Chapter 140: Irene and Claudia’s Situation
Meanwhile, on the other tables, the two Indonesian players were also currently fighting for their lives, not even having time to care about Sheva’s situation. Irene and Claudia had already entered the endgame phase where everything could go wrong in one move, so they both dared not turn their head away from their own board.
On one side, Claudia was thriving, able to drag the game against Max Warmerdam, one of the best youngsters from the Netherlands, into an endgame where half side of the board was cleared. Even though she was down by a pawn, the fact that it was a knight versus a bishop made it easier for her to force a draw. After all, once she managed to force an exchange for everything, the probability of getting a draw was bigger than any other endgame type.
As for Irene, well, just like her game against Hans Niemann in the second round, she had the roller-coaster type of game today. Playing with black, she managed to drag Gupta Abhijeet into an endgame phase just like Claudia did against her opponent. However, her execution in this phase was pretty much questionable, sometimes giving her opponent a massive advantage out of nowhere. Fortunately, it seemed that Gupta Abhijeet wasn’t the most clinical endgame player in the field, as he couldn’t find a way to capitalize on the mistake she made.
In the end, her game went unpredictable, as the evaluation had a heart attack quite often here.
Now, the game was about to end, and they both stared at their board intently. There were a lot of players who failed to get their expected result due to one carelessness in this phase, and they didn’t want to add to that long list.
The two female players also kept their eyes on any mistakes their opponents would probably make. After all, in this kind of situation, it was normal for the higher-rated player to get flustered first. They wouldn’t want to get a draw result in the fifth round, where the chase to the top was about to reach the climax, especially when they themselves played against an opponent whose rating was 200 points or more below theirs. So, this was Irene and Claudia’s chance to snipe whenever something big was coming.
’Come on... Just tilt already...’ Claudia bit her lips nervously, not even realizing that her legs were shaking.
Unfortunately, her opponent, Max Warmerdam, was a great endgame player. The Dutch youngster was able to stay composed, marching all three of his pawns forward while also keeping them all protected with his bishop. Claudia could only move her knight back and forth, as her pawns were stuck in the third rank.
Still, even though he managed to progress a little bit, in the end, Max also found his three pawns got stuck, not being able to step further without having to sacrifice one of them. That was definitely not the situation he wanted, as it would give Claudia a massive advantage out of nowhere. So, in the end, he just shuffled his pieces back and forth, and with the girl also doing the same, after the three-fold repetition, both players finally agreed to a draw result.
As they shook hands, Claudia couldn’t help but clench her fist, finding this to be a great result. After all, Max Warmerdam’s rating was 2599, and it was clear that his career was on the rise. The man was one of the best Dutch players right now, so to force a draw when she herself only had a 2100 points rating was definitely a major achievement.
Not only that, this draw also gave her another half point, and this put the girl still on the higher tier of the standings. This meant whoever was going to be his opponent would be another high-rated player, and for her, who was on a mission to chase ratings, it was a great opportunity to climb higher.
As for the last Indonesian player in the tournament, Irene, the game she played against Gupta Abhijeet was enough to give everyone who watched a heart attack. After all, once the game entered the endgame phase, the evaluation bar moved up and down so quickly, showing how bad those two conversed the situation they were in on the board right now.
It was an endgame where both players had four pawns and a rook. However, the situation was pretty complicated.
Gupta Abhijeet had two passed pawns on the A and B files, and Irene had a doubled pawn on the D file. At first glance, things seemed to favor the Indian grandmaster. However, Irene’s doubled pawn was already on the fourth and third ranks, ready to march forward and get promoted. By calculation, if Gupta wanted to push his two passed pawns forward, he would lose since Irene was closest to the promotion square. That was why he kept throwing one check after another.
Meanwhile, Irene also defended her position pretty well. She also put her rook straight next to Gupta’s king, sacrificing it completely with a clear consciousness that once Gupta took it, the king wouldn’t be able to cover up the promotion square quickly enough. Of course, the Indian grandmaster also noticed that, as he didn’t take the bait at all.
The situation was very volatile right now, with both players pretty much walking on a thin line. The evaluation bar showed –1.3 for Irene, yet one single mistake was enough to wipe away all of her advantage instantly. They shuffled their pieces back and forth, and the evaluation bar once again was having a heart attack with how many mistakes they made during that time.
In the end, both players were finally too exhausted to continue this meaningless scramble. After about three hours of trying to get an advantage against each other, they agreed to a draw, a fair result for this chaotic game.
With this result, all three Indonesian players finally finished their games. Both Irene and Claudia had a decent result, as the half points that they gained here still put them in the top twenty in the standings. However, the defeat that Sheva suffered against Gukesh was enough to throw him out of the calculation, putting him straight in 34th place on the standings. This was the cruelty of an open tournament, as one bad result was enough to throw everything he had already gained before out of the window.
Well, that would be the problem for him tomorrow, as right now, Sheva was quite helpless as he received a phone call from an unexpected person.