Chapter 85: Claudia’s Tough Battle!
"Oh! Claudia makes a blunder!" Master Irene, the guest commentator for the Black Rook channel, gasped when she saw the move that Claudia made. "She should’ve put her queen to the G4 square to prevent Arfan’s queen from infiltrating and also to protect her weak E3 pawn! Now, Arfan’s knight would jump to the G4 square, anchoring itself while also giving the queen a safe square to chase down Claudia’s king! She is in danger right now!"
*Author’s note: The last part is a fiction that I added myself, not based on something real.
"I don’t really understand the situation here, Master Irene." Bagas interrupted the commentary with a question. "This is such a basic blunder that I myself could see, and my rating point online is only around 750. There is no way that a prodigy like Claudia would make such a mistake, right? I mean, she should’ve seen this coming when she decided to push her B pawn instead of shifting her queen to protect her king, right?"
RonaldOSIu: Indeed, even I could see that coming, and my rating is just 1100.
MessitheGOAT: Well, I am 1400, and I couldn’t see where the blunder is before I listened to Master Irene’s explanation.
Frwoggies: Man, you sure need to up your game, you know?
MessitheGOAT: Oh, shut up!
All the people who watched the game also reacted the same way as Bagas did. Well, not everyone, since Sarah hadn’t been exposed to the game for too long. She still tried to understand the mechanics of the game and didn’t know what they were talking about, so in this case, the girl decided to stay back and let the pro handle this.
Master Irene pondered for a moment, not to think of the answer, but to think about how she should deliver it. After all, it seemed that she knew what Bagas was talking about, yet she was clueless about how to say it openly without making a blunder like her first day as a commentator here. Still, under the encouraging gaze from Sheva, the woman finally made up her mind and started explaining eloquently.
"You can see it clearly because of the difference in point of view here." She said. Looking at Bagas’s confused face, she added, "It is like how you watch a football game from the stands. You can see everything on the field clearly and will always complain whenever a player makes a silly mistake, but from the player’s point of view, the mistake itself is not that simple. There will always be a blind spot for the player that only we who watch it from the sideline could see, too."
"Ah, I see..." Bagas nodded in understanding.
"As for why Claudia decided to push her B pawn forward like that..." Master Irene hummed once again. "I don’t know what she has in mind, but I think she is worried that Arfan’s passed pawn on the A file would be too strong for her to handle in the future, so she wants to deal with it as quickly as possible. A bad move, of course, but her reasoning is understandable."
Indeed, Claudia herself only made the blunder due to a moment of slip in the middle of the game. It happened even for some of the best players in the world sometimes when they were too exhausted after playing for more than three hours nonstop. Unfortunately, an excuse wouldn’t help her recover, and she had to live with the consequence of her own blunder.
True enough, Arfan didn’t let this rare chance to slide that easily. Right after the blunder by Claudia, he marched forward relentlessly, pushing her king onto the edge of the board. The situation was pretty much chaotic for a moment, with both players making a lot of inaccuracies there. However, it didn’t change the direction of the game, as Arfan managed to simplify it by exchanging all of their pieces, leaving him with four connected pawns against Claudia with her three isolated pawns. Even an amateur could see now that it was hopeless for Claudia to continue the game.
In the end, after thinking for a while, the girl heaved a sigh, a slight pout formed on her face, as she offered a handshake. Yeah, she decided to resign, not having any hope of saving it all.
"Good game." She smiled stiffly, still greeting Arfan politely.
"Good game too." Arfan nodded, trying to ignore the furious whispers from his surroundings. "You did well for almost all the time, and if only you could concentrate a little bit more in the end, the result would be different."
"Thanks."
They both chatted for a while, trying to ignore the crowd, which was still excited about this game. Yeah, even though the game was over, they were still surrounded by those who were excited to discuss their game. After all, it was quite rare to witness a game that lasted for more than three hours and ended up with more than seventy moves in such a low-level tournament. Usually, mistakes that happened over and over again would kill the game pretty quickly.
However, the discussion was over soon as the arbiters came to remind them that they had made a commotion. Right after that, the crowd was dispersed immediately, with Sheva being one of them. He had a thoughtful face as the boy walked away from the hall, yet his mind was still thinking about Arfan’s game.
’So, I will be facing him next, huh?’ He muttered to himself. Even though Sheva hadn’t seen the official pairing, it wasn’t that hard to guess. After all, he and Arfan were the only two players with the perfect score right now, so having them clash in such a critical round would be a necessity. ’He is a stable positional player who is more stubborn and patient than Claudia, but he could also see tactics and capitalize on them if I somehow tilt and make a mistake. He is going to be a troublesome opponent later...’
Still, even though he said how troublesome Arfan would be, there was no denying that Sheva was excited right now. After all, this was another high-skilled player whom he would face, and he couldn’t wait to see how he would fare against such an opponent. He clenched his fist unconsciously, feeling his spirit burning inside.
’Aditya Bagus Arfan, huh? I cannot wait to see him later...’