Today's the day, it seems.
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National High School
All students, today will mark the day of the first stage of the Chess Tournament Special Exam. Tables and chess sets have been set out in various classrooms. Teachers will be supervising and ensuring that there is no cheating. Please make your way to your designated table before the allocated time. Otherwise, your clock will begin to run down, and you will be fined points.
Chess Tournament Special Exam - Part 2 [Group Stage]
—You have been placed in Group A
Group A:
1. Kurosawa Sora and Naegi Saka
2. Okamoto Riku and Takagi Mei
3. Ito Reino and Yamamoto Koharu
4. Mizuhara Ayato and Tachibana Emi
5. Teruhashi Ren and Tamura Ritsu
You can check your current group ladder and your match times on the special exam tab of the Preseqta app.
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I opened the specified tab on Preseqta. As expected, all the details for the exam were there, alongside the locations and times of each of the matches.
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Chess Tournament Special Exam
Student: Mizuhara Ayato
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Upcoming Match: Vs Kurosawa Sora and Naegi Saka
Room: 5B
Time: 10:15 am - start
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I still had a little bit of time to spare since I woke up pretty early. Normally, this would be the time when a duo would undergo their final preparations before the match. However, Tachibana definitely wasn't planning on practising with me.
Kimura had already left for the day. I guess his match was much earlier than mine.
I decided to just lie back down on my bed and rest. There wasn't much else for me to do until the beginning of my match.
***
10:11 am.
Group Stage: Match One.
I found myself seated in a relatively empty classroom, with around two or three other matches going on. It was practically dead silent since everyone else was completely focused on their chess games.
Sitting opposite me was Naegi Saka, the girl who was currently at the top of Class 2-B. Her status didn't really matter to me, though, since the person who was deciding my fate was Tachibana Emi, the girl who got the highest score on the last academic exam. There was basically nothing I could do to change the course of things in the second stage of the special exam.
10:15 am.
The timers on our chess clocks began running.
I was playing with the black pieces.
Naegi played E4.
I responded with C5, the Sicilian Defence.
She played Knight F3.
I played D6.
She took a little bit of time to think.
Suddenly, I heard a call from beside me.
"Checkmate."
I looked over to see that Tachibana had already lost.
Ah.
Well, this was to be expected.
Observing their board, it was pretty clear that Tachibana was purposely letting her opponent win. With only four moves being played in total, she allowed Kurosawa Sora to perform the Fool's Mate on her. In the end, there was nothing I could do to change the outcome.
Without even batting an eye at me, Tachibana stood up and left the room.
Our next match was in around thirty minutes. I took this time to stroll around the school.
***
10:43 am.
Group Stage: Match Two.
Once again, I was seated, albeit in a different classroom this time. Tachibana and I will be playing our second game in the group stage against Teruhashi Ren and Tamura Ritsu. Looking down at the board, I noticed that my opponent, Teruhashi, was quite overtly shaking as he adjusted the pieces.
10:45 am.
Eventually, the clocks began running.
I was playing with the black pieces once again.
Identically to the last match, the game started with the old variation of the Sicilian Defence.
Just like the last match, the game was over in less than a minute.
"Checkmate."
Once again, Tachibana had allowed herself to be checkmated.
She then excused herself from the room.
I decided to have a look at the ladder on Preseqta.
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Group A Ladder:
1. Kurosawa Sora and Naegi Saka - 6
2. Ito Reino and Yamamoto Koharu - 6
3. Teruhashi Ren and Tamura Ritsu - 3
4. Okamoto Riku and Takagi Mei - 0
5. Mizuhara Ayato and Tachibana Emi - 0
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I guess I should be stressed, but something mundane like this... it's just not very exciting.
There was another short period of time before the next match.
***
11:29 am.
Group Stage: Match Three.
Our opponents were Ito Reino and Yamamoto Koharu. As I took a seat at our designated table, I looked over at Tachibana, who was as composed as before. The board was already set up, so we simply waited for the time to hit 11:30 am.
Eventually, our clocks began running down.
Like a carbon copy of the last two games, my opponent played E4, and I played the Old Sicilian Defence in response.
Predictably, I was met by the voice of Yamamoto.
"Checkmate."
Oh well, time to wait for the next match.
Tachibana definitely wasn't going to let me pass this exam easily.
***
12:26 am.
Group Stage: Final Match.
Two familiar faces sat opposite us, Okamoto Riku and Takagi Mei. Just like us, they had not won a single game. I guess our group was a pretty strong one since most of the students were in the upper classes. Just sitting down, they appeared to have a sense of defeat. There were still a few minutes before the start of the match.
12:30 am.
The clocks began running down.
My opponent was Okamoto. For the first time today, we played a different opening.
He played the Queen's Pawn opening with D4.
I replied with D5.
After that came Bishop F4 for the Accelerated London System.
We played a few more moves.
I looked over at Tachibana. She had tried to do the same tactic of losing as before. However, it seemed Takagi wasn't even strong enough to be able to find the Fool's Mate. After realising this, Tachibana began sacrificing pieces like crazy.
This meant that Okamoto received quite a few strong pieces to play against me. He wasn't very skilled either, so I was able to continue my attack despite the disadvantage.
A little while later, Tachibana sacrificed almost all of her pieces. Eventually, even Takagi was able to checkmate her.
Oh well.
"Well played, Mizuhara. I was definitely losing that if Mei didn't save me."
"It was a close game, I guess."
"Say... Tachibana was the highest ranked in Class 2-A, right? How come she's... a bit amateurish at chess?"
"Well, it's a bit of a long story."
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