Chapter 21:

Chess experiment

En Passant Grandmaster


Yuusuke let out a worried yawn as he walked to school. "Okaa didn't come back. I really hope she isn't where I think she is," he thought. He then noticed a crowd of students gathering at the gates. "Something happen?"

"Yeah, some psycho lady's squatting at the entrance. She looks pissed and won't leave until the principal shows up," a student stated.

"GEH! I was afraid of this," Yuusuke cried as he made his way to the front.

Sure enough, sitting at the entrance with a menacing aura and bags under her eyes, was his mother, Hagemi. Yuusuke attempted to shrink back into the crowd but was noticed.

"Yuu-su-ke, you said that balding fat shit head would be here. I've been here for 12 hours and he hasn't come, THE HELL WERE YOU PLAYIN AT BOY!?"

"GEEYAHA! I'M SORRY OKAA, I'M SORR- UGH!"

Everyone gasped in horror as Hagemi slugged Yuusuke in the gut and dragged him back with her to the entrance of the school.

"I couldn't even see her movements! We're doomed, some psycho delinquent milf won't let us into school," a student cried.

"So? Why's that a bad thing? Besides, even though she's sleep deprived, she's hot as hell," another student said.

"OI! The hell's with this crowd!?" the principal's voice rang out as he pushed his way through the crowd.

As soon as she noticed him, Hagemi immediately appeared before the principal and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck.

"HEEE! W- What do you want!?"

"A chess club, now what's this about there bein’ no supervisin’ teacher!?" Hagemi glared.

"S- S- SCHOOL RULES STATE-"

"YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO I AM YOU FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!?"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"What's all the commotion?" a voice called out.

The two turned to see Maida approaching them. A thicker layer of makeup than usual was present on her face in order to hide her signs of sleep deprivation. It turns out, she had spent all night studying chess theorems as soon as she learned the game and got home.

"You a teacher? Tell this ass to form a chess club," Hagemi glared.

"YES! Maida-sensei, YOU will supervise the chess club. Now they can function like a proper sports team and compete at tournaments, right?" the principal nervously stuttered.

"I'd love to say no to you, but I already said yes to a member of the chess club, so I'll do it," Maida nodded as she noticed Okisato in the crowd.

"GOOD! Now there's no issue. The chess club is good for tournaments."

"Damn well better be. Well, I'm tired so I'm going to sleep. Don't disturb me," Hagemi grumbled as she let go of the principal and headed for the flower bed. She then laid down in it and began snoring.

"Damn animal, how dare you threaten me," the principal scoffed as he noticed Gyro arriving.

"Mr. Enoki, what is with the crowd-"

"PERFECT! Mr. Gunnerson, please remove that animal from the premises!"

"'Animal'? What do you- ...!?"

Gyro immediately went pale upon noticing Hagemi. "I can't. She's too strong!"

"Huh? She's sleeping, lob one of your gyroscopes-"

"Then she'd grab one of the bricks and hurl it at us."

"Then beat her in a chess match."

"NO! First, there's too many people here; second, It would be suicide."

"HUH!? But she'd be sleep deprived-"

"She can beat me in her sleep. Do you seriously not know who she is!?"

"Uh why should I care?"

"She's Hagemi Shousen, a WWCF ambassador as well as the highest rated female chess player of all time and 8th highest rated player overall."

"HEEP! S- She's better than you?"

"Her rating is 2808."

"She's that good!? But she acts like a delinquent!"

"Mr. Enoki, ANYONE can be good at chess," Gyro glared as he began to head out. "Hmm, why is that boy knocked out?" he asked as he took notice of Yuusuke.

"That's her son, Yuusuke."

"THAT BRAT'S HER SON!? DON'T YOU DARE SAY A WORD ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED WITH HIM YESTERDAY!" Gyro shouted before speeding away in terror.

The principal went pale for a second before regaining his composure and ordering all the students to get to class.

...

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, pawn 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 each play each other from the e4, Nf6 board 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."

Taylor J
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J.P.B
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Elukard
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Mario Nakano 64
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