Compared to any other big countries like India or China, Azerbaijan seed to be quite left behind in terms of chess developnt. However, that was the opinion of those people who didn’t really follow the news here. In fact, the country had already produced two very strong super GMs in Shakhriyar Madyarov and Teimur Radjabov.
Those two players had already been in the highest level of chess for so many years, and while they had already passed their pri ages, the two of them could still compete against the youngsters and rising stars in the chess world quite fiercely.
Not only those two, but the regeneration of chess players in that country seed to work quite well. Inheriting their mantles, Nijat Abasov skyrocketed in the last couple of years, even crossing the ELO rating of 2650 quite easily. Even though the man was still far from being a super GM, at least he was already half a step forward here, and the only thing he needed the most to cross the line was the last push to let him enter that elite world.
Then, besides him, ca the youngsters that Sheva was pretty familiar with.
Yeah, even though he didn’t have that much contact with any Azerbaijan GM, this was definitely not the first ti Sheva was in the sa room with soone from that country. A few months ago, during the Jakarta International Chess Festival, he also played in the sa building as Suleymanli Aydin, a super youngster who won several world junior chess championships in the past and also the one who won the entire GM section in that Jakarta tournant a while ago. However, at that ti, Sheva was still playing in the amateur section, so they didn’t really cross paths there.
This ti, though, it would be a different case.
His opponent was going to be Muradli Muhammad, another talented youngster from that country with an ELO rating of 2526. Even though resu-wise, Muradli was way far behind Suleymanli Aydin, but at least, in the head-to-head between those two, Muradli seed to win more gas, even to the point of beating Aydin in the final of the Azerbaijan National Chess a few years ago. It showed that this man was not soone that Sheva could look down on.
Still, Sheva knew about that even before he researched his opponent’s information. After all, he always had one principle, and that was to not underestimate his opponent, no matter how weak they were.
Even though it was unlikely, Sheva still believed that since he could ’miraculously’ get a system inside his head, there was a very slim possibility that another person could also get one, and even a ’washed’ player could rise once again the mont they got the benefit from the system. That was why it was better to treat everything carefully rather than getting caught off guard by the possibility of the second system descending on Earth.
However, the research that Sheva had done last night also brought him confidence in this ga. The boy knew that Muradli Muhammad would go for the variant of the 1.d4 openings, and the man would also go for a form of Indian ga, such as the Nimzo, the Queen’s Indian Defense, or even the Catalan. It was quite rare for him to use any other opening, and even though sotis, he would also go for the English, the man would always find a way to transpose the position back to the Queen’s Gambit Decline opening.
Of course, knowing this didn’t an that Sheva could win the ga easily. Hell, it was quite difficult to co up with a decent plan that could be realized on the board, especially when he only had one night to think about that. However, the boy was still confident, knowing that by mastering the opponent’s information, he had already won half of the battle here.
’Now, the rest of it will depend on my own performance on the board.’ He clenched his fist unconsciously. ’I cannot disappoint them all here! Co on, I can do this!’
Right after that, the alarm rang, indicating that the ga had finally begun. Playing with white, Muradli Muhammad didn’t hesitate to push his C pawn two squares forward, initiating the English opening.
Normally, after knowing that the man liked to go for the 1.d4 opening, there was no way that Sheva would let the ga get transposed into that one so easily. However, he himself was also not really confident with his English Opening preparation, and the boy knew that Muradli would’ve already prepared if soone tried to be a smartass and forced him to go for the full English Opening.
So, instead of going to an unknown territory where he himself was also pretty much foreign there, it was better to walk into the bait straightaway, especially since he himself ca prepared this ti. Sheva bit the bait, transposing the opening straight into the Queen’s Gambit decline within five moves. It was risky, challenging his opponent directly like this. However, Sheva was confident that he could sohow make everything work perfectly here.
’Now, co on! Let see how you will respond to this!’
Muradli Muhammad also took his ti to think here. Even though it was just the opening stage, the man didn’t want to rush his way carelessly just to be punished in the later stage. Yes, since this was a championship ga, Muradli also took his ti to research anything about Sheva, and one conclusion that he got here was that the boy liked to play fast, even if it ant he would sacrifice his own accuracy for it.
That was such a decent strategy, and if anyone didn’t know better, they would be intimidated by his playing style pretty quickly. However, since Muradli knew about this secret, there was no way he would fall into panic. Hell, if anything, the quicker Sheva made his move, the more ti Muradli would waste thinking of any mistake that could possibly happen on the board.
Both players were too engrossed with the ga in front of them that they themselves didn’t really notice that so people had already co and visited their gas, even though they hadn’t revealed anything yet, and one of them was the Indian super youngster who was fighting in the GM section of the tournant.
The boy stared intently at the board there, and after a quick glance at Sheva, he walked away while also muttering, ’He has already improved that fast? If no one is stopping him, he should be a GM within a year, right?! That is crazy!’
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