CHAPTER SEVEN: PERFECT PREPARATION

15 DAYS BEFORE DISTRICT MEET.....


In a span of a few days, Me and Mateo practiced rigorously, day and night until it felt like there was no tomorrow, until i finally reached 1730 elo, while Mateo was at 1680, Michael was 2300, and Nareen was 1800

In the span of those few days Mateo came close to beating Nareen, but Nareen pumped the breaks in the late game managing to score another win

"SCORE BOOAAAARD!!" Nareen celebrated

"SHUT UP MR JACKET-BOY!"

Nareen chuckled, but deep inside he realized the gap in his skill got more and more tighter, as each significant game meant a more significant leap towards his skill level, he was unnerved, the thought of losing again haunted him

"Heh.." Nareen muttered to himself

I was in class listening to my lecture, that was until Michael walked up by the doorway and knocked, with a paper in hand he asked; "Is Marco Villanueva here?" The teacher asked why and he explained he was needed for a chess lecture, behind him was Mateo and Nareen

Me and Mateo bolted towards the club room while Michael and Nareen walked, We raced on who could get there first and obviously I got there first,

"Lucky bastard!" Mateo muttered, I panted, saying "Chess isn't the only thing I'm good at?"

Our Coach was inside wondering why we ran asking; "Are you guys okay?" and we walked inside exhausted,

"Anyways, you might be wondering why I called you four in here. Aside from being the lucky chosen 4, I wanted to give you insight on who you might be playing against and how to play against them." 

I looked around, the ear-screeching voice of Liam wasn't there anymore, "Those who can't catch up really do get left behind huh?" 

Nareen smug, interrupted; "Well I don't think we should be scared, this is the 3rd year I've fought them in a row!"

Michael continued; "I don't think anyone there should be a problem."

The coach chuckled; "Well, there is one.. He's never lost a district match."

Michael, confused; "Really? I've never met anyone like that."

The coach opened a power point presentation on his laptop, showing a picture of an indian kid with a mullet,

"Woah, he even looks cool." I muttered, Nareen scoffed saying "We'll be fiiine after all this school reigned supreme as the main chess school right?"

The coach introduced the upcoming competitors;

"First, Raghavendra Iyer, A third year at Helios International Collegiate, he transferred due to unknown reasons but what matters now is that he's here. So be on the look out.Q

Second, Victor Hale. You may already know him cough Nareen and Michael, he was there at last years district meet right?"

Nareen smirked saying; "Yeah I kicked his ass, I wonder how much he's improved."

"Anyways," Our coach continued, "He goes to school at Veritas World Academy, Funny enough, they mainly teach law there so I guess that's where he learned his philosophy about the chess board being a courtroom."

"I feel like we'll be here forever if I discussed every single competitor but all you have to keep in mind that these kids do not play around."

Michael glanced; saying "No problem."

"So for the next few days! You'll be excused from your classes and we'll dedicate this time to getting better!"

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Victor Hale and the rest of the competitors on the other hand, also spent their time scheming, planning, strategizing 

Victor Hale, somewhere else; "These next few days will be spent trying to prosecute those four idiots, Michael.. Nareen... I'll make you pay for what you did to me last year."

Victor Hale paced around his club room, strategizing; "A person who doesn't know when to stand down when they're beaten deserves to be hanged."

Raghavendra Iyer on the other hand, at his own school; "A new batch of international faces, I wonder how different you people are."

"Calm down Ragh.. We still have a few days." his teammate said

Michael Fauante told himself: "I know.. I WILL Win." reminiscing of all the lost opportunities from years ago, here to redeem himself

Each heavy hitting competitors prepared themselves for the games in 15 days.....


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13 DAYS BEFORE DISTRICT MEET.....

"You're really bad at this." Michael pointed out, after effortlessly beating me, on the other hand, Mateo and Nareen tussled against each other for past pawns, Mateo made a Queen first but Nareen won either way, celebrating "WOOHOOO!! HAT TRICK."

We rotated who would play against each other while simultaneously learning how to play new openings, Michael breezed through the lessons, after all the years of experience he already knew how each piece went

"Mateo, are you familiar with the 'Alien Gambit?' " Nareen asked, chuckling

"No..?" He replied, 

He then went on to lose 4-0 to the same opening. We switched and I was facing Nareen, his demeanor immediately changed, clearly being traumatized after the loss. After I lost, He celebrated; "I STILL GOT IT BABY!"

Michael on the other hand, finally spoke to Mateo; albeit, it wasn't positive "You suck.", Mateo paused, stared at Michael and said; "What a way to greet an old friend." 

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9 DAYS BEFORE DISTRICT MEET.......

Mateo finally got the edge above Michael, but Michael managed to turn the tables around, winning from a seemingly unwinnable position, "Too slow, man." Michael murmured, "I'll show you too slow you punk." Mateo whispered under his breath

"Let's play one more." Michael asked

Mateo reluctantly nodded, and they continued playing; until Michael asked "How long are you gonna keep playing like this."

Mateo lost on time with a winning position. Michael didn’t even look surprised—just annoyed.
“You didn’t lose to me,” he said. “You lost to the clock.”

Mateo yelled; "FUUUUUCK!!" while Me and Nareen chuckled, continuing to play; 

Nareen almost lost to me again until I also suffered the same fate as Mateo, losing to time

Nareen chuckled; "You both never learn.." He said, uncertain

Meanwhile, I took a moment to take a big breath of fresh air, after all, it was a few more days until district meet and I got to compete, The pleasure genuinely was such an honor, but something felt off, a sort of uneasiness, I turned around to Nareen glancing at Mateo and Michael

"Something feels wrong." I thought to myself

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3 DAYS BEFORE DISTRICT MEET

I walked into the club classroom and everyone was already there; 

The Coach started the meeting; "So we'll be having the Program in the morning and you boys will immediately head into Veritas World Academy, I probably won't be around as much because I have to overseer the other competitors aswell... But, I'll try to make due with what little time I have."

"Alriiight coach!" Nareen said, enthusiastically

the Coach sighed; "Remember the basic rules, First violation is a warning, second violation is a loss, so don't come crying to me if one of you manage to make an invalid move."

We all nodded, and then looked at each other; preparing for another gruel set of training exercises