Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 528: The Last Three Rounds of the Tournament!

The win against Benjamin Gledura really put Sheva way ahead of his competitors in this tournament. The closest player—or players, in this case—to him were Mateusz Bartel and Alexander Motylev from Russia, who still had 4 points, two whole points behind him right now.

It would take a miracle for them to be able to win the tournament, and by miracle, that meant they had to win the rest of the three games while Sheva had to lose them all. Considering Sheva was still in a hot form, this was basically a mission impossible for any of them, so while the tournament was still far from over, everyone had already considered Sheva to win the trophy, and that was why the enthusiasm started to decrease. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Of course, this was exactly what Sheva wanted. At this point, he was too distracted by the three teenagers’ tournament in Uzbekistan that he was willing to take a quick draw in a situation he usually refused to do. Not against all the opponents, though, as he only did that against those whose rating was higher than his. After all, he was too stingy, not wanting to miss even a single ELO rating from an unnecessary draw.

He accepted the draw against Alexander Motylev, going along with the man’s Berlin defense that led to the three-fold repetition for the seventh round. The Russian GM had an ELO rating of 2597, and since Sheva’s registered rating in this tournament was 2581, the small difference between them resulted in no one getting any additional rating here.

In this case, the Russian man was more than happy to accept the draw, as he didn’t want to be another stepping stone for Sheva’s career. Also, this was something he could brag on, being able to force Sheva, who was unstoppable for the entire tournament, to take a draw.

As for Sheva, he also didn’t mind it. Even though the result delayed his victory in this tournament, at least it helped preserve his energy. He had been fighting for so long in this city, and it would be a lie if the boy said that it didn’t drain him mentally. It was good to take a calculated draw once or twice, and he even thought he should do that in the future tournament.

Overall, both players were happy, and the only one who wasn’t happy was the organizer. After all, they knew that with the tournament’s winner being determined early, this would lower people’s enthusiasm.

Before this, they planned to use the topic of whether Sheva would be able to sweep all nine rounds by himself, creating history in this tournament. This would definitely be a great topic to engage more people at the end of the tournament. Unfortunately, this draw result forced them to throw away this plan, and now, they had to rack their brain to keep people interested for the rest of the tournament.

This also gave an idea to the other players that Sheva finally stopped being stubborn, willing to accept a reasonable draw result. Paulius Pultinevicius, the Lithuanian GM who was also Sheva’s opponent in the eighth round, wanted to try his luck by playing so passively, not wanting to take the initiative, and was so eager to exchange everything from the beginning until the end of the game.

This approach, indeed, troubled Sheva a lot. After all, the most difficult opponent to win was not those whose rating and ability were far higher than his, but those who were ready to die for a mere draw since the start of the game. It didn’t help that Sheva played an Italian Opening in that game, dragging it into a slow and painful positional endgame where he had to put 200 percent effort just to get a subtle upper hand in the later stage.

Fortunately, after playing a boring game for more than 60 moves, the opponent finally wilted. Under immense pressure from Sheva’s relentless pursuit, coupled with his being so short on time, the man finally made a mistake, allowing Sheva’s pawn to rush forward without any of his pieces able to stop.

In the end, after the 74th move of the game, the man resigned, which also made Sheva’s point unreachable by any other players in that section. With one round left, he came out as the sole winner of the tournament, leaving everyone in the dust.

Of course, he wouldn’t stop just like that. With the trophy in his hand already, as if wanting to cement his legacy in this tournament, Sheva went berserk in the last round. Poor his opponent, Richard Stalmach. The local IM had to suffer from Sheva’s insane Benko Gambit, as Sheva went into his opponent’s throat from the beginning of the game.

Richard Stalmach tried to resist for a little bit longer, not wanting to die in such a pitiful way. Sheva himself had to admit that the man’s resilience was top-notch. Unfortunately, he didn’t intend to show any mercy since the beginning of the game, and the fact that Richard Stalmach didn’t know a single thing about the Benko Gambit also helped him slaughter the Czech IM in the most dramatic way, allowing it to be the game of the tournament.

It was a massacre, with Sheva taking one piece after another cruelly. From two pawns, and then a rook, and after a while, two of the man’s knights were gone. They entered the endgame phase with Sheva still having five pawns, two bishops, and two rooks, while Richard Stalmach only had three pawns, a rook, and a bishop remaining to defend his territory.

In the end, he didn’t resist for too long, giving up any resistance after fighting for about 28 moves. This made Sheva come out as the winner of the tournament with 8.5 points out of 9 rounds, and not only that, he also gained about 40+ ELO rating, and now, he was 2623, whichcould be considered an elite player even in the whole world.

This also brought surprise to Sheva, as right after he won the last game, the system inside his head suddenly popped.

[DING!]

[Congratulations, you have already completed your mission! Do you want to accept the reward now?]

[Yes/No]

-Author’s note-

Hey, everyone! Thank you for supporting my story! I have written a new one with the hope of getting a contract for that story as well, the title is ’The Rise of the Iron Wall!’. It is a football story, so if you like, please give your support by adding it to your collection and giving your power stone to that story! Thanks!