Claudia groaned weakly, trying to stretch out her stiff body. This was the thing that often occurred in any chess player. After spending such a long time sitting in one place without moving, using 110 percent of the brain to think of every possibility that could happen on the chessboard, the body would start to deteriorate, and it was quite normal to feel weak after that.
What she didn't expect, though, was the fact that her game would last this long. Usually, for a top-seeded player in a tournament like her current situation, the first game would be against either an unrated or a low-rated player, which most people thought was a giveaway point for the tournament. This was the exact case of her game earlier, as Claudia played against a local old man whose rating was just 1515. For her, who was about to cross the threshold of 2000, this should be one of the easy games that gave her a free point.
Unfortunately, the reality was not kind here.
The old man was proven to be tough and very resilient in facing her positional game. He was so patient, not taking all of the baits she threw until the end. Hell, Claudia even got caught in a nasty trap that forced her to sacrifice her bishop to let her rook escape, and at one moment, things seemed to be bad for her. Fortunately, she managed to drag it into the endgame, the territory in which she was the most comfortable. She knew that as long as she was patient enough, the chance would be there for her to capitalize.
True enough, after probing and poking for more than 60 moves, the old man finally made a mistake. He moved the knight in the wrong way, letting it get screwed by her rook from afar without any protection from either the king or the bishop. With the game turning into a rook and a pawn versus a bishop, the old man couldn't find any way to force a draw, and in the end, he finally resigned, giving one point to Claudia.
'Uh… I wonder if that scoundrel's game is over…' Claudia narrowed her eyes slightly at the table where Sheva should've been on. When she saw that it was empty, though, the little girl couldn't help but grumble. 'Of course, his match is over already. Honestly, with his ability, winning second place in this section will be a piece of cake. If he dares to lose against anyone else, I would laugh off his face mercilessly.'
Yeah, even though she had some sort of childish beef against Sheva, Claudia had to admit—albeit begrudgingly—that the older boy was very talented in chess. Hell, in the last two weeks to prepare for this tournament, she played against him a lot of times, believing that their first match was just a fluke and that she would show the boy who was the boss among the two. Unfortunately, reality slapped her hard, as she was defeated in most of the game. Their current score was bad: 21 wins for Sheva, 9 wins for Claudia, and 4 boring draws that didn't really matter for them both.
Of course, Claudia could make a lame excuse about how they played a blitz game, the format that she was least proficient with. She still couldn't grasp the tactic instinctively in just a split second, putting her at a time disadvantage most of the time. However, when she thought about the fact that Sheva had only learned about this game for a month, Claudia was embarrassed to throw that kind of excuse. After all, the older boy was a complete rookie, far different compared to her, who had already had a lot of experience even when she was only 12 years old.
Ah, here he is…' Claudia could only smile wryly when she saw Sheva out of the hall. Seeing his relaxed expression, the girl knew that Sheva should've won the game rather easily. 'As expected, this man is a dangerous chess player.'
It seemed that Sheva also noticed her presence as he waved at her with a smile, inviting her to join and sit next to him. They were currently in a lobby, and although they were pretty far from the hall, they weren't allowed to speak too loudly for fear of distracting the players inside. Having nothing to do, she shrugged, going straight to the boy.
'What are you watching here?' She was whispering, couldn't help but ask at the sight of Sheva concentrating on his phone. 'Is there anything interesting?'
'This is your sister's game.' Sheva answered shortly, sliding the phone so that they could watch it together.
'Um?!' Claudia was startled, leaning her body sideways to get a better sight at the phone. True enough, she could see her sister on the phone playing against her opponent right now. It seemed that this broadcast was live from the main hall where the GM and IM sections were held. However, when she saw who the commentators were, the corner of her lips twitched unconsciously. 'Since when did your friend get the permission to broadcast this?' She asked speechlessly.
'Don't underestimate Bagas's resourcefulness. He is a man with unlimited connections.' Sheva answered, not even batting his eyes from the phone. 'Also, don't you think you are missing the point here? Look, your sister is losing.' He added.
'Wait, what?!' She snapped her head once again to the screen, grabbing Sheva's hand to get the phone closer to her. 'Let me see!' She demanded bossily. However, her attitude couldn't hide the nervousness she currently felt, as it was clearly shown by her shaky hands.
When she saw the screen more carefully, though, the girl couldn't help but widen her eyes. There, she saw the position was pretty bad, with her sister only having one rook and one pawn against the opponent with one knight, a light bishop, and two more pawns. What made it difficult for Anna was the fact that the opponent's pawns were already advanced so far that they were two and three squares away from getting promoted into another queen. In contrast, Anna's pawn was still stuck in the middle, not being able to move even for another square, in fear of getting captured by the bishop from afar.
Seeing this, Claudia bit her lips nervously, thinking unconsciously, 'Come on, Big Sis! You cannot lose here, not in front of him!'