Just like the usual, the beginning of the ga runs so quickly, with both players blitzing their way through the opening stage. Not wanting to deal with Sheva’s opening shenanigans, Aravindh decided to show his intention from the beginning by going for the Sicilian Defense. In return, not wanting to delve deeper into the theory, Sheva picked up the Alapin variation, going for a stable developnt.
Based on how fast they moved, it was clear that both players had already anticipated this, and the ga had already moved in the direction that they had prepared beforehand. Now, it all depended on how far their preparation went and who would get outprepped first in this ga.
"Well, I can tell you that Aravindh likes to play the Sicilian Defense as Black. He is quite apt in a lot of variations, so I cannot wait to see how he would handle this situation." On the dia booth, Sagar Shah explained with his trademark smile.
Yeah, after the successful broadcast for two consecutive days, Bagas decided to invite the man once again, and Sagar really had a legitimate excuse, considering the one whom Sheva faced at the table was also another Indian GM. Fortunately, Sagar agreed to the request, so here they were once again, reporting the ga live from Dubai.
"Well, my knowledge about chess is not as good as yours, Mister Sagar, but I can tell you that in Sicilian Defense, Sheva always picks up this variation, so Aravindh has to be careful if he doesn’t want to be surprised in this ga." Bagas smiled playfully.
"Oh, then, let’s see how it would go..."
While the two broadcasters were flirting with each other, both players were still moving quite fast. If anyone didn’t know better, they all would think that this was a blitz ga. Everything only started to slow down in the fifteenth move of the ga, but at that point, almost half of the pieces on the board were already cleared. So many exchanges had already happened on the board, leaving both players in an imdiate endga phase.
"This is rare." Bagas frowned. "Sheva usually doesn’t like this approach. He would rather go for a complicated tactical battle than jump into the final boat this soon. I wonder what is going on with him..." He pondered on the spot.
"Maybe, he still got drunk from your celebration yesterday?" Sagar offered a playful suggestion.
Bagas opened his mouth and was so ready to retort, but a second later, he stopped, finding this possibility to be quite high. While he didn’t believe that Sheva would be too imrsed with his achievent, the fact remained that yesterday, the boy had to go for so many video calls with the higher-ups, so Bagas himself didn’t really know about Sheva’s current situation right now.
Unfortunately, he and Sagar were completely on the wrong side this ti. It wasn’t that Sheva was still drunk with his achievent, but the boy indeed chose to fight in the endga battle this round. After all, with Aravindh’s 92 attacking stats, he didn’t want to fight in an offensive battle against that man.
Yeah, Sheva chose to retreat and go for a conservative route. Aravindh’s stats were enough to tell him that the young Indian man was quite apt in the chaotic battle, so while it was Sheva’s strength, he didn’t dare to go for it. As for the endga phase, though, while it was not Sheva’s favorite, at least he still had the Endga Master title, and it was his source of confidence.
’Okay, let’s do this!’ Sheva took a deep breath, activating the title.
The first to be exchanged was the queen. Then, it was the two rooks, and right after that, another knight and the light bishop had fallen from the battlefield. In the end, both players only had a knight, a dark bishop, and six pawns left on the board. It was a difficult endga to execute, but definitely still a winnable one.
"Now, everything is quite simple," Sagar explained. "Both bishops are going to be locked in a battle with each other, so they cannot hope for making a breakthrough from that side. They wouldn’t dare to overextend their pawns in this situation, so everything depends on their king’s advancent and their creativity in using the knight. This is the ti for their knights to shine, so let’s see who can utilize that versatile piece better."
Aravindh himself was quite taken aback right now. In this endga, where every mistake counted, a player should approach this carefully. However, what in the fucking hell did he witness? Sheva didn’t think even for half a minute before blitzing his way, kept pressuring him in ti. What made it more ridiculous was that Aravindh couldn’t even find a single mistake in Sheva’s move!
’What the hell?! Who the fuck am I playing right now? The fucking Nepo?!’ The young Indian man cursed inwardly.
Yeah, this quick and accurate playing style resembled Ian Nepomniachtchi a lot, and the Russian GM had already made his na resound throughout the chess world with this style for so many years. His best accomplishnt was earlier in June, when he won the Candidate Tournant by beating everyone black and blue while also utilizing this style to its maximum potential. This showed how dangerous the style was, as even top GMs found themselves in a difficult ti whenever they were playing against Nepo.
However, Sheva himself didn’t just copycat the Russian GM. No, he did this only for two reasons. The first one was that, indeed, he wanted to have a massive ti advantage in the later stage, and the second one was because he knew his title’s limitation. If the boy activated the ’Endga Master’ title for too long, it would be his brain that got fried first.
’That ans I need to win this ga quicker!’ Sheva clenched his fist in determination.
Unfortunately, no matter how quickly he played in this ga, the boy still had to wait until Aravindh made a move before he could respond, and it seed that the young Indian GM started to take his sweet ti right now. Starting to get bored, Sheva finally yawned before rising from his chair, trying to stretch his stiff legs while also looking for how the others fared.
’Now, let’s see who is brave enough to use my suggestion...’ Sheva grinned maniacally, wanting to see chaos more than ever.
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