Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 425: How to Deal Against An Engine-Like Playing Style?

The next morning, all the festive atmosphere was gone already, replaced by the unwavering focus of each one of the group’s members. They didn’t party too hard last night, knowing that they still had another four rounds to play. For some of them who were chasing norms, they had to start bouncing back to the winning track again before it was too late, or they would only come back home empty-handed.

The one who desperately needed to win the most was, of course, Laysa. Currently, the girl has 3 points out of 5 rounds. Not a bad result, definitely, still getting more than 50 percent in total. However, her only two victories were achieved against players with ELO ratings below 2300, and with one defeat against a GM and two draws against an IM, her current performance rating was not that great.

For someone who chased her second IM norm, this result was far from ideal.

The other one who was on the same boat was Medina. Although the woman had a better result, 3.5 points out of 5 rounds, the only difference between her and Laysa was that she hadn’t lost yet. However, after receiving three draws in a row, she was starting to get desperate. After all, unlike the younger girl, her aim was a GM norm, so she really needed to beat a higher-rated opponent soon. Hell, in her mind, the only way to get herself earn the norm was to get two wins against GMs for the rest of the tournament, but this would be a difficult task to do since right now, she wasn’t even qualified to get paired against any higher-rated.

Yeah, after the pairing was out, the woman was devastated to know that she got paired against a 2355-rated player, and to make it worse, it was another Indian player!

"How in the hell did I get so unlucky?" Medina muttered in disbelief. "Four fucking rounds in a row! How could this happen?! I know that a lot of Indian players are here, but this is ridiculous!"

"I know, right?!" Laysa chimed in, clearly not happy with her pairing. She also got paired against another Indian player, making the girl displeased with the organizer. "This is a rigged system, I tell you what!" She said strongly.

"You are overthinking, Laysa." Sarah chuckled amusedly. "At the end of the day, we are just a weak country, and they are one of the strongest countries in the chess community. The organizer doesn’t need to offend India at all, especially when the gain is almost close to none."

It was a harsh truth, but still a truth, nevertheless. No matter if it was the Indian players who received the advantage from the rigged system, altering the pairing intentionally would tarnish the organizer’s reputation and offend the entire Indian chess community as well. Doing so would make them lose all credibility, something that no one wanted to suffer from.

"Still, it is ridiculous!" Laysa whined. "Just look at the other pairing! Sheva also gets one from India, right? Anna and Claudia should also be the same! No one will believe if this is just a pure coincidence!" She pointed out angrily. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

Well... Indeed, if she looked at it that way, getting paired against the players from the same country four times in a row was indeed suspicious. However... "It is ridiculous, indeed, but this is just a coincidence. After all, almost 75 percent of the participants in this tournament are Indian players, so there is a huge chance that you will meet them over and over like this." Bagas spoke, denying Laysa’s idea about the rigged system.

"Also, my next opponent is from Uzbekistan, not India," Claudia added the salt to Laysa’s injury, sticking out her tongue mockingly.

"...Tch! Whatever!" Laysa pouted, having her mood worsen instantly.

"Anyway, what is this with your resistance against the Indian players?" Sheva asked curiously. "If you really think that their engine style is troublesome, all you have to do is flip the entire table completely, right?"

"Um?! This time, everyone snapped their heads at Sheva immediately, wondering whether they misheard it or not.

"Are you serious, Shev?!" Laysa asked excitedly. "Don’t lie to me about this matter, okay?! My poor heart cannot take it anymore!" She said dramatically.

’What poor heart? You are just a cry merchant here.’ Sheva muttered under his breath. Still, since everyone was also eager to know his opinion, the boy continued, "Anyway, what I want to say is that they are quite young, and learning to play like a machine should require a lot of time, right? Then, don’t you think that there would be a hole in their knowledge?"

"You mean..." Medina gasped, seeming to see what point Sheva wanted to make.

"Exactly!" Sheva grinned in his ’A-Ha!’ moment. "They should be spending most of their life training the mainstream system like the Ruy-Lopez, the Italian, the Sicilian, or something like that, right? Then, go and catch them off guard with an unorthodox system! Try to see how long they could hold their ground against that!"

This time, Medina and Laysa got excited. After all, the suggestion was very much to their liking. Anna herself just hummed silently, pondering about the possibility. "So, you mean to tell me that they are just like a high school student who only knows the math formula, but once the type of exercise changes, they don’t know how to adapt and think that it is a completely different system, when all they need is just to alter the formula a little bit?"

Sheva had a sweat drop on his face when he heard that very specific example. "Well, I have never thought about it that way, but I think you have the gist of it."

"Wait! What if that doesn’t work?" Laysa suddenly chimed in again. "What if they know exactly the system I am trying to pull in the game?" This was also Medina’s concern. However, Sheva just shrugged it off nonchalantly.

"Well, if that happens, I would say that you are the unluckiest person alive. I mean, who would’ve thought that an unorthodox system that you are trying to save as a trump card, coincidentally, is also known by the opponent? The chance is so small that if that really happens, I think you need to start praying. Still, I think that it is something worth gambling, right?"/