Chapter 609: Sheva VS Vincent Keymer! (II)
While Sheva was still entangled in this fight, he didn’t notice that someone was observing the game from afar. That person was none other than Gukesh, as he came here to scout, probably his biggest competitor in this tournament.
Yeah, even though his friend, Arjun, was here, it pained him to say that Sheva was still the biggest threat here. At least, he had a lot of experience fighting against Arjun, what with them being the sparring partners so many times in the past. However, Sheva was a complete anomaly for the boy.
He could still remember their last meeting.
Honestly, though, if it were any normal opponent, Gukesh wouldn’t even bother to remember that. After all, the game itself wasn’t really that special, and at that time, Sheva’s rating was still quite low. What, around 2300 to 2400, right?
At that time, Sheva also had just learned the Dutch Defense, so everything around him as a black piece would revolve around that opening. Remembering that, Gukesh could tell that it was quite easy game for him, and it would usually be the one where he could forget about easily.
However, Sheva’s astronomical rise, coupled with the fact that the Indonesian boy had gone undefeated since their encounter, made Gukesh wary of him. The Indian prodigy was aware that he himself had been improving a lot in one year. However, Sheva’s improvement was completely on a different level.
If it were climbing a mountain, then Gukesh had just done one of the tallest in his country, but at the same time, Sheva had also done the same for Mount Everest, and that was with him having never climbed before. Ever.
That was why Sheva’s achievement was enough to make Gukesh so cautious before their fateful encounter two days later.
’At least, I need to know his current state.’ The Indian boy thought inwardly.’ I could do more research on the general trend that he would always go to, but his current state... I can only watch it here, so let’s observe more. Also, maybe calling Pragg later would be helpful, since he knows Sheva quite well, it seems.’
As for the possibility of Sheva losing this game... Well, Gukesh didn’t have a big hope for that.
Of course, that didn’t mean he looked down on Vincent. No, the boy knew what the German prodigy was capable of. However, besides the fact that he just beat Vincent yesterday, leaving the boy in a bad mood, Vincent’s playing style definitely clashed with Sheva, and honestly, Gukesh doubted that the former one would be able to top the Indonesian genius.
’If anything, if Vincent is in his best, the game would end up in a draw.’
Of course, he didn’t waste all of his time watching that game. Not only was it because Gukesh still had his own game to fight, but staying at one place for too long would only arouse the arbiter’s suspicion, something that he definitely didn’t need in his career.
Still, since his opponent was Nils Grandelius, probably the worst player here, no matter how much Gukesh told himself that he couldn’t underestimate the local hero, deep down, his consciousness still took everything easy, thinking that this was a sure-win game for him. That was why the boy still wandered freely even in the middle of his game.
"Oh, he is checking Sheva’s game again!" Bagas exclaimed when he saw Gukesh’s figure popping up on the screen for the fourth time in the last thirty minutes. "It seems he is scouting for any intelligence about Sheva from this game. What do you think, Master Irfan? Is there anything we should be worried about?"
In return, Irfan just snorted incredulously. "I tell you what, I don’t even know what Gukesh is trying to see here." He spoke with a little sneer. "I mean, all the intelligence he could gain on the spot is basically the same one he could search outside of the venue. This attitude just shows that Gukesh is being arrogant here, looking down on Nils Grandelius even though he knows that the man has just beaten his comrade, Arjun Erigaisi, yesterday."
If there was one thing that Irfan loathed about young players, it was this kind of attitude. They tended to be arrogant, even though they were not aware of that, and started to look down on people just because they believed that they could win.
Sheva had also done the same so many times in the past, and whenever the boy did so, Irfan would call him immediately and scold him mercilessly.
Irfan just didn’t want this arrogance to be his boy’s downfall, knowing full well that so many players failed to reach their potential high just because they were eaten alive by their own arrogance.
Bagas just nodded silently, deciding not to pursue this matter. Even though he didn’t know why Irfan suddenly became like this, the boy could still notice when the man was not in a good mood, so it was better to distract his attention with something else.
"Well, going back to the game, it seems Vincent Keymer is still thinking so hard to navigate his awkward rook. He has been burning almost 10 minutes just for this, and yet, it seems he doesn’t want to pull back that rook in the middle of the board. What do you think about it, Master Irfan?"
The man pondered for a second before answering, "Well, the rook itself is only there to threaten Sheva’s bishop, forcing either the bishop to back down or Sheva’s H pawn to rush forward. Now that the task has been done, I don’t think there is a good reason to stay there and become a big target. Soon, Vincent Keymer will bring it back, but that still wouldn’t change the direction of the game."
"Yeah, there is no opening at all that could be exploited." Bagas nodded, starting to show some lines that the computer recommended.
"In the end, everything is still interlocking with each other, with no one daring to create an opening for the enemy to strike. If any one of them wants to win, they have to find the right key to open the lock, and they would be able to step into their enemy’s territory soon."