CHAPTER 43: GETTING CORNERED BY CLAUDIA!

Back to Sheva—Claudia game...

’Damn, I underestimate her.’ Sheva cursed inwardly, trying his best not to show his discomfort here. ’Who would’ve thought that this little girl would improve this much just in two weeks? It seems that she is just as talented as her big sister.’ He stared at Claudia in a new light.

Yeah, unlike Anna, who was triumphing against her opponent, Sheva found himself stumbling into a brick wall here. He didn’t expect that Claudia would suddenly erect an impenetrable defense, parrying all of his attacks relentlessly. Hell, he even threw a bait here and there, trying to bluff her into making a mistake. However, she completely ignored everything, playing like a monk who wasn’t tempted by anything in the world.

To make it worse, somehow, Sheva overcommitted in a really bad way. He kept pushing forward eagerly, forgetting the defense on his own territory. As a result, even though he managed to stabilize the position, he was also forced to enter the positional battle, Claudia’s favorite warfare.

Now, they both had already exchanged most of their minor pieces and their queen, and what was left was one rook and two bishops for Claudia, while Sheva himself still had one rook, one light bishop, and one knight. As for the pawn, they both still had four remaining on the board, yet somehow, Claudia was in a better situation considering she managed to connect three of them while Sheva had a doubled-pawn and an isolated pawn on the corner line, an easy target to pick. Adding to the fact that Claudia’s king was more active in the middle of the board, something that was necessary in the endgame phase, Sheva could see that he was at a disadvantage right now.

*Author note: If you want to visualize the position better, check the comment below.

’Well played, Ia...’ Sheva nodded in approval. ’Well played, indeed.’

Claudia, who saw that, couldn’t help but show her smug smile. The cold sweat on her palm also dried up, hiding all the traces of nervousness she felt for the entire game. Even though she was prepared for a roller coaster game, stepping out of her comfort zone was not easy. She didn’t even dare to turn her eyes away from the board, forcing every single cell inside her brain to calculate all the possibilities that could happen on the court. The girl knew that Sheva was a ruthless executioner; one wrong move and she would lose her head.

Fortunately, after surviving for more than 25 moves, she felt like her breath was back to normal, especially after seeing the battlefield that Claudia was very familiar with. Yeah, to improve her positional skill, she also geared herself with so much endgame knowledge, and this kind of dry and boring endgame was one of his favorites. The fact that she also gained an advantage from the crazy roller coaster middle game was just a cherry on top, enough to make the girl excited.

’No, I cannot lower my guard here.’ She shook her head quickly, then glancing at the older boy in front of her with a wry eye. ’If anyone could pull a miracle and save himself from this kind of shitty position, it would be him. I have to calm down, or he would definitely punish me later.’

Yeah, even though she was being irrational here, the fear lingering inside Claudia’s heart from getting dominated pretty often in training matches by Sheva’s unorthodox playing style forced her to treat everything too cautiously. She still burned at least three to four minutes each move, widening the time difference between those two.

It was already the 34th move of the game, yet compared to Claudia who only had 6 minutes left on her clock, Sheva’s time was still at 24:22. Without the additional 30 minutes after 40th move like how this kind of tournament usually had, Claudia was on the verge of time scramble, and in that situation, she would be prone to make more mistakes. So, yeah, even though the computer evaluated Claudia’s position to be better, the game was still far from over. The psychological battle between those two and their fight against time would be the one that determined the end result here.

’This is my chance... I cannot mess this up...’ Claudia bit her lips nervously. ’Please, don’t make any strange move again!’ It was an irrational fear, of course. After all, in the endgame where everything was so delicate and both players needed to treat it with extra caution, Sheva wouldn’t be crazy enough to do that. It would only give her more advantage, something that he didn’t want right now. However, the psychological shadow left in Claudia’s heart was enough to make her overthink everything, and this gave Sheva a slight advantage in the off-the-board battle.

Tak!

Tak!

Tak!

Tension rose on the table as both players made their moves silently, still concentrating on the board. They didn’t even notice that a lot of players gathered around their table, all watching them struggling for their lives to navigate their own way in this complicated endgame. Meanwhile, Master Susanto and Irfan in the commentary booth also leaned forward, trying to get a better look at the board.

"Even though at first glance, Claudia is at an advantage here, the situation is far more complicated than the computer shows," Irfan said. "Her time is burning out faster, and if anyone noticed, Claudia has a bad habit of panicking in a time scramble situation. On the other hand, Sheva is a player who is very good with his intuition. His best strategy would be to put more pressure on her by moving faster and waiting for Claudia to crumble."

As if jinxing her, right after Irfan finished his assessment of the current situation, Claudia somehow made an inaccurate move. She panicked, trying to simplify the position by trading her dark bishop with Sheva’s knight. The problem was, her bishop was in such a good square and also protecting her passed pawn on the H file, and compared to Sheva’s knight, which hadn’t made any contribution in the last few moves, this was definitely an unwise move by Claudia.

"Yeah, she should’ve never done that." Master Susanto shook his head, showing his disapproval with a frown. "The advantage is still on her side, but this will also complicate the game. Now, she needs to be more careful, or the same mistake would happen again."

It seemed that Claudia also noticed her little slip. Still, her passed pawn on the H file was quite strong, so she wasn’t that worried about it. Hell, the girl even started marching it boldly, eager to promote the pawn into the queen. Sheva himself also made some slight adjustments to improve his position while also getting ready for the worst outcome here. However, it seemed that Claudia was too impatient here, and she made a fatal mistake again, enough to make both masters in the commentary booth jump immediately.

"No! Claudia, not that move!"

*Author note: For the current position, check the comment below.