Chapter 114: Sicilian Defense, Part 3

It should be no surprise that Xavier and Julia have first met in a local chess tournament.

Their childhoods have more or less been a-OK, and they enrolled at the same school, which to this day has an extensive sports program that even covers sports that are not too taxing on the body, like chess.

The tournament where they first met has a reputation of producing friends – and even lovers – because the organizers heavily encourage interaction and camaraderie among the contestants, fostering sportsmanship even among introverts, socially anxious people, or just plain shy people.

Not to mention that this also serves as a way to defuse the tension that can arise from competitors trying to outsmart each other with several tactics up their sleeves.

At the tournament itself, the two had a heated battle that opened with the famed Sicilian defense, which is initially a response to the white side deploying the fifth pawn from the left two squares forward.