Chapter 500:

Diving into the depths of chess

En Passant Grandmaster

As Mimoko made her way to the spectator area, she noticed a flyer for a magazine featuring her on th cover in a swimsuit.

"I remember that! That was a few days ago at the pool. Never knew there was shit called Dive chess," Iori smiled.

"As much as I'm embarrassed to admit it, I didn't know either, but now I do," Mimoko smiled as she closed her eyes and thought back to the night of the first rest day.

...

Back on the night of the first rest day, many of the female players in the tournament had been summoned to the hotel pool. All were clad in swimsuits, and had not been told the nature of this summon, but since it was from the WWCF, many had come, feeling it was important.

"Alright, so thanks for coming out to this. Turns out, some companies want to do some magazine shoots of hot girls in swimsuits," Miga declared as she appeared before everyone clad in a swimsuit as well. "Of course, we figured you all wouldn't just come for that alone, so we decided to turn this into a Dive chess exhibition."

"Dive chess?" Mimoko asked.

"Heh? You're telling me YOU'VE never heard of it? It's been around for a while. Basically, you play chess at the bottom of a pool. No coming up for air until you've moved, otherwise that's a forfeit. The pieces are also designed so that they stick to the board with magnets, and will also lock to prevent players from knocking over the other player's by mistake. So, who's up?"

Mimoko quickly stepped forward.

"Then your opponent... is gonna be this guy," Miga groaned as Köfun suddenly waddled out from the hall.

"Why's there a guy here!?" some of the girls shrieked.

"Because he's currently the best dive chess player. That being said, I'm personally keeping watch over him since he's still serving a cheating ban for the tournament. Here however, we'll let him play."

And with that, the lots were quickly drawn with Mimoko getting to go first as White. After getting used to the water, the game began with Mimoko diving to the bottom and moving her knight to f3. Köfun quickly dove under and moved his pawn to d5, sending Mimoko back underwater. However, she could see a familiar opening and moved her pawn to d4, which eventually led to knight f6, bishop f4, e6, e3, and c5 all being played. That was London System territory, something Mimoko knew like the back of her hand.

On her next turn, she quickly dove down and moved her pawn to c4, where as Köfun by contrast was starting to get irked by how quickly Mimoko was moving. Once underwater, he decided to try cheating, put was unable to move any of Mimoko's pieces.

"Hey! Only touch one of your own pieces!" Miga shouted through a megaphone.

While the sound was distorted a bit, Köfun could still hear it and was startled by it, resulting in him touching his b-knight and being forced to move it to d7.

Mimoko was back underwater, but this time, she had to think a bit, putting some slight strain on her. However, she held strong and moved her knight to c3 before swimming back up for air.

Noticing her state, Köfun dove back down and quickly captured the pawn at d4 with his c-pawn, hoping it would be too sudden for Mimoko. However, Mimoko could see an easy move on her dive down, and upon reaching the bottom, captured the pawn at d4 with her e-pawn before swimming back up.

Köfun stuck to his strategy and moved his bishop to e7, but Mimoko was already calculating moves, and upon seeing the move on her dive down, moved her pawn to c5 before diving back up. Köfun continued to stick to his plan despite that, making a more bold play of knight e4, but yet again, Mimoko spent little to no time underwater as she dove down, moved her bishop to d3, and dove back up.

"How is she not getting exhausted!? I have to keep her thinking, otherwise I can't win," Köfun thought as he moved his queen to a5.

But Mimoko had completely gotten into the groove of things. "This isn't so bad, but I doubt I'd last against stronger players. Holding my breath isn't easy," Mimoko thought as she dove down to castle king's side.

At this point, Köfun just decided to move without much thinking, prioritizing speed over quality. Knight captures c3, b captures c3, bishop b5, a6, queen a4, e5, knight captures e5, a captures b5, queen captures a8, it was clear his strategy was a complete bust.

"Did he forget there are 10 second increments? Well, not like him losing would make anyone cry," Miga thought as Köfun dove down to castle king's side.

Then came knight captures d7, bishop captures d7, queen captures d7, rook d8, a-rook e1, bishop captures c5, queen c7, rook f8, d captures c5, bishop f5, bishop d6, and finally, rook c8, and it was almost over.

"And that's check. Not much more he can do now," Mimoko thought as she captured the rook at c8 with her queen.

And indeed, all Kofun could do was capture said queen with his bishop. "Damn her. I should have played harder," he thought as he swam back up to the surface.

Mimoko then dove down and moved her rook to e8, winning the game. "Checkmate," she smiled once she was above water again.

"And now, could the winner meet the photography team over by the wayside?" Miga called out.

"Sure. Just give me a second."

...

Back in the present, Mimoko smiled and opened her eyes. "That really was a nice memory, she chuckled.

"I'll say, but I was a little upset they only decided to feature you by yourself. The rest of us all got crammed into a bunch of two-page srpeads," Iori pouted.

"Then just get good at dive chess, and you'll be featured on lots of covers in your swimsuit. Then again, you practically wear one when not in school."

"I like showing skin."

"I guess I do too. Hmm, that reminds me, I haven't worn suspenders all trip... Nah, I'll wait until I'm back home to break out the suspender drip," Mimoko happily giggled.

The full game:

White: Mimoko Inoue (2809) Black: Köfun Gríma (2501)

1. Nf3 d5

2. d4 Nf6

3. Bf4 e6

4. e3 c5

5. c4 Nbd7

6. Nc3 cxd4

7. exd4 Be7

8. c5 Ne4

9. Bd3 Qa5

10. O-O Nxc3