Heartbreaker

"Waaaah! I didn't make the team!" Cinnamon cried.

"Cheer up, girl. You showed wonderful prowess, and finished with a score of 4 1/2 out of 6 and have jumped to 2412. That is reason to be proud," Daria smiled as she and Rika comforted Cinnamon.

Carol had also managed to finish with the same score, raising her rating to 1669. Speaking of ratings, Utami's had jumped to 2030, Iori's had skyrocketed to 2444, and Mimoko had broken 2800, surpassing Hagemi's peak rating with a rating of 2809. As for Tenju, her rating had jumped to 2296, while Daria's rating had remained at 3200.

However, it was not all smiles as Mimoko kept seeing flashbacks of Kuon's frustration during the game. "I took everything from her," she'd mumble to herself, before eventually recounting what ultimately transpired during the match.

...

Kuon seethed with fury as she stared at the pairings for the final round; she gad been paired against Mimoko. "What the hell are they thinking!? Are they trying to sacrifice me for her!?"

Despite her 4th round win, Kuon had misstepped in the 5th round against Azenira-chan, resulting in a draw by repetition. This meant that she needed a win or at worst a draw in order to keep her chances of making the team alive as despite their losses, Tenju and Utami would be able to leapfrog her in the rankings if they won and she lost. However, just getting a draw against Mimoko was an audacious task for anyone other than Daria.

Mimoko took notice of Kuon's agitated demeanor as she sat down across from her, but thought little of it at the time. The game opened with Mimoko mocing her pawn to d4, and Kuon moving her pawn to d5. Mimoko quickly brought her knight to f3 as Kuon mirrored her and brought her knight out to f6. After Mimoko pushed her pawn to c4, and Kuon defended by moving her pawn to c6, Mimoko decided to make the game a Slav Defense: Modern, Three Knights variation by moving her knight to c3.

Kuon gritted her teeth and moved her pawn to a6 as Mimoko pushed her pawn to e3. " Damn bitch is playing perfectly. I can't lose this game, dammit!" she thought as she moved her pawn to e6.

Contrary to Kuon's claim, Mimoko actually didn't make the top engine move when she moved her bishop to e2, but it was none the less, still a good move. However, Kuon then moved her pawn to b5, giving Mimoko an opening to play c5.

Kuon saw the misstep immediately and clenched her fist in frustration as she moved her bishop to e7, and continued to seethe in anger as Mimoko moved her pawn to a3. "That bitch! You give her an inch, she takes a whole damn mile! No wonder Gunnerson wanted her dead so badly," she thought as she castled king's side.

Mimoko also castled king's side as Kuon attempted to regain momentum by bringing her b-knight to d7. Mimoko saw that coming though ans moved her queen to c2, as Kuon responded by moving her bishop to b7.

"I go bishop d3, queen c7 is likely next," Mimoko thought as she moved her bishop to d3.

However, Kuon responded instead by moving her pawn to h6, prompting Mimoko to move her pawn to e4, ultimately resulting in a trade of pawns and knights as Kuon captured said pawn with her d-pawn, Mimoko captured said pawn with her knight, Kuon captured said knight with her knight, and Mimoko captured said knight with her bishop.

Kuon then moved her queen to c7 and prepared for what was to come. "A check at h7 from the bishop forcing king h8, then she goes rook e1. My best response would be... Knight f6," Kuon thought as all those moves came to pass.

This forced Mimoko to retreat her bishop to d3, however, she still had an overwhelming advantage which increased slightly following Kuon moving her pawn to a5. Another misstep was soon on the way as after Mimoko moved her bishop to d2, Kuon moved her a-rook to d8 instead of her f-rook. To the naked eye, this wouldn't seem like much, espcially after Mimoko simpky slid her queen down to c1. But if an evaluation bar were to be displayed, the overwhelming advantage Mimoko recived from that misstep would become far more apparent.

The kicker was that Kuon herself hadn't spotted the misstep, and only continued to dig her hole deeper by moving her pawn to a4. But it was the next move that would ultimately change history forever.

"Hmm, bishop captures h6 is my best move, bu if I go bishop f4, I force the queen away, and can then capture h6 on my next turn," Mimoko thought as she moved her bishop to f4.

Kuon gritted her teeth and moved her queen to a5, allowing Mimoko to capture the pawn at h6 with her bishop like she intended to. And it was then that the decisive moment happend; Kuon moved her queen to a7. If Kuon was playing someone like Utami or Carol, this might not have been as devestating. But she was playing Mimoko who promptly sacrificed her bishop by capturing the pawn at g7 with it.

Kuon immediately saw it and began to ear up as it happened; she had blundered into a forced checkmate. "No, no, NO! I can't lose! It's only the 22nd move too, so I can;t even offer a draw until move 30! No, NO!" she cried in her mind as she captured the bishop at g7 with her king.

Mimoko wasn't going to giver her an inch though and swiftly moved her queen to g5, forcing the king to h8. Next was queen h6, forcing the king to g8 if Kuon wished to keep her chances alive, but there was little she could do after rook e3.

