Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 513: No! Chasing for the Win!

Time passed by, and without anyone noticing, the game had already entered its 60th move. The additional time was also given, and yet, it was already used by the two players thoroughly. By now, Sheva still had a time advantage with 12 minutes on the clock, while Jergus Pechac only had about 4 minutes to spend. However, it wasn’t enough for him to create something, as his opponent defended so stubbornly against Sheva’s every attack.

The situation on the board also looked quite grim. Both players had already exchanged most of their pieces, and while somehow, they both managed to get a queen for their respective side, that didn’t improve their position at all. Well... Sheva still had one last pawn standing compared to the black piece with only one king and one queen, so at least, position-wise, the advantage was still on his side.

With the endgame situation like this, getting a win should be considered a miracle. However, Sheva still fought hard for this miracle, especially since he noticed that his opponent’s time was about to enter a critical stage.

’I need to be faster from now on.’ He took a deep breath. ’As long as I could get the queen exchanged without giving up the protection of that pawn, the game will be mine!’

Sweat rolled unconsciously from his forehead, as right now, his concentration was fully on the board. The chill temperature of the winter wasn’t enough to cool down his brain, as it ran faster than anything else in the world. Sheva didn’t even notice that his board was already surrounded by the other players; everyone was curious about how he would end this game.

No, right now, his eyes were completely locked on the board as he tried his best to use the brain boosted by the ’Endgame Master’ title to find a breakthrough. So many variation lines flashed inside his head, and honestly, if only anyone could see them, they would be dumbfounded at how complicated Sheva’s brain was.

’First, I need to connect the pawn to my king. Then, check, check, and my queen will be close enough to the king. However, that will give him a chance to launch a barrage of checks against me. Wait, no! I don’t need to give the second check. What I need is to give my queen a room to defend the king under the opponent’s attack! Shit! I could also start running my pawn as well! I have so many choices, but which is the most correct one?’

In the end, in a split second of decision, Sheva finally made his move. He started pushing his pawn forward, letting it and the king get disconnected from the queen just so that they could go deeper into the enemy’s territory. This was a strategic move with a low risk, as the queen itself was still in the vicinity, so Sheva would still have his strongest piece protecting from afar.

"This is indeed what he has to do if he wants to win the game." Medina nodded in approval.

"It is still hard for him to force a slip, but at least, Sheva is trying to make a case right now." Irene nodded in agreement.

Neither woman even realized that they were sweating bullets right now, and they were feeling the tension even from a thousand miles away. For them, Sheva was their pride, and witnessing the boy thriving had been their source of joy in the last couple of months.

Then, after dilly-dallying for a while, the moment that everyone had been waiting for finally arrived. As Jergus Pechac’s time was under 2 minutes already, he suddenly made a hasty move. Instead of giving a continuous check, the man pushed his king to get closer to Sheva’s pawn. Right after that, the evaluation bar spiked up instantly, giving Sheva a +3.1 advantage.

"Oh! YES! THIS IS IT!" Bagas started jumping excitedly as he watched the evaluation bar’s movement. "SHEVA’S CHANCE HAS COME! IT TAKES 77 MOVES, BUT JERGUS PECHAC FINALLY BLUNDERS!"

Hilda99: Damn! Finally, what we are waiting for! Let’s fucking go!

Toony61: I still don’t know what the fuck is going on, but I know that Sheva is killing! Come on!

Froggies: This is it! Please, don’t miss it!

Not a lot of people understood what was going on here. This was understandable, since the nature of the endgame phase was always complicated. The blunder often lay in the move order rather than something obvious, like hanging a piece or something like that. That was why they had two experts accompanying them.

"The root of the blunder lies in the tempo," Medina explained solemnly. However, her trembling hands couldn’t be hidden from the camera, showing how excited the woman was. "By giving up the check, now Sheva has a chance to launch a counterattack. He doesn’t need to give a check forever, but as long as his queen can get in touch with the pawn, everything will be perfect."

"If I have to show you, it will be going like this..." Irene suddenly took control of the board on the screen, making some complicated moves that most people couldn’t even understand. "First, Sheva gives a check to E3, and the opponent has to move forward to B4. After that, move the queen diagonally to the B6 square for another check, and the purpose is to push back the king to the original C3 square. When that happens, Sheva could move his queen for another check to D4, and with that, he could start pushing his pawn in the next turn."

"Not only that, if Jergus Pechac starts to make another barrage of checks, Sheva could just move his king forward, and the further the king goes, the better it would be for him. It will only give the pawn a red carpet later, as the black’s queen will not be able to stop another promotion." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Sheva also noticed all of that. He started grabbing the second queen anxiously, spinning it in his hand as he tried to hide his excitement. This was the closest he was to the win since the game began, and right now, all he wanted to do was to continue killing everything in front of him.

’No, that cannot do!’ He shook his head quickly. ’I am not a rookie anymore. At times like this, I need to show better composure, or I will throw everything into the bin.’

With that thought in mind, he forced himself into a calm state, which, although far from perfect, was enough for him to continue pushing forward. Jergus Pechac also found the situation to be difficult to handle. In the end, after Sheva’s pawn was one square away from winning, the boy finally heard the sound that he had been waiting for.

[DING!]

[Mission complete! Congratulations, you beat the enhanced Jergus Pechac! Do you want to open your reward now?]

[Yes/No]