The coin somersaulted in the air a couple of times until it landed on the ground.
With Allen's <Supreme Lucky Individual>, the coin landed on heads.
Well, Allen wanted to play with the white pieces instead of the black pieces not because he was racist but because he always wanted to take the lead or be first at everything.
So when Allen and Iris were going to play on the bed, he would always be in the lead. But, he wouldn't mind if Iris took the initiative since, for him, it was not that bad.
Anyways, after the pieces were decided, Allen and Carrion remained on the white throne and black throne respectively.
"You will play seriously this time, right?"
Carrion asked skeptically towards Allen as he doubted if Allen wouldn't play seriously like in the previous match.
"Of course! My pride is at stake here, so I ought to win this last match of ours!"
After declaring that, Allen moved his knight towards the f3 square.
"The Reti Opening?"
Carrion asked Allen as he noticed what opening Allen had used.
"Of course, since it's not only one of the hypermodern chess openings, it is also dynamic and flexible."
"Yes, it is. But it is quite harmless and dull. You should have gone for a more aggressive opening such as pawn to d4 or e4."
"I'll play aggressive later on the midgame. For now, I'll aim for a flexible opening so that it will not be easily broken apart."
Allen and Carrion exchanged commentaries about Allen's opening as he was planning to play it safe on the openings.
In lower ELO-rated players, openings didn't matter much since it came down to the midgame. But in GM-level chess players, the openings were very important as they would determine if one player has an advantage over the other in the endgame.
With that in mind, Allen took a much more flexible and safer approach since even if Carrion played an aggressive opening against his Reti Opening, it wouldn't matter much since his opening was dynamic and flexible.
Thinking for a few seconds, Carrion finally made his move which was knight to f6.
Allen had already prepared for that so without even a second after Carrion made his move, he moved his pawn to c4.
"So this is what you have planned… I see… The English Opening: Anglo Indian King's Knight Variation isn't that bad of an opening. It's the fourth popular opening if I'm not wrong."
"But of course, I know how to deal with such an opening since you didn't use an unorthodox opening."
Parting those words, Carrion moved his pawn to e6 as he used the English Opening: Agincourt Defense.
That move of Carrion's was also anticipated by Allen and was already included in his preparations so, in an instant, he moved his knight to c3.
"English Opening: Anglo-Indian, Hedgehog System? I see you came prepared. I am already starting to assume that you already have analyzed numerous moves in your mind and predicted my every move."
Carrion commented as he assumed that Allen might have already predicted all of his moves since it didn't even take Allen a second to move his pieces after he had made his move.
With just that assumption, Carrion already thought that Allen was several steps ahead of him. But instead of making him feel despair, it was the exact opposite as it only brought Carrion hope.
The hope that he would have an exhilarating chess match that he would remember in his entire life!
Playing a chess match against the generals in his country or even some GM chess players wasn't that thrilling to Carrion as he kept on winning. After all, his <Supreme General> and <Supreme Strategist> were just too much of a cheat when it came to strategy games.
As long as it was strategy games, then Carrion was bound to win. But such a winning streak was soon to be broken by none other than his opponent in front of him.
Sighing in his mind, Carrion moved his pawn to d5.
"I have already calculated and analyzed over 10,000 chess moves as my depth is that unfathomable. I dare say I can even defeat chess engines such as stockfish and komodo easily."
After saying those words to Carrion, he moved his pawn to d4, transposing the opening to a Queen's Gambit Declined: Three Knights Variation.
To defend his d5 pawn, Carrion moved his c7 pawn to the c6 square. And yet again, the opening transposed to a Semi-Slav Defense.
Reacting to Carrion's defense, Allen went with the Main Line of the Semi-Slave Defense by moving his pawn to e3.
Carrion expected Allen to go with that move since it was the Main Line so he moved his knight to d7 which was the Semi-Slav Defense: Main Line, Normal Variation.
Carrion's move was still within Allen's calculations so not even a second have passed and yet Allen had already made a move which was queen to c2 and that was the Semi-Slav Defense: Main Line, Stoltz Variation.
"That's the last book move. I have to say that it was an intense opening starting point since our openings kept on transposing from one opening to another."
Commenting those words, Carrion moved his bishop to d6. And as he had said, Allen's move was the last book move as they started the midgame round.
Activating his bishop, Allen moved his bishop to the d3 square.
It was common sense in chess that it was best to castle early so that was what Carrion did as he performed a special move in chess that was known as "Castling".
Castling could only be done if both the rook and the king haven't made any moves yet and there weren't any pieces that blocked the path of their castling. Also, the king cannot be checked by the enemy pieces or else castling can't be done.
Seeing Carrion castle, Allen also castled since it was best to castle alongside his opponent on the same side.
In chess, Castling on different sides was a declaration of war.
So both Carrion and Allen castled on the left side of the board.
The midgame round had officially begun!