Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 551: Claudia’s Chaotic Game!
’Tch! It seems Brother Nay really learns something under Sheva’s wings.’ Claudia clicked her tongue in annoyance.
She was currently strolling in, taking a peek at the games around. Well, she didn’t do it aimlessly. In fact, her target was the same from the start; she wanted to see how the game on board 1 went.
Oh, no, she didn’t want to see how Sheva was going. After all, the girl had the absolute trust that Sheva would come out as the absolute winner in this tournament. No, she was just curious about how the best player in the country for her generation would fare against the best ever chess player that this country had ever produced.
Yeah, even though her rating was the highest among any of her peers, the girl still acknowledged—even though she loathed it—that she wasn’t the best in her generation. No, her rating was just the result of opportunities falling into her lap, and if she was asked to play against Nayaka, the girl would hesitate to say whether she could win the game or not.
That still didn’t count the fact that the boy learned under Sheva’s wings, and even Claudia could see how far Nayaka progressed in just a couple of months. Give him the same opportunities that she had last year, Claudia was so sure that the boy would reach her rating quickly.
And true to her expectation, she watched how the game unfolded, and even though in the end, Nayaka still lost, the girl could see the fight he put on until the end. It was admirable, and she herself didn’t think she could do the same if she were in his shoes. That was what annoyed her more here.
’Tch! It is unfortunate that his first opponent is Sheva, or he would be able to do better here.’ Claudia shook her head in pity. ’Anyway, I need to go back to my own table. It wouldn’t be funny if I talked a lot of shits to Brother Nay and I myself failed to win my game.’
She walked back to her respective table, where her opponent was currently thinking hard to find the correct move. Right now, she was facing a veteran WGM from Vietnam, Le Thanh Tu, and Claudia was so proud of herself for the initiative she took at the beginning of the game.
If in the past, she would always seek stability by going for a long and tiring positional warfare, this time, fighting with the Queen’s Gambit Decline, Claudia managed to shift almost all of her pieces to the kingside, ready to invade the enemy’s territory and suffocate the white king to death.
It wasn’t all sunshine, though. The girl could also notice some of the mistakes she made after a while, and her nervousness whenever she was about to take a risk was something she fought so hard inside. However, the lesson she had with Sheva in the last couple of months still stuck inside her head, battling against her anxiety and desire to turn back into her usual cocoon playing style.
Hell, her heart was pounding so fast when she marched all three pawns on the kingside forward, somehow feeling like she made a mistake in the process. It seemed that the gut feeling she honed for so many years seeking stability kicked in, as indeed, she was in a really bad position. The evaluation bar even showed +1.3, giving the advantage to her opponent.
However, in a low-level competition like this, the advantage given by the engine often didn’t last long. After all, in this level, players’ composure sometimes couldn’t be maintained until the end of the game. This was also what happened in this game.
Le Thanh Tu couldn’t see the advantage she had over the board. If anything, she was too focused on her own position, somehow thinking so hard to get out of the pressure on her kingside.
It was unnecessary, since if she looked carefully, the woman would notice that everything on her side was defended quite tightly, with no leak could be found anywhere else. However, her worry took over, and she decided to start exchanging pieces, starting with her rook, which basically threw away all the advantage she had.
The advantage for the white piece went and left so quickly under the radar that both players didn’t really notice that they missed such a major action on the board. However, the second time something happened, there was no way it would slip under their grasp so easily.
’Wait a second!’ Claudia frowned, pausing to look at the board carefully. ’I swear, I have something good here, but what is it?’ Her eyes scanned all the pieces on the board one by one, with her mind running so quickly to calculate every possible line that she could commit.
Then, after a moment, something clicked inside her head. ’Yes! I can use my bishop to infiltrate!’ Her hand was shaking in excitement. ’My queen might be blocked by her pawn, but the bishop’s mobility is still there! I can use it to put more pressure on the pawn at the G2 square! Also, I can plant my other knight deep into her territory! With two of them anchoring each other, they are not going to be taken away forever!’
In truth, the line she thought was full of holes, and it even gave away the attack she built painstakingly. However, Claudia was so confident with her calculation, and her opponent also felt like the attack was too dangerous to be left alone.
Sometimes, this was what mattered the most in chess. Not the evaluation from the computer engine, but what the two players who fought on the table believed.
In the end, even though Claudia’s attacking technique was messy, she managed to plant two knights and a pawn straight into the white’s territory. Not only that, her queen was sneaking from afar, and coupled with the rook that was ready to support, things looked so grim for white.
Le Thanh Tu tried her best to survive, yet the more she made a move, the more suffocated her king was, and in the end, when even she herself could see that she was about to be checkmated, the woman sighed in resignation.
She offered a handshake, handing Claudia the first win of the tournament.
-Author’s note-
Hey, everyone! Thank you for supporting my story! I have written a new one with the hope of getting a contract for that story as well, the title is ’The Rise of the Iron Wall!’. It is a football story, so if you like, please give your support by adding it to your collection and giving your power stone to that story! Thanks!
