Chapter 953:

Mimoko's orientation

En Passant Grandmaster

Mimoko groggily opened her eyes to be met with an enclosed room of gray. "Wh- Where..."

"Testing, testing, ah. It seems you're up," a voice crackled throughout the room.

Mimoko's eyes bulged as she recognized the voice. "Vasily!"

"Oh? You know my... alias... I guess we've rarely encountered so my voice isn't as familiar to you. Now, please direct your attention to the set of clothes by your side."

Mimoko cautiously examined the blue jumpsuit and white Mizuse Niimi brand running shoes. "Why do I need to put them on?"

"Dress code, now if you don't want a guard to strip you-"

"Bring him in. I'll beat him at chess and keep my regular clothes thank you very much."

Vasily began chuckling as clapping could be heard. "As expected from a grandmaster, and even better, chess is the law here... Very well, consider this your first trial. Boris."

The steel door opened as a masked guard marched up to Mimoko.

"All you need to do is win, however, what say we add some odds to make things fairer for Boris here. He is only 1500," Vasily chuckled.

Mimoko scowled as Boris pulled out his WWCF card, confirming the fact, and began setting up a position on the chessboard. "And what is this?" she glared as her eyes narrowed.

"Oh, we're having you play from a few moves in from a set position. Fair odds for a grandmaster of your caliber, yes?"

Mimoko clicked her tongue as she stared at the board. "So, it really is a trial of sorts," she thought.

On the board, e4, e5, knight f3, knight f6, along with king e2 and knight captures e4 had been played, putting Mimoko in a position rather unfamiliar to her. Nonetheless, she was undeterred and moved her pawn to d3.

"I remember seeing this game from the broadcast. No guarantee it'll play out the exact same," Mimoko thought as Boris moved his knight to f6.

That said, Mimoko quickly found herself repeating history with g3, bishop b4, c3, bishop a5, bishop g2, knight c6, and rook e1 being played just as they were back in 2014. Boris only added to the trend by moving his knight to g4, however, it was here that Mimoko saw an opportunity to break free.

"Vasily played b-knight d2 on move 9. However, the best move is actually... h3," Mimoko thought as she moved her pawn to h3.

Boris continued on with Ivo's playbook by moving his pawn to d5, allowing Mimoko to capture the knight at g4 with her h-pawn. He then moved his queen to g5 as he could no longer move his knight to e3, however, as soon as Mimoko captured the queen at g5 with her knight, Boris began going berserk.

Letting loose an inaudible growl, Boris captured the pawn at g4 with his bishop.

"Checking me?" Mimoko scoffed as she moved her bishop to f3.

Another inaudible growl was let loose by Boris as he captured the bishop at f3 with his bishop.

"Hmm," Mimoko scowled as she nodded her head and captured the bishop at f3 with her knight.

Boris responded by recklessly capturing the pawn at c3 with his bishop, allowing Mimoko to easily capture it with her knight. The spectacle continued with Boris twitching as if he was a malfunctioning robot as he moved his king to e7.

"I assume you've broke. Check," Mimoko scowled as she captured the pawn at d5 with her knight.

Boris said nothing and continued twitching as he moved his king to e6.

"Are you moving sporadically to try and annoy me? Check," Mimoko growled as she captured the pawn at c7 with her knight.

Again, silence and twitching as Boris moved his king to f5. Giving up on conversation, Mimoko captured the rook at a8 with her knight as Boris naturally captured said knight with his rook. Queen to b3 came next from Mimoko, with hopes it could set up for a mating net, which it ended up doing as Boris blundered into mate by moving his king to g4.

Pouncing on the error, Mimoko captured the pawn at f7 with her queen as Boris moved his king to h3. "Looks like I'll be keeping my clothes on. Check," Mimoko huffed as she moved her queen to h5.

"Behbehvehgxhdv," Boris babbled as he moved his king to g2.

"Checkmate. Now please leave," Mimoko scowled as she moved her queen to h1, winning the game.

"BEHBEHBEHVFCOGH-"

Boom!

Mimoko recoiled in shock as Boris' face blew off, revealing a robotic face beneath.

"You've beaten the Boris bot... Impressive. You may now proceed without the dress code to the main room," Vasily's voice crackled.

A new masked guard slowly walked in and gestured for Mimoko to follow. With a sigh, Mimoko complied and soon found herself in a large open room filled with cells.

Hearing the sound of clanging, Mimoko looked up to notice a balcony above and gasped as she recognized the figure standing there. "Y- You-"

"Oh? You recognize me? Yes, I'm Vasily, or rather, was. Now, I'm Tsar Grigori of Russia," Tsar Grigori chuckled. "Welcome... to the Queenside Citadel."

The full game:

White: Mimoko Inoue (2880) Black: Boris bot (201)

1. e4 e5

2. Nf3 Nf6

3. Ke2 Nxe4

4. d3 Nf6

5. g3 Bb4

6. c3 Ba5

7. Bg2 Nc6

8. Re1 Ng4

9. h3 d5

10. hxg4 Qg5