CHAPTER 224: THE END OF THE THIRD ROUND

Sheva and Anna didn’t really know that their sister had already been killed on the battlefield. Well, even if they knew, no one would blame Medina at all, since they themselves were not optimistic about her chance against Yu Yangyi. Still, they hadn’t received the news yet, as both teenagers were still busy fighting for their lives.

On Sheva’s board, the boy was basically shaking in excitement right now, noticing that Aryan Chopra had just made a big blunder that could make his opponent win the entire game. The man seemed to be worried over Sheva’s checkmate trap, so he sent back one of his knights to protect the pawn on the G2 square, together with the other knight. However, it was a big mistake, as Aryan Chopra basically allowed Sheva’s knight to jump straight into his territory, putting his own head directly into the guillotine.

*Author note: If you want to visualize the position better, check the comment below.

’Hmm... I should go with Knight E2, right? He would definitely take my rook. That is his only choice if he wants to stop my other knight from jumping to the G3 square. My checkmate threat is too strong, so he has to sacrifice his queen next. Whatever happens after this sequence is over, at least, my advantage will be big enough for me to win this game. Yes, I can do it! Let’s fucking do it!’

Sheva clenched his fist tightly, somehow feeling his hand trembling over the position he had right now. The evaluation bar also showed -3.2 for Sheva’s advantage, the testament of how good his current position was. Even Aryan Chopra could also be seen sweating, as the man himself realized that he was at a disadvantage right now.

True enough, in the next few moves, Sheva pulled the line that he had already calculated earlier, and in the end, Aryan Chopra had to sacrifice his own queen to escape from Sheva’s checkmate, which also gave the boy a huge advantage in the game.

After the chaotic storm was over, Sheva ended up with a queen, a rook, a knight, a dark bishop, and four pawns on his side, while Aryan Chopra still had two full rooks, two knights, a dark bishop, and five pawns on the white side. Even though material-wise, the game was equal, the fact that Sheva had a queen on his side could be a psychological advantage here, as the presence of the strongest piece on the board was enough to ease the player’s heart.

*Author note: If you want to visualize the position better, check the comment below.

Seeing this situation, Sheva didn’t hesitate even for a second, aiming to exchange more pieces as quickly as possible. He attacked Aryan’s knight with his bishop, then also cornered the man’s king on the edge of the board to isolate that piece from the living plane. Not stopping just for that, the boy also managed to infiltrate Aryan Chopra’s defensive line, and in the end, the man had to exchange one of his rooks for Sheva’s knight if he wanted to survive.

Sheva really pulled a masterclass game here, attacking his opponent from all sides of the board without giving Aryan Chopra any chance to breathe.

The game went for quite a while, with the Indian GM trying to pull off a miracle by moving his pieces back and forth. However, the more he made a move, the more Aryan Chopra felt like he was one step closer to the death door, and that was definitely the truth. With only a rook, a bishop, and a knight fighting against Sheva’s rook and queen, he couldn’t do anything to protect all of his pieces.

Unfortunately, as his pawns fell one by one on Sheva’s hand, Aryan Chopra finally gave up resisting, knowing that his chance to save the game was gone already. In the end, he offered a handshake, admitting his defeat to Sheva.

"Good game." The man smiled, not forgetting to praise the youngster.

"Thank you." Sheva’s smile spread widely as fireworks exploded inside his heart. Still, he contained his reaction here, not wanting to go crazy and offend Aryan Chopra. In the end, he rose from his chair and said, "I have to go first. Thank you for the game, Master Chopra." Right after that, the boy walked away, going straight in Anna’s direction.

Unlike Sheva’s or Medina’s game, which was full of twists and turns, Anna went for a conservative approach in her game, playing the solid French Defense with the aim of getting a quick draw against Iniyan Pa. She knew that luck played a bigger role in her win against Eduardo Iturrizaga yesterday, and that was not something that she could repeat so easily. In the end, she went for this approach in the hope that she could maintain her momentum, and once the girl played with the white piece in the next round, she could go all out and try to win the game again.

This was a reasonable strategy, especially since she also had to consider her physical situation.

The game itself went pretty ordinary. Not a lot of action happened, as, besides a couple of exchanges that didn’t really move the evaluation bar, both players were busy staying in their own territory, not wanting to take the initiative to attack. It seemed that Iniyan Pa also didn’t want to waste his energy on today’s game, and even though they were still dilly-dallying on the board, both players had agreed silently on a draw result.

In the end, they both decided to finish the game with the threefold repetition, moving their respective rook back and forth aimlessly. After playing for about one hour, the two players finally reached an agreement for a draw, and with them both shaking hands, Anna officially got half a point from this game.

She was pretty satisfied with the result, as it was quite rare for a grandmaster to be kind enough to give her a draw result. Even though her position would go down from the top of the standing, the girl didn’t really mind about it, knowing that something like this would happen sooner or later. However, she could feel her jaw dropping when she noticed the final result of Sheva’s game.

"He wins his game again?!"