Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 368: Mission Complete?!

"... Is this real?" Even those who were in the media booth were too dumbfounded, couldn’t even comprehend the situation right now. "We are really on the lead this early?" Bagas turned his head around, asking with his mouth gaped wide like a fish.

It took a while, but in the end, it was Claudia who reacted first. "YEAH! WE GET AN EARLY LEAD!" She squealed happily, hugging Sarah by instinct. "Brother Taher won his game! We get the first point of the matchup!"

Hilda99: Let’s go! He finally fulfils his potential!

RonaldOSIu007: It’s about damn time that we are not relying on Sheva to score against a tough opponent like this!

Froggies: What the fuck?! I have just got back from work, and we have already had a result here?!

Everyone was so excited on the broadcast, celebrating the win like crazy. Even though it was not the first time they got an early lead, this victory was still huge, since this was probably the first time any other player here got a win first before Sheva managed to do that. At least, this would help the boy ease the pressure on his shoulder for the rest of the game, which was a luxury that Sheva himself never thought he could afford before this.

Meanwhile, the players who were on the board even had a more exaggerated reaction. Arfan dropped a piece from the table, and Master Susanto couldn’t get his mouth shut as he was too shocked by this development. Only Sheva maintained a skeptical approach, still thinking that this was a bit too good to be true.

However, his gaze suddenly met Taher’s, and even though no words were spoken, the silent communication here was enough to convince the boy that everything was real. Moreover, he could also understand what the man was trying to convey here, and it was enough to make his blood boil.

’I leave the rest to you.’

’Don’t worry, Brother Taher.’ Sheva clenched his fist tightly. ’We will not waste the effort that you have made here! Just sit tight, because I will bring you the win from this table!’

In fact, it wasn’t just him who got excited. Even Arfan and Master Susanto felt like they got injected with new blood, staring at their opponent with a murderous gaze. If before, the thought of forcing a draw might still flash in their head, now all of them were gone, replaced by the desire to triumph and beat the opponent black and blue.

Well, Sheva himself didn’t really care about them. He would be satisfied as long as they didn’t lose their game. Now, he put all of his focus on the chessboard in front of him, eager to get the second win of the matchup and secure the victory for the team.

’Come on! It is time for you to make a mistake, right?!’ He glanced at Puranik Abimanyu, the Indian GM who was his opponent.

In this game, Sheva somehow went into a routine he had never delved into. He picked the exchanged variation of the French Defense, one of the opening lines that he always deemed to be boring and drawish. However, this time was different. After winning two endgames in a row, his confidence soared to the sky, and the boy didn’t mind getting into the endgame as quickly as possible.

Or... Well, that was his initial plan. However, Puranik Abimanyu didn’t want to go into that stage this early. No, the man wanted to keep tension on the center, avoiding the trade at all costs. Sheva himself didn’t know the reason, but he was happy to indulge it. After all, this kind of tactical warfare was his favorite, and he could also see that the man got shaken by his teammates’ quick defeat.

That was why Sheva was confident that Puranik Abimanyu would lose his composure and finally make a mistake soon.

True enough, everything went as he predicted. In such a tense battlefield to grab the center, Puranik Abimanyu made a slip of judgment, wanting to pin Sheva’s knight to the queen to freeze that horsey on E4 square. The computer clearly saw this as a mistake, since the evaluation bar climbed fast from +0.7 to +4.1.

"Yes! He blunders!" Claudia jumped, her pitch high as she was too excited here. "Puranik Abimanyu makes a mistake! He wants to strengthen his support on the center, but he forgets to calculate that Sheva could’ve just taken his knight straight away, threatening his queen! The queen exchange could still happen, but after the gruesome battle where all the soldiers kill each other in the center is over, Sheva will find himself up a rook! Or maybe even up a bishop as well!"

As she demonstrated the possible move, everyone finally understood why the blunder was fatal here. Of course, Sheva, who was on the board, didn’t have to be told about it. He realized straight away the error that his opponent made, and the boy punished it without a slight hesitation.

’The game should be mine, right?’ Sheva muttered, clenching his fist under the table. ’There is no way I could mess this up!’

It seemed that Puranik Abimanyu also finally realized the blunder that he had just committed. The man let out a low groan, somehow regretting everything that had happened today. Unfortunately, he couldn’t turn back time, so the man could only keep going on, knowing that he was just walking to his own grave.

They kept dilly-dallying for a bit, and everything went into Sheva’s favor. In the end, Puranik Abimanyu chose to sacrifice his queen while also still maintaining his two rooks on the board. It was a decent strategy, and sometimes, two connected rooks could be stronger than a queen. However, that was not the case here.

Sheva managed to sever the connection between those rooks, and as more exchanges were on the board, leaving a queen against a rook in the endgame, Puranik Abimanyu knew that this was over. As he offered a handshake, though, Sheva suddenly heard a notification pop inside his head.

[DING!]

[Mission complete!]

[Congratulations on ending up in the top 15 of the Olympiad! Do you want to accept the reward now?]