Yeah, at first, no one noticed it, as everyone was too immersed in the game in front of them. It was the players on the chair who first realized that, since they had to keep track of each other’s moves on the sheet provided by the arbiter. Somehow, their sheets had already reached the limit, which showed that the 100th move had already been met there.
When both players asked for a new sheet from the arbiter, all the people around them gasped, realizing that this game had already entered a new stage. It was pretty rare to see a game getting through the 100th move. Hell, reaching the 50th move itself was pretty difficult, as the players’ energy was always limited. That showed how stubborn and resilient both Sheva and Arfan were in this game.
’Damn... Do you think it could reach 150th move?’
’No way! Both players would’ve collapsed already before that happened?!’
’Anyway, the World Championship between Magnus and Nepomniachtchi last December in game six, do you remember that? How many moves did they play until Nepomniachtchi resigned?’ ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ n͟o͟v͟e͟l͟f͟i͟r͟e͟.net
’It should be around the 135th move, right?’
’Damn! Do you think they would reach that point?!’
’No way! The game has already reached the endpoint here! Except if Arfan is still stubborn enough to wait for Sheva to make a mistake, the game will be over in the next few minutes!’
At this point, the game had already been going on for more than four hours. Outside of the building, the sun had already gone, hiding below the horizon. The bustling nightlife of Jakarta could be heard or even seen from inside the building. However, none of the spectators there were ready to leave. They all wanted to see how this legendary game unfolded before their eyes.
The crowd was a bit too big, so that even the arbiter had to dissolve a few of them so that they wouldn’t distract both Sheva and Arfan. Not that those two players hadn’t been distracted already, since they could feel their minds turning into mush right now. However, the arbiter was still responsible for keeping everything stable, so this was a necessary move from him. Unfortunately, both Anna and Claudia were dragged into the dissolved mess here.
"Oh, come on! This is not fair!" Claudia whined once they were outside the hall. "A child cannot be outside this late, they said! A child should go home and sleep at this time, they said! Are you fricking kidding me?!" She ranted over and over toward the official. Fortunately, there was no official person around them, or the girl would be in trouble right now.
"Don’t make a commotion here, Ia. Let’s go back first." As the big sister here, Anna could still stay calm and think of the best thing to do right now. "Fortunately, the game is broadcast live on the Black Rook channel, so we can watch it from our phones. Let’s go to a restaurant nearby first. We need to fill our stomachs, too."
Only when Anna reminded her did Claudia realize that she was starving right now. Her stomach grumbled loudly, and if only she were in the middle of the crowd, her face would turn red due to the embarrassment. Fortunately, they were already out of the crowd, and she didn’t have to be embarrassed in front of her sister.
They went straight to the closest restaurant, ordering food and drink to relieve their stomach first. Of course, they also turned on their phone, going straight to the live broadcast to watch the current situation between Sheva and Arfan. The situation was still the same, a draw game where both players just shuffled their pieces aimlessly. However, it was already the 115th move for them both, and it was clear by their pale faces that they had already reached the limit of their life here.
"Sis, how do you think the game will end?" Claudia couldn’t help but ask.
Anna pondered for a moment, assessing the two players inside her head first before giving her answer. "It will be a draw." She said firmly. "Except if Arfan makes a big, stupid mistake, Sheva has no chance of overturning the situation, and vice versa. There is no way Sheva would make a big mistake that would kill himself in this situation. They would go for a while before those two realize that nothing they do can change the game, before finally accepting the draw result."
Claudia bit her lips unconsciously, still staring at the screen intently. Honestly, if she had to choose, the girl really wanted Sheva to win the game. After all, not only were they acquaintances, but the boy had already helped her and her sister a lot in the last couple of days. She could still remember how Sheva resolved the knot tied in Anna’s heart yesterday, and while she was still fuming that the boy dared to make her sister cry, Claudia still appreciated what he had done and felt like he deserved something good in his life.
Still, Claudia couldn’t deny that Arfan was a strong player. Hell, she hated to admit, but the girl felt that Arfan was ’slightly’ better than her big sister. The fact that Sheva could force a draw here also told her that Sheva’s talent was quite high, something that Claudia had to admit again, albeit a bit begrudgingly.
So, yeah, while she wanted Sheva to win this game, the girl also could see why a draw was a fair result here.
True enough, the game really went just like Anna had predicted earlier. The two talented youngsters, Sheva and Arfan, kept shuffling the pieces for a while, and Sheva, who still had one more pawn on the board, even tried to put pressure on his opponent by pushing it quite forward. His pawn was only two squares away from queening, enough to make Arfan sweat one last time.
Unfortunately, for all the effort that he had made, Sheva’s position was stuck, and Arfan really made a blockade with his queen and king to prevent Sheva from pushing forward. After they passed their 130th move, those two teenagers stared at each other for a moment, an invisible string suddenly connecting them both. With a single glance, they nodded at each other, finally offering a handshake.
And after 130 moves, after playing for almost five hours, the two teenagers finally agreed on the draw result, ending such a long and exhausting game with a half point for each other.