Let’s look at the chess board where bastard principal interferes with Ayanakoji’s move:
The situation is Sakayanagi’s Black is “threatening” 1. … Qxg2 check “Threatening” in quotes because as we see in the story, the obvious defensive White is move 1. gxf3 ?
The question mark because it’s a poor move because moving the Pawn out of the way allows:
2. … R-g6 ch
and maybe
2a. Q-g5 Rxg5 ch But this extra move just delays the inevitable
3. K-h1 Bxf3 mate
Let’s talk about Ayanakoji’s intended move after the original setup:
1. Q-g5 by threatening checkmate 2. Qxg7, Ayanakoji sets up an exchange of Queens, and maybe other pieces.
Any reasonable scenario after that results with his White having a significant material advantage.
If Black responds with
1. … Qxg2 ch then
2. QxQ BxQ
3. KxB …
And the end game starts with White having 2 Rooks and a Bishop, which should easily overwhelm Black’s one Rook for a White victory.
If Black takes White’s Queen with the pawn
1. … Pxg5 then Black’s Queen is also lost
2. Pxf3
and we’re left with…
The doubled black Pawn on the g column blocks Black’s Rook from moving to g6 check, and also therefore prevents starting the checkmate process in the first scenario.
White has a significant material advantage with 2 Rooks, and a Bishop against Blacks 1 Rook and 1 Bishop.
Basically, even at the beginning of this scene Sakayanagi’s Black was already in a losing state being down 1 Rook, so any scenario with an even trade of pieces was to Ayanakoji’s advantage.
The only way for Black to win was for White to make a huge mistake which bastard principal provided for her.
p.s. Thanks to chess.com for providing a web-editable chess board.
This is a great analysis! I paused and tried to analyse the game myself but I’m not very good at chess. I got about as far as the queen trade and figured “yeah materiel advantage” and just continued. This is much more detailed!