Chapter 124: Sicilian Defense - Closed Variation
Thirty minutes later, they—Sheva, Bagas, Claudia, and Irene—arrived at the venue that was already packed with players from all around the world. They wished each other good luck first before going straight to their respective battlefield. Bagas went directly to the media booth, where he would start the broadcast, while the other three went straight to the table where they were assigned.
’Table ten, huh?’ Sheva muttered, trying to find it. ’Ah, here that is!’ The boy walked faster as he found the table where he would play the next round of the tournament.
There, he found that his opponent, Mads Andersen, was already waiting for the game to begin. The first impression that the Danish Grandmaster gave to Sheva was that the man was tall, and he didn’t exaggerate here. The man was insanely tall. Sheva didn’t know how the man could sit comfortably in such a tiny chair where the man’s legs could even reach his side. However, Mads Andersen seemed not to be thinking about this too much, as if this were just a daily occurrence for him.
’Oh, yeah, he should’ve faced this kind of problem a lot in his career, yeah?’ Sheva mumbled. ’Man, being too tall is definitely troublesome.’
As he sat on the chair, Sheva offered a handshake, which Andersen accepted quietly. There was an awkward silence here with no one wanting to break it. Sheva wanted to enter his concentration mode as quickly as possible, and he was sure that Andersen wasn’t interested in striking up a conversation. After all, besides the language barrier here, the huge gap between their ratings was also a factor. Not a single grandmaster in the world would be willing to chat with a stranger whose rating was far below his, especially not before the game began.
After waiting for a while, the alarm finally rang, and all the games in the venue simultaneously started. Playing with the white piece, Sheva also made his first move. Just like the usual, he went for the standard 1.e4, trying to gain control over the center of the board. Unsurprisingly, the man, Andersen, pushed his C pawn two squares forward in response, initiating the Sicilian Defense.
’Tch! Another Sicilian Defense, huh?’ Sheva clicked his tongue in annoyance. ’He sure doesn’t want to play around, huh?’
Yeah, usually, facing an opponent whose rating was far below his, a grandmaster would tend to look down and lower his guard, playing some sort of weird opening variation that he wanted to test. However, Mads Andersen went for the usual aggressive Sicilian Defense, meaning that he wouldn’t treat Sheva as a mere stepping stone and would treat this game seriously.
Honestly, Sheva was honored that Mads Andersen didn’t look down on him. However, there was a tiny spark inside his head that regretted this a little bit, as an early advantage in the opening stage would definitely help in the long run.
Still, he didn’t dwell on this matter too long. No, he had already expected to play against the Sicilian Defense a lot, so the boy had already prepared a variation that would catch his opponent off guard. True enough, once he made his second move, Sheva could see Andersen furrow his brows a little, and a subtle smirk suddenly formed on his face.
’Yeah, no one expected to face the closed variation of Sicilian Defense, huh?’ He laughed inwardly. ’Master Sergei, you are on point in this case. All the top GMs always play the open variation, so one little move is enough to catch them off guard.’
Yeah, instead of moving his G knight into the F3 square like the usual Sicilian Defense Open Variation, Sheva moved his other knight to the C3 square. This was the closed variation where not a lot of players delve too much into it.
After all, compared to the open one that was sharp and always led into a complicated and tactical battle, the closed variation had a pretty slow buildup and was less confrontational. Not only that, the closed variation also had less theoretical knowledge, making it harder for any other player to learn. However, this made the variation a perfect secret weapon, just like what Sheva did right now.
Honestly, it was surprising to see Sheva pulling up this opening. After all, the closed variation of the Sicilian Defense often led to positional warfare that was definitely not his favorite battlefield. However, considering how solid this opening was and how rarely players use this variation nowadays, it was a risk that Sheva was willing to pay to catch his opponent off guard, and it seemed that he bore the fruit of it instantly in this game.
It had only been the fifth move, and yet, Mads Andersen had already thought hard and burned a lot of time here. The man spent almost thirty minutes just for one move, probably trying to remember all the theories about this variation and assessing the situation on the battlefield thoroughly.
Sheva himself definitely never thought that this surprise attack would be enough to get him a good advantage. After all, the opponent himself was a grandmaster with vast experience, so there was no way the man couldn’t adapt to the current situation, especially since there was no pressure in this game. However, he got at least one objective achieved here, and the boy was satisfied enough for that.
"Listen, Sheva." Sergei’s words suddenly flashed inside his mind as Sheva was waiting for Mads Andersen to make his move. "In a surprise attack, you have two objectives to achieve. First, to gain an advantage by your opponent’s unfamiliarity and hope that he or she would make a mistake, and if you didn’t get the first one, just try to make him think as long as possible. Build a time pressure, wait patiently, and once your opponent is cornered, that is when you strike with all of your arsenal."
Seeing that Mads Andersen’s time got burned slowly to the point that the man only had around 50 minutes just in the first ten moves, Sheva clenched his fist unconsciously, inwardly thinking, ’If I couldn’t beat a GM directly, I would wear him out first before striking him at his weakest moment. Whatever it is, I will get a positive result in this game!’