CHAPTER 34: A RECKLESS PLAYING STYLE!

In fact, the chance that Sheva was thinking about was far more subtle than anyone expected it to be. Hell, most of the people who watched this game, including Irfan, all believed that this was just a slight inaccuracy that was hard to punish. The girl, Gloria, made a move that disrupted the tempo here, yet the position remained relatively stable for both sides. The –0.3 advantage that the computer showed on everyone’s screen didn’t mean that black, which in this case was Sheva, was gaining an advantage right now.

However, in the game that lacked an action, Sheva knew that an opportunity like this wouldn’t come twice. So, instead of playing it safe, he decided to take a risk, putting his knight to the center, the most dangerous place on the board, without any protection from the other pieces.

"What is he doing?!" Irfan shrieked in distress, leaning forward in disbelief at Sheva’s unnecessarily risky move. "He could’ve just played safely, developing his pieces patiently and waiting for the opponent to slip up more! But what is this?! He puts his best piece, the knight, onto the frontline already, making it a big target! As long as Gloria Divata goes to target it, she would be able to develop her pieces along the way, and once the knight is traded, Sheva would be in bigger trouble! He is too hasty here, too eager to win!"

On the screen, Bagas could also see the computer line, which also suggested that this was a bad move. The very slight advantage that Sheva had before was completely gone now, and instead, it was replaced by the number +0.8, showing that the table was turned around right now. Of course, he didn’t just see that. Once Irfan announced Sheva’s mistake, the broadcast exploded, full of mockery.

Si_Putih: Hahaha! As expected, he will crumble sooner or later!

BajiKari234: Yeah, he wastes the rare opportunity to win! What an idiot!

Hilda99: He is still a rookie, alright?! Cut him some slack! This is his first-ever tournament!

BoluTirus: It doesn’t matter. Just give us Anna or Claudia’s game!

TheROOOK444: Yeah! I want to see the pretty girls playing. Hehehe...

Hilda99: You psycho! They are just 15 and 12!

TheROOOK444: Even better!

Notification. TheROOOK444 has been banned from the chat.

Hilda99: Good job, Admin!

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(+1)

Yeah, while Irfan focused on commentating, Bagas was busy blocking those weirdos on the chat. Even though the viewers here were not that many, there were still two or three psychos mixed up in the crowd, and it was his task to fix this up, especially once they were borderline criminal, just like the username he had just banned.

Still, as Bagas read the chat, he frowned a little bit, confused about why people liked to bash on Sheva. He could understand that his best friend made a mistake. Hell, he had never portrayed Sheva as a perfect chess player or Magnus Carlsen here. However, the judgment made by the netizens was so harsh, not even giving a chance for Sheva, a complete rookie and an unrated player, to fail here.

Unfortunately, things seemed to not go so well for Sheva right now, as he kept making more mistakes in the next few rounds. It wasn’t enough to be a blunder that gave away a big advantage for his opponent, but the inaccurate moves he made were enough to give the opponent a chance to improve her position, slowly cornering Sheva on the edge.

However, there was one thing that he noticed here. Every time Sheva made an inaccuracy, Gloria would spend a lot of time trying to notice what was wrong with the position, and more often than not, she would also make the same inaccuracy or even worse. The computer line jumped from black to white and back to black again quite often, giving Bagas an idea of what his best friend was trying to do here.

’He tries to flip the table again.’ The fat boy realized. ’The game is so dull and has a few actions, and he wants to turn it into a dark territory where theory or calculation would be difficult to do, since every mistake he made is very subtle and barely noticeable. If that girl didn’t notice it and even ignored his mistake, the advantage would’ve been gone already, and it would be Sheva who would counterattack in the next turn.’

Bagas wasn’t the only one who noticed this. Claudia, who was playing on table one, was intrigued by how the game on table two went, and the moment he saw Sheva’s strange movement, she frowned instantly, catching on to what the boy wanted to do. They had been playing against each other so many times in practice, and this subtle and annoying inaccuracy that Sheva was making was a common strategy that the boy used against her to make her crack her own position.

’Tch! What an annoying guy!’ She clicked her tongue in annoyance, going back to her table while also deeming the game on the table two was over. Claudia didn’t know Gloria Divata’s ability was, but she doubted the older girl would be able to get out of the web of traps that Sheva had woven carefully there. ’It seems that my next opponent is still him. Good. It would be better if I could win this game as quickly as possible.’

Unfortunately, there was one person who was clueless about what Sheva was trying to do here, and that was Irfan. It was understandable, since unlike Bagas and Claudia, the IM spent the least amount of time with Sheva, so he didn’t quite understand how the boy’s mind worked. However, it was quite funny to see him hyperventilating over every inaccuracy that Sheva made while trying to bait Gloria here.

"What is he doing?!" The IM bit his lips nervously. "This doesn’t make any sense at all! He should’ve just calmed down instead of taking every risk in the world like there is no tomorrow!" He felt like watching this game would make his hair grey instantly.

Bagas was trying his best to hold his laughter when he saw the man yank his hair in distress like this. However, he had no intention to tell the man anything right now. ’Might as well be his punishment for always doubting Sheva like that.’ The fat boy muttered. It wasn’t until Gloria finally made a fatal blunder that Irfan realized what was going on here.

"I get it!" The man whispered in disbelief. "I finally get it!"