Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 436: Sheva VS Amin Tabatabaei! (I)
"Hello, hello, hello, everybody! Welcome back to the Black Rook channel, where we are going to report on the Dubai Master Open 2022 and all the matches that our boys and girls will fight in!" Bagas opened the broadcast as usual, shouting into the microphone with a piercing voice. "This is the last day of the tournament, and honestly, Sheva doesn’t really need to do anything! He has already secured the number one spot in this tournament, so any result will not bring him anything. However... Do you think that our boy will be satisfied with a quick draw?!"
Right after that, laughter broke out in the chat room as everyone knew full well Sheva’s personality at this point.
Froggies: A quick draw for Sheva? Hell must be frozen tonight!
Hilda99: He might not need to win today, but he will definitely want to get a win!
Rizhe14: Yeah! Even if Magnus Carlsen himself is playing, there is no way Sheva will back down cowardly like that!
Honestly, if it were anyone else, they would be scolded by the Internet for being reckless. However, Sheva had already made a name for himself by pushing the boundary crazily like this, and it was also one of the biggest reasons why he had a lot of fans. The spirit of chasing the win, no matter who the opponent was or what kind of situation they were in, was admired by so many people, and the fact that he actually always managed to win was the crucial part.
After all, his craziness would be nothing if somehow, he failed to deliver.
"Just like the usual, we are going to be accompanied by our lovely Sarah—"
"—Hey, everyone!" The girl waved as the camera was panned at her; the little smile on her lips was enough to break some hearts in the comment section. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎
"—And Master Irfan, whom we are going to connect to from back home in a second! Ah! Here he is!"
Right after that, the screen split vertically, with Master Irfan’s face popping up on the top of the screen. Yeah, it was back to him once again, since Sagar Shah was only here to join the fun when the Indonesian players had to fight against the Indian ones. After Sheva’s game against Aravindh, the man had no business chiming in on the broadcast anymore, and Bagas was too embarrassed to ask. So, he went back to Master Irfan’s home, who accepted the request happily, and here they were now, ready to report the final round of the tournament live from Dubai.
"So, tell me, Master Irfan, what can we expect from today’s game?" Bagas inquired.
"Well, you have already explained in the beginning. Even though Sheva had already won it all, there is no way he would back down in the last round, especially since his opponent is another high-rated player. If I have to guess, since the pressure is off while the desire to win is still there, Sheva is going to try one of his unorthodox openings here, testing whether it could work in a high-level chess or not." Irfan explained thoroughly.
It was a well-analyzed answer, and if Sheva was able to hear it, he would want to pry Irfan’s brain open to see whether the man could read his mind or not. After all, that was exactly what the boy wanted to do today. Well, it just showed how much Irfan knew about him, as the man had followed Sheva’s journey since the beginning of the boy’s career.
Well, Sheva himself didn’t really have any time to care about it. Right now, his attention was completely on the board in front of him, waiting for the alarm to ring so that the game could be started. Amin was also the same, fidgeting with his fingers anxiously. It seemed that the man was eager as well to see how capable Sheva was.
Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait for so long. About half a minute later, the alarm finally rang, signalling all the players in the venue to start the game. Amin, holding the white piece, didn’t hesitate. He slid his D pawn two squares forward, going for the Queen’s Pawn game. It was either this was his preference opening or the man had already learned that Sheva was a 1.e4-type of player through and through.
’Oh, well... Not like I am not ready for that.’ Sheva thought.
Indeed, at this level, even though he still preferred the King’s Pawn opening, it would be foolish not have any good variation to handle the 1.d4 line. In this case, Sheva decided to go for a standard way, letting his knight jump into the F6 square. Of course, Amin returned the move quickly. He pushed the C pawn next, letting it support the first pawn to control the center.
Now, Sheva had a lot of choices. He could pick up a lot of things, from the Nimzo-Indian to the Queen’s Indian. However, the boy didn’t want to go that route. No, he wanted to leave a long-lasting impression for his last game, so Sheva decided to push his C pawn two squares forward, challenging the center immediately.
"Ah! Here it is, folks!" Irfan announced it with the ’I know he is going to do this’ tone. "The Benoni Defense! By offering the C pawn at the beginning of the game, Sheva is trying to create an imbalance, showing his intention to win! Now, he could even go for his favorite Benko Gambit, the one that would always give the opponent a massive headache!"
Well, in fact, that was Sheva’s initial intention. However, when Amin responded to the move quickly, going straight into the line of the Benko Gambit, the boy frowned, feeling something was wrong here. The feeling grew as he caught the glimpse of smugness on Amin’s face, as if challenging him to go for it.
’So, you have already expected this, huh?’ Sheva couldn’t help but snort. Then, he picked up the pawn in front of his king, pushing it one square to truly catch his opponent off guard. ’Don’t think that just because you expect the line, I will give you what you want! Let’s see how familiar you are with this shit!’
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Author’s note: Hey, everyone! I just write a new novel as an entry to the WSA 2026 competition, with the title of ’I Am the God of Football in the Fantasy World’. Please, help me support this new novel by adding it to the library and leave your comment in it. Thank you!
