CHAPTER 338: STAGING A CRAZY COMEBACK! INDONESIA WINS!

"Oh, well... This is interesting..." Claudia hummed, staring at the chessboard on the screen with eyes lighting up. "It is a rare occasion for such a position to be on the board. However, this shouldn’t be too difficult for Arfan to defend and force a draw." She concluded without even thinking for too long.

"Oh? Is there anything special here?" Sarah couldn’t help but ask. Even though she had learned a lot about chess to commentate on the game, the girl was still essentially a novice, so her knowledge was still fairly limited to the beginner level.

"This endgame situation is called the Philidor Position, where one side has a rook and a pawn while the other has to defend it with only one rook," Claudia explained. "The concept is simple. Arfan’s king has to guard the promotion square, while his rook has to guard the sixth rank and prevent the king from crossing that side. If the opponent forces his pawn to advance, Arfan could slide his rook to the first rank and give the opponent’s king an endless check in the next turn. So, yeah, Arfan got lucky that his rook is quick enough to defend the sixth rank, and if he is careful enough to follow the theory, the game will end up in a draw."

Both players on the board also realized that they had entered a theory line here, and Francisco Sonis had both hands on his head, getting frustrated over this situation. He was so close to winning this game, yet somehow, the man gave up one of his pawns, thinking that the other pawn could go further first. Who would’ve thought that it was a big blunder, giving away all of his advantage to get into a drawish endgame?

On the other hand, Arfan was probably the most excited person in this venue right now. The boy could feel his legs shaking, couldn’t contain his nervousness anymore. He didn’t even take a glance to see how frustrated the opponent was, only minding his business. All the possible lines kept flying inside his head as he calculated and recalculated everything, not wanting to make a blunder when the chance finally fell on his lap.

’Yeah, this is it... I cannot mess this up! It is enough to be a disappointment once yesterday, no need to do that again tomorrow!’

Yeah, even though he didn’t really talk about it, Arfan came to the game today with a huge pressure on his shoulder. The boy always felt like Sheva looked at him with a disappointed gaze for the last couple of days, and honestly, he couldn’t even blame Sheva for that. His performance had been abysmal against any higher-rated opponent, and while it was normal, Sheva, who won all of his games, had been setting up a high standard for everyone. To receive that disappointed gaze was like a punch in his gut, and Arfan didn’t want to be the end of it again.

Soon, commotion happened next to him, and when Arfan glanced, he saw Taher smiling widely as the handshake was made. Looking at the chessboard there, he was stunned, but a moment later, the boy clenched his fist excitedly.

’Yes! Nice, Brother Taher!’ He shouted inwardly. ’Now, we have a chance to force a draw in this matchup!’ Even though Sheva would be disappointed after taking a quick win against Sabino Brunello, at least, this was a far better result than losing the matchup completely.

All the Indonesian players who watched the game from the live streaming also celebrated the win excitedly, knowing that with the two points they earned earlier, a draw in Arfan’s game was enough to secure the win for the team.

"Yes! Now, your effort is not going to be a waste, Shev!" Anna squealed, shaking Sheva’s arms unconsciously.

Sheva could only nod silently, yet his eyes were still locked on the phone. However, even though his face was still stone cold, a wave of relief washed over him as the boy finally started to relax. The bad mood lingered inside him since he left the table finally disappeared, and a small smile also formed, showing that he was also happy with this result.

"Not bad, Brother Taher..." Sheva nodded in approval. "At least, I have one reliable teammate who knows how to win in the team..." It was pretentious to say something like that, but as the best player on the team right now, Sheva felt like he had the right to act as if he were the team leader.

Now, all the focus was on Arfan’s game, as everyone thought this was the one who decided the entire matchup. No one set their eyes on Master Susanto’s game. In their mind, board one was unsavable, so it was better to forget about it and move on.

However, to everyone’s surprise, Master Susanto suddenly pulled a crazy miracle play, being so close to staging the craziest comeback ever.

"Oh! What is going on here!" It was Bagas who first noticed that, as he accidentally clicked the game on board 1 on his computer. "While we are so focused on Arfan’s game, Master Susanto is setting up a masterclass defense on board 1, forcing the game to enter the opposite color bishop endgame! Even though he is down two pawns, none of them could advance further, and the evaluation bar shows that it is +0.3! Master Susanto neutralizes the +5.7 advantage that his opponent had earlier, and is so close to forcing a draw result! What a comeback from the Indonesian’s number one GM!"

Yetthi: Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!

ChessneRd: Master Susanto shows that he is still the top dog here! What a crazy comeback!

Daminy13: Come on, Master Susanto! Don’t lose to the youngsters!

The chat room exploded once Bagas showed Master Susanto’s current game. Even though in the last couple of days, there were a lot of minor voices about him, Master Susanto was still the number one GM in the country, and ultimately, his fans were still quite a lot. Their voices were drowned by the criticism since Master Susanto didn’t play well in this tournament, but this time, they finally stood up, shouting the loudest to show their support for the veteran GM.

The last two games on the table went for another few minutes, and while it was clear that a draw was the most possible outcome, the two Italian players still didn’t want to admit that they choked so hard, throwing away the matchup that should’ve been in their grasp to the Indonesian team.

Unfortunately, no matter how much they wanted to deny it, reality slapped them hard here, as nothing they did would be enough to bring back the advantage that they had before. In the end, they couldn’t do anything but offer a handshake, knowing that the match was already out of their reach.

In the end, two draws were secured, and Indonesia’s men’s team won the matchup against Italy.