Chapter 201:

Prelude to the Chess Olympics [Season 6 Intro]

En Passant Grandmaster

Daria scowled as Mimoko checkmated her. "Well you're certainly in form. You planning on trying out for the national team?"

"'Try-out'? You do know I've been scouted endlessly, don't you?" Mimoko sighed as she turned her full attention to her dinner.

"Well, regardless of talent, you usually need to try out for the team. Not to mention, teams sometimes select their members months in advance. Japan's only delayed their selection likely because of your sudden rise. While the WWCF allowed it, likely due to President Redfield hoping it would lead to you being on the national team, many are likely to oppose it, especially due to your skill level."

"But wouldn't the national team be happy to have the likes of me on their team?"

"Yes, but other national teams most certainly wouldn't. Even though Japan has never had historically good chess teams, you being on the team would be akin to having Magnus Carlsen playing for us. And that's only assuming the federation goes with some of the players they had their eyes on from the start. If some of your friends made the team, you'd have a shot at taking gold in my opinion."

The event Daria and Mimoko were discussing was the WWCF Chess Olympics, which were held every two years. It was an 11-round classical tournament where teams of 4 plus one reserve member played against members of other countries in order to garner the most points for their nation. Each nation was allowed to field a men's team and a women's team with the exception being the host nation of the tournament which was allowed to field B and C teams for each category. There were also awards for individual performances for both men and women.

While teams normally selected their members months in advance, Mimoko's meteoric rise had led to the Japanese Chess federation to file a request to delay selection of members for their women's team. The WWCF approved, but only on the condition that they hold a nation-wide tournament to select it's members. This proved to be a good move as due to the sudden disappearance of Hagemi Shousen, Japan's women's team was now down their best player. The event was set to be held from September 1st to 3rd and would feature a 5-round elimination style rapid tournament on the 1st day, then the 2nd day would see the start of a 6 round round-robin with the top 5 players overall making the team.

"They really are cutting it close though. The Olympics begin on September 16th in Budapest, Hungary. Oh, and President Redfield and the regular WWCF governing board are allowing maestros to fight on behalf of their home countries, with some rules and stipulations of course," Daria grinned.

The statement immediately grabbed Mimoko's attention, and quickly motivated her for the selection tournament.

...

In Kyushu, a young woman bandaged from head to toe sat in an alley way. While it appeared as though she was scowling, she was actually attempting to cry, however, her tear ducts had all burnt up, leading to blood trickling out of her eyes instead. Many ran away from the girl in fear, which was ironic considering some of the people that did so had either ogled over her looks in the past, or had treated her kindly. But now, everyone avoided her. Many didn't recognize her now, but even if they did, they'd still run away, for the girl had also gained infamy as a relentless maniac.

Any who resembled her late sister would be forced into a chess match, only to lose and then essentially have their image and personality warped to match that of the bandaged girl's sister. Yet each and every time, the girl would beat them all to death after they failed to perfectly replicate the sister she had lost.

As she was mumbling to herself, hunched up in a ball, a hooded figure approached her.

"So you've been wasting your time pointlessly erasing nonexistent talent just to try and get your sister back. That won't happen. The DESPER's can't bring the dead back to life, nor will trying to bend others into her likeness do the same."

The bandaged girl shot the figure a disgusted look and attempted to pull out her DESPER, however, the figure prevented her from doing so, simply by grabbing both her wrists, causing her to howl in pain as her DESPER fell to the ground with a clunk.

"Rather than wasting your time losing to me, you should challenge some talentless fodder and implement these specific conditions..."

The girl's eyes widened, both at the proposal and the shocking revelation she had just received. "T- Tai- Are you saying her soul is-"

"Shh, chess is a quiet sport. Now go forth and become one."

The figure watched as the girl cautiously got up and challenged an unsuspecting passerby to a DESPER match. The passerby didn't seem to know the first thing about chess as evidenced by the fact that he opened by moving his pawn to h4. The girl, who bore a rating of 1362, responded by moving her pawn to e5. The rest was slaughter.

The passerby moved his pawn to a4, but panicked after the girl moved her queen to f6 and moved his pawn to g3. The girl responded by moving her pawn while the passerby confidently moved his knight to f3.

"That came too little too late," the hooded figure thought as the girl moved her pawn to e4, sending the knight to g5.

The girl however was clearly not the strongest player as evidenced by the fact that she moved her knight to h6, but her opponent was even worse, moving his pawn to e3 and allowing the girl to play knight g4.

"Uh... AHA! This wins right?" the passerby exclaimed as he moved his bishop to b5.

The girl merely let out a growl and moved her knight to c6, prompting the passerby to move his pawn to f4. Then things got troublesome as the girl performed en passant and captured the pawn at f4 with her e-pawn. The passerby quickly raised a fuss but the girl then coldly explained the rules of en passant.

"T- That's still unfair!" the passerby protested as he captured the pawn at f3 with his queen.

"It's part of the game, deal with it," the girl snarled as she moved her pawn to a6.

The passerby, went quiet, and nervously moved his queen to e2, however, that allowed the girl to capture the pawn at b5 with her a-pawn. Th passerby then made horrible counterplay by moving his rook to g1, though the girl failed to make the best move, and moved her pawn to d4. Yet that misstep didn't matter in the grand scheme of things as the passerby once again responded with bad counterplay by moving his pawn to d3, allowing the girl to deliver a check by moving her bishop to b4.

The passerby defended by moving his knight to d2, giving the girl the chance to capture the pawn at e3 with her d-pawn. But rather than try to get out of his predicament, the passerby made things worse by capturing the pawn at f7 with his knight, allowing the girl to play the devastating knight d4.

Yet the passerby moved his rook to a2, unaware of the danger he was in, until the girl captured his queen at e2 with her knight. Now in a panic, he quickly captured said knight with his king, but that was a fatal mistake.

"Check," the girl snarled as she moved her queen to f2.

The king could only go to d1 now, and after the passerby nervously completed the move...

"Checkmate."

The girl moved her pawn to e2, winning the game. Immediately, the passerby burst into flames and rolled on the ground screaming in pain, but struggling to no avail to extinguish the flames.

The girl meanwhile gazed up at the sky as blood oozed out of her eyes before simply muttering, "Taira..."

Sensing things were at it's end, the hooded figure warped away, and reappeared in front of the WWCF's HQ.

"And how faired it?" Raymond asked as he approached the figure.

The figure nodded and pulled down their hood, revealing themself to be Bernie Ruumis. "We shall see. I did reveal some of the Ultima-master's schematics though."

"A necessary sacrifice. It bears no effect on us. Now, I take it you'll be competing in the Chess Olympics, yes?"

Bernie managed a stiff smirk as he began walking away. "Why would I waste such a chance to settle the score with an old rival."

The full game:

White: Passerby (n/a) Black: ? (1362)

1. h4 e5

2. a4 Qf6

3. g3 d5

4. Nf3 e4

5. Ng5 Nh6

6. e3 Ng4

7. Bb5+ Nc6

8. f4 exf3