Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 574: Another Convincing Win!

Master Susanto himself didn’t have a great time right now. Well... That was a common theme for anyone who played against Sheva. After all, with the boy’s craziness, it was hard to get used to, let alone deal with the entire thing.

Still, even though Master Susanto had never shown or spoken about it, the man still wanted to take something out of this game. Not just for the sake of the tournament, of course, but he himself also wanted to establish his image in Sheva’s mind that he was still one of the best players in the country.

Yeah, the man knew that at this point, the country’s chess community would be in the hands of the boy in front of him. That meant, in any international team competition, such as the Asian Games, Asian Chess Competition, or even the Olympiad, Sheva would be the captain, and everything would have to go through him first in the future.

It wouldn’t have been a problem for Master Susanto last year, since he himself didn’t mind the captain position and was also confident that he would be chosen no matter what. After all, he was the best veteran in this country, and even with his rating dropped, his experience was needed in the international tournament.

However, after getting to know Sheva, he was no longer sure about it.

The boy’s mind always worked in a strange way, and Master Susanto couldn’t guarantee that Sheva would sideline him in the important tournament. After all, the youngsters nowadays also improved fast, from Taher, Arfan, to Nayaka and Duta, whom he accompanied to Uzbekistan two months ago.

Even though none of them were in his caliber yet, given more time and opportunity, they would be able to climb higher than ever in the future.

Compared to that, Master Susanto, who basically was a semi-retired player who only went to an international tournament once in every blue moon, would be at a disadvantage. That was why he had to give a huge impression here, letting the boy know that he hadn’t succumbed to a player who only relied on his past achievement, but could still fight hard even in the highest competition in the world.

Or... That was what he envisioned before the game began. But now, when he was already cornered by the boy, he found that he was so naïve here for thinking that he could still be a match for Sheva.

’Damn! What the hell did his mother give him for breakfast?! How could he be so stubborn like this? Should he start getting tired or something like that right now?!’ He gritted his teeth.

Well, not a wrong assumption, since yesterday, Sheva dropped instantly after the game was over. His stamina was also the weakness that everyone knew at this point, and that was why players often dragged the game against Sheva as long as possible, wanting to catch the boy off guard in the later stages.

However, Sheva himself came prepared for this game. It helped that the last round against Tin Jingyao went quite quickly, so he could still maintain his concentration longer for this game.

’Yes, that’s how you should react, Master Susanto," Sheva laughed gloatingly inside his heart, somehow enjoying the process of making himself the most annoying player possible on the board. ’Come on, struggle more! Don’t give up yet, this is going to be more painful!’

The boy felt like a villain right now, starting to narrate his evil master plan while also holding the main protagonist hostage. However, in chess, he was allowed to narrate himself like this, since he usually had a lot of free time due to the opponent thinking for too long.

If Master Susanto could hear his thought, the man would’ve been dumbfounded, not imagining the boy to have such a rich imagination. Unfortunately, he couldn’t do that, so the man had to suffer silently right now.

He tried to survive by maneuvering all of his pieces to get them closer to his king, ready to support it when Sheva’s pieces knocked on the door. Unfortunately, once Sheva started sacrificing his pieces, the man knew that it was over.

"Oh! What is going on here?! Sheva throws away his knight readily like that! He sacrifices the whole knight!"

"Wait, wait a second! That is a genius strategy! He baits Master Susanto’s king to get out of that shell, and in the next turn, he uses the rook as another bait to get into Master Susanto’s queen! He exchanges one knight and one rook for one queen and one pawn! He is up by two points of material!"

Bagas started to enter his crazy state, where he would shout so loudly to bring the energy into the game. If people didn’t know better, they would’ve thought that this was a boxing match, not a chess one.

Still, he wasn’t wrong here. Sheva’s plan was indeed devious. He forced Master Susanto to take those two pieces, and in return, he got the opponent’s queen. The exchange was far from being equal, and coupled with the fact that the black king was far outside of the safe zone, people could see that it only took a few more moves before Master Susanto resigned.

Of course, there was no way in hell that Master Susanto wouldn’t see this. In the end, after thinking for thirty more minutes, the man scowled, wanting to punch Sheva’s infuriating smile. He was a bit reluctant, but the man had a choice here. He offered a handshake, finally resigning from the game.

"You have to restrain that smirk a little bit, Shev, or you will be beaten sooner or later." He couldn’t help but complain.

"Eh, we are living in a civilized era here; there is no way someone dares to beat me like that." Sheva smiled smugly while also setting the board back into the original position. "Still, good game, Master Susanto. You really give me a trouble here." 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

If anything, this only made the man roll his eyes more. "No need to console me like that. I don’t believe a single word from you, you know?"

Sheva just rubbed the back of his head sheepishly while Master Susanto grumbled about the youngsters nowadays having no respect at all for the veterans. Still, there was a slight relief sparked inside, as he nodded at Sheva in satisfaction.

’It is good that he keeps winning like this.’ The man thought. ’If I cannot win the ticket to the World Cup, at least the prize has to fall in my countryman. Good job, Shev!’