dumb billionaire's eccentric gala, but if going bald weren't a requirement, nobody would bat an eye to participating," Lyubov shrugged.

"I have to agree. If it weren't for going bald, I'd likely be signing up to participate in this," Mira sighed.

"Then let's force you to participate with this game," Oksana grinned as she sent the challenge request to her sister.

Mira begrudgingly accepted, and the match began shortly after. Oksana opened the game by moving her pawn to e4 with Mira responding to it with pawn to e5. D4 and e captures d4 were soon in play, resulting in Oksana opting to capture the pawn at d4 with her queen.

"Why are you playing more recklessly than usual?" Mira asked as she moved her knight to c6.

"Because it's King of the hill," Oksana replied as she moved her queen to d3.

Mira scowled and moved her pawn to d5, willing to take the queens off the board early. Oksana accepted, resulting in queen captures d5, queen captures d5, and e captures d5, making things a bit easier for Oksana. Mira then went for counterplay in the form of knight to b4, but Oksana didn't care and began the charge to the center with king e2.

"And you finally slip up," Mira sighed as she moved her bishop to c5.

"Really? What variant we playing again?" Oksana taunted as she moved her king to f3.

Mira clicked her tongue and promptly moved her bishop to f5.

"Ah, I was hoping you'd forget. Shouldn't have said anything," Oksana sighed as she moved her pawn to g4.

Mira let out a frustrated groan as she moved her knight to f6, allowing Oksana to capture the bishop at f5 with her g-pawn. "Oh forget it. I'm gonna do this anyway!" she thought as she captured the pawn at c2 with her knight.

Oksana ignored the rook, and inched closer to victory by moving her king to f4.

"As if I'd let you! Check!" Mira cried as she moved her bishop to c6.

Oksana moved her king to f3. "A little more, and it's mine," she thought as Mira castled queen's side.

Sure enough an opportunity presented itself as after Oksana moved her knight to c3, Mira captured the rook at a1 with her knight.

"And that's game for me!" Oksana declared as she moved her king to e3.

"No it isn't. Check!" Mira glared as she moved her knight to c2.

With a smug smirk, Oksana moved her king to d3, resulting in Mira intensifying her scowl. "Check. Your position is completely lost," she proclaimed as she moved her knight to b4.

"Sure, in normal chess. BUT NOT KING OF THE HILL! CHECKMATE!" Okasan declared as she moved her king to d4, winning the game.

Mira's jaw dropped, before she covered her face with her hands in shame. "Dammit. This means I gotta shave my head, right?"

"You bet, so let's get going," Anastasia smiled as she began dragging Mira out with her.

Once they were gone, Vesna continued to delve deep into her mind to try and figure out why she was so uneasy about the tournament. "What is it? I feel it's on the tip of my tongue, but I can't quite place it."

The full game:

White: DSPCM Oksana Udovychenko (2563) Black: Mira Udovychenko (2606)

1. e4 e5

2. d4 exd4

3. Qxd4 Nc6

4. Qd3 d5

5. Qxd5 Qxd5

6. exd5 Nb4

7. Ke2 Bc5

8. Kf3 Bf5

9. g4 Nf6

10. gxf5 Nxc2