Compensation (Open)

Suoh-san responds with his own queen's pawn, moving it two spaces forward and parking it right in front of her queen's pawn. "That's a good starting move for Black." She then pointed to the two pawns and moved her finger between one and the other, as if drawing a line through the air. "Notice how they connect together here? Think of these pawns as a wall now, since they can't capture each other; the both of us have to navigate around it, or through it by capturing each other's pawns with other pieces," she illustrated verbally.

Once Suoh-san finished his turn, it was back to Katsumi, which left her to pick the pawn in front of her queen's bishop and move it forward two squares, as well, in a sequence famously known as the "Queen's Gambit". If Suoh-san accepts it, then the "wall" their pawns have formed will have shifted, thereby offering her pieces cover from enemy attack. Alternatively, her queen's knight was ready for development on the second rank, and would offer safety to the queen while opening up Suoh-san's king for check.

It was too early to start checking his king right now, and she knew it. Doing so would only expose her men to harm, and she had to remind herself that this was more of a lesson in chess, rather than an actual game with competitive stakes.

"Certain moves are called 'gambits', because they often require that a player sacrifice a piece in order to gain a positional advantage against their opponent," Katsumi explained, referring to the current arrangement. "This one is called the 'Queen's Gambit'. Accept or decline it, I leave that up to you." A slight smile formed as she said this, a sincere effort to show Suoh-san and his entourage that Katsumi was, indeed, enjoying herself.

---

Notes:

Watching Suoh-san carefully, she saw him take his king's knight and...moved it directly in front of his king's pawn. Two spaces up, and two spaces to the left. What?

If he had anticipated anything, it was this: Katsumi didn't see it coming.

Sure, it was an illegal move, but rather than get upset, like Shunsuke Moriya would have, the sheer audacity of such a maneuver only highlighted the significance behind her teaching him how to play chess, and caused Katsumi to start giggling. For someone who claimed to be brilliant, this was a rookie mistake if she'd ever seen one, and it was genuinely funny to her. "Suoh-san, knights don't move like that," she said between chuckles, "but you are correct, in that they do move in an L-shape. That's just a very large L-shape. Here, I'll show you what I mean." She shuffled her shoulder bag around until it sat in her lap, allowing her to open it and retrieve a translated leather-bound copy of Lasker's Manual of Chess, just one of many books she had on the subject. Quickly, she opened the book to its chapter explaining the rules of chess, then pointed out a diagram showcasing the knights and their movement patterns, which were visibly much smaller than the path Suoh-san had taken with his queen's knight. "Knights can move either two squares vertically and one square horizontally, or one square vertically and two horizontally. Either way, it creates a teeny little L-shape."

She then guided Suoh-san's attention to the board, hoping her explanations weren't becoming long-winded or monotonous. Katsumi used her fingers to highlight the spaces that each knight could move, making sure to include the one directly in front of his exposed queen, as well. "At the beginning of a game, knights can move in front of the rook's pawn, or the bishop's pawn. You could also drop your queen's knight in front of the queen, right here." Katsumi explained without any hesitation to her voice. Moriya, or any other player for that matter, would have seen her efforts to help Suoh-san as fruitless if she had to point out a critical defensive point to him. "I'll let you fix your move, since we're playing for fun here." A part of her had hoped that he would have accepted the Queen's Gambit, but she understood that he was aiming for the Chigorin Defense by developing a knight closer to the center near his open pawn. What he chose to do was entirely up to him.

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Notes: Made edits to reflect Ricochet's original intentions.

Katsumi shook her head politely with a smile, her hair moving through the air as if she were sweeping away his humility with kindness. "It's perfectly alright, Suoh-san," she said, watching as he undid his mistake and, using the tables as a reference, opted to place the king's knight in front of that bishop's pawn in a move actually called the "Marshall Defense"; how she managed to blunder this bit of knowledge was beyond her, but even experienced players make mistakes.

Katsumi blinked in clear surprise, even though she had partially expected him to try a different move. Named after a man who played this move in the 1920s, he stopped using it when he lost to Alexander Alekhine at Baden-Baden in 1925. Serious players don't resort to this particular move, according to her research, but Suoh-san was still committed to developing the king's knight this early in the game.

