Chapter 582:

An easy win

En Passant Grandmaster

The next day, Okisato found himself greeted with a pleasant surprise in the fact that he was paired up against Yuzuha.

"You're 2 for 2? Who'd you face?" he asked.

"Oh, folks my level. Not sure if my rating will raise much," Yuzuha smiled as she sat down across from Okisato.

"Inoue-senpai and Iori-chan are pitted against each other. It'd be nice if Iori-chan could win, as I feel I'd have an easier time against her, but Inoue-senpai's just too strong. Though both looked a bit rattled. Probably because of that video," Okisato thought as the round began.

Okisato decided to mix things up and opened by moving his pawn to g3. Yuzuha responded by nearly mirroring him and moving her pawn to g5. Then came pure mirroring with bishop g2 and bishop g7, before Okisato moved his pawn to d4, bringing an end to the mirroring as Yuzuha opted to move her knight to f6.

"Hmm, still ways to go," Okisato thought as he captured the pawn at g5 with his bishop.

Yuzuha winced as she paused for a bit before moving her knight to g4, yet soon found herself sinking her hand into her face as Okisato moved his pawn to e4. "I forgot opening theory. Inoue-senpai will be so disappointed," she thought as she captured the pawn at f2 with her knight. "Maybe if I mess up his castling rights, I can maybe squeeze out a draw," she thought as Okisato captured the knight at f2 with his king.

The only problem was that this was Okisato. He was used to forgoing his castling rights when in far worse positions, and with him now being in an overwhelmingly winning position, Yuzuha's plan was doomed from the start.

"Check! I've got you... now," Yuzuha dejectedly trailed off as she captured the pawn at d4 with her bishop, only for said bishop to immediately be captured by Okisato's queen. "Oh... I really want to just throw it in now, but rewards sometimes come to those who stick it out," she thought as she castled king's side.

Sadly, this was the kind of lesson where no mercy would be shown. After all, this was a tournament, and elo and placement were on the line. Perhaps after the game Okisato could show her some avenues for improvement, but not during it. With an easy win before him, he was going to take it, and lunged for it by moving his bishop to h6.

Yuzuha countered with a desperate play of pawn to e5, but of course, all it amounted to was another free piece for Okisato, who swept it up with his queen. Then came f6, seemingly thwarting Okisato's attempt at mate, but poor Yuzuha was about to get schooled.

"Check. Let's see how many "best moves" you can make before you're mated, or you decide to resign," Okisato scowled as he moved his queen to d5.

Yuzuha made one best possible move by moving her rook to f7, but after Okisato moved his knight to f3, she floundered and moved her queen to e7.

"Perhaps I should consider putting her through the Peter program... Inoue-senpai would probably kill me if I did though," Okisato thought as he moved his knight to c3.

Yuzuha then made a solid play of pawn d6, while Okisato, lost in thought, made a questionable play of a-rook to e8. It didn't really matter much in the grand scheme of things though as Yuzuha made another huge blunder the very next move, sending her bishop to f5, and allowing the e-pawn to capture it with ease.

"Check! Ah, never mind, I just forced my queen away," Yuzuha somberly chuckled as Okisato captured said queen with his rook.

Now mate was inevitable with the question being when. Yuzuha looked to dig in her heels as she moved her knight to d7, but the moment Okisato moved his rook to e7, she blundered into mate in 2 by moving her knight to f8.

"And that's game. Check," Okisato nodded as he captured the rook at f7 with his queen.

"No, now I- Oh, the rook protects the queen... Yeah, I blew it," Yuzuha thought as she moved her king to h8.

"Checkmate. I guess as thanks for the win, I'll give you some pointers on how you could've played this game better," Okisato sighed as he moved his bishop to g7, winning the game.

Yuzuha nodded and got up, following Okisato out of the playing hall. As they walked, they passed by Iori and Mimoko's board, with both players looking unusually frustrated. With what had happened the previous night, it was completely understandable, but still saddening to see.

"This was supposed to be the hallmark match of the round, but instead, it's just built upon the confusion from the last round, putting a damper on the mood here," Okisato thought as he stopped before the board of the troublemaker herself.

Emmie looked up and smirked as she put the finishing touches on her game, winning it in the next 3 moves.

"You're now 3-0 too. With what you pulled, I'm surprised you're still even in the tournament," Okisato snarled.

"Why so? All I did was make a prediction, a prediction that was totally wrong from what I saw when I walked over," Emmie snickered.

"Chess is a mental sport. Your ploy clearly messed with their psychs."

"That's on them. Commentators could have done the mock match, but I get flack because I'm competing? Arbiters never told me I broke any rules, and besides, we settle things in chess here, right?"

"Then I hope I get paired against you next round. I'd love to humiliate you."

"Oh really? I've grown in this last month. You'll be the one with egg on your face."

"That's perfect. Should we get paired against each other here, loser gets egg dumped on them."

A patrolling Raymond stopped and intently focused on the two. "You are both 3 out of 3. Very well, we'll honor that request next round," he thought.

The full game:

White: Okisato Tanabe (2802) Black: Yuzuha Zenihara (500)

1. g3 g5

2. Bg2 Bg7

3. d4 Nf6

4. Bxg5 Ng4

5. e4 Nxf2

6. Kxf2 Bxd4+