960 sprint

Bao glared as Okisato prepared to face her.

"You know, I think we need to spice things up. A regular ole bullet match sounds boring. How about a blitz 960?" Xiu giggled as she put her shoes and socks back on.

"I have the points to challenge her normally so-"

"But you paid to fight us all beforehand, and thus you must honor the contract. Sorry, policy rules," Bai sneered.

"Oh, you stopped crying. Well fine, I'll do 960."

Chess 960 or Fischer random chess, was a famous chess variant invented by 11th world chess champion and American grandmaster, Bobby Fischer. In it, the starting position of all the pieces, except for pawns, are randomized. The two opposing armies will always mirror each other though and the two bishops will always be on opposite colors. Each side also has the ability to castle as well. As for why it's called "Chess 960", the reason for that is because there are 960 different possible starting positions. Chess 960 is also one of the few variants to be officially recognized by the WWCF and have specific tournaments for it.

Once the board appeared, Okisato looked at the set-up. Bishops were on the a and b-files, rooks were on the c and g-files, knights were on the e and h-files, the queens were on the f-files, and the kings were on the d-file.

"Guess I go first," Okisato shrugged as he moved his pawn to c4.

Suddenly, the silent and menacing Bao, suddenly exploded into a torrent of muffled chatter as she moved her pawn to c5.

"Oh, Bao-chan's a BIG chatterbox whenever she plays chess. But since talking's a big no-no in matches, we had to sew her mouth airtight shut. Though she can talk during matches like this, but I guess she prefers to keep the mouth shut," Xiu chuckled.

"So she's the opposite of that SPCM from America," Okisato grumbled as he captured the pawn at h7 with his bishop.

Bao retorted with a muffled sentence as she captured the pawn at h2 with her bishop. However, Okisato decided to trap the bishop by moving his knight to g3, prompting Bao to capture the rook on g1 with her bishop. Okisato naturally captured said bishop with his queen, while Bao moved her pawn to b6.

Okisato then moved his pawn to f3 as Bao decided to bring her knight out to g6. This prompted Okisato to capture the rook at g8 with his bishop, which Bao naturally captured with her queen. Now even in material, Okisato decided to go on the attack and moved his pawn to d4. Bao responded with both a muffled tangent and by moving her knight to d6.

"I can't tell what you're saying," Okisato sighed as he moved his pawn to b3.

"Mmph ngh, mmph ngh mmph ngh ngh mmph mmph!" Bao retorted as she slammed her knight down on f4 at rapid speed.

"You wanna speed things up? Fine by me," Okisato grumbled as he began picking up the pace and moved his queen to e3.

Now the playing speed began to pick up drastically as Bao moved her pawn to g5. Okisato then decided to capture the pawn at c5 with his d-pawn, but rather than recapturing with the pawn, Bao opted to capture the pawn at c5 with her rook. Okisato slid his queen to d2 as Bao brought her queen out to h7.

"She sure is fast, but nowhere near the speeds of that SPCM from Kyoto or Peter," Okisato thought as he moved his pawn to e3. "And nowhere near as tough as them either," he thought as Bao moved her queen to h2.

As she watched the game, Xiu began to scowl. "Knight f1, queen h1, good move, but now beefy boy can take the knight on f4 with his e-pawn. Though I guess Bao-chan can equalize by capturing that knight on f1 with her queen. Now, I wonder how beefy boy will respond."

Xiu got her answer as Okisato performed a long castle, moving his king to c1 and his rook to d1. "Ugh, I always forget you CAN castle in 960, it's just so much different than normal," Hui groaned as Bao moved her rook to c7.

Okisato then moved his knight to d3, but Bao countered by capturing the pawn at c4 with her knight, which Okisato promptly captured with his b-pawn on his next turn.

Enraged, Bao slammed her queen into the rook on d1, sending the piece flying. "MMPH [CHECK]!"

"Now that time, I understood you. Though you're nowhere near as fast or challenging as the SPCM from Kyoto," Okisato snickered as he captured the queen at d1 with his king.

Now down a queen, Bao began unleashing a torrent of muffled insults as she captured the pawn at f4 with her g-pawn., but that allowed Okisato to capture said pawn with his queen, giving him complete control over the center of the board.

"Ugh, Bao's gonna blow it," Tao sighed as Bao moved her pawn to d5.

"I'm afraid you might be right. Once she gets angered, she starts making reckless moves," Jia sighed as Okisato captured the pawn at f7 with his queen.

"If only she would control her anger, she'd be a much stronger player," Bai sighed as Bao moved her king to c8.

