The chess club's members

In the park, Okisato scratched his head as he gazed at the chess board. "So you're saying I should have moved a pawn to c3 instead of my knight?"

"Correct, it would have forced him to move his bishop back, then you could have captured his pawn at e5 with no issue, or better yet, moved your bishop to c4," Mimoko stated.

"That would have changed things up."

"Correct, your strategy was reckless. If I was your opponent, I wouldn’t have captured the rook and promoted my pawn. Rather, I would have moved my pawn to f5, forcing your queen back, then capture the bishop instead of the rook and promote the pawn to a knight, forcing the rook to capture it. Then you’d be down two pawns, two bishops, and a knight, while I’d only be down two pawns. The rook might seem appetizing, but it's a trap. Capturing it to get a queen would result in white mating black as was shown in your game. Though while the en passant checkmate was flashy, you could have achieved mate in one less move by going knight e6, forcing the king to h7, then capturing g7 with the queen."

"You sure are knowledgeable, I thought you just started chess."

"I've been playing for fun for years. Now was just the time I decided to play professionally."

"Even though there are leagues for elementary schoolers?"

"I told you, back then, I just played for fun. Sure I was asked to consider a chess career at that age, but I didn't want it to consume my life. Now that I'm in my last year of high school, I'm choosing to start a professional chess career."

"Makes sense, I guess," Okisato shrugged as he leaned back on the park bench.

Mimoko decided to take the opportunity to ask Okisato about his lack of grandmaster status. Turns out, he was on the verge of getting one, but just needed to beat a grandmaster, which he had never been able to do thus far.

"Since you just registered, I assume you're currently unrated,” Okisato asked.

Mimoko nodded and pulled out her WWCF card. "I'll need to participate either in a tournament or 5 proper matches before I'm assigned a rating.

"In that case, how bout a practice match with me? Don't worry, a practice match won't affect ratings, plus you can register me as a friend, making it easier to play each other. The cards are even capable of playing online chess, believe it or not. They’ve also got plenty of other features that put even the latest smartphones to shame. Want me to teach you some things about them?"

"Sure, though, after the chess match. Oh, and you better not hold back."

...

"Well, you've certainly got skill, I guess that bastard was smart to tie you up," Okisato nodded as he captured the queen at f8 with his rook.

"And you truly are reckless; checkmate," Mimoko glared as she captured the rook at f8 with her rook. "I'm honestly surprised you have such a high rating with how recklessly you play."

"This was a practice match, so I had no reason to fear trying new things. Besides, even if it counted, I wouldn't really drop in rating much due to you being unrated."

"So you weren't playing at your best?"

"Practice is where you try to perfect new moves and strategies, but I guess they won't work on smart opponents like you."

"You really are an enigma. And why did you suddenly become a maniac when you won yesterday?"

"We all gotta scratch that chuuni itch. Though the less you know about me, the better. I'm just here to play chess after all."

"What about that guy yesterday?"

Okisato let out a heavy sigh and decided to tell her the truth. "He's from an underground chess league known as the Desperado league. I guess they've got a mad scientist among them since they're the only ones that have that tech."

"What do you mean?"

"They can force anyone to play against them with that device. It's known as a DESPER and it can create any stage imaginable as well as make insane punishments possible. It can even drag bystanders in and make them adhere to the punishments as well. Though if their target is higher rated than them, said target can simply refuse to participate and the match won't happen. I guess that means all you gotta do to avoid getting forced into those battles is to get a high rating, though you'd still have the choice to participate if you wanted to I guess."

Mimoko went pale as she struggled to digest the information.

"Don't worry. I'll handle it. Once I get rid of the Desperado league, everyone can play chess without worry," Okisato nodded.

"I guess you have skill. I doubt you got a high rating like that with luck. Though what will I tell the other members?"

"No need to burden them with my problems. Aren't they just doing this for fun?"

"Ugh, I don't know with you. Anyway, they should be here soon. Since there's just two of them, we'll all play each other for practice to assess skill levels," Mimoko stated.

"What do they look like?"

"Well, there's Shousen-kun and Iori-chan. Oh, there they are now."

Okisato gazed over to notice three people approaching. One was a boy with bleached blonde hair, while the other two were girls. One girl had short red hair that obscured her left eye and looked to be the timid type, while the other girl had long multicolored hair and was clearly outgoing and sociable.

