The Chess Olympics' awards ceremony

That night, the awards ceremony was held. In the men's section, Japan managed to get 2nd place overall, despite all the setbacks they faced from Ginji. America had just missed out due to tiebreaks, but had still secured bronze nonetheless. And with an unbeaten, but not entirely perfect 21 points was India with the gold medal.

For individual medals, things got more interesting. First up was the reserve boards, with the masked man easily taking gold. Then there was board 4 which was won by Uzbekistan's Nodirbek Ibragimov, and board 3 won by India's Arun Jighan. Then it came time for board 2, with Okisato just barely inching out Peter in tiebreaks.

"You're lucky your only loss was to Arun. That was likely the key to your victory," Peter applauded as he was given the silver.

And for board 1, the ultimate prize went to India's Govindrao D. Standing between him on the podium were Red Reaper in second, still furious over India's victory over Prussia, and Miralem in third.

Then it was time for the women's with the individual medals being awarded. To no one's surprise, Japan swept every one. And for the team scores, third place went to Norway, who ended the event with an impressive 20 points, but still not enough to get gold. In second was Kazakhstan, who had snuck under the radar to inch Norway out on tiebreaks for the silver medal. And in first was Japan with not only a perfect score of 22 points, but one achieved with 11 straight, 12 straight if the match with Finland was counted, 4-0 victories.

"When the cops snagged me, I didn't think I'd get the chance to be here, but Oki-kun... He really knows how to make me his bitch," Iori blushed as she tearfully smiled and clutched the gold medals hanging around her neck.

"Seems the honor of strongest maestro will be passed to you after all. Though don't think a single victory over me will decide everything," Amelia glared at Daria.

"So true. We'd need to do a proper series, but I imagine there would ultimately be a decisive game or two," Daria chuckled.

"With how you played in 6B? Quite frankly I thought they were joking that you had lost to such an opening, but it seems you have a history of losing to such things. It's a tad disgusting that I know I lost to someone that loses to filth like that."

"Well thank you too. But then again, we all know you got the highest rating amongst us simply because you lost to him in the semi-finals and lasted more moves against him than me."

"That was because my play was deemed more accurate than yours, nothing more. Now cease talk of such a topic publicly."

"Yeah, yeah."

Following the ceremony, a grand party was held in the hotel's main ballroom. While wheelchair bound, Ryonosuke had been able to attend and receive his medal as well as partake in the party after. He still would need to stay in Budapest for a few days longer, but that could shorten if he was able to get an appointment with Yllka before she left to return home.

"It really is much lighter compared to 6B," Mimoko smiled.

"Hey, no dissin' the dark and the flashing lights," D.R. Passant, frowned.

While celebration was the theme of the night, things were slightly more formal in presentation. Everyone was dressed more nicely, but not overly formal. Unlike at the Bermuda Party, there was no 6B tank, nor official chess matches. In fact, casual matches were even discouraged. The anti-DESPER barrier had also been resurrected temporarily to prevent any disgruntled Desperados from trying to ruin things. And the Desperado league certainly had reason to be disgruntled due to the rating changes for some of their notable foes.

In terms of new threats, Noa had not only secured a grandmaster norm, but also the WWCF master title after her near perfect performance netted her a 150 point gain and a new rating of 2402. Zsa Zsa had also managed to increase her rating nearly by 70 points to 2575, with no sign of slowing down. Many others also had more minuscule gains, but still gains nonetheless such as Red Reaper, Miralem, Rasputin, Govindrao, Arun, Skaberghast, Diederich, Jad, Xiu, and Peter to name a few.

"2901. A small gain, but a gain nonetheless," Peter thought as he stared at his WWCF card.

There were also some notable rating drops such as Volkner, Wiley, Amelia, and of course, Xiao Lin. While Wiley's was a more miniscule drop to 3038, Amelia had seen a more substantial, but not detrimental dip to 3290. Xiao Lin though was just barely holding water at 3000.

