"Shall we begin?" Fiona asked. She already finished rearranging the chessboard and sat down in front of it, maintaining the perfect posture of a dy.

  "Alright, let's get this rolling."

  "You take white if you wish."

  "Haha, no." Cato tossed a to decide sides. For the better or the worse, he didn't get white.

  "So stubborn," Fiona said. "In my humble opinion, you should first focus oih white."

  "I beat you with bck just fine."

  "Is that so." Fiona disagreed but she didn't pursue the topiy further. A, Cato couldn't help but sey from her expression.

  Tch, that's the most aggravating part about her.

  Uo would have done in her shoes, Fiona didn't say those things to irritate her oppo or throw them off their game. As far as she was ed, she was merely stating the truth. She was just ily and uionally trampling all over Cato's pride.

  I'll show her. Cato decred silently. I've had more than enough time to study our previous games. I'm ready for anything!

  In the past few weeks, he went over every single game he lost to Fiona this year. Ead every dubious py he made had to be analyzed iail.

  Thankfully, many smart chess engied today. They destructed the games for Cato and advised him what he could’ve doer, even showing him predis of how the oppo would’ve likely respoo these alternative lihat made the reviewing process both easier and fruitful.

  I have strong ahis time. I steal a win or two from her. Cato was vinced.

  Fiona opehe game with pawn to e4. And so, the test began. Could Cato's new insights defeat the "La Princess" this time?

  "Princess", huh. More like an Ice Queen.

  The girl in front of him was like a maion of cold wihere was not a trace left of her earlier friendliness. The moment the game began, her face turone cold.

  When peting in anything, Fiona was like an empress who stood at the top above everybody. She exhibited unparalleled skill with ice-cold precision as she crushed everybody in her path without any mercy. There wasn't a single cra her current expression. There were no hints of happiness or sadness. There was only unbreakable tration oask at hand.

  My, a truly irritating girl. iled impishly. But, that's what makes her all the more worthy of breaking apart~

  Every time he found himself in front of that stoic face, Cato had the urge to cw at it, to tear down that mask of fidence. Doubt, anger, anguish, or despair. This girl should show at least a fra of any of these emotions.

  But, Fiona always refused these demands. She fired one calcuted move after another, all the while wearioic expression.

  This is getting bad... Cato frowhe game was about to hit the mid-game, but he could already tell his position was very suspect.

  It was difficult to fully analyze all aspects of the position at hand. He wasn’t a chess engine, so couldn’t destruct all the possible lines on the spot, definitely not within the limited time he had to make his moves.

  heless, he had been in simir sarios before. So, he could tell where this game was headed.

  Unlike Karen's kamikaze pystyle, Fiona pyed chess by the book. She valued swift, but steady, piece development for the early game. Then, during the mid-game, she made smart use of all the pieces she installed across the board, submitting her oppohrough the flexible strength of her army formation.

  pared to Fiona's well-developed army, some of Cato’s strong pieces were stu the back row. As usual, he valued developing his pawns alongside his other pieces. That allowed him to establish tight trol over his side of the board a an airtight defensive wall. Therefore, breaking past his defenses was no easy task.

  heless, Fiona always found a way to maneuver around it. While Cato was busy building up his wall, Fiona masterfully snuck her developed pieces through the cracks. And so, by the time Cato finished establishing his almighty defense - it was too te. Too many enemies invaded his territory and threateo oppress his king.

  Looks like I got a long way to go before I py like an engine. Cato sighed.

  The standard chess theory was to develop pieces as quickly as possible during the early-game and then castle. That was the basic strategy everybody preached to newers, and that's how Cato started learning chess as well. It was an effective approach for building a stable position, as Ms. “By-The-Book” over there roving.

  However, Cato always found that cept a little odd. Pawhe weakest and most expendable units at one’s disposal, so why not send them to the frontline first? It made more seo first send scouts into eerritory aablish a line of defense, and only then start attag.

  As, Cato didn't have much success with that approach. Once he started experimenting with pawn tactics, even weaker oppos started beating him every now and then.

  Frankly, it was a little depressing. The strategy that made the most seo him and seemed like the most fun - never worked out.

  After trying and trying and trying for nearly half a year, Cato was ready to call it quits. He cluded that the defensive pawn tactic had no p the modern chess meta, so it was better to py by the book like a goody-two-shoes.

  But, just as he was about to give up, his chess teacher introduced him to a chess e was equipped with advanced AI that could evehe stro pyers in the world, even with the handicap of starting with one less pawn.

  The engine could analyze a match step-by-step and criticize every single move ade, as well as advise better moves. That allowed him to quickly study his games and learn from his mistakes.

  But, that wasn't the most impressive thing about chess engines, not for Cato. What fasated him even more was watg how engines pyed the game. In particur, engine vs. eches was a sight to behold.

  Unlike humans, engines had no reason to to standard theory preached by mentors. These engines had one goal only - to win. They didn't care how they were going to achieve it. They just wao get the best results, to grasp victory in the most reliable way.

  That's why their moves came off as "inhuman" at times. And, that's also why they used strategies that were never seen before by humans. And, one such strategy was...

  "Pawn development!" ped in joy the first time he saw it an engine vs. ech.

  Instead of using the normal "human" game theory, the engines developed their own idea of what it meant to "py chess". And, one of their strategies involved developing their pawns as aggressively as their other pieces.

