Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 511: A Hidden Mission?!

After the first win of the tournament, Sheva came into the venue for the second day full of confidence, ready for any challenge coming his way. However, inwardly, he felt a little bit of a headache facing his opponent. Not because the man was a strong player, but more like Sheva couldn’t really get a good read of that man.

His opponent today was a 22-year-old Slovakian GM Jergus Pechac. His rating was quite high, 2618. However, he didn’t play in a lot of elite tournaments, just wandering around his own country to play some small tournaments with opponents of around 2400 to 2600. It was a wide range, indeed, and that was why Sheva couldn’t find a grasp of how strong the man was.

Not only that, the man’s performance last year was so volatile that Sheva couldn’t figure out the man’s current situation. Jergus Pechac played in the last Olympiad as Slovakia’s number one player, and he did quite well. Hell, the man even beat Vincent Keymer, the young and talented German GM who had already crossed 2700 rating ELO. He looked like a very strong and solid player just based on that information.

However, at the same time, he lost a lot of games against a far lower-rated opponent, like against a Swedish IM in the European Chess Club Cup 2022 last November or even against the local FM with a rating of 2400 last December.

The uncertainty really gave Sheva a huge trouble, and that was why the first thing he did after sitting on his seat and facing his opponent was to scan the man’s stats. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

[Name: Jergus Pechac]

Attacking 85

Defense 87

Calculation 83

Strategy 82

Intuition 82

Time management 83

’Well, he is definitely a solid player, and since his best stat is the defense one, it would be difficult to crack his wall later.’ Sheva pondered. However, he scratched his hair next as the confusion grew. ’With his stats, how could he be so inconsistent? Is it something that couldn’t be reflected by a number?’

[Indeed, Host, the inconsistency comes from something that the current system couldn’t detect.] The system suddenly popped out of nowhere.

’The current system?’ Sheva mumbled, catching the point immediately. ’Then, does that mean you could do that in the future?’

[DING! HOST HAS TRIGGERED A HIDDEN MISSION!]

[Mission: Due to his inconsistency, after playing badly for a while, Jergus Pechac will have a great boost in his stats today, with all of them getting a 5 percent increase. Win the game and show him that the boost doesn’t matter!]

[Reward: A ’Current Mood’ bar, showing your opponent’s daily mood and how it affects their performance.]

Sheva could feel the corner of his mouth twitching when he read this. While he didn’t mind the mission, and the reward somehow intrigued him, how could the difficulty today suddenly increase to a new height?!

’Jergus Pechac’s basic average stats are around 85. Does that mean that today, he would be close to a super-GM with the stats of around 90? What the fuck is going on here?’ Sheva cursed inwardly. ’Also, his defensive stats will be around 91 to 92, right? Who the hell am I facing right now?!’

His only experience fighting against someone with a high defensive stat was against Yu Yangyi in Biel last year, and honestly, it was like he was punching an iron wall at that time. It didn’t matter how he launched the attack, as Yu Yangyi would always be able to find the best way to defuse the bomb. Fortunately, at that time, the game ended up in a draw, so Sheva didn’t feel wronged for failing to execute the offense perfectly.

’Yeah, shit. If his level is the same as Yu Yangyi, I would have a headache today.’ Sheva rubbed his forehead slightly. ’Still... It has been a long time since I played against a defensive-minded player. Let’s see if all the improvements I experience this year are enough for me to beat this kind of opponent...’

Even though there was a part of him that felt reluctant over his opponent’s sudden improvement, the other part showed some sort of excitement, knowing that the opponent would be far more difficult than in the past. Honestly, Sheva didn’t even remember when was the last time he felt excitement like this.

’Maybe Dubai, huh? When I beat Pragg and Arjun in the span of two days?’ He smiled, reminiscing about the past.

As he was drowning in memory, though, the alarm suddenly rang, showing that the game finally began. Even though his mind was still not completely on the board, Sheva moved in an autopilot mode, pushing the E pawn forward immediately. His opponent wasn’t really surprised when he saw that move, retaliating with the mirror move by pushing his own E pawn.

At this point, it seemed that all the chess players in the world knew that Sheva was a 1.E4 player. The boy himself didn’t really mind. If one weapon always worked the best, why would he have to change it?

Right now, in his mind, a lot of opening variations flashed inside his mind, from his favorite Sicilian variation, the Alapin one, to the most boring stuff like the Giuoco Piano. However, just in the second move, Jergus Pechac surprised him with the opening that he hadn’t seen in a long time.

The Petrov Opening.

’Petrov, huh? Not something that I expect to see, definitely.’ Sheva shook his head quickly.

This was the favorite opening of the Russian or any other players who graduated from the Soviet Chess School, a solid opening that denied any nonsense from the white side and just tried to turn the game into an endgame contest as soon as possible.

The last time Sheva played with this opening was against Kirill Aleeksenko in Biel. At that time, he was still quite green, yet the knowledge passed on by Sergei Azarov, his old teacher, was enough for him to beat the super GM. However, that didn’t mean he enjoyed the game, as going for the endgame phase so quickly often led to a headache.

’Oh, well, since I cannot avoid it, I’d better try to enjoy this game.’ Sheva took a deep breath, trying to get his mentality on track. Then, he glanced for a moment at his opponent, and as he gritted his teeth, the boy couldn’t help but mutter, ’You want to fight an endgame? Fine, I’ll give you one! Come on!’