"YO! Your girl Iori's in da house!" the girl with spiky teeth and long multicolored hair grinned as she approached Mimoko and Okisato.

"This is Iori Ishikiridokoro-chan. The guy with the spiky bleached hair is Shousen-kun. I’m not sure who the red-haired girl is, but we’ll find out soon. Now introduce yourself to everyone,” Mimoko nodded as she nudged Okisato forward.

"Okisato Tanabe, desu."

"Pretty basic greeting, man. I'm Yuusuke Shousen," the boy with the bleached hair stated.

"I'm your girl, Iori Ishikiridokoro! Japan's biggest streamer!" Iori stated as she struck a cute pose.

"A- A- Eh- Eh- U- Utami En- Enoki," a girl with red hair trembled as she emerged from behind the two.

"Hello Enoki-chan. Are you interested in joining the chess club?" Mimoko asked.

"You bet! I saw her playin’ all seductively and knew she had to join! The views will go through the roof when the world sees her dommy side," Iori snickered.

"AH! I- I don't want my face seen!" Utami trembled.

"We won't force you, but first things first, do you know how to play the game?”

“I… think?”

“LOL, that’s easy! Pawns go up, rooks go up, down, back, and forth, bishops go diagonal, knights take the Ls, queens do whatever, and the lame-o weak ass king can only go one space,” Iori stated.

Mimoko immediately shot her a disappointed glare as she properly explained the basics of chess. “We’ll start with pawns, like Iori-chan said, they can only advance forward, however they can capture diagonally and promote if they reach the other side of the board. There is also the en passant move they can perform, but that might be a bit tricky to overwhelm you with now, so we’ll move onto the knights. They’re unique in the fact that they can jump over pieces and move in an L shape in any direction. Remember, it’s two hops in one direction, then one hop to the side. Iori-chan perfectly covered the bishops and the rooks to some extent. As for the queen, it is true it has unrestricted movement in any direction, however it cannot move like a knight, nor hop over pieces. Finally the king. While it’s true it can only move one space, it can actually move two spaces in a move called castling.”

“I- I think I know how to do that,” Utami nodded.

“Good. Now another important thing for tournament play is that you take proper notation. It’s actually very simple. First, the chess board is divided into 8 ranks and files with the ranks being numbered 1 to 8 and the files being labeled A to H. White always starts on the 1st and 2nd ranks while black is always on the 7th and 8th. As for the files, the go A to H from left to right. Now for the notation; pawns simply require you to write the name of the space it moves to, for example, e4. To write a capture, just write the letter of the file x the space it’s capturing, for example, exd5. As for the other pieces, you simply just place their letter before the space the move to and replace the file letter with the piece’s letter when it captures something, for example, Be2, Bxe4. As for checks and castles, the + sign represents a check, and the O-O or O-O-O represent a castle. If a pawn reaches the other side of the board, the notation would be something like, f8=Q. Get all that?”

Utami nodded her head in approval. Even Okisato was impressed with Mimoko’s tutoring.

“Seems like she’s way smarter than I thought. Perhaps I don’t need to worry about her facing off against the Desperados. Though, she’ll need a rating,” he thought.

“Now that you know the basics, why not play a game against Shousen-kun?" Mimoko suggested.

"He's scary!" Utami trembled as she hid behind Iori.

"Oi! I ain't scary!"

"Don't you get in fights a lot?" Okisato asked.

"Huh!? So what? You wanna get in one?"

"Yes, now sit down and let me school you."

"You tryin’ to look cool by sayin’ that with a deadpan look on ya?"

"Nah! You play against Tami-chan," Iori grinned as she steered Utami towards the board.

"IORI! I don't wanna play! I'm scared!" Utami trembled as she was sat down.

"Come on Yuu-kun, make your move."

"Tch. Whatever, I'll make this quick, then I'm beating up deadpan's ass," Yuusuke scoffed as he moved his knight to c3. "There now-"

"Oi, shit your ass down, boy. You decided to play a game against me, and I will not be satisfied until I've mated you," Utami glared as her entire demeanor and personality changed.

"Eh?"

"I said sit, it's your move," Utami glared as she moved her pawn to e5.

"When Tami-chan plays chess, she gets all dominatrix and cold," Iori snickered as she filmed the match.

"Ugh, don't tell me this is going to be a chess club of weirdos," Mimoko nervously thought to herself.