"Let's have a good game…"

As the alarm rang all across the building, a simultaneous 'tak!' sound followed immediately, indicating that all the players on the board had already made their first move. It was incredible to see more than a thousand games being played together in one place like this, probably creating the history of the chess event with the most participants ever.

Of course, that was the problem for the organizer. As for the players, they didn't care about any of that, since this was also the beginning of their journey fighting for their country. All of them were eager for blood, not wanting to start the entire event with a bad result. The same could also be said for the Indonesian team, as most of them had already locked into the game.

Sheva, who played on board 4, also felt the different atmosphere the moment the game started. It was as if everything shifted, and he was playing in somewhere high like a mountain that could suffocate his breath. The ambience here was crazy, as all the playfulness earlier was already gone.

'So, this is the Olympiad, huh?' He muttered to himself. However, the grin on his face told everyone that he clearly enjoyed this situation. 'Oh, well, then, it is time to have fun!'

Playing with the black piece, Sheva waited for his opponent to reveal his weapon. The man, Kwong Wing Ki, went for an ordinary king's pawn opening, which the boy also happily returned. While he was pretty proficient in the D4 opening and some of the variations of the English, Sheva could say that he was still more comfortable with 1.e4. There was a reason why this was the most mainstream first line in the chess world, after all.

On the third move of the game, Kwong Wing Ki finally showed his fang first. Instead of going for the ordinary opening line like the Italian or the Ruy-Lopez, the man decided to challenge the center of the board immediately with the D4 move. Seeing this, Sheva couldn't help but lean forward, finding the situation to be interesting.

'The Scotch, huh?' He muttered to himself. 'Cannot say that I expect to see one here.'

Somehow, even though it had only been six months since Sheva started learning chess, this opening reminded the boy of the first time he picked up an opening book in Irfan's house, and he felt like it was such a long time ago.

Yeah, the Scotch game was probably one of the most beginner-friendly openings in the chess world, suitable for anyone who had just started to learn the game. It was direct, simple, followed basic opening principles, and led to open positions where tactics are common. It helped new players learn to control the center, develop their pieces quickly, and attack effectively, often creating tactical opportunities against opponents who may not be well-prepared or have a strong grasp of positional play.

However, its simplicity was also the reason why the opening was not suitable for a high-level tournament like this. The Scotch opening often led to an early simplification of the center, potentially allowing Black to equalize without much difficulty. Its tendency to resolve central tension early makes it less favored than openings that maintain a more complex struggle for a longer period.

That was why, the moment Sheva saw this opening was on board, he knew exactly what his opponent wanted to do.

'So, he wants to force a quick draw here, huh?' He glanced sideways at his opponent. 'Well, don't think that it would be easy!'

The next twenty moves of the game run quite fast, with both players following the basic principle of chess that they would learn during their early career. They developed their pieces quickly, putting their king into safety, and started poking around relentlessly until the opponent crumbled first.

Even though the position was pretty much equal, due to the gambit that Kwong Wing Ki made at the beginning of the game, Sheva had the initiative to control the center of the board. With two strong pawns anchoring each other, Sheva managed to restrain any kind of development for the white piece that had to go through the middle. However, that was it. Nothing else happened on the board, as both players still didn't want to be the first one to make a breakthrough here.

Meanwhile, from the corner of his eyes, Sheva also noticed some of the players started strolling around, wanting to get a better look at how their teammates or even rivals were going. They were probably the players who were confident that they had the game under their bag or those who already had a pretty comfortable position in the game, and that was why they dared to do something like this.

Much to his surprise, though, Yoseph Taher, the IM who was playing on board 2, also did the same, standing behind him and Arfan to get a better look at their games. It seemed that the man was worried here, since this was the first time the two teenagers were playing on this stage.

'Well, I appreciate the concern, Brother Taher, but I don't think that this is necessary.' He muttered.

One hour had already passed since the beginning of the game, and no specific development had been made on the board yet. While Sheva managed to keep pushing forward, he still waited for the right timing to make a breakthrough, as one slip moment would be enough for the opponent to force a draw or even worse, steal the game from his hand. That was definitely a nightmare scenario for him.

Fortunately, the waiting moment was over. In the 29th move of the game, Kwong Wing Ki finally made his first mistake.

Sheva didn't really know why the man made such an aimless move by pushing his H pawn one square forward, while he could've just developed any other pieces on the board, yet this gave Sheva a chance to start chasing the win. The boy tried to sacrifice his bishop to get the black's rook on the first rank, creating the first imbalanced position of the game.

Of course, the best way to handle this situation was to let the queen escape to the square that was still protecting the rook. However, Kwong Wing Ki made a miscalculation in placing his queen, and right after that, the evaluation bar fell drastically, giving the black piece a massive advantage all of a sudden.

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

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