Chapter 119: Sheva VS Brandon Clarke!
Sheva took a deep breath and tried to concentrate once he sat on the chair and faced his opponent. Ultimately, he frowned a little bit when the man, Brandon Clarke, started the game with the move pawn to C4, somehow feeling like his opponent had just stared at him nakedly.
Yeah, 1.c4 or English opponent was the opening system he studied the least, even with the help of the system inside his head and Sergei’s coaching session. It was not like he looked down on the English Opening. However, it had only been a short time since the boy received proper guidance from Sergei, and there was no way he could learn all the opening systems in the world within that period. Leaving the English Opening was a calculated risk that he took, as in his mind, most of his opponents would opt for either 1.e4 or 1.d4.
Fortunately, Sheva still memorized the English Opening enough to know how to convert this position into another opening. Yeah, instead of indulging in theoretical English, he pushed his E pawn one square forward. In his second move, the boy pushed the D pawn two squares forward, completely transposing the game into the Queen’s Gambit Decline. At least, in this case, Sheva was far more prepared to face his opponent compared to before.
’Damn, it is close...’ Sheva muttered to himself. ’I have to learn about more openings in the future...’ He took a note inside his head.
Still, it seemed that the opponent, Brandon, had already expected this kind of development. Well, not like it was hard to predict, since most players liked to transpose the English Opening to the Queen’s Gambit Decline one.
The variation they played in this game usually always led to a slow and positional game. However, even with Sergei’s careful guidance, Sheva still didn’t throw away his personality here. Instead of waiting patiently on the back, he let his four pawns charge forward instantly, creating strong pressure on the queenside.
Coincidentally enough, Brandon took advantage of the fact that he hadn’t castled yet while Sheva had already done so by marching his kingside pawns forward, trying to get into Sheva’s king first. The game that usually was stable and slow suddenly turned into a race of which one would get into the opponent’s side first, and honestly, Sheva was in for that.
*Author note: If you want to visualize the position better, check the comment below.
A few moves later, it was clear, though, that it was Brandon who took the initiative here. Even though his own king was pretty much in the open, he compensated for its safety with a very strong attack. True enough, a moment later, he managed to chop down Sheva’s pawn structure on the kingside, leaving the king in a more vulnerable situation.
*Author note: If you want to visualize the position better, check the comment below.
’Yeah, fuck, this is bad...’ Sheva’s expression turned solemn. ’His bishop on the C2 square is going to be the death of me. I need to take care of it first before he can infiltrate my kingside with his queen, too, or it would be game over for me. Hmm... Rook G1, king H8, knight E5, queen F6, pawn F5, then all of my pieces will be locked completely. Shit, I have to do something, but I cannot find a counterplay here.’
Indeed, the situation was pretty bad on Sheva’s side. The computer engine also evaluated that it was +2.9 for Brandon’s advantage. It wasn’t like Sheva himself made a huge blunder. Hell, even the computer said that there were no inaccurate moves that he played up until now. It was just that Brandon’s pressure on the kingside was so great that the computer evaluated it as the same as the Englishman leading with three pawns.
Also, the calculation that Sheva made inside his head earlier was on point. It was exactly what the computer wanted Brandon to do, trying to suffocate the black piece on the small kingside area and freeze Sheva to death. As an IM, of course, Brandon could see that too. He followed all the calculations perfectly, and at one point, Sheva’s gaze turned solemn as he was in real danger now.
’Yeah, shit. I cannot stay like this forever. I need to make a counterplay and create a chaotic situation to make him panic, or he would never make a mistake and let me go away easily in this game.’ Sheva thought solemnly.
However, it seemed that God was still on his side. Right after Sheva had that thought, Brandon suddenly took a pretty long time to think for such an easy move. Even though Sheva couldn’t read the man’s expression, the fact that it took more than 25 minutes for the man to push his F pawn one square forward somehow gave him a little bit of hope here.
’Does he want to be a smartass and try something stupid here? Please, let it be like that... Don’t make the most obvious move, please... God... Please, let him tilt and make a blunder here...’
Even though he was never the most religious person in the world, at this time, Sheva couldn’t help but pray inside his heart. Then, it was as if the prayer itself was answered instantly, as in the next few minutes, Brandon finally made his move, and it was a blunder.
’Yes! Got him!’ Sheva clenched his fist inwardly.
The blunder itself was pretty much reasonable here. Instead of pushing forward and locking Sheva’s position on that small corner area, Brandon wanted to put more pressure on the queenside by taking her queen to the A5 square and threatening to take Sheva’s light bishop. However, this gave Sheva a chance to get out of the pressure on the kingside pretty easily. The boy abandoned his bishop completely and decided to take Brandon’s pawn on the F file, and once he did that, the evaluation bar shown by the computer engine spiked down instantly to 0 again, showing that this was an equal position.
In the next few seconds, it was clear that Brandon also realized his blunder here. The frown he showed for the first time since the beginning of the game clearly told Sheva that the man didn’t like his decision at all. However, the man’s nightmare was not over yet, as in the next move, he made another blunder, and this time, the consequence was fatal for him.