In a quiet, yet somehow tense atmosphere where everyone watched the game carefully, the sudden slam on the board by Master Priasmoro really made everyone jump on the spot. It was fortunate that none of them had any heart disease, or they would have suffered a lot due to the shock triggered by the older man.

It was also lucky that the slam didn't really affect the board. It only shook some of the pieces slightly, while a few that were already off the board fell off the table. However, overall, except for catching all the audience off guard, Master Priasmoro's outburst didn't really change anything here. In fact, this only made his situation worse, as his mind was clouded by gloominess that came out of nowhere, and this would definitely affect his performance later.

"What, Master Priasmoro? Not capable enough in handling this stressful situation?" Sheva, decided to be a good junior he was, spoke casually, trying to rub salt on the man's wound. "Losing control of emotion is one of the signs that you are not a strong player, you know?"

Tak!

"Oh, shut up! You are just lucky for getting away from your fucking blunder!" Master Priasmoro retorted, slamming his queen angrily as he made a move.

Tak!

"A blunder? I don't know what you are talking about." Sheva just raised one of his eyebrows slightly, yet the boy didn't even turn his head at the man.

Tak!

"Yeah, just pretend to be cool, will you. I know that you also noticed that mistake." Master Priasmoro grumbled, making another move just in within a second.

Tak!

Since not a single one of the people here had access to the computer, nobody knew how the evaluation bar for this game ran. If they knew, though, they would have another heart attack from this.

Yeah, even though both Sheva and Master Priasmoro seemed to be calmer right now, trash-talking even with their time running low, the situation on the board was far from being that peaceful. No, if anything, it was pure chaos, with the evaluation bar moved up and down so quickly as if it was about to give the audience a heart attack.

Sheva himself didn't know that after Master Priasmoro failed to capitalize on his blunder earlier, the boy made another blunder, allowing the GM to go for the exact same line that the engine recommended earlier. However, due to his bad mood for the first time he slipped—also, probably because he couldn't bear thinking hard and talking smack at the same time in the middle of the game—Master Priasmoro also failed to grab the second blunder under his bag.

Hell, if anything, it seemed that the man himself didn't notice about it, brushing the move that Sheva made as an ordinary one.

Sheva was also the same, though. He blitzed his move in within a second, trusting his intuition, which seemed not to work perfectly here. A few mistakes here and there should be enough to make him lose, yet somehow, Master Priasmoro was blinded by his anger, failing to take advantage of even one of them to gain a good position.

In the end, after dilly-dallying for more than sixty moves, Master Priasmoro finally tilted, and this time, it was for real. It was so fatal and fundamental, and Sheva couldn't help but have his eyes lit up immediately, not even taking a second to notice it.

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

'Yes! He is finally blundering!' He grinned widely, which was another provocation toward the man in front of him. 'Get ready to lose, Old Man!'

As Sheva made his move, ready to send the decisive blow, Master Priasmoro also started to notice his mistake. A loud groan came out of his mouth unconsciously, followed by a series of curses for this stupid mistake.

Yeah, it was a stupid mistake. After all, with the check given by Sheva, Master Priasmoro could only move his king into three squares, and one of them was a landmine. If he picked the other two, the situation would still be the same, and the game would probably end up in a draw. However, he stupidly landed in the pit hole, and now, the man bore the consequence.

Sheva didn't hesitate to give another check to Master Priasmoro's king with his pawn, and with only one square to escape, the decisive blow was about to be landed. Now, the man's king was in line with his own queen, allowing Sheva to give a skewer check. As the move was made, the GM had to give up the king's protection of the queen, which also sealed his fate in this game.

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

Before Sheva could even take his own queen, the man stopped the clock abruptly, eliciting a frown on his opponent. He couldn't help but stare at the boy in front of him, somehow feeling depressed about everything that had happened today.

At first, Priasmoro Novendra just tried to provoke the boy casually, wanting to see how the boy would react under the pressure of someone better—Yeah, at that time, he thought he was better than Sheva. The man would admit that he did that out of bad intentions. He was just jealous that Sheva got unconditional support from a rich group to go and chase the boy's dream, something that he had wanted to have for a long time.

Yeah, even though it didn't look like that, Priasmoro Novendra was once in the same position as Sheva, being hailed as the genius of the new generation. Hell, his achievement to get the grandmaster title three years ago cemented that title, and everyone was optimistic about him.

However, his career somehow got stuck, as not a lot of big groups were optimistic about this sport. Well, it wasn't football or badminton, the two most popular sports in Indonesia, so their reaction was understandable. What made it worse, though, was that his career had to be stopped abruptly during the COVID-19 pandemic, and everything started to crumble under his watch.

Now, the man was still trying to get up from his fall, trying to regain his best form for the Olympiad. However, seeing a young boy who had a lifetime chance that he really wanted for the last few years, his negative emotion took over, and without him knowing, he was already on the same board as the boy, playing against each other.

At first, Priasmoro Novendra didn't really mind it. He still thought that Sheva's hype was not real, and he was still better than the boy. However, after playing a blitz game for more than fifteen minutes… Now…

"Fine, you win." He sighed in resignation.

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