Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 435: Final Round, Sheva VS Amin Tabatabaei!

After a very long journey, the last day of the tournament finally came. The other members of the group were eager to wash away their shame by ending it all with a bang, so they came with eyes full of determination. As for Sheva, honestly, he didn’t really need to do that. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

First of all, the boy had already won it all, so trying hard was not in his priority. Also, even if he forced a quick draw, with a huge rating difference between him and Amin Tabatabaei, the Iranian GM who would become his opponent next, even a draw would be able to let him climb slightly higher in rating.

However, Sheva wanted to be willful for once.

He knew that what Laysa said was right. It would be bad to end a tournament in anything but a win, since this would bring bad luck back home. Of course, the boy himself didn’t really believe in that superstitious thing. However, it was good to have an excuse to throw for anyone who questioned why he tried so hard when he didn’t even need to do that.

Also, this was a matter of pride. After winning 17 games in a row, getting a draw here without even trying was not an option. It would also be an insult to the opponents he beat in the past, as if telling them that they were not as good as Amin Tabatabaei. No, he couldn’t do that for Pragg, Arjun, Alexandr Predke, and so many more good players who had already fallen under his feet.

Most importantly, though, his competitiveness always flared whenever Sheva was facing a higher-rated opponent. In the boy’s mind, every chance playing against those high-rated players was a chance to prove to everyone that he deserved to be there as well, that he was also an elite player who only lacked playing time. He was still in a phase where he was thirsty for praise and acknowledgement, so this kind of reaction was quite normal.

However, even with him being in the best form of his career—albeit it was still a short one—the boy was still clear-headed enough to not underestimate the opponent in front of him.

’Oi, system, give me a heads-up on his stats!’

[DING! The scan is successful!]

[Name: Amin Tabatabaei]

Attacking 90

Defense 85

Calculation 86

Strategy 88

Intuition 84

Time management 84

’Hmm... So, a player with a similar style as Aravindh, huh?’ Sheva pondered while tapping his chin thoughtfully, still remembering clearly the young Indian GM he faced two days ago. ’A player with a strong preference in his offensive game, but the other aspects are quite balanced, better than Aravindh, whose stats are quite one-sided in his attacking one. However, Amin Tabatabaei didn’t have any title to boost his stats, so it would be difficult for him to break through the top level of the chess world.’

It was a bit pretentious for him to judge a man whose rating was higher than his, but Sheva really had a capital to do so. Hell, the boy was confident that he was a better player than Amin even on a normal day, no need to wait for him to get into his form to beat the man in front of him. Of course, he would never say it out loud. The boy still knew the importance of a clean public image, after all.

He wasn’t the only one who was observing his opponent. Amin Tabatabaei was folding his hands as well on the other side of the table, looking at the boy in front of him with eyes full of scrutiny. The man had heard a lot about this genius who made a chaos in the chess world last month, and now, he really wanted to see whether the boy had the ability to back up all the talk about him or if it was just a flesh in the pan.

’What the hell am I thinking? A flesh in the pan?’ Amin suddenly shook his head wryly. ’No flesh in the pan will be able to get the result he has right now. Who the hell am I to judge the leader of the standing and the sole winner of the tournament? Even winning this game wouldn’t help me stand alongside him.’

Indeed, with only 6.5 points out of 8 rounds, even winning this game would only help him close the gap to Sheva, but in the end, the boy was still up to half a point. Of course, normally, he wouldn’t even try that hard in the last day of the tournament, especially since his chance of winning was null already. A quick draw would be enough for him, and after that, the man could just enjoy the last tidbit of summer here in Dubai before having to go back to Iran.

However, today, he also wanted to be willful.

This had always been the veteran’s mentality against those young prodigies. They didn’t want to be used as another stepping stone, and if they could, they wanted to be the ones who exposed those youngsters to the world. They wanted to be the ones who said, ’Look! Is this your prodigy? He has already fallen under my feet!’ making their name resounding throughout the chess world as well.

Amin was also the same here. That was why he threw away the idea of getting a quick draw, and instead, his spirit burned up as the man wanted nothing but win in this game.

So, when two players who didn’t have any business in this round, who could’ve just walked away easily to preserve their energy, decided to be willful and go all out, what would happen?

Of course, they would bring chaos to the board! This was a foregone conclusion, and with just one exchanged glance, both players knew exactly what would happen in the game.

Sheva himself lowered his gaze, yet a little smirk spread slightly on his face. Inwardly, he couldn’t help but mutter, ’Amin Tabatabaei, huh? I thought he would be an ordinary one, but it seems I cannot underestimate his spirit. This is going to be interesting...’