Ayanokoji's Life As A Streamer!

3: Prodigy

Fair Play Team's POV

Daniel Rensch being in FPT's office was just a mere happenstance, really- though he is indeed a part of it, he has more demanding jobs to do as the as the President of American Chess Events LLC and the Chief Chess Officer of Chess.com.

Hell, he should even be watching or commentating Chessable Masters today! But for some inexplicable reason, he found himself here in their office, lending a helping hand to the understaffed team. Despite their mostly automated closure system, the FPT still seems to always have more work than they can do.

"...Oh, one of those banned accounts last night made an appeal."

While there are hundreds of cheaters getting banned everyday from Chess.com, barely any of those make any effort to circumvent their account's termination. Last time he checked, it was way less than 1%, and the percentage of closures being revoked is close to 0.03% even.

So to see somebody attempt this at all is pretty rare, and if he's being honest to himself, quite entertaining.

Daniel approaches the man and looks over his computer, reading the mail.

"Do the usual."

Most phonies trying to salvage their account with one last try usually chickens out during this screening. Despite that, this person answered all of their questions, and even consented to a video chat.

"Kiyotaka Ayanokoji... Sounds Japanese." Daniel rubs his chin, pondering. "And 16 years old? Why was his account banned?"

"Uhh... Look at this, sir," the unnamed national master chess player pointed at a second screen. "99%+ accuracy on 150+ games. 100% winrate. Account creation was... just yesterday morning. This guy is as blatant as you could get."

With those ridiculous stats, it's no wonder the automated banning system instantly flagged him. Other than him cheating, the next most sensible explanation would be a grandmaster 'smurfing' on a new account- but even they can't get this high of an accuracy and this consistent.

Daniel couldn't help but chuckle. "And yet, here he is, trying to recede his account's closure."

And he even chose the puzzle test out of all things. Puzzle tests are usually much harder to cheat on, especially on a timed one. 'This kid must've known that,' Thought Daniel, smiling.

"Let me do his test. I feel like I'll miss something great if I don't," he says with a chuckle.

...
..
.

"Mate in 27."

This puzzle was originally for FIDE Masters, and even some International Masters. In four moves, white can achieve a winning position, which will eventually lead to a win.

This kid's sudden and quick answer surprised Daniel, but he couldn't but feel silly now that he heard his answer more clearly.

"You sound pretty confident, but sorry, you're not looking for a mate here since you can't force anything." Daniel lets out a heavy sigh. "Instead, you could get a winning position after 4 moves. What a shame, looks like you fai-"

But before he could finish, Ayanokoji's eyes open with a snap, his once brown orbs now seemingly glowing in gold.

"You're right, there isn't a forced checkmate- but there is an absolute line, leading to a mate in 27 moves, or 14 turns." Ayanokoji cut him off. "And that winning position you speak of would only work against intermediate players."

The utter lack of emotion on this teenager's voice told Daniel how confident he was with his answer. Not only did he see the 'answer' of the winning position in 4 moves, he, somehow, also read a 14-turn mate, in just 2 seconds?