Chapter 571:

Spice of life

En Passant Grandmaster

While most of the round 1 games were one-sided beatdowns, there was one notable clash between two players with ratings over 2400. And coincidentally, it was the prodigious sisters, Yumi and Cinnamon.

The game began with an Accelerated London System, consisting of d4, d5, bishop f4, knight f6, e3, and c5. That was when Yumi decided to opt for the knight f3 route, which Cinnamon followed close behind her with knight c6. B-knight d2 was a natural follow up, but now it was Cinnamon's turn to mix things up by boldly capturing the pawn at d4 with her c-pawn.

Yumi naturally captured said pawn with her e-pawn, but Cinnamon was quick to move her queen to b6. Though she was playing perfectly, Yumi was still barely a year old, and as such she'd often have trouble moving the pieces quickly and efficiently compared to those older than her. Nonetheless, it didn't hinder her to the point where it was an Achilles heel, as she was able to move her knight to b3 without losing too much time from her clock.

"And here are our two prodigy babies. Maestro, thoughts on the match?" Saloni asked as Cinnamon moved her knight to e4.

"Only one's a baby, but there's no discrediting Cinnamon's talent as she reached 2499 at the same pace Yumi reached 2523. That being said, her play just now was quite bold. If Yumi really did have the strength if a typical baby, there'd be nothing to fear, but Yumi's gifted," Daria stated as Yumi moved her pawn to a4.

"She's looking to play a5, but if that were me sitting across from her, I'd beat her to the punch."

"All this talk about kids. Can we move on to another match," Xiu growled.

"Afraid someone else will beat you? You're getting more like your maestro each day," Daria smirked.

Xiu shot her a glare and turned her focus towards another match. "I could beat those two easy unlike Xiao Lin."

"Sounds like a good idea for an exhibition match. We'll have the WWCF contact you for more details later."

"What- No! I-"

"Too late. We'll aim for sometime after the tournament," Daria taunted as she returned her focus to Yumi and Cinnamon's game. Upon seeing Cinnamon's play of bishop g4, she began to scowl. "That's too aggressive. Maybe if your opponent was lower leveled it would have a chance, but against the talented Yumi, it's not gonna fly," she frowned as Yumi moved her pawn to a5.

"Queen d8, a6, then queen back to b6. She'll win a pawn if the baby captures b7 with the a-pawn, but she'll be going right back to b6 again after taking it."

Things did appear to play out exactly as Saloni had predicted up until Yumi captured the pawn at b7 with her a-pawn. It was then that Cinnamon decided to forgo capturing the pawn, and instead move her rook to d8, eliciting a pained groan from Daria.

"Ah, the derpy-faced brat blundered," Xiu sneered as Yumi moved her pawn to h3.

"She is only 5 years old. Were you 2499 at that age?" Daria growled as Cinnamon moved her pawn to e5.

"No, because when I started playing chess at 3, I wasn't pitted against the right amount of high-level opponents to get me to that level, but I can assure you, my strength was 2500 at the time," Xiu huffed as Yumi captured the bishop at g4 with her h-pawn.

"Bishops off the board," Saloni declared as Cinnamon captured the bishop at f4 with her e-pawn. "Cinnamon's probably not gonna win this unless Yumi really does start playing like a baby," she frowned as Yumi moved her bishop to d3.

"Perhaps if the time control was shorter. Yumi does take more time than others to make a move and punch her clock due to her small stature, but will quickly become less of a hindrance as she continues to grow," Daria noted as Cinnamon moved her bishop to e7.

Then came a slight surprise as Yumi decided to move her pawn to c4, though despite the move not being the best possible one, it didn't shift things drastically in Cinnamon's favor. In fact, Cinnamon continued to worsen things for herself first by moving her knight to d4, then by moving her knight to f6 after Yumi captured the pawn at d5 with her c-pawn. Now Yumi was free to castle king's side, inviting Cinnamon to do the same. Yet once again, Cinnamon made things worse and captured the pawn at d5 with her f-knight.

Yumi then opted to move her knight to a5, but Cinnamon decided now was the time to mount an aggressive counterattack and captured the bishop at d3 with her knight. Yumi captured said knight with her queen, making the whole thing an even trade, and it was then that Cinnamon did what she should had done two moves ago and castled king's side.

"Too little too late, though even if she had castle before, she was still too deep in the hole," Daria sighed as Yumi moved her f-rook to c1.

"How long until we get a resignation?" Xiu snickered as Cinnamon moved her f-rook to e8.

"That I can't tell you. All we can do is wait for a result," Daria grumbled as Yumi moved her queen to b3.

At the board, Cinnamon sniffled as she moved her knight to b4. "The horsey gonna protect. Yumi's winning, but I don't want to quit. Quitting's bad," she thought as Yumi moved her knight to e5. "The clock's not going down fast enough. I won't be able to beat her," she thought as she moved her bishop to f6.

"Dabu [Check]!" Yumi declared as she captured the pawn at f7 with her queen, forcing Cinnamon's king to h8.

She then moved her a-knight to c6, prompting Cinnamon to capture it with her own knight. Yumi recaptured said knight with her bishop, leaving Cinnamon with little else to capture but the pawn at d4 with her bishop. And then Yumi captured the rook at d8 with her knight, inching closer to that coveted mate.

"Checkers!" Cinnamon cried, tears staring to ooze up in her eyes despite her smile, as she captured the pawn at f2 with her bishop.

And no sooner did Yumi move her king to h1 did Cinnamon capture the knight at d8 with her queen, entering a mating sequence.

"DABU [CHECK]!" Yumi happily babbled as she captured the rook at e8 with her queen.

The move elicited whistles from the commentating booth.

"Smooth. The only move here is to capture the queen with the queen, but then comes rook c8!" Daria exclaimed as the moves she stated came to pass.

"And if she captures, it's promotion to rook or queen, so she can't touch that rook, unless of course she wants to end the game early," Saloni noted as Cinnamon decided not to and moved her pawn to g6.

"Still fighting, but now the rook takes the queen, check, and king g7 is your only move. then b8, queen, and not much else Black can do," Daria shrugged as all she predicted came to pass.

Cinnamon opted to move her king to f7, but Yumi mercilessly tightened the screws and moved her queen to e5. Cinnamon tried to create something by moving her bishop to c5, but then it was time for the other rook to shine and capture the pawn at a7, checking the king and forcing Cinnamon to either capture it with the bishop, or block it with the bishop. She chose the former.

"Dabu [Checkmate]!" Yumi declared as she moved her queen to e7, winning the game.

And then, Cinnamon finally let loose her built up tears as Rika rushed on sight to comfort her and retrieve Yumi.

"I'll admit, the baby... is talented. MAYBE she could beat me, but that kid? No chance. So how about we just have that exhibition match be me against her," Xiu anxiously smiled.

"Kids vs pros doesn't work like that. Basically, you play against 5 kids and whichever side gets more points win, even if you don't win all your games," Daria smirked.

All Xiu could do was click her tongue and sulk in her chair.

The full game:

White: Yumi Ryono (2523) Black: Cinnamon Ryono (2499)

1. d4 d5

2. Bf4 Nf6

3. e3 c5

4. Nf3 Nc6

5. Nbd2 cxd4

6. exd4 Qb6

7. Nb3 Ne4

8. a4 Bg4

9. a5 Qd8