"Shit, shit, SHIT! What do I do now!?"

Kuon's panic ultimately caused her to hasten her demise as she ended up moving her queen to b8. Mimoko played knight e5, and almost immediately, Kuon captured said knight with her queen. However, Mimoko ignored it and simply moved her rook to h3.

"NO! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!" Kuon shouted as she slammed her queen down on h5.

Everyone turned to face her board as Mimoko stared at her in bewilderment. "That was a bit uncalled for," she said as she captured the queen at h5 with her rook.

"THEN DRAW! I WAS GUARENTEED A SPOT ON THE NATIONAL TEAM UNTIL YOU CAME ALONG AND BECAME EVERYONE'S FAVORITE LITTLE SUPERSTAR! I'M ONE OF THE BEST PLAYERS IN THIS DAMN COUNTRY! I DESERVE TO BE ON THE NATIONAL TEAM! SO DRAW SO I CAN END THIS STUPID TOURNAMNET IN THER GREEN AND BE GRANTED WHAT I HAD RIGHTFULLY EARNED YEARS BEFORE YOU EVEN STARTED PLAYING!" Kuon shouted as she violently captured the rook at h5 with her knight, sending the piece flying across the way.

Arbiters quickly began making their way over to the board as Mimoko let out a sigh. "No, in this tournament, everyone had to fight to earn their spot. The federation has every right to decide how it selects it's team, and this is how it was chosen."

"THIS WAS ONLY DONE FOR THE WOMEN'S TEAM! ALL BECAUSE OF YOU! IF THEY WEREN'T SO ENAMORED WITH YOU, THEY WOULD HAVE JUST KEPT THE TEAM SELECTION AS IT WAS! YET BECAUSE YOU HAD TO STAGE YOUR RISE SO LATE, THEY HAD TO GO WITH THIS FARCE OF A TOURNAMNET IN ORDER FOR THE WWCF TO APPROVE YOUR APPOINTMENT TO THE WOMEN'S NATIONAL TEAM! IT'S UNFAIR FOR ME TO FACE YOU! YOU'RE SOME PRODIGEOUS MONSTER! I'M GOING TO GET SCREWED OUT OF A TEAM SPOT BECAUSE YOU JUST HAD TO BE SOOO GOOD! WELL FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU!"

As an arbiter readied to issue a penalty against Kuon, Mimoko quickly moved her queen to h7, winning the game. "Checkmate. As you can see, the match is over."

The arbiters stopped and silently nodded, however, Kuon took the act of pity horribly and sent all the pieces flying with the swipe of her hand before storming out in a huff.

...

"So that's what happened," Daria sighed as Mimoko finished her story.

"Lol, she went full cry-baby so serves her right," Iori snickered.

"Iori-chan! That woman was crying. She looked stressed out too, and it was because of me. She had put in years of hard work to get to where she was, yet because of me, she lost it all. The Chess Olympics don't happen again for another 2 years, but considering how much talent is starting to emerge here, she might never get the chance again to be on the national team," Mimoko sighed.

"Then she just needs to get good."

"Easier said than done."

Daria sighed and patted Mimoko on the back. "Your friend has a point. This was by all means a test to see who was good enough for the national women's team, and she failed to meet the criteria. Don't beat yourself up over her outburst. You earned your spot as did all the others."

"She's right. In fact, I think this tournament might have been for the better as it allowed the federation to craft a stronger team from before," Okisato added.

"It still baffles me why they didn't do this for the men's side too," Mimoko sighed.

"Likely due to lack of talent. "Even before I became s grandmaster, I was the second highest rated male player in the country. In fact, I'm only the 2nd male grandmaster in the country's history. Don't get me wrong, I think a qualification tournament would have done wonders for us as well, but sadly I fear it wouldn't have yielded as good results."

"True, the guys really don't have a large talent pool, and worse, the top guy is an asshole like Ginji. That guy has the federation in his pockets, so I doubt they'd do anything to jeopardize his spot. But there is some hope. I do hear that the federation managed to find a secret prodigy," Daria smiled.

Okisato naturally asked for more details, yet all Daria did was chuckle and tell him he'd find everything out, eventually.

The full game:

White: Mimoko Inoue (2775) Black: Kuon Nanya (2807)

1. d4 d5

2. Nf3 Nf6

3. c4 c6

4. Nc3 a6

5. e3 e6

6. Be2 b5

7. c5 Be7

8. a3 O-O

9. O-O Nbd7

10. Qc2 Bb7

11. Bd3 h6

12. e4 dxe4

13. Nxe4 Nxe4

14. Bxe4 Qc7

15. Bh7+ Kh8

16. Re1 Nf6

17. Bd3 a5

18. Bd2 Rad8

19. Qc1 a4

20. Bf4 Qa5

21. Bxh6 Qa7

22. Bxg7+ Kxg7

23. Qg5+ Kh8

24. Qh6+ Kg8

25. Re3 Qb8

26. Ne5 Qxe5

27. Rh3 Qh5

28. Rxh5 Nxh5

29. Qh7#