Chapter 14:

Purple power

En Passant Grandmaster Volume 7

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

The game between Lea and Sabina had started off simple enough with a Queen's Gambit Declined: Baltic Defense, which consisted of d4, d5, knight f3, bishop f5, and c4, before Lea made the bold play of capturing the pawn at c4 with her d-pawn. The next two moves of knight c3 and knight f6, did little to sway things, but Sabina's seemingly innocent pawn to e4 play tilted things slightly in Lea's favor as now she could capture the pawn at e4 with no worry.

Sabina then made another mistake, yet a perfectly human move, in the form of knight captures c4. Without an engine and eval bar on hand, this would look like nothing, but bishop captures e4, bishop captures c4, and bishop d5 later, and it all becomes clear.

"I did things in the wrong order. I should have captured c4, first!" Sabina angrily thought as she moved her queen to b3.

Lea immediately captured the bishop at c4 with her bishop, resulting in Sabina capturing said bishop with her queen to stay even.

"Hmm... Lea thinks now... is time," Lea thought as a faint purple glow began to shine through her hair.

Sabina took notice and promptly called for an arbiter, however, the arbiter dismissed her concern. "What she's using... is perfectly legal, despite what my personal opinions on the matter may be," the arbiter sighed as Lea moved her pawn to c6.

Sabina scowled and moved her bishop to d2 as Lea seemingly turned her eye off before moving her pawn to e6. Despite the heightened tensions, things continued on relatively normally. Queen c2, bishop e7, a king's side castle, but then came the aggressive queen d5 push from Lea, sending Sabina deep into thought before she decided to just go with pawn to h3.

Lea decided to muster her forces and moved her knight to d7, seemingly unnerving Sabina to the point where she made the head scratching, king to h1 play.

"So any idea why that came to be?" Nancy asked Danny as Lea castled king's side.

"No clue. Looks like Sabina just moved her f-rook to c1, further baffling me as to why she went king h1. I don't know. But I do know Lea's chances are looking good."

"It looks like Lea just moved her f-rook to d8. With that, her battering ram so to speak looks far more solid compared to Sabina's."

"And Sabina's play of bishop f4, doesn't look to be doing any favors as now Lea can go... can go... Hmm..."

Danny pinched his lip as he tried to figure out at a glance what move Lea could possibly make. Nancy did too, but gave up and decided to pull up the engine analysis on her screen.

"Knight f8, is the best move according to the engine."

"Yeah, no way she's finding that. No human could."

Yet lo and behold, Lea moved her knight to f8, leaving the commentators speechless.

Sabina meanwhile began to seethe with fury as Lea's hair glowed once more. "Damn cheaters. Us humans had to go through intense training, yet you're allowed to just pop a chip in and get an exclusive peek at the best possible moves!? Appalling!" she thought as she moved her bishop to c7.

Lea simply smiled and moved her rook to d7. This wasn't taken well by Sabina who angrily moved her bishop to e5, her frustrations only growing after Lea moved her a-rook to d8.

"She's cheating... CHEATING! It's unfair... UNFAIR!" Sabina thought as she slammed her rook down on e1.

Lea meanwhile, was calm and collected as she moved her knight to g6.

At this point, Sabina decided to take things to an endgame and moved her queen to b3, prompting Lea to capture it with her queen. Sabina immediately captured said queen with her a-pawn, but Lea countered the rook with a now open a-file by simply moving her pawn to a6.

Sabina clicked her tongue and moved her rook to e2, but Lea went on the attack and captured the bishop at e5 with her knight. Sabina captured said knight with her d-pawn, but Lea continued to mount pressure by moving her rook to d3. Sabina began shaking in frustration as she moved her pawn up to b4, but let out a frustrated groan as she failed to notice the bishop that swiftly captured said pawn at b4.

She dejectedly moved her king to g1, as Lea marched her pawn down to a5. Out of frustration, Sabina moved her rook to e3, giving Lea a chance to possibly end things in a single check.

"Check. Lea can see the mate," Lea smiled as she moved her rook to d1, all while her hair glowed once more.

The ploy had the opposite effect though as the sight only reignited Sabina's rage. "Alright, punk, you wanna play that way, bring it! I'll turn this into a draw, then get the other half of my full point in trial!" she thought as she captured the rook at d1 with her rook.

Lea didn't seem phased though, anticipating that things would turn out like this as she captured the rook at d1 with her rook, sending Sabina's king to h2.

Upon that move, Lea's kingside pawns came to life, starting with the h-pawn moving to h6. Sabina decided to try using her king as an attacking piece and moved it to g3, but Lea had another nasty trick up her sleeve, pawn to b5. Now Lea had a high chance of promoting a queenside pawn, but Sabina didn't care and moved her king to g4. Pawn to c5 changed that as now Lea had three pawns all lined up on the 5th rank and ready to descend towards promotion.

Now Sabina had to create counterplay, moving her rook to e4 in hopes of doing so. Yet Lea simply moved her pawn down to a4. It didn't take a genius to see that Lea would be promoting at least one of her pawns without fail. Sabina decided to go for a desperate ploy, akin to what a Desperado would do, by moving her king to h5.

Lea also moved her king, but to f8, confusing Sabina as Lea hadn't done so with the use of her mysterious power. "What is she planning? Well whatever, I force a stalemate, I can walk away with pride knowing I foiled this cheater," Sabrina thought as she moved her pawn to g4.

Lea moved her rook to d3, resulting in Sabina countering by moving her rook to e3. Lea didn't take it though, instead opting to move her pawn down to c4. Sabina ignored the action there and instead moved her pawn to g5, but Lea forced her to refocus her attention to that area of the board as she captured the rook at e3 with her rook, forcing Sabina to capture said rook with her f-pawn.

"Check," Lea giggled as she moved her pawn to g6.

The small provocation worked as with a furious glare, Sabina captured the pawn at h6 with her king, blundering into mate in 2.

"And that's it," Lea thought as she moved her king to g8.

Sabina went silent as she stared at the board. "Where do I go? I don't know," she thought as she settled on moving her pawn to h4.

Lea then moved her bishop to f8, winning her game. "Checkmate."

Sabina stared at the board with a disappointed scowl. "You're lucky the arbiters allowed you to use that bullshit power," she snarled as she got up and walked away.

Thus, the Hebrew Federation had beaten Romania 3.5-0.5. However, the match between Sabrina and Lea would remain a contentious point, even though it wasn't the decisive game of the match. In fact, every game Lea had partaken in was controversial. And the reason for that was the source of the eerie purple glow emitting from her eye that was covered by a veil of hair.

"Ah, Lea saw Ishikishi sneezing... We might not be able to play... Oh well, Smoothskin looks like she'd be far more delicious to devour," Lea giggled in her mind as she licked her lips.

The full game:

White: Sabina Drăculești (2476) Black: Lea Yedua (2052)

1. d4 d5

2. Nf3 Bf5

3. c4 dxc4

4. Nc3 Nf6

5. e4 Nxe4

6. Nxe4 Bxe4

7. Bxc4 Bd5

8. Qb3 Bxc4

9. Qxc4 c6

10. Bd2 e6