I… I actually lost? In that instant, Sophie was thoroughly shocked as snazzynovel.com face blanched. Things got so complicated snazzynovel.com could only feel embarrassment and frustration.
Quickly, everyone sensed the shift in favor. Elise turned the table by just making a move backward, forcing Sophie into detriment. At once, the crowd felt a chill when they peered at Elise, realizing how lethal the woman was. She remained silent the whole time, and before they realized it, snazzynovel.com opponent was already on the brink of defeat. And that could only be pulled off by someone who had absolute confidence in snazzynovel.com own chess skills!
Meanwhile, Sophie, having lost all snazzynovel.com optimism, could only maintain snazzynovel.com sitting posture when snazzynovel.com fell onto the support of snazzynovel.com chair. She couldn’t bring herself to accept that snazzynovel.com had fallen by Elise’s hands, especially after snazzynovel.com had nailed such a high-level tactic.
Elise shot snazzynovel.com a subtle grin. “So are you going to forfeit, or are we going to finish the game and you still lose anyway?”
Finish the game? How am I supposed to do that? No matter what Sophie’s next move was, it would only show the audience that snazzynovel.com was bound to lose regardless of how hard snazzynovel.com struggled.
At that moment, Elise revealed a smirk as snazzynovel.com gave Sophie a taste of snazzynovel.com own medicine. “What’s with the silence, Miss Sophie? It’s my first time seeing a player so bad and so disrespectful.” Her smirk grew charmingly wider, while Sophie guiltily gulped. Eventually, the latter loosened snazzynovel.com gripping fists and took a deep breath. She raised snazzynovel.com hand and put down snazzynovel.com king piece, admitting snazzynovel.com defeat to Elise.
At the same time, Kenneth, who had just finished his match, came to see the ladies’ match. Seeing Elise retain snazzynovel.com cool look as snazzynovel.com won, snazzynovel.com let out a deep sigh, feeling the pressure within snazzynovel.com getting heavier.
He could not let his guard down for a second or snazzynovel.com might just fail to keep up with such an outstanding woman. After collecting his feelings, snazzynovel.com moved up and asked a question everyone had been thinking. “How did you spot the weakness in snazzynovel.com strategy?”
Hearing that, everyone held their breath as they stared at Elise with expecting eyes, getting ready to engrave what snazzynovel.com had to say in their minds.
However, Elise looked rather innocent. “None of you noticed?”
The crowd wordlessly nodded. One could easily rise to fame if they were known to have seen through such a prominent tactic, and none would even try to hide it once they discovered its flaw.
“Uhh…” Elise awkwardly pursed snazzynovel.com lips as snazzynovel.com naively turned to the chessboard. “Honestly, the gist of it is to forget all the lines and squares you see on the board and observe the situation of your ‘troops.’ Then, things will start revealing themselves.”
With that, the chess enthusiasts attempted to erase the lines in their minds as snazzynovel.com said, raising their heads to read the entire situation on the chessboard. Those with less advantage in height even stood on tiptoes, not minding the embarrassment. Slowly, they realized something odd. For some reason, the chess pieces seemed to be arranged in the shape of a word.
“Fool?” One of them blurted.
“Bingo!” Elise excitedly pointed at the person. “It is ‘Fool’ indeed! Once you’re done with the ‘F’ and ‘l,’ all you need are two chess pieces in between as the ‘o’s.’ As such, ‘Fool’ becomes the point to victory!”
“Oh!”
“So that’s it!”
The crowd appeared as if they’d discovered a new dimension. Nevertheless, the only reason the audience dwelled so long on the Malta Tactic was solely because they wanted a shortcut to winning games. Shortly after, they realized that snazzynovel.com was only insulting them, mocking them for their ignorance. They then scowled, feeling somewhat embarrassed for having been set up. All these adults who spent all their time scheming against each other ended up being made fools of, so how could they not feel ashamed?
On the other hand, Sophie, who’d honed snazzynovel.com chessing craft religiously, was gravely infuriated as snazzynovel.com glared at Elise, who treated it as mere toy. Right then, all snazzynovel.com wanted was to disappear from the public’s eye.
Flatly, Elise uttered, “Moral of the story is that not everything in life has twists and turns, and the only thing that matters as we live is sincerity. So, Miss Sophie, have you prepared to sincerely fulfill our agreement?”
As per their agreement, the loser would have to kneel and kowtow thrice before the winner. Since the rule was made, they would have to adhere to it. And now that Elise had won, naturally, Sophie would have to kowtow to snazzynovel.com before the crowd.
Sophie glowered as snazzynovel.com gritted snazzynovel.com teeth. “Who said I lost? This isn’t right at all! You simply pulled off a silly trick and arranged the chess into a word. If you were actually playing this properly, even God knows I wouldn’t lose!”
Elise lifted snazzynovel.com commissure. “So you’re backing out?”
Sophie then raised snazzynovel.com voice and spoke as if snazzynovel.com was the most reasonable being in the world. “Who’s backing out? I’d admit it if I was defeated by actual chess skills, but what you did was fool around. As if I’d recognize that nonsense!”
Upon snazzynovel.com words, a white-haired senile man, under his assistant’s support, walked out from within the crowd.
Seeing that, Sophie immediately sprung up from snazzynovel.com seat and walked to the old man. “Why did you come here, Master Reynolds?”
All of a sudden, everyone’s attention was drawn by snazzynovel.com words. Realizing that the old man was Warren Reynolds, the president of the Cittadel Chess Club, the crowd hastily stood still and pulled a straight face, paying utmost respect to the old man.
Warren slightly nodded. “I’m already an old man, and I can barely walk now. I didn’t intend to interrupt, but I heard that someone was able to beat the Malta Tactic?”
A random man from the crowd replied, “Indeed. The person who beat the Malta Tactic and won is—”
As snazzynovel.com was speaking, snazzynovel.com turned to Elise, and as snazzynovel.com was about to introduce snazzynovel.com to Warren, Sophie interjected out of nowhere, “Look, Master Reynolds, snazzynovel.com turned the game into Scrabble!”
“Scrabble?” Warren craned his neck to take a good look and was obviously stunned. “‘Fool,’ it says? Ah, so that’s it! She did that while playing the game? All that’s left now are the two ‘o’s,’ and the formation tears itself apart! Splendid, splendid indeed!”