Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!

'Oh, come on!' Sheva groaned inwardly. Honestly, if this were not a formal occasion, he would've thrown hands already, starting to talk trash or do something stupid. 'Are you kidding me? A fucking Italian game?! What is he trying to do, getting a force draw against me?!'

Yeah, if it wasn't that obvious before, this thought really cleared things up for Sheva. He hated this Italian Game opening through his bones, and the mere thought of having to play against it was enough to lower his fighting spirit.

It wasn't like the Italian Game was a bad opening. No, if anything, this was a mad, solid one, ensuring both players to go steadily with a lot of opportunities for a surprise attack, as different move orders and slight changes in the position could lead to entirely new and unfamiliar positions, giving players a chance to surprise their opponent with novelties. Honestly, this should be a perfect opening for Sheva, especially since this didn't require him to remember too many theories.

However, Sheva had a slight prejudice here.

In his experience playing this game for more than half a year, most of the games that ended up with a draw would be because his opponent chose this opening, and its solid approach really annoyed the boy. It was as if all of his opponents who played the Italian Game came for a draw, which gave Sheva a bad idea about this opening.

Hell, even if the game didn't go for a draw, if things went perfectly for both sides, there wouldn't be a lot of confrontations on the board, which would lead the game into an endgame phase. Not that Sheva wasn't prepared for that, but if he could choose, the boy would rather go for a cutthroat tactical battle rather than an endgame battle where he needed to approach the situation meticulously, which would only exhaust him more.

Still, since the opening was already on the board, he could only swallow all of his complaints and go with the flow.

'Oh, fine! You want to play the Italian Game? Let me give you one!'

Even though it was a solid and less confrontational opening, Sheva still chose the most aggressive line here, pushing his C and E pawns to the fifth rank while also getting supported by the D pawn and a knight on the C6 square. Not only that, he also allowed the bishop exchange that made him get a double-pawn on the E file, yet as for the compensation, his rook was staring directly without anything stopping it, strengthening Sheva's attack in one move.

However, Aryan Chopra himself was not a paper tiger. No, the man also had his own pride, and when he saw Sheva pushing his pawns too far, he also returned the favor here, striking back at the queenside. The move kicked Sheva's knight out of the C6 square, and Aryan Chopra also planted a strong chain pawn on the A and B files successfully. This would be a huge investment for the later stage of the game for the Indian grandmaster.

*Author note: If you want to visualize the position better, check the comment below.

'Okay, let's see what he is trying to do…' Sheva put his hand on his chin, trying to think what kind of trick Aryan Chopra had under his sleeves. 'If I am not wrong, he would get his dark bishop into the B4 file, right? Then, followed by a pawn break on the center of the board, he would also bring his queen to the party. Even though my doubled pawn would be gone, he still has the attacking initiative in the game, which would be a troublesome thing if I didn't do anything about it.'

Somehow, the momentum went into Aryan Chopra's direction, and Sheva was pushed into a passive state while also waiting for a punch to be thrown at his side. However, the boy himself didn't really mind it. No, if anything, he was ecstatic, since the game went completely in a direction that he wanted. Instead of going for a solid positional battle, Aryan Chopra wanted to get into a tactical game here, which was definitely Sheva's favorite style in this game.

'Come on, let's fucking do this!' Sheva clenched his fist in determination.

In the next few moves, everything went just exactly like what Sheva predicted earlier. Of course, he himself wasn't surprised by this development. However, those who were watching from the screen couldn't help but gasp when they saw this, especially since the evaluation bar itself spiked up slightly for the white's favor.

"No, why would he do that?!" Irfan, the commentator on the live stream, couldn't help but shout when he saw the move. "Why would he let Chopra develop his pieces peacefully to the point that the Indian GM has a strong attack staring directly into his own territory?! Now, he is going to be passive for a long time, and except if Aryan Chopra makes a big mistake, I don't think the initiative would go to Sheva's side again in this game!"

Well, that was what Irfan said. However, even though the evaluation bar gave +1.2 for Aryan Chopra's advantage, the position itself was pretty complicated, and it was not easy for both players to navigate their way through the opponent's side without making a single mistake here. Even Aryan Chopra started sweating, finding this position to be pretty difficult to deal with.

In the end, though, his nature as a defensive-oriented player finally kicked in, as instead of taking a free pawn with a chain of exchanges on the D6 square, Aryan Chopra decided to solidify his own position first by putting his rook to protect the pawn on the F2 square. It wasn't an outrageous move, per se, but all the advantage that the Indian GM had earlier was gone instantly, as now, with a tempo advantage in his hand, Sheva was ready for a counterattack.

Sheva glanced sideways to his opponent for a second, and knowing that the man was thinking hard with both hands rubbing his temple, the boy couldn't help but smirk, muttering to himself, 'Oh, well, thank you for the chance here. Get ready, because this time, I will not show any mercy for the rest of the game!'