Chapter 10 — No One Wants to Lose

After the internal simulation tournament, Mr. Hung decided to organize another friendly session with the Chess Club of Nguyen Hue High School, a school not far away, to help the members practice more before entering the official inter-school tournament qualifying round. This will be the first time Lam Khe plays against an outside opponent since joining the club.

"Nguyen Hue's team is quite strong," Nam Phong told her during the practice session before the match, his voice serious. "Especially there is a guy named Hoang Viet, who plays in a very flexible and unpredictable style. You need to be mentally prepared, this opponent will not be like the members of our club."

"I will try," Lam Khe replied, even though she was still a little worried about a completely unfamiliar opponent.

The friendly meeting took place in the multipurpose room of Trung Vuong school on a beautiful sunny Saturday afternoon. Both teams lined up and shook hands before taking their playing positions. Lam Khe was placed against Hoang Viet, as Nam Phong predicted, in the second table out of eight matches.

Hoang Viet is a tall and thin guy, wearing glasses, sharp eyes exuding the confidence of a person accustomed to winning. "I heard that you are Trung Vuong's 'defensive wall'," he said as he sat down opposite Lam Khe, his voice a bit challenging. "Let's see if that wall can handle it."

The game began, and right from the first moves, Lam Khe realized that Hoang Viet was exactly as Nam Phong described - his playing style was flexible, unpredictable, constantly changing his attack plan, making it difficult for the opponent to grasp his true intentions.

Following old instincts, Lam Khe began to cluster defensively, carefully reinforcing each position. But this time, she realized something else — Hoang Viet, despite playing flexibly, had a tendency to leave his queen wing exposed when focusing on attacking on the king wing, a weakness that she learned to identify thanks to analysis sessions with Nam Phong.

She looked at the situation for a long time, feeling the familiar wave of fear rising in her heart, urging her to retreat to a safe defensive position as always. But this time, she also felt something else — Nam Phong's voice echoing in her head, about trusting her own calculations, about distinguishing between blind recklessness and well-founded risk.

She took a deep breath, and decided to make a move she had never dared to think of before - sacrificing a pawn to open the way for the rook to attack straight into Hoang Viet's left wing.

"OH?" Hoang Viet raised his eyebrows, clearly surprised by that bold move. He stopped to think longer than usual, trying to find a way to respond.

From afar, Nam Phong, even though he was playing his own game, still glanced at Lam Khe's table, and when he saw that move, a radiant smile appeared on his face.

The match continued at a much more tense pace. Lam Khe continued to maintain the momentum of the attack, gradually tightening the siege around the opponent's rear wing, while still having to carefully protect his king from Hoang Viet's sporadic counterattacks. This was a completely new style of play for her — both attacking and defending in tandem, a delicate balance she had never tested at this intensity before.

At move twenty-eight, Lam Khe saw an opportunity — if she pushed the queen into the right position, combined with the rook that was already close, she could create an inevitable checkmate within the next three moves.

Her hand trembled slightly as she placed the queen on the deciding chess square, not because of fear, but because of the extreme suspense of a moment when she knew she was standing on the threshold of a true victory, a victory that she actively created from beginning to end.

Hoang Viet looked at the situation, his face gradually changing from confident to worried when he realized he had fallen into a trap with no way out. He tried to find ways to delay, but three moves later, the checkmate was completed exactly as Lam Khe had calculated.

"Checkmate," she said, her voice quiet but firm, almost in disbelief at what she had just done.

Hoang Viet sat quietly for a moment, looking at the chess board, then looked up at her with eyes mixed with surprise and admiration. “I underestimated you,” he said, extending his hand to shake. "You played really well this game, it wasn't just defense."

Lam Khe shook her opponent's hand, an overwhelming feeling spread throughout her body — not the familiar relief of a safe draw, but the intense joy of a complete victory, won with the audacity she had decided to do on her own.

When the game ended, she sat quietly looking at the chess board for a while longer, fully feeling the afterglow of the feeling she had just experienced. This is what Nam Phong has been trying to help her understand over the past few weeks — the feeling of daring to step into danger with well-founded confidence, and reaping the rewards of that boldness.

"You did it!"

Nam Phong appeared right after his game ended, hurriedly walking to Lam Khe's table, his eyes shining with undisguised pride. "I saw it all from start to finish. The good sacrifice move at the beginning of the game, the way you maintained the pressure, and the final checkmate — that was a real offensive game, Lam Khe, not half-hearted."

"I still can't believe I just did that," Lam Khe said, her voice still shaking with excitement. "It feels... different from any draw I've ever had. I get it, I get why you always talk about the missed climax."

"That's what I want you to feel," Nam Phong said, his eyes gently looking at her. "The feeling of daring to bet on your own abilities, and winning not through luck, but through preparation and courage."

Trung Vuong team ended the friendly match with an overwhelming score against Nguyen Hue team, a promising positive sign before the upcoming inter-school tournament. But for Lam Khe, the greatest meaning of today does not lie in the final score, but in the individual match she just experienced - for the first time in her life, she played a truly offensive chess game, from start to finish, and won with her own boldness.

On the way home, when Nam Phong and Lam Khe walked side by side, they were both silent for a long time, enjoying the feeling of satisfaction after a successful day of competition. The sunset dyed the sky orange, covering the two people with a warm, gentle color.

"You know what," Lam Khe finally spoke, her voice thoughtful. "For the past six years, I've always thought I played chess this way to protect myself, to avoid any loss. But today, when I dared to really attack and win, I realized I lost a lot of things by being so defensive — not only the victories, but also the feeling of living fully with my own passion."

Nam Phong looked at her, a warm, sincere smile appeared on his face. "I'm glad you realized it yourself, not because I told you. That's the real change, Lam Khe, that comes from within you, not just following other people's advice."

They stopped at a familiar intersection, where their paths turned in two different directions. Lam Khe looked at Nam Phong, her heart filled with a feeling of deep gratitude for him, who had patiently accompanied her throughout this challenging journey, and another, warmer, deeper feeling was growing in her heart that she no longer wanted to deny.

“Thank you, for everything,” she said, her voice sincere.

"Thank you for daring to try," Nam Phong replied, his gentle eyes never leaving her. "See you Tuesday, we still have a lot to prepare for the inter-school tournament ahead."

Lam Khe nodded, turned and walked away, but this time, each step she took was filled with a new confidence, a belief in herself that she had never had during the six long years of living in fear of losing.

That night, before going to bed, she opened her notebook, not to record a missed opportunity like the previous pages, but to record the game itself—every move, every moment of hesitation she overcame, and the final feeling of complete victory. At the bottom of the page, she added a small line: "Today I won because I dared to attack, not because the opponent made a mistake. This is my first real victory." She closed the notebook, placed it next to the old wooden chess board, and turned off the light to go to bed with a rare satisfied smile still lingering on her lips.