Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 366: Taher’s Thought

Taher was always a realistic person. An opportunist, some even might say. He always looked at the world logically, not bothering with interpersonal relationships or something like that. If he saw something that could benefit him, as long as it was not illegal, he would jump into that boat without hesitation, not caring whether he would offend a bigshot or not.

The current situation was also the same.

He had already sensed that the control of the chess community in Indonesia slipped away from the federation a long time ago. It should be in April, when he watched Sheva’s live broadcast for the first time, playing in the Reykjavik Open, when the boy made his name resound there. At that time, Taher could see that Sheva used the persona of a chess genius with the support of the people online to take control of the chess community here.

However, during that time, the chess community still revolved around Master Susanto and Irene, the two best and also most acclaimed players in the country. At that time, Sheva’s achievements were still too few, so people only saw him as a young genius who had emerged to the surface.

However, things would be different next month. Not only did Sheva get the second place in Biel and snatch the individual gold medal in the Olympiad, with the backing of BNI as his sponsor, butthe chess community would also start to lean on him.

It wasn’t just a wild and mindless thought, but a hypothesis that Taher came up with after observing how the chess community in Indonesia went for the last couple of months. Sheva, undoubtedly, was granted the most resources here. Hell, the boy even had the power to control the resources, like how he decided to bring Anna to Biel with him a few weeks ago.

While yes, the money still came from the sponsor, but BNI itself didn’t really state anything, just let Sheva do anything he wanted. Compared to that, although Master Susanto and Irene were supported by the federation, the resources allocated to them were pitifully low, resulting in them both only playing a few tournaments in the last couple of years. Not only that, the restriction coming from the federation was too suffocating, definitely not ideal for a player to improve themselves.

So, yeah, that was why Taher didn’t hesitate to give his unwavering support to Sheva.

However, that alone was far from enough. While the support could earn Sheva’s gratitude, Taher knew that the boy was the biggest supporter of the meritocracy system, giving the resources to those who earned it based on performance, not relationship or seniority. That was why Taher was so determined to win the game today, to show Sheva that he also had his own value here. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

’So, my opponent is Murali Karthikeyan, huh?’ The man muttered to himself. ’Well, this is also a good chance for me to get my revenge here.’ The corner of his mouth was twitching as if he was about to laugh.

Yeah, the opponent was not a stranger to Taher. They both came from the same generation, so it was quite normal for both Asian players to face each other a few times in the past. However, the biggest difference was that Murali Karthikeyan had more resources, allowing the man to earn his GM title a few years ago, while Taher himself was still stuck with his IM title. However, Taher was confident that if he could get the same support, he would’ve achieved higher than this Karthikeyan.

Still, that didn’t mean Karthikeyan was a weak player. No, the man had a 2613 ELO rating and could be considered a strong and solid GM. At least, better than those who were still mingling around 2500 and could never cross the 2600 threshold. Also, the last time they met each other, Taher suffered a crushing defeat in the Asian Chess Championship in 2019, so he was eager to get his revenge here.

"Let’s have a good game." Both players shook hands once the alarm rang.

As the one with the white piece, Taher didn’t hesitate for a second, sliding his king’s pawn two squares forward. It seemed that Karthikeyan also didn’t want to waste the opening stage for too long, as he returned the favor immediately. The man pushed his C pawn two squares forward, initiating the Sicilian Defense. Now, the initiative of which variation to play was in Taher’s hand.

This time, Taher went for the Alapin variation, wanting to stray from the long line of the theory. This also allowed him to get quick control of the center, something he was always comfortable with.

Then, several pawn exchanges happened, which gave the man a slight advantage over the board. It freed the C3 square immediately, letting Taher use it to develop his knight. Usually, in the Alapin variation, the C3 square would be blocked by the pawn, forcing the white piece to delay the knight development. This was the consequence of taking the center quickly, so the white player had to deal with it. However, now that the square was freed, Taher felt like his control over the center was strengthened once again, and his advantage would be great enough in the middle game later.

’Okay, now, let’s see how he would approach the game...’ Taher muttered inwardly, starting to rack his brain. ’He would definitely try to break my center, and it is something that I couldn’t prevent, so just let it be. However, I cannot let him exchange his knight with mine, especially not with my pawn. No, I cannot destroy my structure further than this. Let’s bring my rook first.’

Once the decision was formed inside his head, Taher didn’t hesitate to pull it up on the board. Fortunately, everything went exactly as he had calculated, so the time wasted here wasn’t that much. If anything, it was Karthikeyan who started pausing a lot, finding himself in a strange situation.

’Yeah, come on... Just think hard and make a mistake, Bastard...’ Taher stared at him intently, wanting to use the intimidation tactic. He didn’t know whether it worked or Karthikeyan had a moment of slip, as after a few moves, the Indian GM finally made a mistake. Taher’s eyes lit up instantly when he saw that, inwardly shouting in celebration, ’That’s it! Thank you very much for the lunch!’