CHAPTER 343: TOUGH MATCHUP EVERYWHERE!

The idea was simple here.

While Sheva’s king was still quite safe, on that side, he had a doubled pawn that was quite weak. Not only that, Johan-Sebastian Christiansen had all of his rooks staring from afar, and while it hadn’t happened yet, the attack would arrive soon. So, rather than sitting helplessly on the back, it would be better for the king to move his ass quickly, evacuating himself from the danger.

This was also in line with the common strategy in the endgame phase. Once everything disappeared from the board, it was time for the king to get active, and that was when its subordinates needed it the most in the game.

This was the same strategy that David Gavrilescu, the Romanian GM who Sheva beat in round 3, used against him a couple of days ago. The strategy forced Sheva to reroute all of his pieces, which made the boy lose tempo a few times during the game. It was a decent defensive maneuver, and when combined with a better calculation, the players who pulled this off would be able to get anything they wanted on the board.

’Yes, this is definitely the best choice here...’ Sheva nodded in satisfaction.

Now, it was time for Johan-Sebastian Christiansen to spend more time thinking about the current situation. The man also recognized that the endgame was the most chaotic phase in chess, so even though he was confident about it, he still had to approach everything carefully. In fact, everyone probably was the same, no matter who their opponent was, except for Magnus Carlsen. His title as the best endgame player in the world was not for nothing, after all.

Seeing that Johan-Sebastian Christiansen stopped moving fast and started to slow down, Bagas had no choice but to shift the broadcast to the other game.

"Now, we can see the game on board 1... Oh, no... It seems that Master Novendra is already down by -0.8... It will be difficult for him to recover, especially since his opponent is fucking Magnus Carlsen..."

Even though the consensus here was that they gave up the game on board 1, it was still painful to see one of them lose. Also, the game was more brutal than Sheva’s game. Novendra wanted to drag the game into a long and boring line that the computer was so sure it would lead to a draw, but Magnus himself was already prepared for this.

Based on how fast he moved, this was definitely not the first rodeo for Magnus Carlsen. It was clear that Novendra was not the first one to think about this strategy. However, the problem was that Novendra himself was not an elite player, so remembering all the computer lines was a bit too much for him. In addition, Magnus’s presence itself was quite strong, enough to shake his confidence. This pressure was enough to drag Novendra’s accuracy down, and in return, gave the opponent all the advantage on the board.

What made it worse, though, was that Magnus Carlsen himself didn’t spend too much time in this game. If Johan-Sebastian Christiansen made the first 14 moves in 5 minutes, Magnus did the same just in 2 minutes. Hell, with the 30-second increment in each move, the man ended up in surplus here, having 94 minutes left on the clock when initially, it was just 90 minutes.

Loli692: Oh, God... This is so painful to watch...

Ribpo12: Man, I love Magnus, but I cannot watch him beating Novendra like that...

Korona: Just end his suffering, man... Don’t be too cruel...

Yeah, even though Novendra had been under so much scrutiny in the last couple of days, this time, no one blamed his performance at all. If anything, they all cheered for him, wanting to see how the second-best GM in Indonesia would fare against the best player in the world. Even though it would end up in defeat, they still wanted to see a strong attitude here, and Novendra intended to show that for the rest of the game.

"Yeah, let’s just... Switch to the women’s team and the matchup against Georgia on the other side of the venue..." Bagas finally said with a reluctant tone.

The boy was not a sadist. He didn’t find any pleasure in watching a top player like Magnus Carlsen beating an opponent that was far below him, especially if the opponent was his comrade. No, rather than staying there, he would rather switch to the game in the women’s section, where the ladies were trying to fight for their way through the top 3 of the standings.

"It seems that we also have a tough matchup on the ladies’ side." Sarah frowned, not liking what she saw there. "All four of them are in a difficult situation, where a breakthrough is close to happening. They still have to be careful about how to approach this game, as one mistake will be enough to make them lose everything. However, their time management is a little bit worse here. All four of them are already down on the clock, with Claudia being the worst here, being down for almost 30 minutes compared to her opponent."

"The matchup itself is not easy." Medina frowned, leaning her body back against the chair. "Georgia is a country with a rich history in the women’s section, leading the development of women’s chess since the middle of the 1900s. This led to a strong system that will always produce a top women’s player in the world, such as Nana Dzagnidze, who plays against Sister Irene on board 1 right now, Lela Javakishvili, and any other players who are on their team."

This short history lesson gave everyone an insight into how difficult the matchup today was. Even Laysa, who always played aggressively, was suppressing her urge to march forward recklessly right now. She knew that her opponent was strong enough to see through the cheap bait she threw, so it was better to engage in the attrition war first.

The situation in all the games entered a stalemate state, and the broadcast also had quite a difficulty in choosing which game they should follow here. None of them had a strong start, so it was difficult to keep the audience interested. Fortunately, Bagas and the others didn’t have to wait for too long here, as on board 4 of the men’s team, Sheva never failed to deliver there.

Something big happened there, pushing down the evaluation bar for the black’s favor.