Hanoi GM Chess Tournament.
This was the official name of this tournament, held annually by the Vietnam Chess Federation with the purpose of giving any of their local players a chance to earn the norm to get their grandmaster title. However, even though it was the main purpose, the tournament didn't just consist of that. No, instead, there were two more categories here, with one being the IM section where most of the players were around 2400 ELO and tried to get their IM norm, and the other was for players under the rating of 2200.
This tournament itself could be considered as a weak one, as the majority of the players here were either local or from the neighboring country in Southeast Asia. Not only that, the amount of prize earned was so pitifully low, not enough to cover the travel and accommodation expenses during this tournament. This really reminded Sheva of the reason why he didn't want to be a chess player in the first place. Hell, if only Irfan didn't cover everything for him, the boy would've never dreamed of coming here.
Still, this was a good first tournament for any beginner, as the opponents should be quite easy. Sheva came here with a good spirit, aiming to have his first-ever ELO quite high. He, together with Claudia, who played in the same category, went straight to the Hanoi Old Quarter Culture Exchange Center, going straight to the hall where more than 50 people had already gathered.
It was quite strange to play a chess tournament in a museum, but this place itself was quite legendary in the chess circle among the players from Southeast Asia. Almost all the top players there somehow would have a chance or two to play in this place during their whole career.
"What are you waiting for?!" Claudia, the girl whom he was supposed to take care of since he was the oldest one here, clicked her tongue in annoyance when she saw Sheva dozing off in front of the museum. "The pairing is already on the website! We only have ten minutes to prepare ourselves, move your ass along!" She huffed exasperatedly, both hands on her hips.
Sheva could only feel the corner of his mouth twitch a little bit at the girl's behavior. At first, he thought that Claudia just disliked him because Sheva somehow managed to beat her. However, after getting to know the two siblings, he knew that this was basically just Claudia's normal interaction, always getting tsundere over almost everything.
Still, Sheva knew that Claudia was right. This was the time when he needed to focus the most, so Sheva tried his best to clear away any unnecessary thoughts inside his head. Fortunately, the hangover he suffered from traveling via plane was finally gone, and with a new, sunny day emerged, his mood rose to the peak instantly, couldn't wait for the tournament to start.
As for his opponent, the name was Do Duy Manh, a pretty common naming style in this country. Sheva himself didn't quite prepare for this game. After all, he didn't know anything about his next opponent, so trying to overthink about something like this would be useless.
However, he miscalculated here.
See, in chess, there was always one glaring problem that anyone would've faced sooner or later, and that was the fact that the younger player was always such a beast. Their ability didn't quite reflect the boy's rank or ELO rating at all. This came from the fact that their brain was still fresh enough to learn anything new, or they hadn't had a chance to showcase their ability in a higher-level tournament. That was why their ELO rating was always so volatile to the point that it couldn't reflect the boy's ELO anymore.
Unfortunately, Sheva would have to face this kind of kid during his first game. After waiting for a while, his opponent finally came, and instead of a man at his young age or probably even older coming here, what greeted Sheva was a little boy, probably seven or eight, with sharp eyes and dark hair, offering him a quick handshake before going to the seat straight in front of Sheva. Hell, he even thought that the boy was younger than Claudia, and she was about 12 years old. Sheva's mind went blanking right now, trying to think about what to do for this game.
"Hello, Sir." The boy broke the awkwardness here, trying to strike up a conversation. "Have you been waiting for a long time?" He asked incredulously.
"Don't worry, it is just water under the bridge." Sheva shrugged nonchalantly. "Anyway, shall we begin our game?" He couldn't help but ask. He also peeked a glance at where Claudia was, just to find the girl was on the front side of the hall. Sheva could see how locked in the little girl was in a strange territory like this. It seemed that she was also trying hard to get closer to her sister's level here.
"Wait a second, please." The boy—probably eight years old—glanced around too. Once he saw that the Vietnam Chess Federation's leader hit the gong, that was when the boy gave a short nod, saying, "Good guess. Let's have a good game too, okay?"
"Sure!" Sheva also nodded, offering a handshake before putting all of his focus back on the chessboard.
As the clock stated, Sheva decided to play very carefully here, going for the standard 1.e4. After all, the younger the children, the more dangerous it would be. He didn't want to end his first game ever in either a draw or a loss, and since Sheva also still remembered Anna's suggestion about controlling his impulsiveness, the boy didn't go marching all of his pieces straight to the deepest hell here.
What he didn't expect, though, was for the boy, Do Duy Manh, to decide to go with a very strong and aggressive opening, the Sicilian Opening. This was probably used the most by the players who were the most adventurous, always wanting to go straight to attack the opponent's brick wall. Hell, even most of the top grandmasters in the world seemed to have a lot of experience playing here, showing how versatile the Sicilian Opening was.
Seeing this, Sheva couldn't help but take a glance at him, just to find out that the boy next to his seat also did the same before smirking infuriatingly at him. This was a blatant provocation to Sheva, as it was clear that the boy wanted to drag him into a long, arduous positional battle to gain advantage as early as possible. Knowing this, Sheva didn't hesitate for a single moment, going for a counterattack by picking the anti-Sicilian itself.
The Alapin.