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

"Alright, let's get this rolling."

"You can take white if you wish."

"Haha, no." Cato tossed a coin 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 on beating me with white."

"I can beat you with black just fine."

"Is that so." Fiona disagreed but she didn't pursue the topic any further. And yet, Cato couldn't help but sense pity from her expression.

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

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

I'll show her. Cato declared 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. Each and every dubious play he made had to be analyzed in detail.

Thankfully, many smart chess engines existed today. They deconstructed the games for Cato and advised him what he could’ve done better, even showing him predictions of how the opponent would’ve likely responded to these alternative lines. That made the reviewing process both easier and fruitful.

I have strong answers this time. I can steal a win or two from her. Cato was convinced.

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

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

The girl in front of him was like a manifestation of cold winter. There was not a trace left of her earlier friendliness. The moment the game began, her face turned stone cold.

When competing 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 crack in her current expression. There were no hints of happiness or sadness. There was only unbreakable concentration on the task at hand.

My, a truly irritating girl. Cato smiled 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 claw at it, to tear down that mask of confidence. Doubt, anger, anguish, or despair. This girl should show at least a fraction of any of these emotions.

But, Fiona always refused these demands. She fired one calculated move after another, all the while wearing her stoic expression.

This is getting bad... Cato frowned. The 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 deconstruct all the possible lines on the spot, definitely not within the limited time he had to make his moves.

Nonetheless, he had been in similar scenarios before. So, he could tell where this game was headed.

Unlike Karen's kamikaze playstyle, Fiona played 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 opponent through the flexible strength of her army formation.

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

Nonetheless, 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 late. Too many enemies invaded his territory and threatened to oppress his king.

Looks like I got a long way to go before I can play 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 newcomers, 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 was proving.

However, Cato always found that concept a little odd. Pawns were the weakest and most expendable units at one’s disposal, so why not send them to the frontline first? It made more sense to first send scouts into enemy territory and establish a line of defense, and only then start attacking.

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

Frankly, it was a little depressing. The strategy that made the most sense to 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 concluded that the defensive pawn tactic had no place in the modern chess meta, so it was better to play 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 engine. It was equipped with advanced AI that could even beat the strongest players 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 Cato made, 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 fascinated him even more was watching how engines played the game. In particular, engine vs. engine matches was a sight to behold.

Unlike humans, engines had no reason to conform 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 wanted to 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!" Cato jumped in joy the first time he saw it an engine vs. engine match.

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

"I knew it! That's how chess was meant to be played all along!" Cato regained his determination. No matter what human teachers preached him, only the engines knew how to truly play 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 determined to study pawn defense!

As expected, it was a rough road. The teachers didn't warn him just because they were stuck in their old ways. Their concerns 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 honest impression as a kid. The AI made the pawn tactic look like one of the strongest tactics available, but Cato experienced first-hand how fragile it was.

Pawns were the only pieces that couldn't move backward. Once they started marching, there was no option of withdrawing them from the battlefield. That flaw made them interesting, but also that much harder to pilot correctly.

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

As such, one needed amazing foresight to avoid committing any fatal mistakes while deploying pawns. The player had to be able to read the game many turns ahead and adjust accordingly.

That was something AI could do easily, but humans not so much. No matter how much Cato studied the lines made by engines, it was difficult to fully comprehend their "thought process", so to speak.

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

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

But, did that mean Cato had to entirely abandon that playstyle and stick only to standard theory? Hell no. Even if humans couldn't quite play like engines, they could at least strive to get closer to that ideal.

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

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

But, as always, it's rough. Cato frowned as he examined the 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 decent move that strengthened his control on the right side of the board.

But now, much later, he had to bear the consequences of making the pawn on b6 advance. There was no way to return the pawn back to b6 and Fiona knew that. Thus, she built her game plan around pressuring this small crack in Cato’s otherwise impenetrable defense.

She got me. Cato sighed. It’ll be an uphill battle from there. My best bet is to drag this out into the end-game and hope I can get something rolling there.

Alas, 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 chance of recovering from the weak position he found himself in. It was over.

"I resign," Cato said.

It was an unfortunate outcome but knowing when to give up was important too, especially in a game like chess where matches could last hours. Cato had a terrible disadvantage and he was playing against the Landberht Princess, the crowned champion of this region. There was no chance of a comeback from there.

Instead, it was best to switch gears and move on to the next game. After all, he didn't come all the way here to play 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 affectionate snuggle.

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

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

"Karen." Fiona said strongly. "No need to be rude. He came all the way here despite his busy schedule, so we’ll play until he's satisfied."

"But, I wanted to play some Ranked together~" Karen pouted.

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

My, so confident, aren’t we? Cato made a face. Alas, he couldn't retort because statistics supported Fiona's unwavering confidence.

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

But, not me. Cato took a deep breath and oiled his brain gears for the next fight. I can beat her. I just have to wait for her to make an inaccuracy, then I can 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." Cato made 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 playstyle. The way Fiona felt the need to criticize it every single time almost felt like a personal attack. In fact, maybe it really was.

For the heir of the prestigious Landberht family, anything less than the "best" was unsightly. So, most likely, Cato’s suboptimal playstyle disgusted the girl to the core.

Good, good. Cato snickered. I'll use this "disgusting" strategy to bring you down! Let's see how it makes you feel, hehe.

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