Long distance DESPER

In London, Numakawa paused as he received a challenge request on his WWCF card. Curious, he opened it up to find that Jackie wished to challenge him.

"Whoa! What happened to your head!?" Jackie gasped.

"HA HA! I have enlarged my cranial capacity and have unlocked more of the human brain's true potential!" Numakawa laughed.

Skaberghast, who could hear the entire conversation, thought about what this new development meant and decided to give Jackie a very specific wager. Of course, since he didn't want Numakawa to know he was listening in on the conversation, or that a DESPER was involved, he wrote everything down on a large notepad and held it up for Jackie to see.

Numakawa didn't suspect a thing, and agreed to face Jackie. Skaberghast then chucked the notepad away and focused all his attention on the DESPER.

"Never seen him so invested," Abigail whispered.

"It's rare, but it happens," Maria whispered back.

While he was unsure if the experiment would be a success, Skaberghast none-the-less wanted to find out if it was possible to use a DESPER over a video call.

"I've been wanting to rematch you. And it seems I play white, so my victory us assured," Numakawa gloated as he moved his pawn to g4.

"I counter that with a double Grob," Jackie scoffed as she moved her pawn to g5.

"Oh, but did you forget? The Coca-Cola gambit!" Numakawa shouted as he moved his pawn to f4.

"I've been studying that opening line, capturing the pawn is best," Jackie smugly huffed as she captured the pawn at f4 with her g-pawn.

"But now, you fall into the trap," Numakawa gloated as he moved his pawn to d4.

"No I won't. You may have a bigger brain, but big brains don't equate intelligence," Jackie countered as she moved her pawn to e5.

"Quite true, just look at Einstein," Numakawa chuckled as he moved his pawn to h4.

On instinct, Jackie immediately captured said pawn with her queen, but that blunder would spell her doom.

"HA HA! You fell for the Coca-Cola gambit's main trap!" Numakawa gloated as he captured the queen at h4 with his rook.

"Ngh, all those nights of playing out all the lines has come back to get me," Jackie trembled as she captured the pawn at d4 with her e-pawn.

Numakawa naturally captured said pawn with his queen, but despite his overwhelming advantage, he was still Numakawa. However, Jackie was one who could truly give him a run for his money in the stupidity department and displayed why by moving her bishop to g7. Numakawa's big brain must have raised his intelligence a bit, since he managed to capture the bishop at g7 with his queen.

"You saw through that trick!? Damn it, your intellect truly has become a force of nature!" Jackie cried as she moved her king to e7.

"Indeed it has! And now I take the rook!" Numakawa laughed as he captured the rook at h8 with his queen.

"You wasted a move though, now I can escape," Jackie grinned as she moved her king to d6.

"But now I check!" Numakawa laughed as he captured the pawn at f4 with his bishop.

"And now I win, I'm queen of the hill," Jackie smugly glared as she moved her king to d5.

"Q- Queen of the hill? But wait, does that mean we were playing King of the hill this whole time!? I was a fool... Wait, my clock is still ticking. Is this an error?"

Jackie went pale as she realized she had made a horrific error and mistaken the type of game she was playing. "OH SHIT! I fucked up!" she shouted in English.

"You played well. Had this been King of the hill, the Coca-Cola gambit would have fallen. BUT, this is normal chess, so check!" Numakawa declared as he moved his pawn to e4, prompting Jackie to capture it with her king, and blunder into mate. "Checkmate. Guess you could say my queen's queen of the hill," Numakawa declared as he moved his queen to e5, winning the game.

Skaberghast waited intently, but his DESPER deactivated on the spot, not even bothering to shave Jackie bald as punishment for losing. "So it couldn't handle the losing conditions, but it did say the winning conditions were fine. Hmm..."

"Professor, why'd you even propose such a condition?" Olga asked.

"Because I want to see how intelligent he's truly become."

"But what about Jackie!?"

"Hey, it's for science. Besides, it could take years to happen, or never happen at all."

"But you're confident it will happen. We all know how lazy you are."

A malicious smirk appeared on Skaberghast's face. "Well got me there. Turns out there is something I'm holding from you, but explaining it would be a bitch so end of conversation.

...

In London, the poor girl that had been kidnapped by Svetlana and forced to play against Red Reaper, fell to the ground, dead.

"Didn't expect you to end things so mercifully, or on the ground," Grigori snickered as Red Reaper reloaded his pistol.

"I'm simply in a rush. I imagine Xiao Lin and her SPCMs will delay the oni-tiger, but for how long remains to be seen. Once I get a new DESPER, about 40 minutes will have passed since I was last on the hunt here. I want as much time as I can to slaughter all of that bastard's friends, before he returns," Red Reaper glared.

The full game:

White: Syouma Numakawa (404) Black: Jackie Egghead (1000)

1. g4 g5

2. f4 gxf4

3. d4 e5

4. h4 Qxh4+

5. Rxh4 exd4

6. Qxd4 Bg7

7. Qxg7 Ke7

8. Qxh8 Kd6

9. Bxf4+ Kd5

10. e4+ Kxe4

11. Qe5#