He was right, this was actually fun.

"I'll admit, that's a provocative move!" Katsumi declared, very obviously impressed with Suoh-san's commitment to the unorthodox. Perhaps this was what Moriya-san had seen? Or maybe it was a fluke, and she just didn't know it yet? "How long have you played chess, Suoh-san?" If there was one subject that could get her to speak volumes more than she already had, it was this one.

Feeling rather bold herself, Katsumi decided to take her queen's knight and move it directly below the queen bishop's pawn she had pushed forward earlier, which now generated a threat to Suoh-san's pawn, based on the movement rules she had described. The intention was not to capture that piece, because then his knight could attack hers, but rather to pressure the pawn into moving away from harm.

This was going to be an interesting game.

---

Notes: None!

Suoh-san moves his queen's pawn diagonally, capturing material. He had fully intended to accept the gambit and maintain a material advantage. Katsumi's trained mind, a product of years and years honing and mastering the different chess openings, could recognize a transposition back into the Queen's Gambit Accepted when it saw one, and Suoh-san appeared all the more oblivious to his own aptitude for strategic thinking. Could he perhaps have hidden talents that even Moriya-san had failed to notice? It was far too early to tell yet.

"A year is a lot longer than some people play for," said Katsumi as she studied the board state, her hawkish gaze searching intently for an opening to exploit. Even while she held back, the young chess enthusiast couldn't help but rely on the skill set she had spent so much of her time building up to possess, though it seemed like a classic Queen's Gambit Accepted opening was more than satisfactory enough for an introductory course in chess strategy.

"It doesn't appear as though there's notation markers on this board, but a lot of skilled players will use what's called algebraic chess notation to describe their sequence of moves," Katsumi said, calling attention to a detail she found peculiar. But only she would. "The board is divided into eight rows called 'ranks', and eight columns called 'files'. The ranks are lettered A through H, and the files are numbered 1 through 8. From your point of view, the numbers and letters would be reversed; White's side of the board always begins on the first and second ranks, while Black's side starts on the seventh and eighth ranks. That's where you get stuff like 'knight to f3' and 'pawn to d5'." Her mind could perceive the board being dissolved into a series of highly detailed diagrams, each one explaining the different terms and their meanings in as much emphasis as her vocabulary could muster. She had hoped her impressions of the great masters would sell the point further, but Katsumi figured that any description was better than just letting a new player flounder. "I'll admit, even I'm not fully skilled at using notation yet. You'll find more use of notation from the incredibly big chess players, like Garry Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen."

After much evaluation, Katsumi opted to move her king's pawn forward two squares, setting up a prime opportunity for Suoh-san's knight to capture another piece of material. That is, provided he was willing to make a trade for it. She paid close attention to his queen-side bishop, since it had a rather large line of attack in front of it, and began formulating a plan to keep it contained. Each move became a prediction of the other player's strategies, their tactics, their winning formulas.

Determining the victor was just a matter of time. Katsumi liked to think her odds of doing so were pretty solid, but a part of her simply wanted to cut loose and play a casual game this time. That is, if her unusually chatty disposition hadn't served as a tell.

---

Notes: None!

"Chess is an extremely complex and difficult game to master," Katsumi said to Suoh-san, watching as he developed his other knight to the field, mirroring the first one by placing it in front of its respective bishop's pawn. Now both of his knights, king-side and queen-side, were ready to begin corralling her pieces. "I'm nowhere as good as the great masters are. They play on a level I've yet to reach."

It felt weird, hearing herself speak so casually about her interests to people she didn't know. But something about playing chess brought out her best qualities; perhaps it was the lingering influence of her grandmother at work, vestigial remnants of a time when Katsumi had been happier with herself and the life her parents had worked so hard to create for her.

"If you like, I can loan you my chess manual sometime," Katsumi offered, referring to the book she used to instruct him on the knight's movement rules. She had plenty more like it where that came from. "I would offer you a place in the Chess Club, but Moriya-san has a reputation for chasing newbies away with his behavior. He dislikes anyone he thinks isn't smart enough to play." The last thing she wanted floating on her conscience was the possibility of a new referral being harassed, or worse, by the club's resident bully. It felt shameful to consider that a single person could sour what was meant to be an enjoyable experience for everyone. "Thankfully, he hardly ever shows up. He only likes to play against people when he's looking to show off." It was hardly what Katsumi could call consolation.

