The first act of the Chess Olympics' opening ceremony

As the evening hour arrived, the opening ceremony began at the Budapest Arena, with live commentary being provided by a young dark-haired man and a young blonde-haired woman.

"Good evening. I'm Danny Daniel, and joining me is co-commentator, Nancy Nancey," the young man stated.

Danny Daniel and Nancy Nancey were chess commentators as well as chess players themselves with Danny being a grandmaster and Nancy an international master. Since the two weren't participating as players, they had been drafted to do the match-by-match commentary.

Tonight was simply the opening ceremony, though matches would start tomorrow. Most nations opted simply to walk in garbed in traditional wear from their respective countries, though many opted to also put on a performance. 

"So before we get started, just a fair warning, there's no rhyme or reason to the ordering the teams will enter," Danny stated. 

"Aside from the fact that the host nation, Hungary, will enter last, everyone else will be entering in a completely random order," Nancy added. 

First up was the Republic of Korea, who kicked things off with a full blown K-pop single. 

"Dang, if they weren't all competing, I'd have just guessed Malasangre was hired to just do the opener," Danny whistled. 

"'Malasangre'?" Nancy asked.

"You haven't heard? They're the hottest K-pop group out there. And many of its key members are participating."

"How good are they though?"

Danny began to frown. "Well... Maybe not title viable, but hey, not all teams come here to win. Some just wanna have fun."

"True..." 

Next came Italy, who danced to Tarantella Napoletana, with the women's team doing the dancing and the men's team playing the instruments. Though the most notable thing about the men's team was the presence of Dr. Zanni.

After losing to Yuusuke a month ago, Zanni had been confined to a special area of the WWCF holding facility where he tried in vane to destroy his DESPER. It was miraculous he survived as long as he did since he barely ate and tormented his body attempting to destroy the DESPER. But thanks to Skaberghast's victory, he was restored to a perfectly healthy state, and was free to go back on the hunt. Though first, he was required to participate with Italy's national team as the reserve member as despite his rating of just 2043, he was skilled.

"Hmm, isn't that Laura? I hear she's been able to beat a maestro or two," Nancy noted as the camera zoomed in on a blonde-haired woman with perfectly tanned skin.

"Some say she would have been a maestro if she was born earlier. Definitely one to watch out for."

Team Vietnam entered next, singing Sài Gòn Đẹp Lắm.

"Well that's chill. A stark contrast to how the players of the women's team normally are," Danny noted.

"What do you mean?" Nancy asked.

"Three of them are a family of streamers, with the other two also being close to them. See the girl with the painted bald head? That's actually Miss Vietnam herself, Đoàn Minh."

"WHAT!? B- But her hair!"

"Shaved it all off, brows too, before coming here and decided to paint her head like the Vietnamese flag. That being said, she is a pretty chill girl. I imagine one of the twins, probably Suzuna, goaded her into the bald look."

The Albanian team entered next and began singing and dancing to Jarnana, with the commentators deciding to focus on a hairless girl that appeared to have painted her entire body red.

"See that girl? That's Albulena Ulqinaku, a girl so hardcore, she shaved all her hair off and tattooed, yes, tattooed, her whole body to show her pride for her country," Danny stated.

"That's just insanity. I'd never ever allow the thought of ever doing something like that to myself ever enter my mind," Nancy cringed.

Spain was the next team to come in, and began singing ¡Ay Carmela!. However, only two men ended up walking out with the women's team.

"Spain's only got two men on the team? That's unexpected," Nancy frowned.

"You know what else is unexpected?" Danny grinned.

"What?"

"The Spanish Inquisition."

As if on cue, three men in red robes leapt out from behind the commentators, starling them. "NO ONE expects the Spanish Inquisition!" one shouted.

Security quickly pulled the three men away.

"Well there's the rest of Spain's men's team. And yes, the Inquisition controls pretty much everything in Spain thanks to their head cardinal being a DESPER-wielding grandmaster. Needless to say, they're tyrannical, but sadly powerful. Catalan tried to break away, but their rep failed to best the cardinal, and thus, Catalan's still part of Spain, possibly forever now." 

"That invokes comparisons to England, given their queen is a fanatical tyrant." 

"Given the English queen has quelled all hope of the UK ever breaking up, it's a wonder the UK hasn't scooped up Ireland given they easily have the chess power and then some to destroy them," Danny noted as the Irish team entered and began riverdancing. 

"Their taoiseach, Muierchertach Glas, certainly acts like he's under someone else's control though. Have you seen the things he's done?" Nancy asked. 

"Proclaiming some American senator who was convicted of embezzling funds did "nothing wrong" and having his ass slapped with a paddle while dunking his head into a toilet to prove his point? He might just be a guy with some screws missing." 

