Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 430: A Boring Endgame?

After strolling around for about ten minutes, Sheva went back to table one with a lighter heart. He was quite satisfied with how his friends were faring in this round. As long as nothing big happened or they didn’t make any stupid blunder, three wins would be in their bags already, courtesy of the ladies.

Hell, it should be four, since Sheva also didn’t forget to take a look at Claudia and Duta’s games. After failing to win in the last three rounds, Duta seemed to change his approach, playing more steadily. This worked perfectly for him, because his patience bore a huge result in his matchup, as the boy completely outmatched his opponent in the endgame phase. Even though it was only against a 2000-rated player, for Duta, whose rating was only around 1900, this was definitely a huge achievement.

Claudia herself didn’t really have a bad game. It wasn’t a great game as well, just a plain one from start to the end. If nothing went wrong, it would end up in a draw, which seemed to be her initial target before coming today.

No one really blamed her for being conservative. Hell, if anything, Sheva would be the first one to give a thumbs-up for this approach. After all, her opponent, Vokhidov Shamsiddin, was a strong GM from Uzbekistan with an ELO rating of 2552. While Claudia was able to beat a GM once in a blue moon, that didn’t mean she could do it on a daily basis. Her skill was not quite there yet, so there was nothing wrong with getting a forced draw.

’Also...’ He grinned widely. ’The draw will add another half a point for her, and it is a big boost for her performance rating later. She should be 4 out of 6, right? And if I am not wrong, to get her final norm for the WGM title, she only needs 4.5 wins. So, she just needs one more draw in the last three rounds, and Ia could consider this tournament as a success.’

Indeed, Claudia was different than the other ladies and Sheva. Her rating was the lowest among them all, so her target was also the lowest. She didn’t aim for any higher norm. For now, all she put her focus on was the WGM title first, not wanting to think too far in the future.

Honestly, Sheva was quite envious of the women’s national team. The sheer amount of talent that the team had was far more than what the men’s team possessed. If somehow, Claudia managed to get her WGM title and cross the 2300-rating threshold, then Indonesia would have five players competing at a high level on the women’s side. Compared to that, the men’s team only had a few players who could be relied on, and their ratings were still far too low to receive any invitation to an invitational high-level tournament in the future.

’Oh, well... I really still have a long way to go...’ He couldn’t help but let out a tired sigh. ’Anyway, let’s not overthink it. For now, I need to focus on what is in front of me first. No need to worry over something that wouldn’t happen for so long.’

Speaking of the game, though, Sheva started to get really frustrated. He had been strolling around for about ten minutes, and then, the next fifteen minutes were spent daydreaming as well. In total, he had been doing nothing for almost half an hour, yet Aravindh hadn’t made any move at all during that time. Hell, the boy even shut his eyes tightly, as if he was in the middle of a meditation.

’Is this some sort of meditation, the way for him to think hard, or did he just fall asleep?’ Sheva couldn’t help but frown, getting irritated at the current situation. Even though this would only give him more advantage, since it was Aravindh’s time that got burned, it would be a lie if Sheva said that he wasn’t frustrated. ’If this is his strategy to make me anxious, I have to give a hat’s off, because it works well against me.’ The boy growled unconsciously.

Yeah, against an opponent who took his sweet time like this, the only thing that Sheva worried about was that he started to lose track of the game. After all, the long period of waiting was enough to cool down his momentum—and his brain, as well—to force him to reveal a weakness. This was just another form of psychological warfare, and honestly, Sheva had to say that it was uncomfortable to receive the end of it.

’Karma sure is a bitch.’ Sheva grumbled in a foul mood, remembering how he toyed with Pragg’s emotion two days ago.

Fortunately, after a while, Aravindh finally made his move. Well, he had to, or he would be at a greater disadvantage. Right now, he only had 13 minutes left on the clock, far too little compared to Sheva, who still had around 57 minutes left. This was the endgame already, so if he wasted too much time, the young man would only suffocate himself slowly in the end.

’Fucking finally!’ Sheva took a deep breath, activating his title once again. The long-lost hyper concentration was back, forcing his mind to focus on the board completely.

The situation was still quite complicated, and the endgame really became a tug-of-war session between two knights from both sides. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

In just five minutes, Sheva’s horses had already jumped about 7 times, trying to outmaneuver Aravindh’s defense while also giving a stepping stone for the other pawns. The young Indian GM also started to exert his true ability. His defense was solid, not revealing any single flaw that could be taken advantage of.

It seemed that he didn’t really chase a win right here, as he played quite passively. This made it hard for Sheva to penetrate through the other side of the board. Hell, for a moment, he even thought about accepting a draw. After all, it was quite uncomfortable for all of his punches to land on cotton.

However, it seemed that the Chess God still loved him the most.

Right when Sheva was about to offer a draw, Aravindh suddenly committed a huge move, and right after that, Sheva’s eyes flashed straight away.

’Fuck yeah! He finally slips!’