Meanwhile, on the table that was far from the front side where all the top players were fighting against each other, Claudia took a deep breath, trying to relax while also observing the board carefully. After having two draw results in a row, she was back to face a low-rated opponent, and this time, it was Briem Benedikt, a 15-year-old local boy with a rating of 2050. Of course, facing such an opponent, the girl aimed to win here.

'The situation is under control now. Even though the position is equal, the initiative is in my hands. His center is weak, and once I made a breakthrough, he would've been overwhelmed on the queenside. My kingside is also ready to march forward, and soon, the game will be in my bag. Good.' The girl nodded slightly, satisfied with her own performance. Then, she glanced at the front row where all of the top players fought against each other and couldn't help but mutter, 'I wonder how he is doing right now… Should I go and take a look?'

Claudia hesitated for a second, always thinking that leaving her own game to watch the others was quite rude. However, after seeing that her opponent was still thinking hard and calculating that it would take time before the boy made his move, Claudia finally braced herself, rising from her seat and going straight to the table where Sheva was assigned.

To her surprise, though, the table was surrounded by the elite players of the tournament. There, she could see Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, and even Hans Niemann standing around, observing Sheva's game carefully. Looking at this, Claudia got curious, wondering whether Sheva was doing okay or not.

'Are they there because of Idani Pouya as the top seed player, or because Sheva makes some exaggerated moves there? Hmm….'

As she got a better look at the board, Claudia furrowed her brows instantly, finding the position to be very strange. It was something that she had never seen before, and if she didn't know better, the girl would think that this was just two amateur players fighting against each other. However, she knew that both Sheva and Idani Pouya were good, so the girl started wondering how they could reach this ridiculous position in the first place.

'Sheva's king is blocking his own rook, isolating it on the H1 square. That means he is forced to move his king prematurely, right? What kind of opening did he choose to the point that he gave up his castling right? Is this a blunder, or is this something that he has already prepared beforehand?' She thought hard about Sheva's current situation. 'Also, why in the hell does the opponent still play and not put his own king into the safety first? Does he know that he is in big trouble here? What the hell is going on? Why are they both insisting on this kind of reckless game?! What kind of opening triggers all of this?!'

Sheva himself didn't notice that he was the center of attention here. No, his focus was completely on the game, and even he himself didn't notice that he clenched his fist after realizing he was at an advantage here. His king, which seemed to be out of place at the beginning of the game, was now at its safest square, using Idani Pouya's pawn as the umbrella to deflect all the possible harm from the opponent. Not only that, after exchanging pieces, now his knight was in a good position, ready to take a double jump and threaten Idani Pouya's rook.

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

'Once I could do that, his rook would be in a terrible position. He could only put his rook back at the H8 square, but that would only isolate the rook more. He could also choose to sac his rook for my knight, but it would only give me more advantage. His knight is also in such a bad square that I could just ignore it for now. Damn…'

After calculating several lines inside his head, Sheva was flabbergasted at his own position, not expecting that he could have this much advantage against the top-seeded player of this tournament.

'I might win this game…' He muttered slowly in realization.

Yeah, even if Sheva said a lot of times that he wanted to win this game and that he was confident with his preparation, once the goal was so close in front of his eyes, it still took some time for the realization to sink in.

Honestly, when he said yesterday that he wanted to win at least one game against a grandmaster, Sheva thought that it would not be this easy. Hell, even after his preparation, the boy still thought that there was no way he could fluster Idani Pouya with just a mere opening. Sheva just wanted to use such a bizarre opening to get a time advantage in the later stage, which was something that he had done quite a few times in the tournament.

Who would've thought that not only did Idani Pouya get flustered, but the Iranian grandmaster also couldn't adapt to the situation, giving Sheva a red carpet for his first victory against a grandmaster like this.

'Come on… I cannot mess this up…'

In the end, Idani Pouya chose to put his rook on the H8 file, the best decision that even the engine also recommended here. However, with Sheva's knight on the F6 square and Idani's H pawn stuck on the sixth rank after getting blocked by Sheva's pawn on the same file, that meant his rook was completely isolated for the rest of the game. The only thing he could do to let it go was to use his dark bishop to exchange it with Sheva's knight, which was probably the best thing that the Iranian grandmaster could do in this situation.

Well, instead of doing that, Idani Pouya seemed to have a different idea here. The man wanted to make a counterplay on the queenside, starting by castling there first and marching his king forward to attack. Even though Sheva's position was pretty good, at this time, he had no choice but to defend that side first, as the boy didn't want to have any leak in his defense.

For a moment, the game seemed to enter another tension phase. However, at one point, Idani Pouya suddenly made a blunder, and Sheva's eyes lit up instantly when he noticed that.

'He finally tilts! This is my fucking chance, let's go!'

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