Completely lost

With Japan now leading 2-0, winning was completely off the table for France. That only worsened the moods of Collette and Alice, both of whom now had their backs against the wall.

After Mimoko moved her pawn to b5, the game between her and Collette had proceeded with queen e1, rook e6, rook b1, queen a5, queen c1, rook c8, e4, d captures e4, f captures e4, knight captures e4, and queen f4 all being played. The eval bar now gave a much clearer advantage to Mimoko, which was bad for Collette as Mimoko was very good about holding advantages and converting them to wins. Not to mention, Mimoko had long since moved her knight to f6, meaning time was ticking down on Collette's clock as she watched the other games.

For this tournament, the time control was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves with 30 minutes being granted after the 40th move. An increment of 30 seconds per move was also in effect from the first move. Collette was still 20 moves away from making the time control, and her time was getting shorter by the second, while Alice was about to be after she moved her pawn to f3.

Tenju responded with king g7, which was not the best move, but it didn't do much to change the nearly all black eval bar in her favor. Alice quickly captured the pawn at b7 with her bishop, hoping it would generate counterplay, but instead it opened up the door for rook b8, which was a whole bundle of nasty.

"Just look at this, the bishop has b2 guarded, so if the bishop moves, in comes a nasty check, and if she doesn't move the bishop, it's gone," Danny stated.

Sure enough, bishop d5 was played allowing the devastating rook captures b2 check.

Alice began to tremble as she moved her king to d3. "No, I'm gonna bring the team down. I can't lose to Tenju either, not after what I said, it will be disastrous!" Alice thought as she moved her king to d3.

Tenju wasn't showing any mercy though and moved her rook to b5, sending the bishop fleeing to c4. Tenju simply moved her b-rook to f5, prompting Alice to finally move her a-rook to b1. But it had been activated far too late to do anything. For after Tenju moved her bishop to f6, her position was both aesthetically pleasing and completely winning.

Alice desperately moved her rook to f1, but Tenju countered with rook d4, check, sending the king to c3. Rook c5 came next, completely subduing the bishop at c4. Now it was only a matter of time before mate.

"Looks like it won't really matter if they hit 40 moves, this game looks finished," Danny declared as Alice moved her rook to b4.

"Yes, especially after that last move. Now if a5 is played... and it just was, that rook has got to go back, for if it goes to a4, d-rook captures c4 and that's a double check and a lost rook," Nancy stated.

Alice didn't make that blunder though, instead she made an even bigger one and moved her b-rook to b1, stunning the commentators.

"Th- The eval bar... Mate in 6! Hold on, ...hmm ...I see it! Oh, that's nasty. Do you think Alice realizes she just blundered!?"

"No, Danny, but Tenju certainly did as c-rook captures c4 has been played, and that's the pathway to mate!" Nancy declared.

Alice however, didn't see the oncoming mate and moved her king to b3. She could however sense things were bad for her.

"Check," Tenju stated as she moved her pawn to a4, prompting Alice to move her king to a2. "Hmm, it's almost over. Taira, don't rest just yet," she thought as she moved her rook to d2.

Alice began to sweat buckets as she moved her rook to b2. Now it was becoming clearer to her mate was inevitable. "No, no, no! I can't lose. Mimosa and Fifi already got walloped. If I lose, we lose the match! No, NO! Not to Tenju...  I CAN'T LOSE TO TENJU!" she thought as Tenju captured the rook at b2 with her rook, forcing the king to a1.

Tenju then performed a nasty check, simply by sliding her rook down a space to b3 as if she was sliding a switch down, opening the diagonals and leaving the king with just a2 as it's only legal move. Thanks to passing 40 moves, 30 minutes would be added to the clock, meaning if Alice refused to move or resign, she'd have to wait nearly 45 minutes to lose on time.

With tears flooding out of her eyes and her hand trembling, she chose to move her king to a2.

"Checkmate," Tenju declared as she moved her rook to c2, winning the game.

Alice sunk her head into her hands and cried, barely mustering the will to shake hands and hand her score sheet to the arbiter before running away, presumably to where ever Mimosa was currently curled up crying at. Thanks to this loss, regardless of what happened at board 1, Japan would win the match.

In the moments leading up to Alice's loss, queen c1, c-rook c8, rook f3, h6, rook g3, knight d5, h3, f6, queen captures h6, and queen c7 had been played in the Collette-Mimoko game on board 1. The low time was starting to creep up on Collette and effect her psyche, but what was truly worsening her thinking was seeing her teammates losing. And with Alice now out, pressure was now on her to stop the team from suffering a humiliating 4-0 defeat.

But pressure and anxiety are a perfect recipe for blunders, as evidenced by Collette playing queen h4. Mimoko saw it immediately and captured the knight at e5 with her f-pawn, though Collette didn't care and promptly captured the pawn at b5 with her rook. Mimoko slid her queen to d7, resulting in Collette moving her rook to a5. But the rook was the least of Mimoko's concerns as she moved her pawn to e4.

Rook g5 was the best move, but Collette went queen g5, dooming her chances should Mimoko see it and respond with a-knight c7, which she naturally did. Now holding back tears, Collette moved her queen to h5 while Mimoko pressed her pawn onward to e3. Collette desperately brought her queen to e2, but knight f4 forced it away, this time to capture a pawn at c4. But now Mimoko could push her pawn to e2 and Collette couldn't stop it.

Rook e5 was played, but thanks to Mimoko moving her c-knight to d5, Collette made a fatal blunder and moved her king to f2, and she knew it as soon as Mimoko captured the pawn at e5 with her rook.

"H- How about a draw?" Collette trembled while choking back tears and extending her hand.

"My apologies, but no," Mimoko frowned.

While she didn't like making her opponents cry, Mimoko would never accept a draw when she knew she had a winning position and with mate in 10, her position was most certainly winning. That meant France was likely to get swept.

"No... NO!" Collette tearfully fumed as she captured the rook at e5 with her d-pawn.

The full game:

White: SPCM Alice Utsugi (2424) Black: SPCM Himitsutan (Tenju Kuroshiro) (2222)

1. e4 e6

2. d4 d5

3. exd5 exd5

4. Nf3 Bd6

5. c4 Nf6

6. Qe2+ Be7

7. Nc3 O-O

8. Nxd5 Nxd5

9. cxd5 Bb4+

10. Kd1 Qxd5

11. Qc4 Qa5

12. Qb5 Bg4

13. Qxa5 Bxa5

14. Be3 Nc6

15. Be2 Rad8

16. Kc1 Rfe8

17. a3 Bb6

18. Rd1 Rd6

19. Kc2 Bf5+

20. Bd3 Bg4

21. Re1 Bxf3

22. gxf3 Red8

23. Be4 Nxd4+

24. Bxd4 Bxd4

25. Red1 g6

26. f4 Re6

27. Bf3 Rf6

28. Be4 Rxf4

29. f3 Kg7

30. Bxb7 Rb8

31. Bd5 Rxb2+

32. Kd3 Rb5

33. Bc4 Rbf5

34. Rab1 Bf6

35. Rf1 Rd4+

36. Kc3 Rc5

37. Rb4 a5

38. Rbb1 Rcxc4+

39. Kb3 a4+

40. Ka2 Rd2+

41. Rb2 Rxb2+

42. Ka1 Rb3+

43. Ka2 Rc2#