Artiljerija fodder

On the other end of the playing hall, Yuusuke found himself playing as White once more, thus, he opened by moving his pawn to d4. "When all seems too difficult, just go for a London. Inoue loves it, tons of top players do too, it's one of the best openings there, and it might be able to get me the win," he thought.

Unfortunately, Esma did not feel like humoring him and moved her pawn to e5. "I allowed Noa to play the London, and she utterly devastated me! Never again will I allow that trash to be used against me!" she thought as Yuusuke captured the pawn at e5 with his d-pawn. "Now, I'm gonna send you to the shadow realm with the Bosnian Gambit!" she thought as she moved her knight to h6.

Yuusuke moved his knight to f3, confused as to what Esma was doing, even becoming a tad too giddy as Esma appeared to move her pawn to d6 in frustration. He captured the pawn with his e-pawn, Esma captured said pawn with her bishop, then came a complete lapse in judgement for Yuusuke.

Perhaps it was nerves, maybe even arrogance, but whatever it was, it made Yuusuke move his pawn to b3. Esma's eyebrow rose ever slightly as she launched her knight to g4, yet Yuusuke was completely oblivious to her motives and fianchettoed his bishop to b2, falling into the trap.

"Igraj, igraj, igraj, opa! Artiljerija fodder for the shadow realm!" Esma thought as her scowl intensified and she captured the pawn at f2 with her knight.

Yuusuke shrugged and captured said knight with his king, but soon found himself checked by Esma's play of bishop to g3. "She's really throwing everything at me. Didn't even bother saying "Check" either. I must have her real stressed," he thought as he captured the bishop at g3 with his h-pawn.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

Esma rose, and grabbed her queen before leaping high into the air. Now Yuusuke was truly frightened, but not for the what was about to happen on the board, though he soon would be as Esma pulled back her fist.

"ARTILJERIJA!" she shouted as she slammed her fist and queen down on d1, sending Yuusuke's queen flying off like an ICBM.

The shock of both the attack and the loss of his queen rattled Yuusuke to the point where he entered denial. "Nah, she lost a knight and bishop for my queen. Besides, I can score it back," he thought as he captured the pawn at g7 with his bishop.

But as soon as Esma moved her rook to g8, Yuusuke realized his knight was blocking his rook, and was flooded with utter despair. He sat there holding in his tears for a good 5 minutes before making one final attempt to turn things around by moving his knight to c3, but all was truly lost as Esma pulled another "ARTILJERIJA!" and captured the rook at a1 with her queen.

Yuusuke still held on to one last hope, wishing he could take Esma by surprise by moving his knight to d5, yet all he got was a blast to the face in the form of queen captures g7, which nearly did end up literally hitting him in the face.

"Crazy bitch... Ah, what's the point? You're playing hope chess, you've got no hope. I don't wanna resign, but I don't wanna play on either... ... Guess I'll just allow mate. It's there anyway," Yuusuke dejectedly thought as he moved his knight to g1.

"So you resign yourself to the shadows, Glory to Wakuta! Checkmate!" Esma triumphantly laughed as she captured the pawn at g3 with her queen, winning the game.

Poor Yuusuke was now breaking even at 2 wins, 2 losses, which only hindered his quest for 2000. And unlike his day 1 loss, this would sting far more due to just how poorly he had played.

The full game:

White: Yuusuke Shousen (1909) Black: DSPCM Esma Osmanagić (2001)

1. d4 e5

2. dxe5 Nh6

3. Nf3 d6

4. exd6 Bxd6

5. b3 Ng4

6. Bb2 Nxf2

7. Kxf2 Bg3+

8. hxg3 Qxd1

9. Bxg7 Rg8

10. Nc3 Qxa1

11. Nd5 Qxg7

12. Ng1 Qxg3#