"It is so pitiful..." Irfan heaved a sigh, feeling his shoulder slumped a few inches down. "Claudia has done a very good job putting pressure on Sheva, and she has been treating everything with extra cautiousness, almost giving us a perfect ga. It is just one mistake. One impulsiveness. One mont of eagerness to end the ga quickly, that costs her the entire ga..."
"This is the cruelty of the endga phase..." Master Susanto also added with a solemn tone. "One tiny mistake, and everything she builds crumbles imdiately as if it is nothing. Even though the computer still evaluates that Claudia is slightly better, in a practical ga, this kind of position will end up in a draw."
Sheva himself also noticed this. He couldn’t help but heave a relieved sigh, feeling like he just got through the eye of a needle. By moving his light bishop to the e4 square, Sheva protected the promotion square that Claudia was just one step away from while also winning a tempo with the check. He pushed the girl’s king back to the seventh rank and blocked Claudia’s light bishop from controlling the promotion square, so as long as he didn’t move his bishop from that diagonal, the girl wouldn’t be able to move her pawn to the last square and get promoted, and the best result from this position would be a draw.
*Author note: For the current position, check the comnt below.
Of course, there was a slight pang of disappointnt surging inside his heart. After all, Sheva’s target was to sweep the entire tournant, and that also included Claudia. However, a draw wasn’t that bad either, especially considering how much pressure the girl put on him for the entire ga. Hell, it was a miracle that he managed to get away with half a point here, so he wouldn’t complain too much about not winning the ga.
As the next few moves unfolded, everyone could see clearly that both players had already given up on winning the ga. Besides Claudia’s passed pawn that sohow got stuck one square away from the promotion spot, there was no other piece they could move to gain an advantage against the opponent. Claudia’s connected three pawns also got stuck, as once one of them moved, it would give Sheva a chance to fix his doubled pawn imdiately. As for the bishop, well, of course, they both could exchange it, but that wouldn’t make any difference. In the end, after repeating the sa sequences three tis in a row, both players glanced at each other for a second before offering a handshake, agreeing to a draw.
"That’s it, folk." Irfan, in the comntary booth, also let out a deep sigh, feeling the tension ebb away from his shoulder. "After fighting for about three hours non-stop with so many ups and downs for both players, this roller coaster ga is finally over! The draw agreent has been set, and those two are still going to be the leaders of the tournant with 4.5 points! A fair result after such a long and exhausting day for them both!"
Hitamka_11: Not bad... It seems that the boy has sothing in him.
Hikaroo0: Bah! He is just lucky here. If only Claudia were more clinical in her endga, he would’ve lost the entire ga.
Hilda99: Can you cut him so slack here? He is an unrated player, and this is his first tournant! Having 4.5 points out of 5 gas is already crazy to consider!
Hakeem94: Yeah, it is a crazy achievent! I still rember my first on-the-board tournant, resulting in getting smacked with only 1.5 points out of 9 rounds. Man, that was so embarrassing.
Hilda99: Only those who don’t understand what it ans to play in this kind of tournant would mock him for this result.
Hakeem94: Yeah, their rating is probably only around 500, no need to give them the spotlight they don’t deserve at all.
Even though Bagas was a little bit disappointed after knowing that Sheva failed to win, all of those negative feelings were replaced by surprise and delight after reading the comnt on the chat box. Although he knew that Sheva’s achievent would silence the hater sooner or later, he didn’t expect that it would be this quick. Hell, so of them even got ready to fight in such a aningless debate in the chat box to defend Sheva. This was an unexpected yet definitely welcod surprise for the boy.
’Hilda99 and Hakeem94, huh? I will rember those two usernas...’ Bagas thought to himself.
anwhile, back in the hall, Sheva could be spotted heaving a sigh, feeling the exhaustion finally hit him after playing two gas in a day. However, he didn’t forget to shake hands with the little girl who was smiling smugly in front of him.
"Good ga." He praised. "Even though I don’t know why you are so smug right now. After all, you just wasted a chance to win the ga, right?"
Claudia froze on the spot after she got reminded of her failure to capitalize on the advantage earlier in the ga. "W—Well, it is not a big deal! I—I an, my initial target is to force a draw, you know?!" She tried to defend herself with a flustered face.
"Oh, yeah? Tell that to your rating, though. How many points will you lose after drawing against an unrated player like ?" The teasing smile on Sheva’s face grew wider when he saw the girl scowling at him.
"It is so unfair to have a strong player like you being unrated! You will make a lot of players cry because of losing too much rating, you know?!" She accused him heatedly. "Also, I have already earned 51 points for winning the first four gas! This result wouldn’t hurt my ELO that much, I am sure of it!"
Yeah, even though she had only won four gas, in a low-rated tournant like this, the rating’s movent was very volatile, and any result could either catapult a player into a higher spot or bury them back down to the earth. Unfortunately, in this case, losing against an unrated player was enough to make Claudia lose 18 points instantly.
They stayed in their seat for a while, chatting and bantering with each other about the ga. It was quite strange how their relationship developed, but honestly, they both didn’t mind it. This was far better compared to the awkwardness they felt around each other after their first ga ever.
However, it seed that their voice drew unnecessary attention here, as one of the officials ca to them and drove them away ’politely’ using the excuse that they were disturbing the other players who still hadn’t finished their ga yet. Sheva just shrugged nonchalantly, not resisting the order at all. He took a glance at Claudia for a second before asking, "So, shall we go to see how your sister fares against her opponent?"
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