CHAPTER 68: A SPARRING GAME AGAINST LAYSA (I)

Sheva didn’t know how everything happened here. One moment, he watched Anna and Laysa were chatting casually, and in the next second, he found himself sitting in front of the girl, ready to fight against each other. The other club members—traitors, they were all—just stood on the sideline silently, holding back their laughter with some even looking at him gloatingly. He could still remember what they all said when Sheva was about to reject the invitation to play.

"Throw that idea as far away as possible, Shev." Andre, a young man in his early twenties, patted his shoulder solemnly. "Laysa is the type of girl who gets what she wants. The more you resist, the more she will chase you. It is better to fight against her and make her lose interest in you as quickly as possible."

"Yeah, that should be the idea." Ido, another young man who was the same age as Andre, also gave a solemn nod. "Still, you have to be careful here. She has a pretty mean streak against the players she saw as a weakling."

"A mean streak?" Sheva frowned.

"Yeah..." Ido suddenly shuddered as he recalled a bad memory from the past. "She beat me by taking all of my pieces before promoting four of her pawns to be knights. She played around with my king like a predator eyeing its prey, cornering me slowly until I couldn’t breathe again. She is a sadist."

"Exactly." Another person added, chuckling nervously. "You know that my experience is the worst. She killed my king with four bishops! Four bishops! And she didn’t even touch my queen! It stood stupidly on the corner, not knowing how to save her other-half!"

"You know what makes it worse?" Andre spoke once again. "She will never let you resign. The moment you resign, that is when she haunts you for the rest of your life, asking for another rematch until she beats you in her own way. I heard she said that if she were in a winning position, she would only let her opponent leave on her own terms. She is definitely a sadist."

The corner of Sheva’s mouth twitched whenever he remembered the testimonies from the others. It seemed everyone here had the experience of becoming Laysa’s victims in the past, and that somehow explained why they were so nervous the moment the girl popped up out of nowhere. It seemed that their PTSD kicked in, and the trauma they suffered was too much to handle here.

’Eh, whatever.’ In the end, Sheva just resigned to his fate, not having any choice but to follow the girl’s demand. ’It is just one game, right? After this, I am sure she will be satisfied, right?’ Well, he wasn’t really that sure, and little did Sheva know that he would regret this decision for years.

"Well, since I am the one who challenges you, I will let you have the white pieces," Laysa said while setting up the board. "Just try to keep up and not die too quickly, okay?"

The corner of Sheva’s mouth twitched once again, finally realizing why Laysa was able to get under Claudia’s skin easily before. Honestly, he didn’t know how many times he had been twitching the corner of his mouth due to annoyance today. However, it was pretty justifiable in this case. After all, she was the master of trash talk, and riling up her opponent before the game was her psychological attack to gain the early advantage here. She would definitely be a nightmare in a real game. Well, that, or be a pain in the ass.

Still, Sheva got over it quickly. He took a deep breath, trying to put his focus on the board. Although it was just a sparring game, it was quite rare to have a titled player besides Irfan and Anna as his sparring partner. Yeah, Laysa had the Women’s International Master (WIM) title, just below Anna, who had the WGM one. Even though the title didn’t quite reflect someone’s chess ability to the fullest, at least it was the physical manifestation that a player had experienced a lot of things, and experience could play a big role in this game.

Tak!

Right after both players were ready, Sheva moved his E pawn two squares forward and pressed the clock immediately. This was a blitz game, so speed was essential here. Rather than going for a complicated game, it would be better for him to go to the mainstream route and strike decisively whenever a chance came.

Laysa hummed, putting both elbows on the table while using her palm to support her face. It was clear that she thought hard here, either having not been preparing for this or wanting to make a surprise move. Unfortunately for Sheva, after five seconds had passed, the girl made her first move, and it was revealed that she wanted to surprise him here. Instead of going for the usual Sicilian, King’s Pawn, or even the Caro-Kann, the girl moved her D pawn directly, challenging Sheva’s E pawn straight from the start.

’The Scandinavian Defense, huh?’ Sheva shifted his body a little. ’Man, she sure is prepared against me.’ He glanced at Laysa, who was also smiling provocatively at him.

The Scandinavian Defense, also known as the Center Counter Defense, was a popular chess opening that began with the moves 1.e4 d5, where black immediately challenges white’s control of the center, just like what Laysa did in this game. Honestly, this opening should be quite perfect for Sheva. After all, its straightforward and aggressive approach that allowed black to quickly contest the central squares and develop pieces actively was in line with his style. However, since he hadn’t gotten this opening from the system, Sheva had never checked about it before, so he was pretty much walking blindly right now.

Yeah, the Scandinavian Defense was something that Sheva had never played even before. This was the first time he faced it directly, and honestly, it would be a lie if he said that this surprise move didn’t affect him. It was clear that Laysa had already done her homework, investigating all of Sheva’s games to figure out this little weakness.

’Still...’ His gaze suddenly turned firm as he took the challenge straight away. ’If she wants to intimidate me, she has to do better than that!’