CHAPTER 42: THE CHARM OF KING’S GAMBIT

The King’s Gambit was one of the strangest openings in the chess world. It gave away the protection for the king’s side pretty early, giving an opening that could be exploited by the opponent pretty easily in compensation for having an early development and an aggressive attack staring at the opponent’s king directly.

However, the price paid by the white player seemed to be too much for that little compensation. Even the computer agreed that this was a bad opening. Hell, right on the second move, the computer would give the evaluation -0.3, which meant it was considered an inaccuracy since the beginning of the game. That was why this opening had been left to dust for the last few decades.

Still, there were a few strange players who were stubborn enough to study this opening thoroughly, not even caring about the disadvantage that they would get by using the opening. They saw the charm of chess in that chaotic game, like a student falling in love with art at first sight. It was rare, but not extinct. And the two who were charmed by this opening were Sheva and Anna, two teenagers from Indonesia who were currently fighting for their probably biggest day of their careers.

For Sheva, at first, he didn’t think too much about it, just going with the flow. He got the knowledge of the King’s Gambit from the system, and honestly, at first, he didn’t even know that a nowadays player using this opening was a rarity. The more knowledge he got from the system, though, the more he realized that the kind of chaotic opening like this was really suitable for him.

It was like putting a blindfold on both players and forcing them to walk on a thin line to cross the cliff. They both had to navigate their way carefully, and a single mistake could send them to hell in a snap. In modern chess, where all the players are trained to move like a computer, getting dragged into this kind of roller coaster would make a lot of players flustered, and in the end, those who were more familiar with the land full of mines would be the ones who thrive in the game.

As for Anna, well, at first, she didn’t even bat her eyes at this opening. The girl knew about the King’s Gambit’s existence, but to study it carefully? That was a big no. Rather than diving deeper into a forgotten opening, she would rather use her free time to deepen her understanding of the openings in her repertoire. Or... So that was what she initially thought.

Everything about her thought for this opening changed pretty quickly after she saw Sheva playing this for the first time ever. It was during the training section before they went for the tournament, and somehow, the girl was attracted by the charm of the chaotic battlefield lying before her. It was no secret that she wasn’t the best positional player, and having to follow the best moves suggested by the computer always frustrated the girl, making her think that chess had no soul. However, somehow, the more she learned about this opening, the more Anna felt that chess should be like this.

In the end, Anna spent most of her free time for the last two weeks studying this opening, trying to add it to her repertoire. After waiting for a while, she finally had a chance to show off the result of her study, and to her excitement, Gerry Mandagi, her mortal nemesis, was caught off guard and fell for the simple trap that she had prepared from the beginning of the game.

’Yes, he bites it!’ Anna’s fist was trembling for a moment, knowing that Gerry had just played the line that she had studied for a while. ’This is my chance!’

The inaccuracy that Gerry made wasn’t that obvious. It just gave an advantage for Anna to develop her queen faster and forced him to have two pawns on the same C line, disabling the direct protection for when the boy wanted to castle the king’s side. However, the situation was still manageable for both sides.

Well, at least that was not for so long.

After the early action before, they both decided to hold back, minding their own business while also developing their pieces to get ready for the next wave of attack. Anna’s advantage was still there, yet Gerry still defended himself relentlessly, not giving her any chance to strike again. That was the case until both players exchanged their queens.

It seemed that the quick exchanges before had made Gerry eager to stabilize the game, so he decided to go for it again. This time, he exchanged his useless bishop on the h6 square and the isolated pawn on the F line for Anna’s strong dark bishop. However, the computer thought it was a blunder, as the evaluation bar spiked up instantly for Anna’s favor.

"Oh, that is really an unnecessary exchange by Gerry..." Master Susanto shook his head in disapproval. "While the F pawn is a lost cause, he should push back his dark bishop to protect the king, not exchange it. Now, his king is in an open space, and even though it could hide in the corner, the king’s activity for the endgame phase would be limited and delayed by Anna’s rook. Gerry makes a mistake here, and it could cost him the entire game..."

Of course, Anna, who had keen eyes for noticing such a tactical blunder, wouldn’t let this slide so easily. Her eyes lit up when she saw Gerry’s blunder, and without hesitation, she struck back, maneuvering her knight to get into the most strategic square.

Gerry also realized his mistake, and he tried to recover from it. At first, he tried to put one of his rooks in the middle of the board. It became quite a target for Anna’s knight, but at least, this would also distract her from his weak king. Unfortunately, when he was in a dire situation, the boy made a fatal blunder. Instead of putting his other rook on the G file to put pressure on Anna’s king, he slid it toward the F file, creating a battery with the first rook earlier.

Normally, this would be a good strategy, connecting both rooks so that they could attack and defend together. However, by doing so, he let his knight get caught in the most dangerous zone, and when Anna saw that, she killed that piece cold-bloodedly.

’Now, this game is definitely mine!’