Considering the two knights now threatening the board, Katsumi took her queen's bishop and slid it diagonally by two spaces, putting it beneath her two pawns. Observation revealed that her queen had two separate lines of attack now, and could potentially threaten Suoh-san's king's knight if he opted to try and make a run for her bishop, as well as his queen's bishop if he decided to develop it out into the field.

Katsumi's friendly expressions belied a calculating and honed mind, one sharpened over the course of sixteen years on Earth. Her new acquaintances did not know what she was capable of just yet.

Lucky for them, neither did Katsumi. "If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask them."

---

Notes: She's getting feisty with her moves!

As difficult as it was to understand some of Suoh-san's dialogue through that unusual accent of his, Katsumi figured that he was a carefree sort of person that didn't seem all too bothered by Moriya-san's derogatory behavior, and even chuckled when he insinuated that nobody could pay enough to be his date. If only she had that sort of confidence... "I play chess for enrichment's sake," Katsumi said, in response to his comment about there being more to the game than just winning. "I just want to get better. That's all there is to it." She smiled again, just like her grandmother would whenever she gave her the same answer.

Suoh-san slid the pawn above his queen's rook forward one square, aiming to shrink the battlefield down some. Katsumi giggled excitedly, clearly having fun with the process of trading moves with her new acquaintance. "You do seem to have an intuitive grasp for the game, Suoh-san," she commented as she looked down, noticing that there was an exposure in his pawn's defenses. Here was hoping that his decision to capture her pawn several moves ago was worth it.

"As you saw earlier, bishops move diagonally, and as long as their path isn't blocked by your own pieces, they can move any number of spaces," Katsumi instructed with a gentle tone, grabbing her king's bishop and tapping it diagonally up and to the left by three squares, carefully grabbing Suoh-san's pawn before putting the bishop against the square it used to occupy. She would place the pawn next to the board, sitting it precisely parallel to the piece that had been taken from her.

Clever examination of the board state would show that Katsumi had chosen to play with a risky series of positional attacks that would allow her to threaten multiple different spaces on the field. High risk, high reward. However, she couldn't underestimate Suoh-san's method of play, either, even if it was unpolished and appeared to lack any sort of recognizable refinement.

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Notes: Bishop takes pawn!

Suoh-san had done nothing but demonstrate an almost inordinate amount of support towards her passion for chess that it almost seemed as if she were speaking to a cheerleader or some other similar character. Admittedly, it felt nice, being on the receiving end of somebody's compliments. She'd have gotten used to it, were she not troubled by the perpetual reminder that her parents disapproved of most people and forbade her from interacting with regular folk.

Watching as Suoh-san moved his king's pawn forward one square, the gears in Katsumi's mind began to churn and turn. His king's bishop was now ready for development, and much like hers had before Suoh-san moved his knight, it had a clean line of fire all the way down to her third rank. "Absolutely," said Katsumi with a nod, "skilled experts rely on rote memorization and commit thousands of hours into studying their moves for the best positional combinations. Your moves almost seem unbound by book theory. It's a very novel way to play." This, indeed, meant that Suoh-san's approach to chess was a good one, as it allowed for unusual possibilities and piece structure to come about.

"Oh, yes, a lot of forward thinking has to go into developing your back row of pieces," Katsumi agreed, before picking the pawn in front of her queen's rook and moving it forward one space. A trap for Suoh-san's bishop on the eighth rank, but so far, he hadn't been playing very recklessly. Perhaps that was something only Moriya-san had perceived? "Did you know that there are more combinations for the game of chess than there are atoms in the observable universe?" A little fun fact for Suoh-san and his retinue of onlookers nearby, in case they happened to be paying attention, as well. Looking at it from a strictly mathematical point of view, and, well... that was a lot of chess. Not even Katsumi, in all her enthusiasm, could play that much.

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Notes: Developments all around!