Blitzing beauties

The divisions for the tournament were as follows, Division 1 included the United States of America, Kazakhstan, Estonia, Serbia, Croatia, the Åland Islands, Indonesia, and Moldova. Division 2 was made up of the German Empire of Prussia, Georgia, Spain, Switzerland, Ireland, Brazil, New Zealand, and Tanzania. Division 3 was the one team Japan had been placed in along with the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Türkiye, Montenegro, the Neo-Babylonian Empire, Peru, and Sweden. Division 4 also included a favorite in the form of Norway along with France, Romania, Greece, Latvia, Antarctica, Mexico, and Wales.

Division 5 also had some notable teams such as India and the Israeli Kingdom of Simien along with England, Vietnam, Lithuania, Austria, Portugal, and Canada. China was the clear favorite of Division 6, though there was some notable talent such as Poland, Armenia, Argentina, Czechoslovakia, South Africa, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the Republic of Korea though some of them would likely be easy prey for China. Division 7 housed host nation, Hungary, along with the Neo Kingdom of Egypt, Italy, the New Republic of Paeonia, Ecuador, Australia, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. Finally, there was Division 8 which contained Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Denmark, Belgium, Uzbekistan, the Philippines, Albania, and Kosovo.

Things kicked off in Division 3 with Mimoko opening her game by moving her pawn to d4 while Izetta responded by moving her pawn to g6. E4 and bishop g7 naturally followed, but it was then that Mimoko decided to mix things up and play knight to c3. As a result of that and the low amount of time on the clock, Izetta opted to move her pawn to d5.

Meanwhile on the other board, Ivelisse had opened with e4, while Daria had responded to it with e6, the French Defense. Knight f3 came next, prompting Daria to offer up a trade of pawns by moving her pawn to d5. Ivelisse accepted and captured said pawn with her e-pawn. But the moment Daria captured said pawn with her e-pawn...

"Mmph [Check]!"

Ivelisse moved her queen to e2.

"Idiot, you can't be needlessly aggressive just because this is bughouse. Damn the gags, they're really hindering us all," Izetta thought as she moved her pawn to f6, while Daria moved her bishop to e7 on her board.

As Mimoko moved her knight to f3, Izetta scowled as Ivelisse began to freeze up. Deciding to give her some material, Izetta made the risky play of capturing the pawn at e6 with her f-pawn, resulting in Mimoko capturing said pawn with her knight. Then came part two of the madness as Izetta captured the knight at e5 with her bishop, resulting in said bishop being captured by Mimoko's d-pawn.

Ivelisse, meanwhile, had finally moved her pawn to d4, while Daria moved her knight to f6. At that point, Ivelisse had decided to deliver another check by moving her queen to b5, to which Daria naturally countered by moving her pawn to c6.

"Ugh, I wish I could tell her to stop with the needless checks," Izetta thought as she moved her pawn to c6 while Ivelisse moved her queen to d3 in her game.

But little did Izetta know that despite not being able to converse with each other, Daria and Mimoko were perfectly reading each other's thoughts.

Looking at each other and smiling as much as their sealed lips would permit, Mimoko and Daria dropped their pawns on g7 and e4, respectively. Both were killer plays as Izetta stared in utter shock, while Ivelisse moved her queen to c3 in frustration.

That frustration would ultimately be team Peru's downfall as after Daria captured the knight at f3 with her e-pawn, Ivelisse captured said pawn with her queen, allowing Daria to play the devastating bishop g4. It truly was ironic that chess engines rated this position as -4.44 for black if the best possible move of queen to b3, which Ivelisse did play, was played, as thanks to the state of things over on Mimoko's board, Japan's victory was inevitable.

Izetta only realized this the hard way as she moved her bishop to e6, allowing Mimoko to capture the rook at h8 with her g-pawn, promoting said pawn to a queen, and hand off the rook to Daria, who promptly dropped it at d1, winning the game for team Japan.

"Mmph [Checkmate]!"

Izetta and Ivelisse moaned in despair as Mimoko and Daria smiled at each other. However, this was only game 1 of 7 in the Division C round-robin.

Bulgaria was next, with Mimoko opening her game against Elitsa by moving her pawn to e4, while Elitsa responded by moving her pawn to f6. She then moved her pawn to d4, while Radina meanwhile, had opened by moving her pawn to d4, but before Daria could even make her first move, Elitsa moved her pawn to g5, stunning everyone.

Perhaps if her strategy was to shock Mimoko enough that she'd forget she was on the clock, it could be considered somewhat decent, except for the fact that this was Mimoko.

Her shocked state lasted no more than a second as with plenty of time to spare, she moved her queen to h5, winning the game.

"Mmph [Checkmate]," she sighed as Radina shot Elitsa a worried scowl.

Elitsa didn't so much as look her in the eye, nor show any remorse as the teams were forced to wait until everyone else had finished playing before being paired up again.

Next up was Sweden, with Agnes and Agneta playing the Englund and Cow openings, respectively, making them easy fodder for team Japan. Türkiye was more in the vain of Bulgaria in the fact that they lost due to one of the players not appearing to take things seriously. In this case, it was Muazzez, who appeared to doze off, leading to her team losing on time.

Then came some trouble in the form of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, however, they were easily dispatched by team Japan. Next up was the Netherlands, who were quickly dispatched. At this point, one would think Japan would have already won mathematically, but the surging of underdog Montenegro, meant there was another team tied at 6 wins, setting up a dramatic showdown. The Montenegrins attempted to catch Mimoko and Daria off guard with some dubious openings, but the mother daughter duo ultimately prevailed, meaning they had qualified for the finals.

"Mmph ngh mmph, Mmph [We did it, Mimoko]!" Daria smiled.

"Mmph," Mimoko nodded. 

The full games:

B1

White: Mimoko Inoue (2809) Black: Izetta Yarlequé (2168)

1. d4 g6

2. e4 Bg7

3. Nc3 d5

4. e5 f6

5. Nf3 fxe5

6. Nxe5 Bxe5

7. dxe5 c6

8. p@g7 be6

9. gxh8=Q

B2

White: DSPCM Ivelisse Belaúnde (2111) Black: Maestro Himitsu (Daria Inoue) (3200)

1. e4 e6

2. Nf3 d5

3. exd5 exd5

4. Qe2+ Be7

5. d4 Nf6

6. Qb5+ c6

7. Qd3 p@e4

8. Qc3 exf3

9. Qxf3 Bg4

10. Qb3 R@d1#

Move reserve:

Japan: White pawn (dropped), black pawn (dropped), black bishop, white knight, black rook (dropped)

Peru: Black pawn, white pawn, white knight, black pawn

B1

White: Mimoko Inoue (2809) Black: Elitsa Zlatkova (2248)

1. e4 f6

2. d4 g5

3. Qh5#

B2

White: DSPCM Radina Rangelova (2516) Black: Maestro Himitsu (Daria Inoue) (3200)

1. d4

Move reserve:

Japan: None

Bulgaria: None