The Sicilian Defense, Alapin Variation.
This was the official name of the opening. However, among the chess players, it had a unique nickname, the anti-Sicilian defense. This was quite a well-made reputation, as the Alapin variation's main purpose was to avoid the long and boring line of the main variation of the Sicilian defense.
The main advantage was also there. If Black played too slowly, White would've just developed the minor pieces to a comfortable square while also controlling the center, before slowly starting to squeeze Black's space. As for if black struck back at the center immediately, this would lead the game into a wild zone where both players would be trying to slaughter each other. The imbalance and asymmetrical position would be a landmine for both players, and one mistake would be enough to end their lives. Either way, both were enough reasons for Sheva to go this way.
However, those were not the reasons why Sheva decided to go for this variation. No, the main reason was that he had already gained the silver-level knowledge of this variation from the system, giving him enough confidence to at least gain an advantage from the early stage. He didn't want to go for another variation blindly just to fall into the opponent's trap. It would be embarrassing for him to do that.
The boy next to him, Do Duy Manh, took a little bit longer time to spend here; a frown could be seen on his chubby face. It was clear that this variation was not one of his arsenals. Sheva glanced sideways at the clock, staring at how slowly it turned. Honestly, at first, he didn't think a lot about this thing, but a standard chess format had 90 minutes of time for both players, with an additional 30 seconds for each move. Having to stay quiet and facing the chessboard for that long would be enough to make his brain melt.
'Man, this is going to be a long week.' Sheva sighed inwardly. Seeing that his opponent didn't have any plan to make a move soon, he started to let his mind drift away. 'Wait a second, I haven't checked about the presents I got from the system in the last couple of days. Let's use this time to review them first. System, please show me my stats.'
[DING!]
[Name: Adrian Sheva]
[Current ELO Rating: 0 std – 0 rpd – 0 bltz]
[Current knowledge: Diamond level Caro-Kann opening; Gold level King's Gambit opening; Gold level Scotch Gambit opening; Gold level intuition; Gold level calculation; Silver level Vienna opening; Silver level Sicilian Defense, Alapin variation;; Silver level Trompowsky attack; Silver level French Defense; Silver level Nimzo-Indian Defense; Silver level Smith-Morra Gambit; Silver level Rook & Pawn endgame; Silver level Queen & Pawn endgame; Silver level Bishop & Knight endgame; Silver level Bishops endgame]
Out of the two weeks of his preparation for this tournament, Sheva was quite lucky here by upgrading his calculation level to the gold level. He felt it immediately that his understanding of the game improved to the next level; from the positional one, like how to assess his current position clearly, to even the ability to see even the tiniest hole in both his and his opponent's defense.
However, besides that, he ran out of luck, as the only things he got were more opening knowledge to broaden his horizon, adding them to his repertoire. It was nice, but compared to the excitement when he got the intuition and calculation cards, Sheva felt a little bit disappointed.
Still, after having the system for a month, Sheva finally started to see the pattern here. The system wouldn't give him something innate like instinct or improvement in his brain so easily. The only thing it could give was knowledge, either about the opening or the endgame technique. However, those were just that: knowledge. It was like having a massive library inside his brain. It would be there when he needed it the most, but if Sheva himself didn't explore it, he wouldn't be able to release the maximum potential of all the knowledge inside his head.
Tak!
His mind snapped by the sound of the piece hitting the board, and when Sheva stared back at the chessboard, he noticed that the pawn in front of the black queen had already pushed one square forward. He crooked one of his eyebrows at that move, realizing that the boy in front of him had made an inaccurate move.
'He would let me develop my own pieces peacefully?'
Yeah, even though the move itself was quite solid, protecting the C pawn while also giving a way for the light bishop to move, it was still too slow, giving Sheva enough tempo to start his aggressive style. This also cemented the idea inside his head that his opponent didn't know the theory of this variation enough to handle it. Well, of course, Sheva wouldn't let this golden chance slide away that easily. He didn't hesitate to strike back, challenging the center immediately while also preparing himself to push forward slowly.
Poor boy, it seemed that Do Duy Manh didn't have a good plan here. He seemed to plan something with the Sicilian defense, but once Sheva didn't follow his plan, everything started crumbling inside his head. For an eight-year-old boy, this kind of defeat, where he was destroyed by himself, could be traumatizing enough to force him to retire from the game for the rest of his life.
However, Sheva didn't plan to show any mercy here. He moved like a panzer, bulldozing everything on his way before starting to put more pressure on the opponent's side. The fact that his opponent hadn't castled his king yet was enough to show that the position was quite horrible for the youngster.
Sheva also started to chomp off the opponent's pawns one by one, opening up the position with a bunch of trades that he controlled well. Now, the opponent's king side was pretty much open, and his opponent also had two isolated pawns that were weak and ready to be another victim of Sheva's brutality.
In the end, the game didn't last quite long enough. The boy was so vexed about this current position that he started to make a lot of mistakes, and of course, Sheva would not let them slide so easily. After getting down by two pawns and a rook and spending about fifteen minutes thinking of every possibility here, the boy finally had enough, letting a deep sigh before offering a handshake with a dejected face.
"Good game, Sir."