  "I k! That's how chess was meant to be pyed all along!" Catained his determination. No matter what human teachers preached him, only the engines knew how to truly py Chess at the highest level possible!

  These AI were superior even to genius grandmasters who dedicated their entire lives to chess. Truly, the AI was the closest to "solving" the deep game that was chess!

  If the engines believed that developing pawns during the early game was a valid strategy, then they were surely correct. Therefore, no matter how much the mentors insisted, Cato was determio study pawn defense!

  As expected, it was a rough road. The teachers didn't warn him just because they were stu their old ways. Their s about this tactic were legit.

  It was hard to win with this method, way harder than with standard human theory. The engines made it look so easy, but Cato often found himself fighting an uphill battle.

  "These engines are geniuses." That was Cato's ho impression as a kid. The AI made the pawn tactic look like one of the stroactics avaible, but Cato experienced first-hand hile it was.

  Pawhe only pieces that couldn't move backward. Ohey started marg, there was no option of withdrawing them from the battlefield. That fw made them iing, but also that much harder to pilot correctly.

  As a result, moving a single pawn was a plex move that bore many sequences for the rest of the match. And, moving multiple pawns in a row was expoially more plex than that.

  As such, one needed amazing fht to avoid itting any fatal mistakes while deploying pawns. The pyer had to be able to read the game many turns ahead and adjust accly.

  That was something AI could do easily, but humans not so muo matter how much Cato studied the lines made by engines, it was difficult to fully prehend their "thought process", so to speak.

  How much ahead do they see? humans even learn to calcute that far ahead? Cato couldn't help but wonder.

  As time passed, he started agreeing with the teachers. Pying like that was beyond reasonable human ability.

  But, did that mean Cato had to entirely abandon that pystyle and stily to standard theory? Hell no. Even if humans couldn't quite py like ehey could at least strive to get closer to that ideal.

  "I like making my minions charge forward. That's what makes the most seo me." Some of Cato's childish ideologies mixed into that motivation, but it was all good. As long as he could py in a way that satisfied him and still get wins, that's all he needed from chess as a petitive game.

  It's not like he was aiming to bee a grandmaster and dedicate his life to chess. Therefore, as long as he got satisfactory results with a strategy he enjoyed, he py man.

  But, as always, it's rough. Cato frowned as he examihe board state. He fell too far behind in piece development and the defenses he erected didn't make up for the lost time.

  Where did I blunder? Was it better to keep that pawn on b6? He wondered about a move he made five turns earlier. At the time, it seemed like a det move that strengthened his trol on the right side of the board.

  But now, much ter, he had to bear the sequenaking the pawn on b6 advahere was no way to return the pawn back to b6 and Fiona khat. Thus, she built her game pn around pressuring this small cra Cato’s otherwise imperable defense.

  She got me. Cato sighed. It’ll be an uphill battle from there. My best bet is t this out into the end-game and hope I get something rolling there.

  As, against this stone-faced queen, the phase of the game didn’t matter. Early-game, mid-game, or end-game - she excelled in all of them. Cato had no ce of rec from the osition he found himself in. It was over.

  "I resign," Cato said.

  It was an unfortue but knowing when to give up was important too, especially in a game like chess where matches could st hours. Cato had a terrible disadvantage and he ying against the La Princess, the ed champion of this region. There was no ce of a eback from there.

  Instead, it was best to switch gears and move on to the game. After all, he didn't e all the way here to py just one game. Likewise, he wasn’t naive enough to expect to win on the first try. It’ll be a thorny path, but eventually, he’ll seize victory through adaptation and preservation!

  "Great job, sis!" Karen sang prises, smiling from ear to ear. "You're the best~!"

  "Thank you." Fiona smiled softly and accepted her sister's affeate snuggle.

  "Well then." Karen smirked as she id her eyes on Cato. "You lost, so you leave now. Shoo shoo."

  "My, is that how the La household treats its guests?"

  "Karen." Fiona said strongly. "o be rude. He came all the way here despite his busy schedule, so we’ll py until he's satisfied."

  "But, I wao py some Raogether~" Karen pouted.

  "The day is still young. Don't worry, I'll win two or three mames, then we’ll move on."

  My, so fident, aren’t we? ade a face. As, he couldn't retort because statistics supported Fiona's unwavering fidence.

  Cato's win rate against her was exceedingly low. In fact, it was so low it could break any regur man's fighting spirit.

  But, not me. Cato took a deep breath and oiled his brain gears for the fight. I beat her. I just have to wait for her to make an inaccuracy, then I strike her down!

  "Do you wish to review the game?" Fiona asked.

  "No need," Cato said. "I more or less know where it went wrong."

  "Your piece development was on the slower side."

  "Yeah, that." ade a face. She just had to go ahead and say it, huh. I'm so tired of hearing this one. Sigh.

  Of course his piece development was on the slower side, that was his pystyle. The way Fiohe o criticize it every siime almost felt like a personal attack. In fact, maybe it really was.

  For the heir of the prestigious La family, anythihan the "best" was unsightly. So, most likely, Cato’s suboptimal pystyle disgusted the girl to the core.

  Good, good. Cato snickered. I'll use this "disgusting" strategy t you dow's see how it makes you feel, hehe.

  And so, they moved on to their sed game of the day...

  DarkestCymore