CHAPTER 246: WE DID IT!

Meanwhile, on the live streaming...

"Oh! Checkmate on the board! A checkmate is on the board!" Irfan jumped excitedly, holding the screen of his laptop so close to his face with the enthusiasm that startled everyone there. "Sheva is going to win! He is just six moves away from checkmating Kirill Alekseenko!"

Irfan didn’t care about the noises that he made here, wanting to let out all of his emotions since such a crucial game would be over with his boy winning it all. He was still too overwhelmed, as before this, beating a 2700-rated player was always an impossible dream for any Indonesian player to achieve. Hell, the closest they could think of was when Master Susanto fought in the World Blitz Championship, and even the best Indonesian player failed to deliver whenever he played against a super GM like this.

The win that Sheva was about to make here would be a historical victory for the Indonesian chess community, cementing a new era where the country would rise stronger than ever in the future.

Still, the game was not over yet, and although Bagas himself could see the #6 on the computer, showing that Sheva was only six moves away from winning the game, the boy felt the need to explain this situation.

"So, the only thing that Sheva needs to do is to chase the king, right?" He asked.

"Yes... Indeed, that is the only thing he needs to do right now..." Irfan tried to make his breath steady; his face was still flushed red after getting overwhelmed by the situation on the other side of the world. "Yeah, it doesn’t matter what Kirill Alekseenko wants to do. After Sheva sacrifices his rook, everything is over."

Bagas’s eyes lit up instantly when he heard that, having already imagined how many clips he could make if the rook sacrifice was on the board.

"Yes, all Sheva needs to do is to make sure that every move is a check." Irfan continued. "Rook to G6, and it doesn’t matter whether Kirill Alekseenko takes it with his knight or not, because right after that, Sheva’s queen will join the party. King F7, queen F2, black queen back to F4, white queen takes it, black king takes the white rook, and white queen gives another check, then after three more checks, it is done! Sheva is going to win!"

In Biel, Sheva himself could also see the sequence that would lead him to checkmate his opponent. It was an easy puzzle, and anyone who knew how to play chess would be able to get that if they had time to think about it, let alone a young, talented player like Sheva. Right now, the boy felt like his hand was trembling, and he couldn’t contain the nervousness at the win that was already in front of his eyes.

’Come on... Come on, just make a move... You are done already, just give up...’

Hell, the boy didn’t even notice that he had already risen from his seat. This act could be seen as a distracting move, yet no one cared about it since the boy was just one step away from winning. The Russian GM frowned deeply at the sight of the board, not knowing how in the hell did everything collapse and reach this point. In his mind, everything seemed to be pretty stable for the first twenty moves, yet in the end, here he was, not being able to do anything to avoid the L.

In the end, though, he saw that the position was unsavable, and the man could only sigh in resignation, knowing that he would be the background when the boy in front of him went viral for beating a 2700-rated player after this game was over. Still, shoutout to Kirill Alekseenko, as instead of resigning the game, the man still continued to play, letting Sheva get his checkmate to finish it all.

"Yes! Checkmate is on the board!" Irfan jumped, punching the air excitedly when he saw that the handshake was made. "Sheva wins the game! This means he gets his second GM norm, and he is currently at the top of the standings with 6.5 points! He has a huge chance to create history by winning this tournament!"

Sheva himself also smiled widely, his shoulder dropped a few centimeters as the tension finally ebbed away after he accepted the handshake. His emotions were pretty much complicated right now, as he himself didn’t really know what to think.

Happy? Excited? Numb? Tense? Relief?

The boy could feel all the feelings mixed into one, having a hard time getting them registered in his brain. The exhaustion didn’t help, as it made the boy freeze for a moment, and the other players who watched the game around him couldn’t help but feel worried about this.

"Is he okay?"

"Oh, don’t worry, he just gets overwhelmed. He would be okay soon."

"Indeed, anyone who has just created a crazy upset like this would feel numb."

"Man, he is really a crazy boy."

Fortunately, this state didn’t last that long, as his brain finally registered the voices around him, snapping him from his spiraling thought. Right as Sheva regained his consciousness, the boy turned around, just to find Kirill Alekseenko walking away already. It seemed that the man didn’t really want to talk about this game, knowing that it would be the talk of the community. Well, Sheva didn’t really mind it, as he knew that the Russian man would never want to serve as someone’s backdrop for more than necessary.

As he rose from his seat, though, the boy could see Anna from the corner of his eyes, and the smile that looked like it couldn’t get wider anymore suddenly widened once again, even hurting his own facial muscles.

There, Sheva could see the girl waving at him also with a genuine smile, and based on the exhausted expression that she had, it seemed that she had also just finished her game here. Both teenagers were exhausted after such a long day, but the moment their eyes met, they said the same sentence simultaneously.

"We did it!"