Chapter 613: Nils Grandelius’s Conflicting Style
"Are you fucking... Joking me?!" Sheva blinked in disbelief; his phone screen was still on while he stared at it intently. "How could such a player... Show such a display against Arjun and Gukesh?! It shouldn’t be possible, for crying out loud!" He cried in confusion.
Bagas, who was currently editing a video on his laptop, was startled at his best friend’s sudden outburst, jumping immediately to Sheva’s bed to take a look. He only got a headache, though, as the boy saw that the screen was split into four parts, with each one of them showing a chessboard of different games.
"... Care to explain here?" He asked dryly.
"Just... No, this is a little bit confusing here. Just look." Sheva sighed, starting to show the particular board that he found confusing. "It is just a month ago that Nils Grandelius played in the European Individual Chess Championship, and look how he won some of his games there."
Bagas took a look, finding the game between Nils Grandelius and several prominent players from Europe that he himself had never heard about. The continent was too vast with so many GMs spread all over the place, so except for those who were regulars for the top tournament, the boy didn’t really know a lot of them here.
There were four games that Sheva was analyzing, and while Bagas was not his best friend, the experience he gathered as a host was enough to make him confident to analyze those as well. It wasn’t as impressive as Sheva, of course, but at least he still knew which move was good and which one was troublesome for his opponent.
In the end, though, he just nodded slightly, impressed with what he saw there. "Well, it is clear that he has a strong tactical execution, and one slip is enough for him to pursue his opponent till the end of the world. His nose is quite sharp in recognizing a mistake on the board, and his approach is always full of aggressiveness. Well, this is definitely an opponent that you like to meet, right? What is the problem here?" He asked curiously.
Sheva just stared at him as if he was stupid for failing to look at the problem here, before, in the end, a long sigh escaped while he answered, "Tell me, Gas, how do you think this man beat Arjun yesterday and forced a draw against Gukesh today? Is it with his aggressiveness?" He asked with a wry tone.
"Well, of course, no..." Something finally clicked inside Bagas’s brain as he realized what was going on here. "You mean to tell me..." This time, his jaws dropped at the implication behind Sheva’s words.
"Yup, he has a completely different style that he has prepared especially for this tournament, and it caught those two Indians off guard." Sheva nodded solemnly.
Yeah, in the last two rounds, Nils Grandelius got positive results from playing a gritty defensive style, forming a tight wall on his own territory while letting himself get punched so many times before striking back once the opponent was tired. It was completely the opposite of the man last month, where his game was full of tactics and creativity.
It showed either that the man wanted to change his style or that this was the style that he had been perfecting for a long time, and this tournament was a chance for him to unleash it. Nevertheless, none of the possibilities was a good sign for Sheva, as he was not ready to face this kind of opponent tomorrow.
"And it is just coincidental that he comes at me with a great momentum, playing as the homegrown talent that everyone supports! For God’s sake, my luck is terrible!" Sheva couldn’t help but moan here.
Bagas snickered silently as he watched his best friend’s antics. While he knew the situation was serious here, it was not often for him to see Sheva losing his coolness like this, and honestly, the sight was quite amusing.
Not that he could blame his best friend, of course. While the problem itself was not that big—at least, that was what Bagas thought—Sheva was so close to the day of the game against Nils Grandelius, thinking that he was playing against a defensive positional player, and now this revelation made everything inside his head crumble instantly.
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up, will you..." Sheva grumbled, his hand moved so fast to create a rude gesture that only made Bagas laugh harder.
This problem indeed gave Sheva a headache. After all, he really didn’t know what kind of style Nils Grandelius would pull tomorrow. Logically, he would stick with his gritty defensive one since it led him to two successful games in the last two days. However, based on how creative the man was in his approach, there was still a possibility that he would bring a surprise tomorrow.
"You think too much here." Bagas suddenly spoke again.
"... Sorry?" Sheva blinked in confusion.
"I said, you are overcomplicating things here," Bagas repeated his words. "I mean, does it really matter whether his style is the one you like or not? You will still prepare for them both, anyway, so why are you so stressed about it?"
... Sheva felt the corner of his mouth twitching when he heard that. While Bagas was not wrong... Well, there were a lot of wrong things in his words earlier. However, the most fatal one was assuming that this was not a big thing. After all, with Nils Grandelius’s new style, now he had to prepare more for tomorrow, and the uncertainty in that game would be bigger.
If there was one thing that a chess player hated, it should be this kind of uncertainty where he didn’t know what kind of sword his opponent would pull next.
Still, at least, it helped ease his chaotic mind right now. After a while, Sheva picked up his phone again, starting to review everything he knew about Nils Grandelius, while simultaneously making a plan for all the possible scenarios tomorrow.
’Yeah, at least Bagas is correct in one thing.’ Sheva muttered. ’It doesn’t matter whether he goes for one style or another; I have to prepare for everything. This is top-level chess; everything could happen here.’