After making our way inside I could see the mother and son (Jacob) waiting for us in front.
"The hall is quite big isn't it." The mother said as if to start the conversation.
"Yeah only a slight bit smaller than the one at Elderwood Girls, must be a good school." Mom responded as if she wasn't flexing.
"Hey girl, sorry for what I said earlier." Jacob the mothers kid apologised to me.
Well realistically he did nothing wrong...
"Hmph, you know what because I'm feeling nice today I'll accept your apology." I graciously accepted his apology.
"Uh thanks... I'm Jacob by the way, do you know anyone else here?" Jacob awkwardly responded.
"I'm Luna and no I came knowing nobody here. While I'm not against making friends I'm here to win."
"Trying to win the u6 or u8 bracket?"
Heh, this kid has much to learn, "I'm here to win the open bracket after all I'm trying to become the world's best chess player, this is but just the first stepping stone on my journey."
"You know that the big kids are there right? Apparently even people who've graduated from high school will be going too."
Well I suppose if one finishes school before they turn 18 they'd be able to enter, but that kind of feels like bullying.
Well it's not like they are doing it on purpose. After all it's just the relative age affect. It affects pretty much everything for children.
Picture this, you have 2 identical kids one born on December 31st the other January 1st the day after. Under the assumption that these kids are the exact same the kid born on January 1st is almost always guaranteed to be better at sports and even academics due to extra support given to them.
I mean for a coach trying to teach a team of 7 years old at sport seeing a kid who is almost an entire year older than the rest of them such as the kid born on January 1st, it wouldn't be crazy for them to think 'Damn this kid's got talent, I've got to help them reach their potential.'
Obviously the birthdate itself isn't the reason for the better outcome. It's the arbitrary deadline created to separate age groups.
As someone born in May and sadly does not really get much of an advantage from this it isn't something I really like.
Well actually if they changed the deadline date to May 31st rather than January 1st I'd probably think it's way cooler.
Back on track time to enlighten this Jacob kid.
"Well I don't really care if the kids are big or not, after all if I'm going to be the best I need to win even in unfair circumstances."
Of course if I could have advantageous circumstances I'd much prefer that.
"Woah that's kinda deep and inspirational." Jacob replied in awe.
Heh, impressing mere children is easy.
"Luna, you should go familiarise yourself with the clocks and board." Mom said.
I've played on these before in my previous life but I can't really say that can I?
"Okay, bye Jacob."
"Wait let me come too." He said in a hurry.
After walking through to the boards I realised a slight problem.
For the u6 age group the tables were tiny, so that kids could play on it like normal.
But for the opens age group which I am in the tables were a bit big and for me to be able to play I'd have to be standing on the chair and even then getting my piece to the other side of the board while possible would be a bit of an issue with having to lean my entire body over it.
While I could try do the scorpion pose to do it that would probably be less practical and higher likelihood of hitting pieces over by mistake. But it would look pretty cool.
I'll just have to go and see if I can get myself a different table for my matches.
After all in classical (long time format) tournaments they require us to write down our moves and standing for that long on a chair is not something I want to endure for possible 4 hours a day for almost 2 weeks while writing.
"Hey Luna, how do we use the clocks?" Jacob asked.
Well let's hope he isn't an idiot.
After explaining literally every rule in chess to this Jacob kid I went up to the organiser and told them about my problem and they assured me I'd be able to play at a special considerations board.
Apparently it's normally for people in wheelchairs, diabetics who need easy access to food or other things. I suspect the person told me other things because they didn't want to say people who went to the toilet a lot.
After going back to mom and napping on her lap for a bit out of sheer boredom, I was eventually woken up as the pairing were printed and put out around the hall.
After seeing the open sign above one of them walls I went over there and saw I was playing on board SC-1 as white against some kid named Owen and it even has their state next to their name and as expected he's from NSW, where the tournament is being held.
After walking to my table and seeing the supposed Owen an 18 year old looking kid sitting down with clear nervousness on his face I walked up and sat opposite him and stared him down.
"Wallahi, I'm cooked." He said at the mere sight of me.
Well to be fair to him, I too have had traumatic experiences as a grown man losing to a child not even in high school.
It really humbles someone to lose against an actual child after studying the game for longer than they have lived.
"How does the little horsey move again? Is it diagonally?" I asked in hopes of making him let his guard down and to further mock him.
"Thank god. The knight goes in an L-shape, like 2 squares up and 1 square right or left." He explained very kindly.
"Thanks Oww-an." I purposely mispronounced his name.
"Just call me Owen, and you'd be Luna right?"
"Yep that's me, this is my first time ever playing chess and it not being my dad I'm versing so please go easy on me." Hehe, this will make it all the better when I eventually win.
"Testing, testing. Alright, before we start a few rules, first we are doing touch move, touch take meaning if you touch a piece and don't say 'adjusting' you must move that piece, same with an opponent's piece where you have to take it if you can. Obviously no mobile phones, on your tables, leave it at the front or in your bags, please keep in mind if any alarms or notifications go off inside your bag you will be forfeiting your game."
As the arbiter (person running the tournament) said that I noticed Owen getting his phone out of his bag and fiddling with it. Probably making sure it was on silent.
Look at him so hopeful, the light in his eyes is still there. I can't wait to completely crush it.
"If you need help with your chess clocks or don't understand the rules I just explained please raise your hands. If not and you have your opponent in front of you, shake hands and start your games."
"Good luck Owen." I said while putting my arm out for a shake.
"Good luck to you too." Owen replied shaking my hand back.
Winning for White (Luna)
After only 10 moves in I'm already about to win a knight and the exchange for the rook.
By playing Bb5 moving the bishop up diagonally right 1 square I give check and black is forced to interpose (block) with their knight on c6 where it was the turn before. While they could block with their queen it would be a worse exchange.
After playing Nc6 and capturing with my bishop with Bxc6 they then are forced to move their king to e7, after that the bishop on c6 can capture their rook on a8 with Bxa8 and at the end after their queen captures back with Qxa8 I'd just be straight up winning by 5 points equal to an entire rook.
So basically now would be the time to say, "Wallahi, I'm cooked."
And just on time my opponent said that and then resigned on the spot giving up the game.
After shaking hands and resetting the board I went up to one of the arbiters on the computer and told them them I won and went up to the spectators area and found my mom still chatting with the woman from earlier Jacob's mom.
"Hey mom, I finished my game already."
"Aww, it's ok you'll win the next one." Jacob's mom consoled me almost instantly as if it was possible for me to lose.
"Don't be quick to judge Amanda, my Luna here is quite the prodigy, Luna tell her yourself did you win or lose."
"Uh, I won and in 10 moves." I responded normally.
I couldn't help it, I feel bad for winning that easily.
[ AN: Will add the new chapters in, in batches of 10 if you want to read them straight away go check it on greenz.com ]