"I- I... I need to retire and lock this up. I can't lose my status... I CAN'T LOSE MY STATUS!" Xiao Lin trembled.

As for team Japan, it was gains across the board with the exception of Ginji who had seen a dip to 2684, which would serve as his final career rating, though it would likely change due to his prison sentence. As for the others, Tenju had jumped from 2222 to 2302, securing the WWCF master title. Ryonosuke had gotten a modest gain from 2415 to 2429. Then there was Azenira and Zago who both started out at 2300, but ended things at 2341 and 2394, respectively. Daria had gone from 3200 to 3300, now making her the strongest maestro by rating. Okisato was also a big winner going from 2700 to 2802, his major wins over Jad, Peter, Diederich, and Rasputin naturally playing a big role in that. But for the masked man, he got just an increase of just one rating point going from 101 to 102 despite felling three maestros and many high-level opponents, raising many more questions regarding him. Then there was Iori who saw a jump from 2444 to 2488, and just barely managed to secure a grandmaster norm.

"You got lucky. If Zosia-chan hadn't been a grandmaster, you wouldn't have gotten the norm," Mimoko stated.

"Even though I went 10/10!?" Iori gasped.

"To get the norm, you need both a 2600 performance rating and to face at least 3 grandmasters. They don't all need to be rated 2500 and above though."

"Then good thing Zosia was a GM, otherwise I'd be livid. But wait, I thought I faced three fucks over 2500. You saying one of them wasn't a GM!?"

"Sibylle's a GM-elect, so I'm not sure if she'd count, but you got the norm, so no need to fret."

And for the star of the chess world herself, Mimoko had seen an increase from 2809 to 2858.

"You'll find it gets harder to increase your rating dramatically the higher it gets," Peter noted.

"It makes sense. When you're rated so high, you can only really gain massive points by beating someone higher than you, which would likely leave just a few normal players like you, the executive board, and the maestros. But there might also be Deep Blue..."

"I wouldn't count on that. Jury's still out on how to handle their "blue ratings"," Miga interjected.

"Then what about the ghosties?" Iori asked.

"Will you stop calling us that!?" Fernanda fumed as she strolled over.

"To answer your question, we only recognize the official WWCF rating on turquoise, red, purple, or black cards. I hear there is one other type we can recognize, but those blue cards certainly aren't it. Though considering that the ratings can be a reflection of the player's true skill, it makes our job harder. We also have a whole nation in the form of Finland that appears to have been using the blue ratings as their de facto ratings for years. The envoy's gonna have a hell of a time," Miga sighed.

"Are you a part of it?" Mimoko asked.

"Hell no! I just went through serving as chief arbiter for this shit. Not to mention the mission I was on before that led to Ina getting kidnapped, I'm on vacation time, thank you very much. Plus Ina's in need of comfort after what she went through so I'll help her get settled with her desk job too."

"So for our ratings, it's pretty much just the normal card, but what about matches where we used the blue power?" Fernanda asked.

"Goes towards the rating. By the way, all your ratings increased, yes?"

"Sure, but now we're just barely cracking 2000. I can grind, but Chi really shouldn't have to since she's already so skilled."

"Then get her competing more. If her true skill is maestro-level, she'll rise to grandmaster status in no time. She's a DSPCM, so she can warp to any secret puzzle cafe in the world."

"But here-"

"Just a temporary thing for the event."

Fernanda nodded and walked away as Ilmi nervously walked up. "So you're saying we're gonna have to get new ratings from scratch?"

"No. We assessed your skill in the three rounds you participated. What you have now has been decided to be your official rating. Check your card for yourself."

Ilmi quickly did as she asked, with her WWCF card now appearing turquoise, bringing tears to her eyes. "Finally... Normalcy. If only my eyes could return to normal too."

The night continued on with festivities lasting until morning. Then it came time for teams to begin departing Budapest.