Chapter 4:

The Muramasa Jouzu Halloween gambit birthday special

0MNI-SMASH!

"So let's review our game, Nika."

Nika let out a groan as I began replaying the flashback of the game.

"I'm surprised you're playing as white," Nina grumbled as I opened by moving my pawn to e4.

"This gambit can only be pulled off with white," I snickered as Nina moved her pawn to e5.

And after knight f3, knight c6, knight c3, and knight f6, the stage was set for one of my favorite gambits; The Halloween gambit. First off, you sac the knight and capture the pawn at e5, resulting in your opponent capturing it with their knight. But then, you push the pawn to d4, and the horse goes to g6; the best route for them. But then I just push to e5 and the other horse goes back to g8. Now the bishop can come out to c4. And at this point, Nika's all on her own, so can you guess what she did next?

Impressively, she responded with c6, but after my queen f3 attack, she went to f6 and that was pretty much it. She held on after I went to h4 by going to d5, but that allowed me to perform one of the greatest flexes in chess...

"EN PASSANT!"

"Whoa, whoa, how'd that happen!?" Kumi gasped.

"En passant is a move that allows a pawn to capture a pawn by moving to the square behind it, but it can only be done if the opponents pawn had moved two squares and your pawn is adjacent to it. For example, I moved my pawn to d5, but Jouzu's pawn was on r5, so by moving his pawn to d6, he captured my pawn at d5 via en passant," Nika grumbled as she captured the pawn at d6 with her bishop.

"Excellent explanation, but I fed you a good chunk of that info," I snickered as I moved my pawn to h5.

"Chess isn't exactly the most mainstream thing here, but I guess knowledge of a game like this is a welcome gift from you for a change. Check," Nika grumbled as she moved her queen to e7.

And that move right there was the game. While it looked fine now, my bishop going to e3 quickly gave Nina a false sense of security as she moved her knight to f8. Now after a long castle, Nina was clueless and moved her pawn to f5. What's so bad about this? Well after I move my h-rook to e1, bishop e6 is best, but Nina went knight f6. Not bad per say, but then again, her position would be lost either way. D5, knight e4, and now my d-pawn can just take the pawn on c6, and Nina? About to humiliate herself by capturing my knight at c3 with her knight.

Why's that so bad? Because now I move my bishop to g5, and look at that, her queen's fucked. She did try to salvage things by thrusting her knight to e2, but after the rook captures it, there's nothing she can do to save her queen. Though she can certainly hasten her demise by moving her rook to b8, well bye, bye queen. The bishop will take care of you.

Rather than capture my bishop on e7, Nina moved her bishop to e5. Blocking truly is her preferred defense, but now the bishop you spared can just capture the knight on f8. Once again, Nina opts for blockading herself by moving her bishop to e6. Welp, time for the bishop at e5 to fall to my rook. And once more, she spares my bishop by moving to g6, allowing me to move it to h6. And now her threat of rook d8 is hollow as after I capture the bishop at e6 with my rook, her king goes to f7.

Then I slide my e-rook to d6 and her king goes to e8. Then after I move my rook to e1...

"It's checkmate. You lose."

Nina let out an audible groan as she slumped onto the couch. "Freeze time again so I can learn this game proper, dammit."

"Not bad thinking, but I can just plug in some chess skills instantly."

Though I think this will be it in terms of chapters for a while. Hope you enjoyed the Muramasa Jouzu Halloween gambit birthday special, even though it's not my birthday currently in this series. Welp, until the next batch of chapters, whenever that may be. Muwahahaha.

Oh, and here's the full game.

White: Muramasa Jouzu Black: Nika Futagawa

1. e4 e5

2. Nf3 Nc6

3. Nc3 Nf6

4. Nxe5 Nxe5

5. d4 Ng6

6. e5 Ng8

7. Bc4 c6

8. Qf3 f6

9. h4 d5

10. exd6 Bxd6