Sheva frowned, feeling like this position was difficult. Every one of his pieces was entangled with the others, getting locked down by his opponent. The last couple of moves were wasted by him just shuffling the pieces back and forth without any hope of a breakthrough. Meanwhile, he could also feel with his intuition that while his opponent hadn't made any major movement yet, her position kept improving in every move, getting ready to shoot him from the dark.
Of course, he could also force a pawn break or initiate a trade to break the deadlock. However, doing that would open up the white diagonal where Claudia's bishop had been sniping from the back since the beginning of the game. It would also give Claudia's knight a space to jump, activating the rook on the back while also giving the white queen more spaces to move. In other words, taking the initiative here would be a suicidal move, giving away all the advantage to his opponent.
'Is this real? Is the level of this club really high? Even a little girl like her is so good at a positional battle like this! She is even more troublesome than Master Irfan!' Sheva cursed, falling into doubt. Little did he know, though, that despite being the youngest in the room, Claudia was one of the best players in this club.
As Claudia's position was getting better by every play, Sheva knew that he couldn't let his opponent roam freely like that. So, he decided to take a risk, forcing his F pawn to move one square forward to challenge the center and also offered a trade. While he could see that this would weaken his king's side, in his opinion, this was a calculated risk that he had to take to stop the girl's momentum.
However, he didn't notice that Irfan, who watched the game next to Bagas on the sideline, shook his head a little, thinking that Sheva was too hasty to make a pawn break. 'He is too impatient here, forcing a pawn break when he should've just improved his own position. Now, Claudia would never let this go and would punish him immediately.'
Bagas just scratched his hair awkwardly, not understanding what Irfan said. However, even though his chess level was too low, being friends with Sheva for so many years let him know what his best friend was thinking. He had seen the game since the beginning, and even after more than five minutes had passed, there was no big movement from either side. Even though usually, Sheva was a calm boy, the boy was just like any other teenager, having hot blood in his veins. There was no way he would be comfortable facing the lack of action on the chessboard in front of him.
'Well, maybe, from the look of an experienced adult like Master Irfan, this is all due to the lack of experience. But I am sure that Sheva has a plan here.' Bagas clenched his fist unconsciously. 'Come on, Shev! Prove to Master Irfan that you can do this! Come on!'
Of course, Sheva who was so focused on the chessboard in front of him didn't notice the interaction on the sideline. No, he kept calculating every possible move on the chessboard, sweat starting to fall from his forehead.
'Her pieces are starting to get active on my side, and her queen only needs to take two more steps to arrive at my king's side. Once that happened, I am sure that the guillotine would be hanging above my neck. I need to prevent it before the worst-case scenario happens. '
Even though for a moment, Sheva's position was at a disadvantage, he managed to defend it well from the opponent's quiet attack. More than that, since he had already made a pawn break a moment ago, it also led into an open game that he was familiar with, so even with his disadvantage, Sheva was still confident that he could survive.
It was Claudia, though, who started to feel the pressure here. She had already noticed when Sheva made a slight inaccuracy move during his pawn break a moment ago, yet right now, all the advantages that seemed to come to her were gone already. She didn't know how, but now, she had two pawns on the same line and one isolated pawn on the edge of the board. After pursuing Sheva's inaccuracy before, she was up to one pawn, yet her pawn structure was horrible.
'Who is he?' Claudia thought to herself, starting to notice Sheva's presence as a real person, not just an NPC whom she needed to beat. 'His defensive resilience is incredible! And he even starts to prepare his counterattack silently! If I am not careful, he will have my neck in a blink! He is probably at the same level as Big Sis! It seems that Master Irfan just recruited an incredible player here!''
She didn't know that Sheva also thought the same as her right now. Both players started to acknowledge each other's ability. However, both players were not willing to lose. They kept probing, trying their best to improve their position. Irfan who was confident in Claudia's ability to capitalize on the advantage a moment ago also frowned, feeling like the position was far more complicated than what he initially thought.
Both sides kept fighting for a while, until at one point, Sheva started to give continuous checks to Claudia's king with his king. Of course, the girl didn't give him any good way to continue the attack. She kept shifting both her rooks to erect an invincible wall. For a moment, she also sighed inwardly, feeling satisfied with a draw. The girl realized that the newcomer was strong here, and without any data about him, it was hard for her to take advantage in a rapid match.
However, Sheva didn't think so. Instead of agreeing with the unasked draw offer, he suddenly made a big move here. He stopped checking the opponent's king, and instead of doing so, he slid his queen to take her rook, a full sacrifice of her queen!
TAK!
'Oh, shit!' Both Irfan and Claudia widened their eyes at this unexpected move. 'What is he trying to do?! Is he not satisfied with a draw?!'
Sheva himself frowned, pondering for a moment. 'A draw in the first game might not be that bad, but there is no way I would give up a win that easily! Come on, girl! Let's continue this fight until one of us is down first!'