"Oh, here it goes, Folks!" Bagas shouted excitedly in front of his microphone after he saw the opening that Sheva pulled. "Here he goes again! Another King's gambit, and this will be the first time in this tournament that we see Sheva play in this system!"

Although this was not a common occurrence, his reaction was a little exaggerated. However, this is what made the audience start to grow fond of him. His energy was unmatched, making the live streaming of a chess game for more than three hours seem to be more bearable.

Of course, not everyone was delighted about Sheva's questionable choice here. In fact, the chat room on the broadcast channel was on fire, with most of the audience bashing Sheva for his so-called 'stupidity'.

Frwoggies: What the fuck is he doing here?! Did the defeat against Gukesh not teach him anything valuable?!

Hilda99: … Even I cannot defend him right now, and I have been doing that since his first appearance on this channel.

MessitheGOAT: Yeah, why would he do this? Who is he trying to impress here?!

Hakeem94: Man, can this be considered as wasting money stupidly? I mean, who in the hell would treat a game against a top-seed player as a fucking joke like this?!

Of course, there was no way Bagas didn't notice those criticisms from the audience. Hell, even he himself felt that what Sheva did was a little bit too much here. Still, the boy remembered what his best friend said last night, and he believed that Sheva wasn't joking at that time.

"Don't worry, I swear I am not messing around. Just wait for tomorrow, and you will see that I am more than prepared to take down the top seed of this tournament."

'Is this what your so-called preparation, Shev?' He couldn't help but mutter. 'Well, I hope that it will get you a good result, because if not, even I wouldn't be able to protect you from the angry netizens, you know?'

Sheva himself didn't know that he was somehow walking on thin ice right now. No, he was too focused on the game, trying to take the initiative early. The boy also couldn't help but smirk when he saw the dumbfounded look on Idani Pouya's face, as the Iranian grandmaster clearly didn't expect to see such a maverick opening in this crucial round.

'Okay, let's see how familiar you are with this system…'

Of course, Idani Pouya wasn't so flustered with a mere opening. Even though in any chess database that Sheva searched, he had never found any game of the Iranian grandmaster playing with this opening, the man showed why he was a grandmaster by striking back quickly. He chose the accepted variation as it was the line where most of his advantage lay.

He put his queen to the H4 square to attack Sheva's king, then marched all of the pawns on his kingside to put pressure there. For a moment, the situation seemed to be worse for Sheva, especially since he had already moved his king, disabling himself for the chance to castle. That meant he would never connect both rooks in this game, and his own safety was also in jeopardy.

However, Sheva himself wasn't that worried. After all, this was the essence of the King's Gambit. He lured his opponent into a false sense that he was on the edge of the cliff, letting Idani Pouya think that he was in a passive situation right now. In reality, though, Sheva was waiting for the man to overcommit to the point that he exposed his own king from any protection around it.

True enough, after the first ten moves, Idani Pouya finally showed that he was not familiar with the system. Even though he didn't make any big blunders, the accumulation of inaccurate moves was enough to put him in a bad situation. In the end, after forcing several piece exchanges, not only was Sheva's king safer than ever, but Idani Pouya also lost his attacking initiative, especially since he had already traded the queen. To make it worse, he had already overcommitted all of his pieces on the kingside, and now, his king's safety was pretty weak.

The gamble that he took by choosing such a shady opening like the King's Gambit paid off, as in the 18th move of the game, the computer engine showed +2.2 for his advantage.

*Author note: If you want to visualize the position better, check the comment below.

Hilda99: Damn, who said that before he made a stupid choice? Come here and let me show you how Sheva had done it!

MessitheGOAT: Why are you so smug? I know that you are one of us who doubted him, too, right?

RonaldOSIu: BUSTED!

Bagas couldn't help but hold back his chuckle as he read the chat box in the broadcast room. Well, he himself was also guilty, as the boy also doubted his best friend's choice earlier. Not that anyone could blame him, as there was no sane player who would dare to pull this out against a far higher-rated player than him in this kind of tournament. However, it seemed that Sheva was not just any normal 'sane' player here.

"I still think that Sheva's choice is reckless and irresponsible." Irfan, the expert that Bagas brought for the broadcast, showed his disapproval over Sheva's opening choice. "I mean, he relies too much on luck in this case. If only Idani Pouya were more familiar with this system, if only the man were more prepared, Sheva would only make a fool of himself. Just because an opening works against lower-rated opponents in an amateur tournament doesn't mean it would also work in such a high-level match like this. I mean, he should've learned from his defeat against Gukesh Dommaraju, right? That a shady opponent wouldn't work against a prepared opponent?"

Bagas just kept quiet as he listened to Irfan's rant until the end. He knew that the man had a point here and that what Sheva did was quite reckless. However, for all the talk the man had done, it seemed that he had forgotten about one important thing here.

"Well, it works, right?" In the end, Bagas said with a smile. "I mean, I know that many would disapprove of his method, but you cannot deny that this works. It might not work for any other players, but for Sheva, who has the gut to pull it off, I think we can give him a little leeway, especially since he has the initiative, right?"

Irfan opened his mouth to refute that claim, yet whatever words he wanted to say seemed to get stuck in his throat. In the end, the smile on Bagas's face went wider than before, not because of him winning the debate, but because he was happy for his best friend.

'Well, it seems that you really proved us all wrong, Shev. Well done… Well done, indeed.'

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