CHAPTER 342: SHEVA VS JOHAN-SEBASTIAN CHRISTIANSEN!

"Okay, let’s lock in!" Sheva huffed, trying to throw away all the pressure with one deep breath. "System, give me his stats, please!"

[DING! The scan is successful!]

[Name: Johan-Sebastian Christiansen]

Attacking 83

Defense 86

Calculation 84

Strategy 82

Intuition 83

Time management 82

’A solid grandmaster with no obvious weakness in his style, huh?’ He muttered to himself. ’Still, he hasn’t had a great form in this tournament. Besides losing against Francisco Sonis from Italy, he also lost his game yesterday against Toni Lazov from North Macedonia, an IM with an ELO rating of 2368. He would want to win this game and regain his confidence, so there are two possible approaches he could take. Either playing aggressively or dragging the game into the endgame, where he is at his most, and trying to outplay me.’

This was the result of the research he had done all night, giving Sheva confidence that he would be able to win the game. Well... That was what he tried to say. In fact, this was just an attempt to boost his morale, as the pressure from bragging that he would win the game was too great to handle.

Yeah, after saying it yesterday about how he would win and nullify the result on board 1, Sheva regretted his big mouth for that. His head got swollen so big after winning six consecutive games in a row, completely forgetting that the opponent is a GM. While he was confident that he could avoid defeat, winning the game was a completely different matter. If his opponent decided to go for a drawish line, Sheva wouldn’t be able to escape, no matter how hard he tried.

’Oh, well... Hopefully, he underestimates me and tries to play aggressively here.’

Unfortunately, that was wishful thinking. His record was too great to be ignored, so it was impossible at this point for him to be underestimated. Even if people looked down on his rating, they would still have to be wary of Sheva’s great form, as it could play a huge factor in this tournament.

True enough, just as he expected, Johan-Sebastian Christiansen seemed to have already learned his game. After allowing Sheva to go for the Queen’s Indian Defense, the man offered a quick trade in the center, which Sheva didn’t really have much reason to refuse. It seemed that Christiansen knew how much Sheva loved and thrived in a complicated and tactical position, so he tried to make everything as simple as possible.

First, the light bishop, then the knight, and in the end, the queen had finally fallen after fighting bravely on the front line of the battlefield. Somehow, Sheva allowed the game to develop into Christiansen’s favor, letting it go into the endgame phase as quickly as possible.

’Yeah, damn...’ Sheva frowned, finally starting to see the problem here. ’Fucking hell... All of the exchanges he offers are too reasonable, and I don’t have any reason to refuse them. If anything, my position will get worse if I refuse it, as all offers are made while he improves his own position. Still, I need to stabilize the game quickly before everything falls into his direction.’

After a quick opening phase where both players tried to blitzkrieg each other in one swoop, Sheva finally slowed down the tempo, starting to manage his time carefully. Even though playing fast was his trademark, the boy could still change his rhythm when it was necessary.

Right now, half of the major pieces for both sides have been cleared already, leaving a dark bishop, a knight, two rooks, and a bunch of pawns for the two players who were fighting. It was definitely hard to win in this kind of situation, especially since the game itself was still in the 15th move right now.

That was why Sheva didn’t want to rush things up. The game had already entered an endgame territory, so he had to use his time better now.

’Okay, first things first, the doubled-pawn on my G file is quite annoying, but it doesn’t affect my entire situation at all. I can just leave it there without worry, and I don’t think that my opponent sees that as an advantage here.’ Sheva mused, trying to assess his overall situation. ’Now, all I have to do is develop my knight, then connect both of my rooks, and let my bishop get into the game again. It should be easy, right?’

However, Sheva didn’t do that straight away. No, he paused for a moment, calculating every possible scenario inside his head patiently. It was quite normal to do so, but for those who knew him for his quick playing style, this was enough to give them anxiety.

"What is wrong with this position?" Sarah couldn’t help but ask. "Sheva has been thinking for 30 minutes without making a move. Is there anything complicated to consider here?"

"Hmm... How should I say this..." Medina pondered. Yeah, she was the one who got benched in today’s matchup for the women’s team after suffering from a defeat yesterday. "It is not like this exact position is complicated, but the whole situation is not something that is easy to navigate. This is the endgame phase, where even one square error is not acceptable. It is better to think carefully rather than make a hasty move here."

"Also, they still have a lot of time here, so don’t worry about it," Arfan added.

Since the game began, only thirty minutes had passed, and yet it had already entered a crucial stage here. Hell, Johan-Sebastian Christiansen still had 85 minutes on the clock! He only used 5 minutes to move since the beginning of the game! That meant this was the exact same line that he had prepared before, which gave Sheva a headache here.

’Yeah, I got outprepared here.’ Sheva muttered to himself. ’It seems that I jump exactly into the line that he has prepared before. That just shows that I need to be more careful in this game.’

However, as he thought about it, inside his system, the Endgame Master title that he got shone brightly in this situation, working perfectly to boost his concentration right now. The boy himself hadn’t noticed it yet, but after pondering for a while, an idea suddenly popped into his head.

’Yes! I can do what David Gavrilescu did against me a few days ago!’