Chess experiment

In class, Yuusuke shot Okisato a disgusted look as he entered. "Seems like he's still upset about yesterday. Well, maybe I can bring his mom into the picture to get him on the same page. Though I had no idea she was a grandmaster. Well, considering how spooked Gyro was, I doubt I'll need to worry about him attacking Shousen-kun. However, other more brazen Desperado members will still go after him. Getting ahold of his match data took a while, but he was either lucky or Zanni decided to play with him too much. I'd go for the latter. Speaking of Zanni, he's probably going to be the number 1 attacker going after Shousen-kun. After all, he knows his playing style far better than the others," Okisato thought.

Maida then entered and called for everyone to quiet down before beginning the lesson. "Now today, we'll be doing something a little different. As soon as the shipments arrive, I shall explain the experiment."

The class immediately burst into murmuring as Maida checked her phone. Just as she did, a deliveryman appeared with a cart of boxes. Maida signed for the packages and ordered Okisato to open them.

"She's putting me to work. Wonder what lab- Oh? Well this is a pleasant surprise," Okisato thought as he took a chess board out of the box.

After distributing a board and bag of chess pieces to everyone as ordered by Maida, everyone was required to set up the board before Maida began her lecture.

"Today, you're all going to play chess. Though don't misunderstand, this is first and foremost, a research study. For your first task, I want you all to move a piece as white."

Once everyone had done that, Maida called on some students to document everyone's moves. After that was complete, she stared at the data before going around to everyone's board and moving a piece as black. Those who had made an impossible move, such as placing the king in the center of the board were told to sit out for the remainder of the experiment.

"Well this sure is a roundabout way of learning chess. I bet she studied up last night and decided to concoct this on the spot. Well, she's likely borrowing hints from a tactics book, but this also could help the chess club as well," Okisato thought.

"Huh? She moved the knight to f6? Guess she is an amateur, but I can easily counter that, er does she want me to make another move though?" Yuusuke thought.

"Now, we will repeat this game either for 9 more moves or until one side is checkmated," Maida stated.

"Guess there's my answer, e5," Yuusuke thought as he moved his pawn there.

Faced with a similar setup, Okisato opted to bring his knight out to c3 instead of moving his pawn to e5. By the 10th move, Okisato and Yuusuke were determined to be in the best positions for white out of the whole class.

Maida looked at her notes before nodding and announcing the results. "Now, allow me to announce the results. Of the 30 students present, 6 of you failed to make a proper chess move and were thus disqualified."

"But you said to move any piece!" a student protested.

"That was intentional. I wanted to see how many of you would take my words at face value instead of making a proper move. As for the remaining 24, eight of you opened with e4, seven of you opened with d4, six of you opened with Nf3, two of you opened with c5, and one of you opened with a4. Thus, at 33% of the 24 that made legal moves, e4 was the most frequent opening. However, the data gets more intriguing after I moved my knight to f6. As a control, I made this move on every board regardless if it was the right move or not. Though for now, we'll just focus on the 8 that moved to e4. The knight moving to f6 directly threatened that pawn, leading to various responses. Half of you chose to protect the pawn by moving your knight to c3, two of you opted to defend it by moving a pawn to d3, one of you moved the bishop to d3, and one of you moved the pawn up to e5. This was very good research data. Now for your homework; learn the basic rules of chess. On Monday, I will be having you all play each other from the 1. e4 Nf6 position onwards. And I suppose now is the time to announce that I have assumed supervision of the chess club. If any are interested, meet here after school for chess club, however, do note that the chess club will be departing for a tournament as soon as they adjourn. As such, no new members will be allowed to partake in the tournament today should they join now. I would also suggest you come even if you don't know how to play chess as I'm sure the club president will be able to teach you. That is all."

As the students began flocking to their next class, Yuusuke confronted Okisato. "Did you do something to her?" he glared.

"Well, I met her last night and she agreed-"

"DID YOU THREATEN HER!?"

"No, in fact I saved her life. Though why'd you assume I did something. Didn't the principal- Oh right, you were out cold because of your mother-"

"GEH!"

The mention of his mother sent Yuusuke into a cold sweat. Okisato now had full control over the conversation.

"I'm pretty sure your mother would agree with me on my position considering who she is."

"Alright, you win," Yuusuke dejectedly sighed.

"Well that was easy."

"I'd happily slug you in a fistfight, but I'll never throw a punch at Okaa, she'd hurl me through a wall if I did."