It had been a few days since the first tournament he had ever participated in, and Sheva found himself back at the food stall owned by Bagas's father once again as he was back at work. Even though Irfan had already emphasized that he was free to go to the club at any time, Sheva still needed money to help his mother, so he didn't dare to stay relaxed for too long.
However, unlike before, when Sheva didn't have any motivation toward chess, this time, the boy didn't waste his time anymore. No, instead of wasting his free time scrolling through his phone watching the useless short content, he spent it reading the book he borrowed from Irfan's house. It was a book about opening compilation in chess for beginners.
Yeah, after the last tournament, he found the glaring weakness in his game was his lack of opening repertoire. The game against Anna made him realize that even though he wouldn't use most of the opening knowledge inside his head, it was still important to know about it once the opponent decided to pull a surprise on him. On the other hand, knowing a lot of different and weird opening moves was also important if Sheva wanted to pull a surprise attack. So, yeah, he didn't hesitate to borrow this one when Irfan offered it.
Not only that, but Sheva also started learning how to analyze his game with the help of a computer. He registered an account on the Lichess.com platform, replicating whatever game he played to know what kind of mistakes he made, what alternative moves that he had, when his opponent made a mistake, and how he could not notice it, et cetera. Even though the platform was probably the least popular one among the chess players, its analyzing ability was not that far off compared to the most popular one. Also, the most important thing was that it was free to enjoy any content on this platform, so Sheva didn't even hesitate to put his name there.
Hell, he even analyzed his game against Anna in the last tournament. Even though it was hard to replicate it, with the help of the footage recorded by Bagas, Sheva managed to reproduce the game once again so that the computer could analyze it for him. As a result, Sheva is cringing so much here, realizing how many inaccuracies, mistakes, and blunders he made during that game.
In the opening stage, he was completely outclassed there. Anna really showed her resourcefulness by picking up the variation of English opening that not a lot of people would use, probably trying to anticipate Sheva knowing about the general one. Well, the precaution was proven to be useless, as Sheva himself didn't really know a shit about this opening.
In the middle stage, though, he triumphed, managing to neutralize the disadvantage he gained from his awful opening game and even pushing back the girl for a few moments. Still, after having a computer analyze the game for him, Sheva realized how many chances he let slide for his tunnel vision, especially when the computer itself also provided the best move in each turn.
However, it was his endgame that made Sheva cringe a lot. Oh, he knew that it was a time scramble situation, and this couldn't be blamed on his chess ability. However, the number of mistakes and blunders that he made during that period was terrible, and the fork of bishop and knight by Anna's pawn was just the cherry on top.
So, yeah, besides the opening repertoire, Sheva also tried to improve his endgame skill and intuition during the time scramble. Unfortunately, those were not something that could be improved in one night, even with the system inside his head.
'Speaking of my system, though…' Sheva muttered to himself.
[Silver level Evans Gambit]
[Silver level French Defense]
[Silver level Sicilian Defense—Closed Variation]
Sheva couldn't help but feel disappointed at the reward he got from the sign-in for the last couple of days. Those all were just another pack of opening knowledge, and while he might need to broaden his opening repertoire, Sheva felt that he could learn it by himself. No, instead of that, he wanted to get another practical skill, like intuition that he got on his third sign-in day. Unfortunately, that kind of skill was some sort of a rare drop item, and it would be hard to gain it randomly for the second time in a row.
'Oh, well, whatever. Those are still freely available knowledge, nevertheless. I need to be more grateful and complain less about what I got from the system.' Sheva thought as he shook his head, trying to adjust his mentality. "Anyway, what are you doing here, Gas?" He asked his best friend, who sat straight behind him with eyes locked on the laptop on the table.
Yeah, Sheva was not alone here. If anything, he was the one who came late, as once the boy entered the food stall, he saw Bagas was already there, busy with his laptop. At first, Sheva just ignored him, knowing that his best friend needed to concentrate on whatever he was doing. However, he also got curious here, wanting to know what the fat boy was doing.
"Oh, me?" Bagas blinked for a moment, not even glancing over the bright screen in front of him. "I am still editing the video of you against that little girl. What is her name again? Claudia, right?"
Sheva felt the corner of his mouth twitching, imagining how Claudia would go berserk if she knew that Bagas didn't even remember her name. Nevertheless, he still nodded before leaning forward. "So, what kind of editing do you do here? Is there even anyone interested in watching the game, though?" He asked, curious.
"Oh, well, I just try to replicate the game and give the computer evaluation bar, putting it next to the record and adjusting it so that the board will match the record," Bagas explained shortly, which was enough to give Sheva a headache, as the boy didn't really know what nonsense Bagas was talking about. "As for the viewer, you will be surprised to know that a lot of people are interested in your game. Wait and see, you will be popular soon." He grinned, not a hint of mockery or prank could be seen in his eyes.
Sheva was getting more curious when he heard that, trying to see closely what his best friend was doing. Unfortunately, he couldn't understand a shit about me, so the boy decided to step back and walk away from the discussion, feeling like it was best for him to let Bagas do his job alone.
As he did so, though, his phone suddenly buzzed, and once Sheva saw the new message there, his eyes popped wide in shock.
Anna Marisa: Are you ready for your first-ever official tournament?