'Shit! Why would I do that?!' Sheva cursed inwardly, only realizing his mistake after the move was made. 'This gives him a tempo to breathe! I need to recover quickly!' He gripped his fist nervously, and tension started to take over his body.

The mistake he made wasn't that obvious. Hell, it only lay in a move order, which was impossible to notice during a blitz game where any move was made in a split second. In this case, Sheva really wanted to get rid of Master Priasmoro's light bishop, as it stared directly at his king's hiding spot.

However, the boy was too eager to do that, jumping his knight directly to threaten the bishop while also ignoring his own bishop that controlled a threatening diagonal. He should've just stayed patient, protecting his bishop with the queen first before letting his knight jump. While the end result on the line that the computer calculated was pretty similar to what happened on the real game, all the minor pieces were exchanged and left the queen and a bunch of pawns for the endgame, the wrong move order made the chance for Sheva to establish four connected pawns gone, and now, the game was back to equal again.

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

At this point, Master Priasmoro also noticed the current state of the game. However, he didn't have any intention to offer a draw.

No, the game was still on, and both players still had around 10 seconds left here. With the additional two seconds for every move, this game could be prolonged for another five to ten minutes, yet everything could still happen since both players moved instinctively at this point.

Meanwhile, all the people around them also leaned forward, trying to get a better look at the board. Gone were all the chatters and trash talk before, as the game entered a crucial stage. Not a single one of them dared to make a loud noise. Hell, they even held their heavy breaths, worried that they would disturb the players' concentration.

Bagas, the only non-professional person here who had a hard time understanding the situation, couldn't help but lean toward Claudia, asking with a whisper, "So, what is going on here?"

"I don't really know, but I guess… Everything is back to equal again…?" The girl answered, a little bit uncertain.

"Yeah, we are back to an equal endgame again." Anna, who overheard the conversation, nodded, confirming Claudia's guess. Her eyes were still on the board, not even turning around at those two. She didn't want to miss even a second on what was going on here, afraid that something drastic would happen and she couldn't catch up for the rest of the game. "Sheva had a slight advantage earlier, but now, except if Master Priasmoro made a mistake, I don't think he could win this game."

It was such a cold and logical judgment from the girl, and he couldn't find a way to refute it. Bagas himself didn't really know a lot about high-level chess like the rest of the people in this room, so he knew better than to make a stupid comment and embarrass himself. However, the boy didn't take what Anna said seriously. If he knew anything about his best friend, it was that Sheva could always create a miracle out of nothing. It was not so much different in this case, as he still believed that his best friend could do the same here.

'Come on, Shev… Show them that you belong here…' He clenched his fist unconsciously, supporting Sheva, who was still in the middle of a fight on the table.

Of course, Sheva didn't really notice the chatters around him. No, his focus was completely on the board, and the sweat on his forehead showed how tense he currently was. Not that Master Priasmoro was much different here, as the man even started to stand up so that he could reach the far end of the board more easily.

It was quite rare to see such a sparing game with high tension like this. However, everyone knew why the two players on the table didn't want to lose. After all, the stake here was too high for any of them to bear. It wasn't just a mere ELO rating that they would lose, but their dignity. After talking shit before and even in the middle of the game, losing was not even a choice here.

'Come on, you fucker… Why don't you just be a normal 2100… 2300-rated player?! Why would you be a genius like this?!' Master Priasmoro scowled inwardly as he made a move.

Meanwhile, Sheva also thought a similar line here. 'Make a mistake again, old man! Don't be stubborn and just fucking tilt already!'

With only less than ten seconds left, the game lasted for what felt like forever. Both players still blitzed their way through their opponent, wanting to put an 'imaginary' pressure that would make the opponent tilt. However, with a queen and five pawns for the endgame, any advancement was quite difficult.

Master Priasmoro managed to get something, taking a free pawn that somehow slipped through Sheva's eyes. However, the situation was pretty much the same, still equal for both sides. At some point, they even repeated moves, as if wanting to get a draw result here. However, once they were one repeat away from a tie, Sheva refused to do so, still thinking that he could get something here.

Unfortunately, it was proven to be a mistake, as a few moves later, he finally slipped.

In the 53rd move, Sheva shifted his queen to the wrong square.

The computer wanted him to move his queen to the D8 square, where it would threaten Master Priasmoro's F6 pawn and also protect his own pawn on the D line. However, instead of doing so, the boy moved his queen to the E6 square, pinning the pawn to the king while completely ignoring his pawn safety. The evaluation bar dropped instantly at this move, as the advantage was on Master Priasmoro's side with –6.6 for him.

Unfortunately for that man, though, the advantage only lasted for one move, as since his time was close to 00:00, he didn't notice the mistake that Sheva made earlier, not until he made his move first. As the realization sank inside his brain, though, Priasmoro Novendra widened his eyes in disbelief, and he slammed the table unconsciously.

"FUCK!"

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