CHAPTER 33: VS GLORIA DIVATA, A VERY BORING GAME!

The meeting didn’t last that long, as those two legendary figures still had to meet the other Indonesian players who fought in this tournament. However, the impact that those two brought still lasted long enough to make Sheva daydream for a while, forgetting about almost everything here. Still, one thing caught his attention, though. He didn’t expect that Irfan would talk about him to those legends, and somehow, he felt flattered about this. He didn’t expect that Irfan would value his talent so much, even though he hadn’t produced anything yet.

"You need to stop smiling like that." Claudia suddenly spoke, snapping Sheva from his thought. "It is disgusting."

"You cannot blame me here! This is the first time I’ve met those two!" Sheva defended himself quickly. By the look of disgust that Claudia gave, it was clear that the little girl didn’t believe him. As for Anna, she was just watching their antics with amusement, not having any intention to stop the circus. Only Bagas was confused here, not having a clue about the identity of those two ’ordinary’ geezers earlier.

"Um, not trying to interrupt your party here, but could anyone here tell me who they are?" He asked. The fat boy didn’t expect that he would receive three simultaneous ’Are you kidding?’ gazes, and he couldn’t help but have a sweat drop at their sudden reaction.

"I cannot believe you." Claudia shook her head incredulously. "You have been hanging out with Master Irfan for the last couple of days, yet you don’t know any of them? I don’t know if you are just clueless or stupid."

"Ia! Don’t be so rude like that!" Anna frowned, chiding her little sister for her bluntness even though she agreed with the sentiment. "Sorry for that one." She apologized to Bagas immediately.

"Tch! Whatever." Claudia clicked her tongue, looking at both boys in disgust. "Anyway, the round is about to start. Don’t you dare lose this game, okay? I will wait for you for the next round." She said to Sheva with a tone full of provocation before finally storming off, leaving Anna apologizing for her little sister’s brattiness.

Both Sheva and Bagas just stared at each other for a moment, shrugging cluelessly about what had just happened before the sound of the gong echoed throughout the entire building, the sign that the next round was about to begin.

"Okay, I will go first. Wish me luck, okay?" Sheva offered his best friend a fist bump.

"Huh, luck?" Bagas snorted, punching Sheva’s fist lightly. "You don’t need it. You will be alright with your own ability. Don’t worry too much about anything else; just don’t play a boring game. I will wait for you with Master Irfan outside."

After that, they both separated from each other, with Sheva walking straight into the hall. He could see that in the front part of the hall, where the GM and IM section of the tournament was held, Anna was already there with her opponent, getting ready next to her. The girl also turned around, and their eyes met unconsciously before Sheva gave her a nod of encouragement. The girl did the same, and right after that, Sheva went straight to the table two for his game.

Her opponent, Gloria Divata, was a petite, tan-skinned girl who was always smiling even though there was no one else around her. The moment she saw him coming around, the girl still put on the same bright smile, offering a handshake before the game was about to start.

"Let’s have a good game." She said gently.

"Yeah, let’s have one." Irfan nodded, trying to make himself comfortable.

Right after that, the game finally started, and as the one with the white pieces, the girl made her first move immediately, pushing her E pawn two squares forward. Sheva didn’t even think about it, pushing his C pawn one square to counter her first move. After he decided to win it all in this tournament, the boy didn’t want to take the risk here, going for his strongest arsenal against the opponent whom he had barely played against. In this case, he went straight for the Caro-Kann defense, the opening that he was most comfortable with.

It was clear that the girl, Gloria, was not strange with this opening. After all, the Caro-Kann defense was one of the openings that was used by most of the low-rated players, so she should know about it, too. She struck back immediately, taking up the center space before exchanging the pawn there without even having a slight hesitation. She went straight for the exchange variation, which meant that there would be a lot of spaces for both players to maneuver in this game.

Sheva frowned for a moment, trying to think of a way to flip the table here. Out of all the variations of this opening, the exchange variation was probably his least favorite. It was always a little bit too dry and boring for his liking, and the possibility of the game ending in a draw was pretty high in this case. Still, Sheva knew that he had to take it slow here. Being reckless wouldn’t change anything, and it could even be his downfall.

’I need to be more patient, but if I could end this game as quickly as possible, it would save a lot of energy for the next round. I need to take a calculated risk once the opportunity is there.’

With that thought in mind, Sheva went with theory, developing all of his minor pieces before castling his king, putting it to a safe position. The opponent also tried to exchange queens here, probably wanting a quick draw after knowing that this would be a long day. It was probably the best approach here. However, Sheva didn’t agree with the exchange, staying away from the confrontation while also developing his pieces and waiting for his opponent to slip.

They both kept moving their pieces in their own area, not wanting to take the initiative to attack first. The game was very dry and boring, and if anyone saw this, they would think that the two players would agree to a draw sooner or later. However, Sheva didn’t think so. He kept waiting and waiting, and once he saw that there was a crack in his opponent’s defense, his eyes gleamed with delight.

’This is it! This is my fucking chance!’