As Sheva entered the venue, he could see that Yu Yangyi had already waited for him. Sheva wouldn’t be fooled by his appearance, as behind that harmless expression, the man had already killed two of his companions rcilessly. With the Chinese GM aiming to kill the third Indonesian player in a row, the boy knew that he was in for a tough ga.
"Let’s have a good ga." Sheva greeted the man politely.
In return, Yu Yangyi only gave a slight nod and said sothing in rapid Chinese that led Sheva into confusion. It seed that the Chinese GM was not proficient in speaking English.
’Eh, that’s not my problem.’ In the end, Sheva just shrugged it off before turning his head around and letting his eyes wander all over the venue. ’I wonder how the others are doing right now... Ah, that’s Sister dina! Anna’s ga should be far in the back row, right? No, not that far! Here she is!’ He smiled and waved his hand when the boy spotted Anna in the crowd, which was returned by the sa small hand wave from the girl.
It was still five minutes before the ga began, and while almost all the players were already locking into the ga, so still could be seen chatting and laughing with their friends, just hanging out around the venue to unwind the stress they felt. Yeah, after playing for four rounds, so players who had a pretty bad run could be seen walking with dark bags under their eyes, showing how stressful this tournant was. Sheva himself was having a blast of a tournant, getting into the top 10 on the standings even though his starting rank was around 57.
Of course, his amazing performance would garner people’s attention here. After all, it was quite rare to see soone with a low rating like him to thrive in such a high-rated tournant, let alone create one upset after another like what he did in the last couple of days.
Even though yesterday, Sheva couldn’t win his ga against Shant Sargsyan, that didn’t change people’s opinion about him. Hell, they would even feel suspicious if sohow, Sheva managed to beat the Arnian GM yesterday. After all, beating one or even two 2600-rated GMs continuously was rare enough, but three? People would start to think that sothing shady had happened here, and Sheva would be under the organizer’s scrutiny imdiately.
No, this was definitely the best scenario. One draw didn’t really change anything, as people all still thought that he was one player to look at, whether it was in this tournant or even in the future. Everyone sohow had the sa idea here, and that was if Sheva could maintain this level for the rest of the tournant, he would only rise higher in the future.
It was just a pity that he would face Yu Yangyi, the executioner of all the Indonesian players in this tournant. Not a single person in this building was optimistic about his chance, and honestly, Sheva himself was also skeptical about whether he could hold back the Chinese GM from winning three gas in a row or not.
’Still...’ The boy clenched his fist unconsciously, looking determined more than ever. ’With all the problems that I face and will face behind the scenes if I lose, I cannot let myself get killed here! I must survive, whatever it takes!’
A mont later, the alarm rang, and the ga finally started. Playing with the white piece, Yu Yangyi moved his C pawn two squares forward, initiating the English opening. He also moved his G2 pawn one square forward, ready to fianchetto his light bishop for the benefit in the long run.
Sheva was unfazed by this. He moved his D and E pawns quickly, eager to transpose this position into a normal queen’s gambit decline ga. The boy knew that this was the only opening that could give him a fair chance to earn a positive result, since the Queen’s Gambit decline was one of the openings where Yu Yangyi had the least winning percentage in the last couple of years. Not aning that he would be able to get out unscathed, but at least this boosted Sheva’s confidence a little bit.
Unfortunately, it seed that Yu Yangyi himself also noticed his ’not-so-impressive’ performance with the Queen’s Gambit decline ga, so the man avoided that opening at all costs. He just developed all of his minor pieces on the kingside to clear up the space for castling while also holding back the D4 move, and in the end, instead of setting up two pawns on the C and D file like the usual queen’s pawn ga, the man chose to take Sheva’s D pawn directly, following the line that was often used in the English Opening.
Now, the ga entered a weird state, where the center of the board was cleared, while Yu Yangyi still had a light bishop sniping from the G2 square far away on the backline. The position resembled the Catalan Opening a lot, yet the lack of the D4 pawn on the white side made a huge difference here.
*Author note: If you want to visualize the position better, check the comnt below.
’Oh, so, we are going to play a ’who is more patient’ ga, huh?’ Sheva muttered, realizing that Yu Yangyi didn’t want to take the initiative in the earlier stage of the ga. ’Co on, then! Let’s do this!’
The ga runs pretty fast, with both players blitzing their way to get through each other’s side. Not a single hesitation could be seen from either Sheva or Yu Yangyi, as they moved decisively for the first fifteen minutes. Pieces were exchanged one by one, and without them both realizing, the battlefield opened up due to the fallen pieces in the last couple of plays.
Still, with an open position like this, those who supported Sheva from the beginning, like Bagas and the old viewers of the YouTube channel, frown imdiately, knowing that this was definitely not the playing style that Sheva would choose in a normal ga. This had already happened in the last round against Shant Sargsyan, so to see Sheva choosing this approach again for the second ti in a row triggered a question inside everyone’s head.
’What the hell is he trying to do here?!’
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