Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 398: Alexandr Predke’s Ridiculous Stats!

"Okay, hello everyone, and welcome back to the Black Rook Channel! Here I am, Septian Bagaskara, together with Sarah, reporting the game live from Dubai, where we are going to witness the third round of the Dubai Master Open 2022! We are having a tough day right now, boys! Let’s see the pairings that we have!"

Adrian Sheva (2477) – (2695) Alexandr Predke

Aulia Medina Warda (2418) – (2582) Ahmed Adly

Anna Marisa (2391) – (2547) Suleymanli Aydin

Aleksandar Indjic (2613) – (2388) Laysa Latifah

Anish Gandi (2228) – (2277) Claudia Marisa

Faisal Ali (1835) – (1916) Satria Duta Cahaya

Hilda99: Damn! We have three tough matches in a day, huh? This is going to be either disappointing or crazy!

Froggies: How could we be so unlucky?!

RonaldOSIu007: This is the consequence of winning two matches in a row. They would have to face the top-seeded players sooner or later.

Leak50: Come on, Sheva! Come on, everyone else!

Bagas read the chat box one by one, nodding silently as he saw the barrage of support for the boy. Meanwhile, Sarah took over the broadcast as she continued, "Just like the usual, we will have one expert guiding us in analyzing the game. Please, give your best welcome to International Master Irfan Aditya!"

Right after that, the screen suddenly split into two, and on one side of that, Irfan’s face suddenly popped up, being so close to the camera. Even though he didn’t go with the others to Dubai, the man still followed the tournament intently, even to the point that he was invited to be a commentator here.

"Hello, everyone. Good morning." Irfan waved his hand, greeting not only Bagas and Sarah but also everyone on the live broadcast.

"So, Master Irfan, what do you think about today’s round? What chance do we have in such a tough matchup?" Bagas inquired straight without any small talk.

"Well..." Irfan didn’t answer the question instantly, pondering it for a moment. "It is quite difficult to determine what would happen. Even though our players are in a great momentum, their opponents are also on the same boat. In the end, it doesn’t matter what their previous results are. Even if Sheva and Laysa have won a lot of games against a higher-rated opponent in the past, this couldn’t be used as a parameter anymore. After all, it is a miracle because it is almost impossible to do that, right?"

In the end, he decided to take a cautious approach, not wanting to be too optimistic in case anything went wrong. This was the right approach, as no one could guarantee that the players could make a miracle all the time, even Sheva, who always did that. Also, he reminded everyone that Sheva’s momentum in the Olympiad didn’t really mean anything here other than making his opponent more wary of him, so it was better not to put too much hope in that.

Of course, Sheva himself was the one who knew about that the best. In fact, right after he stepped into this futuristic city, the boy had already gotten rid of all thoughts about the Olympiad. Right now, he was just an ordinary player, someone who was in 29th place in the initial standings instead of a favorite to win it all. It would be better to keep his head low and play steadily rather than being an arrogant asshole just to be knocked out by the others.

"Let’s have a good game!" Both Sheva and Alexandr Predke shook hands with each other before the former made his first move. In his mind, he recalled Predke’s stats that he had seen earlier.

[Name: Alexandr Predke]

Attacking 87

Defense 88

Calculation 89 (+4.45)

Strategy 88

Intuition 84

Time management 89

Title Slot: [Russian Chess School’s Graduate]

[Note: With the effect of the title ’Russian Chess School’s Graduate’, Alexandr Predke gets a 5 percent boost for the calculation and will have an additional 20 percent in concentration during the endgame phase]

If they were not in the middle of a game already, Sheva would let out a whistle, impressed by the stats. It was a solid one and didn’t look special at first glance, but the title really boosted that man’s ability.

Just the addition of 5 percent in calculation was enough to put Alexandr Predke into the elite players of the world, and the 20 percent concentration boost for the endgame phase, even though it was lower than Sheva’s endgame master, which gave 30 percent, was still a big improvement, turning him into a beast in the final stage of the game.

’Yeah, this title section sure is broken.’ Sheva smiled wryly.

He was not surprised by the effect because the moment the boy read the title, he could immediately guess that. After all, the Russian Chess School, inheriting the Soviet Chess School’s curriculum, was infamous for meticulous analysis and mastery in the endgame phase. Graduating from that school was enough to give the player a boost in calculation and the final phase.

However, Sheva had already made a plan to deal with that.

’Besides the endgame mastery, those who graduate from the Russian Chess School have one more thing in common. They are very good at being flexible, especially for the opening line with a complicated theory in it. They are good at the blurred line, confusing their opponent and baiting them to make a mistake.’ Sheva recalled the memory of when Sergei Azarov, his teacher—even only for a very short time—said in the past. ’So, let’s not indulge them to their best strength. Let’s go for a simple opening that doesn’t lead into an endgame too quickly.’

Even though Sheva still had the endgame master that boosted his concentration by 30 percent, he didn’t want to go into a game where his opponent was the most. That would definitely be the stupidest thing that he could do in a chess game.

So, when Sheva saw that Predke wanted to go for the Sicilian Defense, he didn’t hesitate to go with the Delayed Alapin variation. Even though it was less confrontational and put him in a passive state, this forced the game out of the complicated theoretical line while also giving a solid setup, preventing the game from going to the endgame phase quickly. This was the perfect opening against someone like Alexandr Predke.

Seeing that everything went according to his plan, Sheva couldn’t help but smirk, glancing sideways at his opponent. ’Come on! Let’s see how you would turn this game into your favorite style!’