CHAPTER 213: THE SECOND ROUND BEGINS! A STRANGE OPENING?!

The move that Niclas Huschenbeth made to return Sheva’s 1.e4 was to move his D pawn one square forward. Yeah, just one square forward, and it wasn’t his E pawn. This was definitely not a French Defense or Scandinavian Defense, the two openings that were closest to 1.e4, d6, that were on the board.

No, it was the Pirc Defense, a completely different opening system. Sheva could still remember vividly something he read when the boy explored a lot of openings for his repertoire. Top of Form

The Pirc Defense was a flexible opening where black allowed white to occupy the center early on, aiming to counterattack later. Top players had moved away from it in recent years due to its reputation for being less solid and riskier against prepared opponents. However, just like his Dutch Defense, it remained a valuable secret weapon because its unorthodox nature can surprise opponents and lead them into unfamiliar, uncomfortable positions.

Unfortunately, this time, Sheva was the one who suffered from this kind of surprise weapon. He wasn’t familiar with this Pirc Defense at all, and now, he even had to spend about two to three minutes already just in the second move.

’Damn, who would’ve thought that I would be suffering from something that my opponent would always curse me when I do that? If this were a Harry Potter movie, I should’ve said something like, ’How dare you use my own spell against me?’, right?’ Sheva smiled wryly at his own imagination.

He glanced sideways to his opponent, just to find out that the German GM didn’t have even a slight change on his face, not wanting to give a hint of his emotion to Sheva. Seeing this, the boy had to sigh at the man’s awesome poker face before finally clenching his fist, finding a new determination to fight back here.

’Well, if you want to drag me into a dark territory, then, come on! Let me see how capable you are!’

After that, a gear seemed to switch in his brain, and Sheva started to move quickly, like he knew the opening like the back of his hand. It was incredible to see that Sheva didn’t even make a single mistake in the process, but if any other player thought about it, they would understand why Sheva was able to do this flawlessly.

After all, the Pirc Defense was just a passive positional opening, relying on trying to improve the black’s position first while also waiting in the dark. Facing this kind of opening, even though Sheva didn’t know the theory about it, the boy could still do well by following the basic principles of the opening game: control the center, develop the minor pieces, and put the king to a safe place.

Of course, those principles were not something that were so strict as to be followed to the letter. No, it was good guidance for the low-rated players to follow, but for those who researched the opening theory deeply, they could still ignore one or two of the principles just for maximum advantage.

And that was exactly what Sheva did here.

Instead of castling on the kingside and putting his king to safety, Sheva slid his rook one square away from the H1 to the G1 spot. This was a preparation he was going to make before pushing his G pawn forward, trying to march into the opponent’s kingside bravely while also kicking out the black knight on the F6 square. This might put his king into an awkward situation, but in return, Sheva had already planted a pawn on the opponent’s territory, and it was definitely going to be a massive advantage in the future.

*Author note: If you want to visualize the position better, check the comment below.

Even though this was a completely strange system for Sheva, after the first ten moves, the boy felt like the game was going in the direction he wanted the most. He had already pushed all of his pawns on the kingside forward, aiming to disturb the black king’s safe place, while the opponent also committed on the queenside, trying to strike back whenever Sheva castled to that side.

It was a dynamic game with so many tactical approaches, definitely Sheva’s most favorite battlefield in chess.

’Come on, I have already laid my card, it is time to see how you would react to this situation...’ Sheva glanced once again at his opponent, just to be disappointed when he saw the stone-cold expression on the German man was still there. ’Oh, well, it seems that he is really not that expressive. I wonder how the other games are going on...’

Intending to stretch his legs since he couldn’t do that before the game, Sheva rose from his chair, starting to walk around and observe one or two games that attracted his attention. He wasn’t the only one to do so, as some players could be seen wandering around the venue here. They all gravitated around the game of those top players like Yu Yangyi and Kiril Aleeksenko on table one and two, wanting to see how the top-seeded players fought.

Chess was a game that could last for more than three hours, so sitting on the chair for such a long time would definitely be bad for the players’ health. That was why something like this was allowed as long as they didn’t communicate with each other or make some noises that would disturb the other players.

Of course, top players were Sheva’s least concern right now, not when he still had two companions who were fighting for their lives. First, he went to check the closest one to him, Medina, who fought at table 10, and found that she was still engaging in a complicated Sicilian Defense.

’Oh, well, I couldn’t really conclude anything just based on this current position. Anything could still happen in the later stage.’ Sheva murmured inwardly. Then, he walked next to table 7, where Anna was playing against the Spanish GM. ’Now, let’s see how she is going there...’

As Sheva went in that direction, though, he frowned immediately at the sight of the board there, and after observing carefully, he had to hold back the gasp escaping from his mouth, finding the opening choice that the girl made to be surprising.

’Where in the hell did she learn something like this?!’