Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 408: The Fateful Duel! Sheva VS Pragg!

"Well, hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Black Rook channel, where we are going to follow the journey of our boys and girls in the Dubai Master Open 2022! Right now, you all are with me, Septian Bagaskara, and my partner, Sarah, as we are going to follow our warriors to fight a tough day ahead!" Bagas introduced himself so quickly, like a veteran rapper.

"Hello, everyone!" Sarah waved at the camera with a small smile, enough to explode the chat box.

Abra59: My goddess~! You are here again!

Lika70: Please, insult me!

Morany001: Can I please drink your bathwater, Goddess?!

Hilda99: Mod, please, kick out all of these weirdos! This is a fucking chess channel!

Sarah herself just smiled without showing any reaction. This was her extreme fans, and she knew the more reaction she gave, the worse they would behave. The best way to handle this was to ignore them completely, for they would calm down soon and act like decent human beings later.

"Okay! So, today, we are not going to be accompanied by Master Irfan!" Bagas announced with a slight mysterious smile. "Since we have three tough matchups against India’s superstars, we will also invite a special guest here to guide us all together for today’s round! So, give your round of applause for Mister Sagar Shah himself!"

Right after that, the Indian chess influencer stepped into the camera with a huge smile on his face, not forgetting to wave politely. "Hello, everyone."

Hilda99: Damn! Sagar Shah himself is here! Bagas, you are awesome!

RonaldOSIu007: Well, we have three games against the Indian players, so it is understandable that he will be here.

Froggies: The fact that he accepts the invitation shows that he thinks we have the potential to rise! After all, why would he come here for no reason?

Hilda99: That makes sense. But this is still awesome!

The cheers exploded once again, but this time, they came from the chess community on the live broadcast. Bagas himself didn’t have time to answer their excited rambles. No, right now, he had an important guest in front of him, so the boy chose to engage in a serious conversation immediately.

"So, three matchups between players from our country, Mister Sagar. Shall we look at the list first?" He switched into English, and although his accent was quite thick, it was still easy to understand.

"Well, let’s go." Sagar Shah nodded. Right after that, the screen was split into two, with the bottom part showing today’s matchup.

Praggnanandhaa R (2661) – (2477) Adrian Sheva

Arjun Erigaisi (2692) – (2391) Anna Marisa

Aulia Medina Warda (2418) – (2439) Vaishali R

"So, three matchups, with one that we have been waiting for." Bagas grinned widely. "What is your expectation, Mister Sagar?" He asked the Indian man next to him.

"For one, I want to see an exciting game, one where both Praggnanandhaa and Sheva start to throw punches from the beginning of the game," Sagar said. "They both are aggressive players, so there is no way they would settle into a subtle and quiet positional battle. If anything, I expect one of them to make the board explode quite early."

"Then, who do you think will win the game?" Bagas asked mischievously.

"It is hard to say, you know?" Sagar smiled helplessly. "Although I really want Praggnanandhaa to win, objectively, I cannot ignore Sheva’s monstrous streak. It will be hard to beat him right now, and a draw is also a possible result for this clash. We will just have to wait to see how they go today."

Sheva and Pragg themselves couldn’t really listen to what they talked about. However, it was as if fate was pulling a string here, as they both went into the type of game that Sagar had just said a moment ago.

The moment the clock started running, Pragg went into the 1.d4 move, going for the queen’s pawn attack. He knew that this wouldn’t make Sheva flustered, but it was important not go into the territory that his opponent was comfortable the most.

Sheva himself didn’t wait for too long. As if instinctively, he picked up one of his knights, letting it jump above the wall of pawns and sat comfortably at the F6 square. When he saw this, Pragg couldn’t help but raise one of his eyebrows, slightly in surprise, but more in annoyance.

’Tch! I thought I would see another Dutch Defense today.’ He murmured inwardly.

Well, that was a good guess, since Pragg had seen a lot of Sheva’s games with the Dutch Defense. Also, players tended to go with the opening that they had played for the first time when they met their friend for the nostalgic value, so Pragg thought that Sheva would be the same. Unfortunately, this was not the case, so he could throw away all of his preparations out of the window.

’Tch! Whatever! I shouldn’t expect to get anything in the opening stage, really.’ Pragg shook his head before pushing his C pawn two squares forward, supporting the queen’s pawn that had already rushed earlier.

This was a standard operation in the Queen’s Pawn opening, and now, Sheva had a lot of options to pick. He could try to fianchetto his dark bishop to the G7 square with the King’s Indian, trying to get Pragg to commit to the Nimzo-Indian with pawn to E6, going for the Queen’s Indian, Grunfeld, or even Catalan. However, at this point, something suddenly flashed inside his brain, and the boy couldn’t help but smile mischievously.

’You should be waiting for my curveball attack, huh? Then, let’s see if you could receive it!’

Instead of going for the mainstream opening, Sheva pushed his E pawn two squares forward, challenging the center immediately. This was his attempt to gambit his pawn in order to fight for control over the center aggressively, giving up a pawn on the second move in exchange for rapid development and dynamic counterplay.

Pragg himself was stunned, even pausing for a second to look at Sheva’s face. He was utterly dumbfounded, and if not for the serious occasion here, Sheva wouldn’t hold back his laughter at all.

In the end, Pragg could only shake his head in disbelief while also muttering, "The Budapest Gambit? Seriously?"