Chapter 15:

Santa Kļava's in town

En Passant Grandmaster Volume 7

Following the cheating scandal which saw Isabella Elena suspended for the remainder of the tournament, Margarita Verde had also been handed a suspension due to being named as being part of the scandal, though her ban was subject to change if no evidence could be produced that truly implicated she was compliant with the cheating. As such, Italy was now playing with only 3 team members, meaning they started each match 0-1 in the hole. The three had miraculously managed to claw out a 2.5-1.5 win over Tanzania the other day, but things weren't looking so good now. And the reason for it was ironically rooted in a seemingly harmless compliment, Laura had directed at one of Latvia's members.

...

Going back in time to the start of round 4...

Laura smiled as the Latvian team approached the board. Things all seemed normal with the team introducing themselves to one another.

"Ilze Barons. Perhaps you've seen me on the weather channel," a bespectacled girl with short blonde hair in a ponytail smiled.

"Dzintra Zvirbule. I'd slug you, but guess I'm getting some rest," a girl with short blonde hair and tattoos covering her arms and legs smirked.

"Ausma Upatnieks. Mind telling me what your psych is at the moment?" I'm a scientist, you see," a bespectacled girl with wavy blonde hair giddily smiled.

"G- Gundega Kalniņš," a girl with long blonde hair mumbled.

"And I'm Santa Kļava. Very blessed to meet you all," a cheery girl with short white hair clad in Christmas-themed attire smiled.

Based on her looks and name, it was fair to assume she had an affinity for Christmas, which led to Laura saying with a smile. "Wow, I love the Christmas charm you've got going on. Really rocking the Mrs. Claus look."

All the other Latvians froze in horror as an enraged scowl appeared on Santa's face. "Huh? What did you just say!?"

"Uh, that you've got a cute Christmas-"

"YOU MAKIN' FUN OF ME CUZ MY NAME'S SANTA!? Well Santa's a common girl's name in Latvia! Ilze, sit this out! I'm kicking this woman into a pile of scat!"

While Santa Kļava normally adopted a cheerful persona, any linking of her to Santa Claus triggered her and brought out her nasty side.

"Wow, you got a Krampus side too. That's really cute."

The remark only further enraged Santa, leading to her teammates desperately trying to hold her back. They were successful in preventing physical bloodshed, but once the match began, it was war.

It started out with e4, e5, then knight f3. However, Santa decided to play the Latvian Gambit and moved her pawn to f5. Laura decided to just capture said pawn with her e-pawn, but Santa immediately pushed her pawn to e4, sending the knight to d4. Next was queen f6, prompting Laura to defend her knight with pawn to c3. Santa however, just moved her knight to c6, causing Laura to hesitate for a bit before moving her queen to g4.

This invited Santa to play d5, though Laura countered with bishop to b5.

"Santa Kļava's comin' to town, and she's making a list, n' checkin' it twice," Danny smirked as Santa moved her knight to e7.

"If she watches a replay of the broadcast, you're dead you know," Nancy glared as Laura moved her pawn to d3.

"Relax, at worse I'll get coal in my stocking, and that ain't a bad thing since coal's got it's uses," Danny proudly huffed as Santa captured the pawn at f5 with her knight.

Things were looking pretty even until Laura blundered and moved her queen to f4, allowing Santa to capture the pawn at d3 with her e-pawn. She further worsened her position by castling king's side, allowing for bishop d6 to be played against her. This caused Laura to make yet another blunder as she moved her queen to f3, allowing Santa to capture the knight at d4 with her knight and fork the queen and bishop.

However, capturing said knight with her c-pawn solved all Laura's worries, until Santa captured the queen at f3 with her queen.

"Ugh, check! Is this all because I tried to compliment you!?" Laura fumed as she captured the knight at c6 with her bishop.

Santa shot her a glare and captured the bishop at c6 with her b-pawn, not bothering to give Laura any further non-verbal messages.

"Well guess you're more of a naughty girl. Check again," Laura huffed as she moved her rook to e1.

Santa rolled her eyes and slide her queen to e2, causing Laura to bite her lip before moving her bishop to d2.

Santa castled king's side, prompting Laura to capture the queen at e2 with her rook, which in turn was promptly captured by Santa's d-pawn. She then moved her knight to c3, but Santa countered simply by moving her bishop to a6. Laura then moved her pawn to f3, but Santa launched an attack by moving her pawn to c5.

Laura ignored it though and moved her rook to c1, allowing Santa to capture the pawn at d4 with her c-pawn with no repercussions. Laura attempted to counter by capturing the pawn at d5 with her knight, but Santa simply moved her pawn to c5.

Frustrated, Laura moved her bishop to g5, allowing Santa to fork it and the knight by moving her rook to f5, or so she thought.

"Check! That's a rookie mistake, Miss Krampus," Laura smirked as she moved her knight to e7.

"Yeah, for you," Santa thought as she unceremoniously captured the knight at d7 with her bishop.

A frown quickly began to form on Laura's face as she retreated her bishop to d2. "I didn't see that... I'm going to lose," she thought as Santa moved her bishop to g5.

Now the bishop was trapped and forced to capture the bishop on g5, leading to it being captured by Santa's rook. Mate was now inevitable, but Laura refused to resign and played to the end, starting by moving her pawn to h4.

"She won't resign? Fine, I'll crush her," Santa thought as she moved her pawn to d3.

Laura tried to put up a fight by moving her king to f2, but Santa knew how to win in this position and moved her pawn to d2. Laura slid her rook to g1, while Santa prepared to tighten the screws by moving her rook to e8. Now running out of options, Laura moved her rook back to e1, allowing Santa to capture it with her d-pawn and promote it to a queen, forcing Laura to capture said queen with her king. That allowed Santa to capture the pawn at g2 with her rook, leaving Laura just two moves away from mate.

"The others aren't looking so great... Sorry for provoking her," Laura thought as she moved her pawn to h5.

Santa moved her rook to d8, preparing for the coup de gras, as Laura sighed and smiled before moving her pawn to a4.

"Checkmate! F you!" Santa snarled as she slammed her rook down on d1, winning the game.

While Gloria managed to get a win, Carla ended up losing, meaning Latvia won the match 3-1.

"You and your big mouth. She might have played less aggressively if you weren't trying to flirt with her," Gloria growled.

"It was just a compliment," Laura pouted.

The full game:

White: Laura Amore (2569) Black: DSPCM Santa Kļava (2248)

1. e4 e5

2. Nf3 f5

3. exf5 e4

4. Nd4 Qf6