Next in was England. Led by Heather herself, now sporting a darker version of her usual attire, everyone sang Rule Britannia as they marched in. All with Heather shooting murderous glares at the various WWCF officials seated about.

"A shame England of all places has become so hostile to the chess world. There's quite a storied chess history there," Nancy sighed.

"Quite a few nations controlled by Desperados are hostile to the WWCF, but I never would have predicted England would top the list, especially since it's leader isn't a Desperado," Danny noted.

"Though rumors state that the late Scharlachrot Karmesinrot was a former Desperado and instrumental in Heather Spriggan's rise to power."

"Funny you should mention her, because her nation of origin looks set to enter next."

Everyone turned as the sound of marching boots echoed throughout the arena. The German empire of Prussia had entered and was playing Preußens Gloria. Though Europe had largely been unaltered due to both its prevalence of Desperado leaders and chess talent, that didn't mean Prussia hadn't managed to expand it's territory there or elsewhere. In Africa, it had conquered all the territories the Second Reich had once controlled before its dissolution along with Austria, Luxembourg, and Lichtenstein in Europe.

"So this is the fabled Fourth Reich of Germany, or I guess the German Empire of Prussia as it's now known," Danny noted.

"A shame Germany has become militaristic once more, but with a monster like Red Reaper heading it... there's little the world can do to protest it. I feel bad for many of the Prussians that didn't ask for this, but have choice but to be strung along. Especially Volkner Keiner. That poor boy looks downright miserable," Nancy sighed.

"He's a young Prussian prodigy that's Prussia's next top player behind Red Reaper. However, he had unwillingly been drafted into the Prussian army which took it's mental toll on him. Despite only being 20 years of age, he looks 10 to 20 years older. Yet despite all that, his chess is still in top form." 

Once the Prussians had cleared the stage, a group of mischievous-looking men took center stage and began playing and singing Á sprengisandi.

"So who are these folks? With their curly mustaches, save for the blue-haired man, they all look like cartoon villains," Nancy frowned. 

"Iceland. And your frown is warranted. These guys are infamous for cheating," Danny stated. 

"WHAT!? How are they allowed here then!?" 

"Their suspension period is over I guess. Not to mention, I hear all their cheating is done over-the-board. Usually it involves moving some pieces around to create favorable positions for them."

"Everyone, always write down your notes after completing a move. They could come in handy for preventing such cheating." 

Denmark entered next, and was completely chaotic. Skaberghast was walking by without giving a care for the performance, a blonde-haired woman was violently whipping a pink-haired man on the ass, while another pink-haired man laughed at it, two members appeared to be doing a fighting skit, while the others all tried to sing Ramund den unge, the song they were supposed to all be singing.

"Well... Denmark's a mess," Danny nervously chuckled. 

Greece was the next team up, and proceeded to dance to Zorba's Dance, quickly getting the crowd clapping along to the beat. 

"Greece's leader, Athena Xylouris, really is a genius. True to her namesake, she's wise beyond her years, and constantly outmaneuvering foes on both the political chessboard, and the normal one. Then again, chess pretty much is everything in this world," Danny shrugged. 

The next team up was Estonian with the women dancing while the men played and sang Kui mina ükskord noores eas, võtsin vana naise.

"Now that's a catchy beat. Any idea what it means?" Danny asked.

"I have no idea. I can speak multiple languages, yes, but Estonian isn't one of them," Nancy sighed.

"Could you learn it?"

"Learning a language is hard. It's not like you can just learn it instantly by looking at it."

Backstage, Okisato sneezed.

"Ah, is Oki-chwan getting a cold?" Ginji taunted.

"No, it's probably just someone talking about me. Now are we up next?" Okisato grumbled.

Daria nodded and ushered for all the girls to come huddle together. "Alright, we got the hard part, so like a chess game, ditch the anxiety and slay."

"Do we HAVE to sing?" Mimoko groaned.

"Hell yes we do! How else are we supposed to show off the true beauty of our drip? As for the boys, do your best with the dancing," Daria hollered towards the men.

Okisato nodded as he readied his glow sticks. As soon as he saw that the male outfits were Wota attire, he knew exactly what the team's performance would be a full fledged idol concert. Everyone's outfit was a different color with Okisato's being white, Mori's blue, Ryonosuke's red, Ginji's orange, and the masked man's black.

"Seriously, why the hell is my outfit orange? Are those assholes trying to make some allegory that I'm a convict or something?" Ginji snarled under his breath as he walked out.

Due to fears Ginji might try to sabotage the performance, he was positioned towards the back with all the men standing a considerable distance away as the women performed an original single. The performance was a hit, causing the crowd to erupt in applause. 

"One of the big favorites is really raising the roof. And I'd say that's a good note to take a break on, wouldn't you say, Nancy?" Danny nodded. 

"Yes. When we return, we'll cover the other nations that have yet to enter," Nancy smiled.