Of course, Sheva didn’t know what Pragg was thinking. Hell, the boy didn’t even realize that soone was watching him from behind, showing how focused he was on the ga currently. However, all the people on the live broadcast witnessed this small mont, and let’s just say that it made a small commotion there.
Jinxyz421: Who the hell is that boy?!
RonaldOSIu007: You don’t know him? He is Pragg, one of India’s strongest youngsters nowadays!
Leekers24: Yeah! So even say that he is the second Vishy Anand!
HGeteqwd79: *0*
Hilda99: Well, not all people follow chess thoroughly, so it is understandable that so don’t know about him.
Looking at the chat room that was filled with confusion, Bagas couldn’t help but explain, "For your information, the boy who just ca earlier to watch Sheva’s ga is Praggnanandhaa Rashbabu, one of India’s twin stars with Gukesh Dommaraju. They are hailed as the country’s best prodigies, what with how young they were when they achieved their GM title. Sheva got acquainted with him the first ti when they played in Reykjavik a few months ago, and I could say that they beca close enough to call each other friends right now."
"Ah, so that’s how it is..." Laysa replied in realization. "I wondered for a mont how they knew each other, but it is quite normal for players to make friends with each other. I myself also made a friend with Pragg’s sister, Vaishali Rashbabu, after winning the ga yesterday, so sothing like this is indeed common in the chess community."
They chatted for a while about this kind of thing, going off topic for a mont.This was probably the disadvantage that chess had compared to other sports. While it could last for so many hours, not a lot of action could be seen, as both players could make a move once every five to ten minutes.
Hell, when things got too complicated, a player could even spend 30 minutes just thinking of one move, and during that ti, the viewers wouldn’t be able to do anything but watch until the move was made. That was why being a chess host and comntator was not as easy as it looked, as they needed the ability to engage in all the small talk possible with the audiences so that they wouldn’t bore the viewers to death.
Ti passed by, and the ga also started to develop further. Pieces flew back and forth, and so were killed brutally. However, the other pieces would always be there to avenge those who died, maintaining the equal state in terms of material point.
However, position-wise, it was clear that Sheva had an advantage in this warfare. He managed to lure all the pawns on the black’s kingside forward, and his queen was positioned perfectly so that it stared directly at the black’s king from the sa diagonal. Not only that, his knight was also ready to jump, and the white pieces’ passive position made it hard for Maksims to create a counterplay.
*Author note: If you want to visualize the position better, check the comnt below.
What made it worse, though, was the ti advantage that Sheva had here. The boy still had about one hour and 10 minutes on the clock, yet his opponent only had 32 minutes left to play this ga. It was also still the 19th move of the ga, so they were far away from the 40th move to get the additional ti.
Even though the computer engine only gave -0.9 evaluation for Sheva, the boy felt like it should’ve been more.
’Oh, well, I don’t really need to do anything here.’ Sheva thought, starting to relax a little bit. ’Even though my advantage is not that much, it is clear that my opponent doesn’t really know how to navigate his way through this system. My strategy of luring him into the dark forest like this works perfectly, and now, I only need to be patient to reap all the fruits of it.’
Looking at the current situation, Sheva also started wandering around, looking at how his teammates went.However, at one glance, the boy frowned imdiately, not liking how the others fared in their respective ga.
’We are playing against Latvia, right?’ He wondered inwardly. ’I thought we were a slightly better team, but how could they play so passively like this? Does their confidence get hit that hard to the point that they don’t dare to take the initiative? Man, if this happened for the rest of the ga, the best scenario is we win by my point, and the worst one is soone slips because they are being too cautious here. They need to do sothing different, or things will go against us later.’
Indeed, it was quite frustrating to see his teammates playing the boring line that went straight to the endga phase, where a draw could happen anyti soon. In this situation, Sheva really missed Taher’s presence, as the IM was always brave enough with his approach in this kind of ga.
Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do, so the boy could only go back to his chair and focus on his own ga first. He could talk about it later, but for now, the best way to contribute to the team was by winning his ga first, and that was what he was about to do.
’Okay, let’s start putting more pressure...’
Right after this, Sheva started to speed up. If before, he made each move within one to two minutes, now, he has shortened his ti back to about half a minute, enough to make his opponent squirm nervously. He played like it was a blitz, yet sohow, the boy hadn’t made any mistakes since the beginning of the ga.
After waiting patiently, Maksims Golubovskis finally crumbled under the pressure, and almost every move that he made ended up as a mistake. Of course, Sheva would never let this chance slip away, as with the computer-level precision, the boy managed to infiltrate the opponent’s defense so swiftly, not giving the black pieces any room to escape.
Seeing the situation on the board, he nodded in satisfaction, inwardly thinking, "Yeah, it is over. I win this ga."
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