CHAPTER 73: THE FIRST GAME OF THE TOURNAMENT!

After that brief meeting with Claudia, Sheva went straight to table 6, getting ready for his first game. There, his opponent had been waiting for him. The man, Ardianto, was pretty ordinary by his look, wearing an old and slightly yellowish shirt with thick glasses framing his face. Honestly, if not for those ridiculous glasses, Sheva would think that he was staring at himself in the mirror.

Still, he didn’t dare to underestimate the man even for a second. After all, this Ardianto was the sixth seed in the tournament and should’ve had vast experience in this kind of tournament. It was better to be overly cautious rather than overestimate himself, which would end up pushing him to the cliff.

Right after the arbiter signalled for the game to be started simultaneously, Sheva went without any hesitation, pushing his E pawn two squares forward just like the usual. Even though he had been training for the 1.d4 opening in the last couple of days, the boy was still not confident he could pull a good game with that. However, when he saw his opponent make his first move too, somehow, Sheva’s annoyance grew.

’Of course, it would be another fucking Sicilian!’ He clicked his tongue, inwardly cursing at his opponent. ’Damn, why are they so obsessed with this opening?! The variation itself is a lot, and there is no way they could remember all of those lines!’

Yeah, even with the help of the system, Sheva still had a hard time covering all the variations of the Sicilian Defense. There was a lot to learn here, from the open system, the closed system, the classical, the Najdorf, and even a fucking dragon variation, all of them were named for this opening. That was why Sheva couldn’t understand why a low-rated player loved this opening, since they couldn’t even ensure that the opponent would go for the variation they had learned already.

In this game, though, Sheva didn’t want to think too much about the more complicated variations and went straight for the main line of the modern one. However, in the fifth move of the game, his opponent, Ardianto, started showing his fang by pushing his G pawn one square forward, preparing to develop his dark bishop to the G7 square. This was the initial preparation for the dragon variation, the one where both players would go crazy for aggressive attacking.

Seeing this, Sheva straightened his back immediately, somehow feeling a smile curl on the corner of his face. This was the kind of game he loved so much. This type of opening would ensure that the two players would castle on the opposite wings, and both would start to race to get to their opponent’s king. The sharp and complicated game where both players were trying to kill each other openly like this was definitely his favorite.

They both moved quickly for the next few moves without even thinking. However, in the eleventh move, Ardianto suddenly made a peculiar decision here. After thinking for more than fifteen minutes, he finally exchanged his queen, not for Sheva’s queen, but for all the minor pieces that Sheva had on the court. Just in the fifteenth move, the imbalance had already happened on the board, with Ardianto still having two rooks, two bishops, a knight, and six pawns compared to Sheva, who possessed two rooks, a queen, and seven pawns on his side.

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

’Damn, he sure knows how to be adventurous.’ Sheva grinned, trying his best to suppress his excitement here. ’I need to punish him before he can get away from it!’

Even though the position seemed to be equal, in reality, Sheva still had an edge in this game. After all, there was some sort of safe feeling inside a player’s heart when they still had a queen on the board. Also, it was easier to navigate a single queen compared to coordinating three minor pieces without making any mistakes. Sheva was so sure that he would catch Ardianto making a mistake sooner or later.

He played the rest of the game with the calmness and patience of a saint, not even taking any bait that Ardianto threw. Sheva slowly improved his position, creating a battery of rooks on the D file and coordinating his pawns in a way to create a long chain and push back Ardianto’s bishop to the seventh ranks.

Or... So, that was what Sheva thought.

However, Ardianto made a fatal mistake here. Instead of putting back his light bishop to the seventh rank, he decided to protect that particular bishop by moving his king forward. This was a mistake considering Sheva himself still had two pawns on the center that were ready to break through. Of course, Sheva would never not notice the blatant mistake like this. Like a veteran hunter, he was ready to chase down the opponent’s king to the end of the world.

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

Tak!

Tak!

Tak!

Tak!

’Come on...’ Sheva clenched his fist under the table unconsciously, not even noticing that he was sweating a little on his face. This was a crucial situation, and before the opponent finally announced his resignation, the boy would never lower his guard even for a second. ’I have been ready to sacrifice my rook for your bishop. Come on, don’t overcomplicate things... Just take the bait and let me kill you...’

Of course, Ardianto wouldn’t just give in that easily. Like any other veteran chess player, he knew one universal rule here; if the opponent sacrificed his rook, get ready and think carefully, or he would get smashed to death.

Unfortunately, in this case, Ardianto didn’t really have any concrete situation. Falling back, and he would still get hunted by Sheva’s rook, but taking it would also invite Sheva’s queen to his lair. Neither option was very appealing to him, yet he had to make a choice here.

The man thought hard for another 25 minutes. Hell, his time had been burned for a long time, so the man only had about 7 minutes left compared to Sheva, who still had 44 minutes remaining on his clock. Facing the time pressure and the situation with no answer like this, Ardianto finally let a deep sigh, choosing the third option here.

He resigned.