Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!

In almost all the open tournaments in the world, there would always be an additional time in the later game once both players had already passed a specific threshold. The normal case was 30 minutes additional time once both players passed the 40th move, with 30 30-second increment in each move. This additional time was there to give players more time for the complex and time-consuming endgame phase, ensuring they had sufficient time to play these critical positions well rather than being forced to make mistakes under pressure due to limited clock time.

After all, the endgame phase was no joke. It was a different beast, a completely different battlefield. It was a cruel stage full of landmines, where one mistaken step was enough to blow even the best player in the world.

Not wanting to become another victim of this cruel phase, Sheva treats every move carefully, spending about one or even two minutes in each step. Just like any decent player who had just started learning about endgame, though, Sheva did the most obvious thing, letting his king run forward to support all of his pieces. After all, in this situation, the king's activity mattered. A lot.

Meanwhile, Hans did the opposite. He delayed his king's advancement, maneuvering his rook first to threaten Sheva's pawns on the seventh rank. It forced his opponent to move them forward prematurely so that they wouldn't be taken by his rook. This could be bad for Sheva, as mindless overextended pawns sometimes were not a good thing in the endgame.

What they didn't know, though, was that the evaluation bar was quite in a dilemma regarding their situation. It moved up and down in every move, always thinking that all the maneuvers that they made on the board were bad. However, even if they were able to see it, both teenagers wouldn't care too much, choosing to stick to their own principles.

It was quite rare to see such a scene in a high-rated game. In the age where computers dominated the chess world, where computers dictated how chess players trained, it was refreshing to see the 'human' touch in a game like this, where both players didn't just go and follow the best line that the computer suggested and waited for their opponent to fail to do so. This brought more excitement to the crowd, as some elite players of the tournament started to surround the table.

'Damn, why would they start coming here?! The space is getting cramped, for God's sake!' Sheva cursed inwardly at the sight of his surroundings. 'Whatever. As long as they don't make any noises, I don't care what they are doing right now. Let's focus on the game in front of me first.'

After another ten moves, Sheva managed to force another exchange. This time, it was his knight for Hans's bishop. This increased the probability of the game turning into a draw, and Sheva was all in for it. This was already in line with his target to gain a positive result against Hans Niemann.

However, the American grandmaster thought otherwise. The man was still ambitious, trying to poke a little hole here and there in Sheva's defensive wall. This was enough to put pressure on the Indonesian boy, forcing a few clumsy moves that were enough to be exploited. It was unfortunate that Hans's endgame technique was full of flaws, making it hard for him to get a real advantage over everything that he had already done in this game.

Both players started to sweat, cursing inwardly inside their heads.

'Damn! Why is he being so stubborn! It is a draw endgame, just end this shit immediately!' Sheva scowled inside his head. Then, he glanced sideways at Hans, who also did the same, and for a moment, their eyes met, and he couldn't see the sign of resignation in his opponent's eyes. 'What a stubborn bastard! Just… Just take the fucking draw!'

Of course, Hans Niemann had the exact opposite thought here. He gritted his teeth, having to hold back the urge to yank his long, curly hair on the spot.

'What the fuck?! How could a mere 2100-rated player fight a solid endgame like a computer?! Why would it always happen to me?!' The American grandmaster scowled, cursing his bad luck for the bad pairing. 'He is even tougher than some of the grandmasters in this tournament! He should've been a fucking grandmaster already!' The boy didn't know that Sheva indeed had just gotten his first-ever GM norm from this tournament.

Nevertheless, the game still continued, and both players were still trying hard to get something in this game. Slowly, pieces fell one by one. From a pawn, a rook, another pawn, until in the end, only a few of them were left, surviving from the cruel purge that happened on the board. At one point, Hans even had a slight advantage by being up to one pawn. However, Sheva managed to hold his position strongly, not even letting any of Hans's pawns rush forward without his supervision.

Time was ticking slowly, and both were starting to get exhausted here. Not only was it because the game had been running for more than three hours, but the accumulation they got from the eighth round earlier in the morning also started to hit their heads. With the time scramble coming up, both had already set up their wariness to the highest level, knowing that any mistake could happen at the most random time possible.

Both players were down under two minutes already, and they started to speed up their moves.

55th move.

60th move.

65th move.

70th move.

75th move.

Both players blitzed their bwa through the board, not even using more than five seconds to think for every move. They both were sweating and starting to rise from their chair to get a better reach to the far end of the board, and at this point, their brain was fried already. The only way they could still make a move was due to the intuition honed in a harsh battlefield. However, much to everyone's amazement, the evaluation bar didn't move. It was stuck in the middle, as if the engine had already determined that the game was going to be a draw. It was just the players who were stubborn enough to still play here, but it was a futile attempt to win the game.

After shifting pieces back and forth for another ten minutes, both players also fell into exhaustion. Finally, with a quick glance at each other, the two teenagers reached the same conclusion, and they offered a handshake to end the game.

They settled for a draw.