Chapter 44:

The ostracized grandmaster

En Passant Grandmaster

As teachers began herding students back to class, Shion zeroed in on Iori and shot her a death glare.

"What's that for, Shiton? I'm the one that should be pissed those two got away," Iori grumbled as she headed back to class.

As she got there, she found Mimoko sitting at her desk, anxiously tapping her fingers on the desk. Before she could ask why she was like that, the teacher called for everyone to sit down. Iori did try to sneak a text to Mimoko, however, the teacher noticed immediately, and Iori's phone was confiscated in seconds, much to her dismay.

As for Mimoko, had secretly miniaturized her WWCF card and was frequently refreshing the database in order to view the game between Okisato and Kazuya.

...

As school got out, the chess club all gathered in Maida's classroom. Mimoko was finally able to access the match data, and as soon as she finished analyzing it, she began her lecture.

First, she informed everyone about what happened with Utami, followed by Utami herself requesting that everyone call her by her first name. Once that was out of the way, Mimoko moved onto analyzing Okisato's game, which quickly turned into her ripping Okisato for even the slightest mistake. Okisato meanwhile began sulking as everyone began glaring at him.

However, some of the newer members still didn't grasp the situation and asked more on why Utami was targeted. This gave Okisato a chance to try and redeem himself, but Mimoko shot that down by explaining all she knew about the Desperados and DESPERs herself.

"Uh, are you saying we're going to be targeted by criminals?" Yuzuha trembled.

"Yeah, even if you quit today, they'd still hunt you down, likely to get back at me and Inoue-senpai. However, if you become strong chess players, they won't be able to force you into a DESPER match," Okisato stated.

"So we gotta have high ratings then?" Rodeo asked.

"Yes, though there are some grandmasters in their ranks, but those folks usually don't do the dirty work themselves."

"For full disclosure, I was actually attacked in a similar manner to Enoki-chan before I became supervisor of this club," Maida stated.

"You were attacked!?" Numakawa gasped.

"Yes. It was by a girl named Nyoan Nyakuoji. Intriguingly enough, she had either mutated or modified herself to have cat ears and a tail."

"Fascinating!"

Just as Okisato thought things would calm down, Maida threw gasoline on the fire in an unexpected way; by bringing up the need to elect a vice-president for the club.

Okisato groaned as he figured that despite being the second most skilled player in the club, the incident with Utami was likely going to cost him the support of his peers. Sure enough, Yuusuke ended up winning in a landslide, however, Okisato was not ready to sulk in despair, rather, he had been so ticked off that Yuusuke of all people had won, that he decided to engage in a sadistic for of revenge; humiliating him in chess in front of everyone.

"Let me show everyone why you're a lousy fit to be vice-president," Okisato glared as he opened by moving his pawn to c4.

"I've been itching to kick your ass since that experiment yesterday," Yuusuke snickered as he moved his pawn to c6.

"This match IS rated too, so it will go in the database," Okisato stated as he moved his knight to f3.

"Fine by me, then everyone can see you get your comeuppance," Yuusue grinned as he moved his pawn to d5.

"I'm the second most skilled player here. You don't stand a chance against me when I'm playing to win," Okisato glared as he moved his pawn to g3.

"Spoken like a true villain. Speaking of which, the hell were you doing in that game!?" Yuusuke glared as he moved his bishop to g4.

them having some downtime before the others finished.

"I wanted him to be at his highest before the fall,” Okisato stated as he moved his knight to e5.

"But Utami's life was on the line! You should have been smart enough to pull off some of those quick wins Inoue showed us!" Yuusuke fumed as he moved his bishop to f5.

"But I had him all figured out," Okisato countered as he moved his queen to b3.

"But he was relentlessly attacking Utami at every turn! One wrong move and he would have killed her without hesitation!" Yuusuke retorted as he moved his queen to b6.

"Yes, which is why I played defensively. I also needed to confirm the pawn promotion rule," Okisato stated as he captured the pawn on d5 with his c-pawn.

"That's bullshit! Both your reasoning and the fact that Utami would have died if her pawn was promoted," Yuusuke said as he captured the queen at b3 with his queen.

"But there is some logic behind it. The pawn itself is removed from play and replaced by the piece it was promoted to. Though now that I know about this, we can take counter measures to ensure no hostages are ever imprisoned in pawns ever again. Or alternatively, try and convince the DESPER not to kill someone in a pawn that’s promoting, since the pawn technically isn’t captured even though it is taken off the board and replaced with the piece it promoted to. In fact, if a promoted pawn is captured, it only shows up as a pawn in the point total," Okisato argued as he captured the queen at b3 with his a-pawn.

"Well whatever, I'm putting you in your place," Yuusuke glared as he moved his bishop to e4.

Okisato's eyes lit up as a malicious grin appeared on his face. "'Beat me'? With that level of play?" he snickered as he captured the pawn at c6 with his d-pawn.

"Uh, you just hung a rook, so yeah," Yuusuke unamusingly glared as he captured the rook at h1 with his bishop.

"Well guess you never heard of what some call the 100-year trap," Okisato snickered as he captured the pawn at a7 with his rook.

"Huh? You just lost another rook! How's this bad for me?" Yuuske scowled as he captured said rook with his rook.

"Because of THIS!" Okisato snickered as he slammed his pawn down on c7.

Color began to fade from Yuusuke's face as he realized he had made a big mistake, however, pride prevented him from resigning so he pressed onward and moved his pawn to e6 in a last-ditch attempt to save himself. Okisato captured the knight at b8, with his pawn, promoting it to a queen in the process, which forced Yuusuke's king to e7. He continued the onslaught by moving his queen to c7, sending Yuusuke's king to f6, before capturing the pawn at f7 with his queen, leading Yuusuke to make a humiliating blunder and move his king to g5.

"What top skill, Mr. Vice-president. Checkmate," Okisato snickered as he moved his pawn to d4, winning the game.

Yuusuke quickly sunk into his hands in shame, however, the others still continued to glare at Okisato.

"That was a little too mean, man," one student glared.

"True. Chess is meant to be fun. Tanabe-kun, please leave early for the day. I'm disappointed by you in more ways than one," Mimoko glared.

"Hey, the chess spoke for itself, and I won fair and square," Okisato grumbled.

"Winning isn't everything, now please leave for the day."

Okisato sighed, but ultimately left, just as Mimoko ordered him to.

The full game:

White: Okisato Tanabe (2525) Black: Yuusuke Shousen (1530)

1. c4 c6

2. Nf3 d5

3. g3 Bg4