Tak!
Tak!
Tak!
Tak!
It was pretty early in Irfan's house, yet there were already two people sitting on the terrace. Those were Sheva and Anna, two people who won the internal tournament of the 'Black Rook' club a few days ago. Currently, they were sitting against each other, amusing themselves with a blitz game to spend time while also waiting for Irfan to come back from whatever he was doing outside.
"The accuracy of your game is getting more terrible, Shev," Anna commented flatly, moving her pieces so quickly before hitting the clock on the sideline. "This is your third blunder of the game. Is this really your level, and the last tournament was just a fluke?"
"Oh, shut the fuck up!" Sheva cursed when he realized the blunder that he had just made. Now, his knight was gone, and he was down by four whole points. "I have only made a mistake in the scramble time! Everything is still alright before that!" He retorted.
"Excuse, excuse…" Anna rolled her eyes sarcastically. "Losing is losing, no matter what excuse you want to throw, right?" She smirked infuriatingly, which was enough to trigger Sheva's explosive temper. He didn't know that the girl whom Bagas called 'Ice Queen' would be this witty.
"Oh, come on!" Sheva whined, having the urge to flip the chessboard and leave. "This is the third time in a row, right?!" He cursed in frustration, starting to doubt his chess skills after he failed to win even once against Anna today.
They had been here for more than thirty minutes, and while at first, the interaction was almost none and very awkward, once Anna invited him for a blitz game, the atmosphere eased slowly but surely. Hell, they could even trash-talk to each other, which showed how close they got to each other in such a short period. Unfortunately, the decision to accept the invitation turned into a bad idea, as Sheva was beaten black and blue by the girl.
Honestly, this scared the shit out of Sheva. Since the lowest standard of the knowledge he got from the system was the FIDE Master standard, he thought that he would be invincible at the early stage. Who knew that he would be smashed from left to right like this by a girl who was one or two years younger than him?
Seeing his dejected and confused look, Anna's expression softened a little before she reassured him. "Don't worry, it is not like you are bad, but you are just inexperienced. I have been in this game for more than eight years, so it will be embarrassing for me to lose to a novice like you."
Sheva stared at him skeptically, yet since he couldn't see any deception in her eyes, the boy didn't have any choice but to believe her. It was that, or he would start thinking that he was trash since he couldn't beat her with the help of a system inside his head.
"Also, your playing style is too reckless, you know?" Anna said, trying to give him her opinion. Sheva looked at him confusedly, considering that Anna's playing style was a little bit similar to his. Seeing that, the girl decided to elaborate. "You see, even though I play a similar aggressive style to you, I always ensure that my position is pretty safe first. I take care of my defense first, so that once my attack fails, the game won't turn around too badly for me, just like how we played against each other for the first time, remember?"
Sheva couldn't help but nod begrudgingly, having to accept this fact no matter how awful it was. After all, compared to his kamikaze attacking style that was always do-or-die, Anna's style was neater, with a sharper attacking style without having to sacrifice anything on the back. This was definitely more sustainable in the future. Still…
"Knowing is one thing, but making an adjustment is not that easy, right?" Sheva frowned.
This was like some sort of drug addict problem. On one hand, Sheva knew that his attacking style was problematic. However, in reality, it was hard to hold back his impulsiveness during the game, making a blunder or two inevitable.
"Well, that is exactly what you are going to have to work with." She shrugged. "Still, I don't think that this is going to be a trouble for the next tournament. I mean, this problem only emerges in a time scramble, right? In a standard chess game, you will have about 90 whole minutes to think, so as long as you don't mess it up, everything will be alright."
Sheva could only nod, yet the frown was still on his face. It was clear that he didn't like her answer here, yet the boy couldn't even think of any suitable solution for this problem. Anna just shrugged, letting him think over this matter quietly. She just fixed the chessboard while humming some popular songs lightly, enjoying the sunny weather outside.
They spent quite a while in silence, yet the atmosphere itself was far from being awkward. It was strange that even though they had just known each other for a very short time, with this being their first time communicating with each other directly, both teenagers felt some sort of chemistry that let them enjoy each other's presence even in silence. In the end, though, Irfan finally arrived back, greeting them with an apology.
"Sorry for keeping you waiting, guys. The children are having a little bit of a tantrum at their school, and their teacher called me to ask for help." He smiled apologetically, taking a seat next to Sheva. Indeed, Irfan had two young daughters at kindergarten age, probably the most troublesome phase of childhood for any parents in the world. "Anyway, Claudia is not here with you?" The man couldn't help but ask Anna about her little sister.
"Well, it is Thursday, so Ia has to go to school." The girl shrugged nonchalantly.
"Oh, yeah, you are right. Sometimes, I forgot that she is still a child." Irfan commented casually, not even questioning Sheva and Anna about their presence here, considering that those two were basically just teenagers who should've been in school right now. Well, Sheva was grateful for his not-so-nosy personality, so he didn't have to explain a lot of things here. The man shifted a little, smiling at Sheva's nervousness that rose slowly as time went by. "So, are you ready to get to know about your first-ever official tournament, Shev?"
"Sure! I mean, I would love to!" Sheva answered so quickly, startling both Irfan and Anna.
"Oh, I remember the same excitement when I played in a formal tournament for the first time ever. That was a good one…" Irfan chuckled, followed by Anna's soft giggle. Sheva could only rub the back of his head awkwardly, knowing that he was being too eager here. Seeing this, Irfan coughed, taking pity on him as the man continued, "Well, I will not tease you too much here. Your next tournament will be…."