CHAPTER 336: THE WOMEN’S TEAM IS THRIVING!

’Okay, this should be a winning endgame for me... I just need to calm down, take a deep breath, and calculate everything slowly. I still have fifteen minutes on the clock, enough to not rush things up... Come on...’ Irene muttered, trying to hype herself up.

Currently, she was playing against Alina Kashlinskaya, the best women’s player from Poland. Alina was definitely not a new opponent for Irene. They both came from the same generation, and while European and Asian players didn’t meet each other quite often, they still fought a few times at the high-level women’s tournament, such as the World Rapid & Blitz Championship or even the Women’s World Cup in the past.

However, Irene’s performance had started to decline over the last couple of years, while Alina was currently at the peak of her career. Also, the Indonesian IM didn’t play a lot of tournaments since the COVID-19 pandemic happened, and whenever she played, her performance was quite terrible. So, right now, her rating was 2392, and compared to Alina, whose rating was 2510 and only needed one more norm to get her GM title, it was clear that the Polish IM was the favorite in this game.

However, chess was never a game of statistics. An upset was common to happen, especially in a game that didn’t involve a GM. This was also the case, as even though Alina’s rating was more than 100 above Irene’s, the Indonesian IM was still pushing, so close to winning the game.

"Still, it is not an easy endgame to win..." Claudia, who was in the media booth, frowned, trying to figure out what happened on the board. "I still don’t even know why Alina’s move is considered a mistake, so I cannot think of a way to capitalize it. If it were me, I would’ve thought that the position is still equal and just throw away the advantage given by the computer here."

Indeed, this was not an easy endgame to capitalize on. Even though the computer said it was +2.9 for white, the advantage itself wasn’t very clear. While yes, Irene had four pawns compared to Alina’s three pawns, but one of them was blocked by another, the result of a double-pawn in the early stage of the game. The connected pawns on the B and C files also looked quite strong, but Alina’s rook and knight were still close enough to prevent any advancement on that side.

Claudia couldn’t even figure out the overall situation immediately, and she had the computer engine’s help to analyze the board. However, it was understandable, considering the girl herself was the weakest member of the women’s team.

However, Irene was a better player than her. Even though the woman still didn’t know what the mistake was, she saw an opportunity coming, and her brain ran immediately with the speed of light, trying to calculate every possible way to take advantage of that, and came out victorious.

’All I need to do right now is force a rook exchange. The more she denies it, the better I can improve my position. She doesn’t have any choice here.’

She coordinated all of her pieces to hunt the rook, trying to simplify the game. However, Alina, who recognized the disadvantage she would fall into once it happened, avoided the trade at all costs. However, the more she ran away, the worse her position turned out to be. It was like a cop and thief game, with the thief being so slippery, yet didn’t know the trap that the police set behind.

’Yes! Now, she has no choice but to exchange, and if that doesn’t happen, I could just run all of my pawns to the promotion square!’ Irene clenched her fist, trying her best to contain her excitement. For the first time in this game, she could finally say with confidence, ’I win this match!’

And as if the universe really worked on her side, right after Irene muttered that, Alina Kashlinskaya finally made the fatal blunder. It was like the final nail in the coffin, ready to bury her under six feet.

"YES!" Claudia squealed when she saw the blunder. "Now, Sister Irene could move her bishop between Alina’s knight and rook! Alina only has two choices here! She could save her rook but play the endgame down a bishop, or she could play the endgame with a rook against a knight! Any choice she makes will bring advantage to Sister Irene! Come on!"

"Also," Sarah suddenly interrupted, her face flushed with the same excitement. "We can see on Anna’s game that a checkmate is so close on the board! Well, it is not close enough. The computer evaluates that Anna is 14 moves away from checkmating her opponent! However, if nothing goes wrong, we will have two points soon!"

"Oh! The result on board 4 is also out!" Bagas chimed in. "Laysa gets a draw result against Michalina Rudzinska! If we secured the advantage on boards 1 and 3, we would be able to win this matchup!"

Hilda99: Let’s fucking goooo!

Froggies: God, please, don’t let anyone choke!

RonaldOSIu007: Come on! We are going to win this matchup!

The wave of excitement spread instantly through the chat room, as everyone was ready to witness the historical win here. The victory against Poland would be big for so many reasons. Not only was it because Poland was a far stronger opponent than Indonesia, but the men’s team was also defeated by the same country a few rounds ago. The win would be a perfect revenge, and it would also boost Indonesia’s rank to the top 5 in the standings.

Hell, they didn’t even care that Medina just lost her game. Right now, all the people who watched the matchup were too anxious to see how everything unfolded. Even Sheva, who watched on the sideline, couldn’t help but bite his lips, not even knowing how to hide his nervousness. Everything went perfectly for the women’s team, and it would be cruel if one of them choked.

And in the end, when two handshakes were finally formed, all of them let out a relieved sigh, knowing that the job was done here.

Indonesia’s women’s team won, sneaking into the top 5 of the current standings.