Chapter 487:

Scandinavian mirror

En Passant Grandmaster

Leading up to Iori's victory, board 1 had been in it's own little world with bishop e7, knight c3, a king's side castle, bishop g2, d6, c captures d5, e captures d5, knight e5, bishop b7, a king's side castle, rook e8, rook c1, b-knight d7, rook c2, a6, knight a4, knight f8, knight c6, bishop captures c6, rook captures c6, queen d7, rook c2, knight e6, bishop h3, bishop d6, bishop g5, knight e4, bishop c1, and a-rook d8 had yielded no clear advantage to either player, yet the win from Iori had certainly rattled Amelia slightly.

"I wasn't expecting Jaana to blunder like that. Normally she's much better," Amelia thought as Daria moved her pawn to e3.

Over at board 2, some minor action in the form of knight h5, bishop e5, knight d7, c4, f6, and bishop g3 had played out before Daria's win.

"Are you kidding!? You stupid fucking hag, you should have sat this shit our!" Inga thought as she angrily captured the pawn at c4 with her d-pawn.

"That was a bit impulsive. I guess she got a bit flustered after seeing her mother lose," Mimoko thought as she captured the pawn at c4 with her bishop.

Inga quickly went on the attack by moving her knight to b6, with Mimoko calmly moving her bishop to b3. Inga did manage to calm down slightly, and made a less aggressive play of pawn e6, but now it was Mimoko's turn to start attacking, starting with bishop h4.

"You fucking bitch. Everyone keeps saying you're a living fucking engine. Well I'll be giving you a good kick in the ass face-first into the snow!" Inga thought as she moved her bishop to e7.

Pawn g4 and pawn g5 came next, prompting Mimoko to initiate a trade by capturing the pawn at g5 with her bishop. Inga captured said bishop with her f-pawn, but it was Mimoko who left the trade a pawn up after capturing the knight at h5 with her g-pawn.

"Fucking bitch!" Inga fumed in her mind as she castled king's side.

"She's losing herself to rage. I guess this is sadly a thing when it comes to facing me," Mimoko thought as she moved her rook to g1.

Rather than make the top move and move her king to h8, Inga instead opted to move her pawn to a5, allowing Mimoko to capture the pawn at g5 with her knight. Once more, Inga's best move was king h8, yet instead of defense, she went all in on attacking and captured the knight at g5 with her bishop. Mimoko pounced on the misstep, moving her queen to g4, which was finally the moment Inga decided to move her king to h8, three moves late.

It was trading time once more as Mimoko captured the bishop at g5 with her queen, naturally leading to Inga accepting the queen trade and capturing aid queen with her queen. Mimoko was once again the victor of the trade as after capturing the queen at g5 with her rook, she was up two pawns. Inga was also getting visibly more frustrated and decided to channel some of said anger to the board as she moved her knight to d5.

Mimoko decided to meet her head-on, and moved her knight to c3. This time, Inga hesitated, and after a short think, opted for the more defensive play of pawn to b6.

"I was expecting h6. She's also beginning to get hesitant. Perhaps she's realized the state of things, which means that I should try and get her tangled up in her own web," Mimoko thought as she rapidly moved her rook to c1.

The speed of her movement completely suckered in Inga as she instantly forgot this was classical format and entered blitz mode, quickly moving her rook to a7. She had no time to think as once she pressed the button on the clock, Mimoko launched her attack and captured the knight at d5 with her knight. Inga had been waiting for this, and promptly captured said knight with her c-pawn, but what she was not expecting was rook c6 from Mimoko. Her head darted around, until she finally spotted pawn to b5, but Mimoko had foreseen it too and countered by moving her pawn to h6.

Her attention diverted to the other end of the board, tunnel vision ended up costing Inga everything as she rapidly moved her f-rook to f7. It was only after she hit the timer did she realize her blunder and let loose an audible, "FUCK!" as she buried her face in her hands.

"Check. Seems you've realized it too," Mimoko nodded as she captured the bishop at c8 with her rook.

Inga dejectedly let out a groan and moved her rook to f8.

"And that's checkmate. Good game," Mimoko smiled as she captured the rook at f8 with her rook, winning the game.

Inga then performed the bare minimum of what was considered a handshake before getting up and slowly walking away. She was upset, but not because she lost to Mimoko. Rather, it was because she had lost in similar fashion to Jaana.

"I fucking blundered... Just fucking like she did... Fuck," Inga whimpered as tears began pouring out of her eyes.

And she'd have more reason to cry, for Azenira managed to win her game, giving Japan both a 3-0 lead and the match victory regardless of what happened at board 1. But that did little to sway the attitudes of the maestros. To them, all that mattered was their game before them.

The full game:

White: Mimoko Inoue (2809) Black: SPCM Inga Øksendal (2491)

1. d4 d5

2. Nf3 c6

3. Bf4 Nf6

4. e3 Nh5

5. Be5 Nd7

6. c4 f6

7. Bg3 dxc4

8. Bxc4 Nb6

9. Bb3 e6

10. Bh4 Be7