Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 421: Sheva VS Arjun Erigaisi! (IV)
’Yeah, it is over...’ Pragg just shook his head before he walked back into his own game, not wanting to look at Arjun’s frustrated gaze. ’Damn! Again?! How could he be so good in such a short time?!’ He cursed inwardly, feeling so frustrated yet helpless with the current situation.
Yeah, even if he befriended Sheva, that didn’t mean Pragg wanted to lose against him. To make it worse, the Indonesian boy seemed to make it a mission of his life to use him and the other Indian prodigies as his stepping stone. If he counted Arjun’s game as a loss, then Sheva had already taken two out of four Indian geniuses at this point.
’Maybe, only Gukesh could deal with him.’ A thought suddenly slipped into his mind.
Well, no one blamed Pragg for thinking about that. After all, Gukesh was the only one who had ever landed a decisive blow against Sheva. However, it was such a long time ago when Sheva’s system was still a baby. Now that it had already achieved a few upgrades, giving Sheva a lot more benefits, even Sheva himself couldn’t help but get impatient, wanting to take revenge on Gukesh in their next meeting.
Still, honestly, it was a bit shameful for Pragg to rely on Gukesh. After all, out of those four, Gukesh was the youngest one there. However, Pragg couldn’t help it. He had already suffered from a defeat, and now, Arjun seemed to be the next one. While Nihal Sarin was strong, only a few people close to him knew that the boy encountered a huge wall, feeling stagnant and not knowing how to improve himself. Meeting Sheva in a tournament, with him being like this, would probably only make things worse for Nihal.
’Maybe, this is the essence of modern chess, huh?’ Pragg couldn’t help but smile bitterly. ’The youngest would always thrive further, leaving the older guys, even if they are just one year older, far behind in the dust.’
Honestly, if Sheva could hear Pragg’s thought, he would’ve scoffed at it. After all, not only right now, but he was confident that the meeting against Gukesh would produce a different result; chess was not a one-dimensional game where a player would be better than another just after beating them in one game. No, it was far more complicated than that. Sheva himself couldn’t ensure that he would be able to beat Pragg in the next meeting, so he would never say that he was better than Pragg.
Well... At least, for now. The future would be a completely different matter.
Back to the game, though, now, it was Arjun who was sweating hard. Although it took time, in the end, Sheva finally got that pan on the D3 square, disabling all of the threats that Arjun possessed. Not only that, but both of Sheva’s rooks were already infiltrating on the seventh rank, ready to bring chaos on that side. He managed to exchange one of them, but the looming threat was still enough to make him panic right now.
’First, I need to get something from his side.’ Arjun thought inwardly. ’This 5 vs 3 pawns battle is definitely not in my favor, so I need to balance things out for my side. First, go to the second rank and threaten that knight from the back, and once it moves away, I can finally get rid of one of his pawns. That would be perfect for me.’
Little did he know, though, that Sheva had already prepared to throw away one of his pawns.
This was the endgame technique that he learned from Sergei Azarov in the past. In a situation where he led two pawns against his opponent, the best way to capitalize on it was to sacrifice one of his pawns, using it as bait to attract the opponent’s stronger piece while also getting his other pawn advance further. Once the bait was taken, it would be difficult for that piece to come back and stop his pawn from the promotion square, and that was when everything would be over.
Unfortunately for Arjun, that was exactly what happened on the board.
After sacrificing one of the pawns there, Sheva managed to sneak his king deeper into Arjun’s territory, getting ready to shield the about-to-be-promoted pawn from wind and rain. Not only that, on the right flank, the two pawns there were quite strong, supporting each other tightly without giving any weakness to the enemy.
The only chance that Arjun had here was to get a promotion too, but Sheva’s knight was always in the right spot to prevent any advancement from being made. It acted as a deterrent, preventing any leak in Sheva’s defense.
Arjun himself couldn’t really put all of his focus on that offense. After all, Sheva was so close to getting his pawn promoted. He tried several times to make perpetual check, but in the end, the white king managed to hide in a perfect square while also giving a red carpet for his own subordinate to become his next wife a moment later.
As he was closer to the win, Sheva couldn’t help but feel tense. It had already been the 74th move, and honestly, he lost track of time at this point. The boy couldn’t even remember how long he been fighting up until now, but the sweat started to drench the back of his shirt crazily.
’I need to hold on.’ Sheva gritted his teeth, starting to feel the sleepiness, which was also the sign that the title’s side effect was ready to take over. ’Just a few more moves, and this is going to be over... I have to do this!’
With every last drop of his fuel, Sheva kept pushing further, not giving Arjun Erigaisi any chance to recover. Both players only had 4 minutes right now, so they were fighting against time as well. In the end, Sheva managed to simplify the game by exchanging the rook, and once his pawn was only one square away from the promised land, Arjun committed one last desperate attempt to save himself. He sacrificed his bishop for nothing, knowing that everything should be over in the next few minutes.
’Yes! I finally get him!’ Sheva clenched his fist tightly.
Time seemed to freeze at this point, and the crowds around them got bigger as the game was about to end. However, Sheva wasn’t distracted by them at all. No, his focus was completely on the board, and once the last decisive blow was landed, once Arjun Erigaisi finally offered a handshake, that was when all the tension on his shoulder was finally gone.
’I win!’
