Sheva took a deep breath, trying to calm down his nerves one more time. Although he had already expected this, Sheva still felt strange to join the internal tournament the first time he came here. However, that wasn’t the only thing that made him nervous. No, what put him on edge was the fact that this would be the first time he played using the black piece.
Yeah, before this, the only two times he played the game were when he was introduced by Bagas and when he played against Master Irfan at the park, and he played both as the white piece. Even though in theory, there was no significant advantage to using the white or black piece, this was still an unknown territory for Sheva, and although he knew he couldn’t avoid it, Sheva still hoped he could get the black piece in the second round after winning a game first to build up his confidence.
’Oh, well, no need to cry over something that I couldn’t even control here.’ He took a breath one more time, slapping his cheeks a little. ’Now, let’s see what kind of style she would play in this game...’
The girl in front of him, Claudia, made the first move by moving the pawn in front of her king two squares. This was just another one of the most standard openings in the chess world. Not wanting to take a risk in his first game, Sheva decided to go for one that he was comfortable with, the highest knowledge card that he had obtained from the system, the Caro-Kann defense. The girl sent one last indifferent glance toward Sheva before her hand moved fast, letting her pieces fly to the spot where they should be. Ten seconds had passed, and now it was time for the girl to decide what kind of variation she wanted to play here.
’The advanced variation, huh?’ Sheva muttered to himself as he saw Claudia pushing the king’s pawn one more square.
This was the kind of variation where the white pieces decided not to take the black D’s pawn, and instead of doing that, went for an aggressive approach by advancing the king’s pawn one more square. This would occupy the F6 square and also prevent the black’s knight from developing into its natural square. This approach was basically the way the white player told his or her opponent that they wanted to go for a complex positional battle that would be long and tedious.
However, Sheva didn’t even blink, starting his counterattack immediately. This opening had been developed more than a hundred years ago, and almost all the possible variations of this opening had also been studied by all the prominent chess players in history. There was no way that a solution could be found for this approach.
True enough, just within a few moves, Sheva managed to get almost all of his minor pieces into a good square. Not only that, he also put his king on the safe side while using both his bishops as lasers to aim straight at the opponent’s king side. Irfan, who approached the table slowly and stood behind Bagas, couldn’t help but nod in satisfaction when he saw this.
’A solid understanding of the theory... Not bad, not bad at all...’ He murmured lowly.
’Master Irfan!’ Bagas, who had just noticed the new presence behind him, jolted for a second. Fortunately, he was able to keep his mouth shut, or he would have disturbed the entire tournament with his shout. ’What are you doing here?’ He hissed.
’What?! Of course, I am here to see my new talented player! Also, lower your voice! Don’t let them hear you talking!’ Irfan grinned widely. ’After all, it is rare to find an amateur player who could draw against me on the first chance. I really want to see how far he could fare in this game.’
Somehow, Bagas felt pride swelling his chest when he heard the compliment. Even though Sheva’s chess journey only started a week ago, he was there from the very beginning, and he was the one who introduced his best friend to the game. He always believed from the first time he saw that Sheva had a talent in this game, or he wouldn’t push his best friend to enter Irfan’s challenge, and even joined the IM’s club. Still, to hear the affirmation from a titled player like Irfan was another matter here, as if it was confirming his initial guess.
’So, do you think that Sheva could win?’ Bagas asked, his tone revealed a little bit of bragging. However, to his surprise, Irfan just smiled mysteriously, shaking his head as if he didn’t agree with that.
’Well, it will not be as easy as you think. Just wait and see...’
At first, Bagas was confused, not knowing what Irfan meant by that. However, right in the next second, he could see a small frown on Sheva’s face, indicating that he was trying to think hard right now. Bagas was taken aback a little, trying to find what his best friend had just found there. Unfortunately, he wasn’t that great at chess. He could only see that the position was complicated without knowing who had the advantage here. However, he also noticed that there hadn’t been any significant movement on the front side of the battlefield. Both players still tried their best to improve their position, not willing to be the first one to take the initiative to open up the fire.
’Um... Can you tell me what is going on here?’ Bagas could only ask the expert next to him.
’Well, it is understandable that you cannot see it clearly. After all, this kind of complication could only be found in a high-level game, and one moment of slip concentration is enough to throw everything up.’ Irfan hummed, staring at the board intently. ’This is probably the most dangerous time for your friend, so I kinda want to see what he would do to improve his position.’
’Um?!’ Bagas was startled by the evaluation from the IM. No matter how he saw it, he couldn’t figure out how Sheva was in danger here. ’Can you explain a little bit clearer?’ He asked one more time, his tone was impatient.
’Well, you see...’ Irfan was about to explain more, but his eyes suddenly lit up when he saw Sheva make an unexpected move. ’Damn! He finally makes a mistake! Wait and see, Boy! Your friend is in big danger after this!’