Chapter 129: Preparation Against Praggnanandhaa!
In the end, Claudia was too speechless to continue the conversation, not even knowing where Sheva gets his confidence from. Hell, even earlier this morning, he was still talking about the gap between him and the other geniuses with a depressed look, and now that he had a chance to face one of them, the man suddenly thought he could miraculously win a game.
Even if that was not what Sheva exactly said, in her ears, it was still ridiculous, borderline idiotic behavior. The girl didn’t know whether what Sheva said was just a mere bravado or came from the deepest of his heart, but whatever it was, she still couldn’t accept it. Earlier in the morning, he was still depressed over the fact that the other geniuses had already been so far in the chess world, for God’s sake!
However, it was clear by Bagas’s sudden laugh and Irene’s genuine smile that those two liked his answer very much.
"God’s gracious, Shev! I am so glad you are still the same!" Bagas grinned widely, patting Sheva’s shoulder hard. Having been friends with Sheva for more than three years, the boy knew that although Sheva was always a low-key boy, one thing was for sure that his competitive spirit was always top-notch. Sheva always hated losing, and even he wasn’t afraid to say that out loud.
At first, Bagas was afraid that after delving deeper into the chess world and realizing how deep the water in this community was, Sheva would waver and turn into a player who wanted to improve in a conventional way. However, it seemed that he still underestimated his best friend here, as even with the huge gap—a 500 rating gap was ridiculously huge, by the way
—between him and Praggnanandhaa, Sheva was still firmly saying that he had his eyes on the win."It is good to be ambitious..." Irene also sighed, showing her appreciation for Sheva. "I mean, we have never lacked talented players. What we lack are always two things: resources and ambition. Now that you have the support from Bagas’s father and a strong ambition to beat the best..." She trailed her words behind, not even finishing them. However, the message was clear, especially when she had this hopeful gaze for Sheva.
"Sister Irene..." Even Claudia didn’t expect that Irene would be affected by Sheva’s words this much. However, when she thought about it, she could understand the older woman’s feelings. After all, earlier in the morning, she herself was also impressed with how far Sheva thought about his own chess career, even to the point of comparing him with the geniuses outside.
Even though it was a bit unrealistic, but the thought just showed how serious Sheva was in competing against the best in this sport.
"Okay, I have already decided!" Irene suddenly clapped her hands loudly, gaining everyone’s attention. "Since Sheva is going to aim for the best against Praggnanandhaa, let’s help him prepare for the game tomorrow! What do you think about it?"
Sheva didn’t know about the others, but he could feel his jaw drop when he heard that. There was an awkward silence for a moment, and the only proper response he could give was... "What?"
-0-
Sheva didn’t know how, but suddenly, the two female members of the journey were having a sleepover in his room. Of course, they didn’t do anything indecent here. No, the four of them gathered in Sheva’s room just to help him prepare for tomorrow’s game. Bagas himself just laughed his ass off, finding this situation to be funny. Still, he also joined the research group, finding this to be important to help him deepen his understanding of the game. Even though he didn’t really need it, as a host for a chess channel, it wouldn’t hurt for him to understand the game deeper.
As for the preparation that Irene talked about earlier... Well, honestly, Sheva had never thought it would be this deep. Not like he had an idea of what kind of preparation she was talking about, but what Irene did was enough to blow his mind.
In just one night, Irene guided him on how to research his opponent, and in this case, it was Praggnanandhaa. First, they checked Pragg’s last ten to twenty games, and then, they analyzed them all one by one, trying to make a profile of Pragg’s playing style.
They found out that the Indian prodigy always had a tendency to play with the Ruy-Lopez opening whenever he played with white. 3 out of 5 games with 1.e4 would always end up with this opening, showing how much Pragg favored a dynamic game full of tactical approach.
Not only that, they also learned that Pragg was a solid positional player, but he would never shy away from making a small mistake to bait his opponent and flip the entire board to his own favor. It was a dangerous approach, but somehow, Pragg would always be able to neutralize the situation calmly and grasp the entire game in his hand.
Honestly, the more Sheva read Pragg’s profile, the more he felt that their playing style was very familiar. Hell, they even had a pretty similar weakness, always eager to rush forward recklessly once the opponent made a mistake. Sheva could see that this often led to Pragg throwing away his chance to win, hurting his rating unnecessarily.
After researching about Pragg’s playing style, Sheva finally reached one conclusion. ’I am not inferior to him.’ He thought in realization.
Yeah, it was a bit preposterous to say that, especially since there was a 500-rating gap between them both. However, Sheva remembered what Sergei said about the two types of young players, and honestly, he felt like the gap between them only existed because Pragg was playing longer and having more experience. In terms of pure ability, he still believed that they were pretty much at the same level.
Still, thinking was one thing, but he also needed to put in work to prove to the world that he wasn’t wrong here. With that in mind, he clenched his fist, staring at the cold night outside while muttering inwardly, "Praggnanandhaa, huh? This is going to be the chance to put my name on the radar of all the top players in the world. I cannot mess this up!"