"She's good at normal bullet, but 960... Maybe we should have let the boy play her there. Then maybe she'd at least be able to notch a win on time," Fen lamented as Okisato ensured Bao's inevitable demise by moving his queen to g8.

Bao then moved her king to b7, causing Okisato to scowl. "Mate is inevitable, but if my brain's working right, it's mate in 29 if she plays perfectly. I hope it doesn't last that long. I AM on a tight timetable," he thought as he captured the pawn at d5 with his queen.

Much to his displeasure, Bao perfectly countered and moved her queen to g8. And to make matters worse, Okisato messed up and moved his queen back to g8. While mate was still inevitable, it was now only possible in 29 moves if both him and Bao played perfectly. Bao certainly did and moved her king to b7, while Okisato did as well by moving his bishop to e5.

But then, Bao moved her rook to c6, giving Okisato a lucky break.

"Mate in 8 is so much nicer than mate in 28," he thought as he moved his queen to b8, forcing Bao's king to a6.

He then moved his knight to b4, causing Bao to rage as she was forced to move her king to a5 and watch as Okisato captured her rook on c6 with his knight on his next turn. Bao promptly captured said knight with her bishop, but Okisato quickly regained control of the game by capturing the pawn on a7 with his queen, forcing Bao to move her king to b4. Next Okisato captured the pawn on b6 with his king, prompting Bao to capture the pawn on c4 with her king.

Okisato's sadistic persona finally bubbled to the surface as he captured the bishop at c6 with his queen. "Looks like you lost nearly all your pieces. Even the SPCM from Kyoto wasn't THAT bad."

Bao didn't take the insult well and went on a loud muffled tirade before slamming her king down on b4.

"Well, lucky for you I'm on the clock so I guess your pawn lives. Check," Okisato snickered as he moved his bishop to c3, leaving Bao with no other choice but to move her king to a3. "And that's checkmate. Now hurry up and give me the spoils. I want to challenge your maestro," he snickered as he moved his queen to a6, winning the game.

Bao scowled, but went silent and pulled out her WWCF card. In addition to the spoils he got for beating her, Okisato had also got a rating increase from beating all 7 SPCMs.

"2630. Not bad. Now lets increase it some more by beating Xiao Lin," Okisato thought as he sprinted up the stairs to Xiao Lin.

...

"And you say that match took only 3 minutes?" Xiao Lin asked.

"Yes, that is correct, master," Bai sighed.

However, Xiao Lin began to smile maliciously. "Just before the boy appeared before me, I received news from Tsar Grigori that the reaper was about to return to London. I assume he was given an easy opponent and challenged them to a bullet match, meaning it likely took him only a few minutes to finish them off, and get a new DESPER. Based on what Tsar Grigori told me, I'd estimate the reaper was able to get back to London and go back on the hunt in 40 minutes give or take. But the boy took a combined total of 46 minutes to beat all of us, that and it likely took him at least 4 minutes to reach me from the cafe, meaning it took him 50 minutes to beat us all and get back to London. Perhaps if he was only a few minutes late, he'd be fine, but 10 minutes? That's plenty of time for the reaper to notch another kill or two."

...

In London,  Yuzuha cowered in fear as Red Reaper received a new DESPER from the Ultima-master.

"That's one down, six to go," Red Reaper sneered as he menacingly jostled his new DESPER in his hand.

The full game:

White: Okisato Tanabe (2575) Black: SPCM Bao Chen (2123)

1. c3 Ng6 

2. f4 e6 

3. f5 exf5 

4. Qxf5 b5 

5. e4 a6 

6. Bg3 Bd6 

7. Bxd6 cxd6 

8. Ne3 Nc6 

9. Ng3 Nce7 

10. Qf2 f6 

11. Ngf5 Bf7 

12. Nxg7 d5 

13. Nh5 Qxh2 

14. Nxf6 dxe4

15. Neg4 Qc7 

16. Nxg8 Bxg8 

17. Nf6 Qc6 

18. Nxg8 Nxg8 

19. a4 bxa4 

20. Qd4 Nf6 

21. Rxa4 d5 

22. Ra5 Nd7 

23. Rxd5 Kc7 

24. Rh1 Nf4 

25. Rxd7+ Qxd7 

26. Qe5+ Qd6 

27. Rxh7+ Kc6 

28. Qxe4+ Nd5 

29. Qc4+ Kb6 

30. Qd4+ Kc6 

31. Qa4+ Kb6 

32. Qb3+ Nb4 

33. Qf7 Qc6 

34. Bc4 Rc8 

35. Qa7+ Ka5 

36. Rh5+ Nd5 

37. Rxd5+ Ka4 

38. b3+ Ka3 

39. Ra5+ Qa4 

40. Rxa4#