Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!

"Hello, everyone! Welcome back to the Black Rook channel, where we are going to live-stream the 44th FIDE Olympiad live from Chennai, India! I am Septian Bagaskara, and here, with me is Sarah as my partner, while later, our phenomenal youngsters, Adrian Sheva and Anna Marisa, will join us in this commentary booth!"

"Hello, everyone!" Sarah smiled while waving at the camera, enough to melt those single dogs' hearts on the live chat.

Monntacchi: Damn! My goddess, please, checkmate me!

RonaldOSIu007: …Are you for real?

Mugiwara673: What do you know about our goddess?!

Monntacchi: Yeah, you wouldn't understand us at all! Just mind your business!

Hilda99: … Just ignore them. They are crazy.

At this point, even Bagas himself had already been used by the craziness that Sarah's simps showed, and he didn't bat his eyes at them even for a second. The boy just continued hosting the show as if everything was normal, and Sarah's flat reaction also showed that she didn't really take those simps seriously.

"Today, we have a pretty tough matchup for both teams. The men's team is going to face the Serbian team, the 23rd-ranked team based on the average rating. We have the same result as them, 3 wins and 1 defeat, but on paper, they have a strong lineup, with Alexander Indjic, a veteran grandmaster with an ELO rating of 2620, leading them." Bagas introduced the men's team's opponent.

"As for the women's team, they are going to be in a tougher situation." Sarah continued. "After winning all four first matchups, they have to go against India's first team, led by Humpy Koneru. On paper, this is basically a mission impossible for the team. They are better than us in everything. However, anything could happen on the chessboard, so we all hope that they can pull a miracle in this matchup."

"Anyway, here is the matchup list today!" Right after Bagas said that, the screen showed a table with the pairing matchup for both men's and women's teams.

Men's team: Indonesia VS Serbia

Susanto Megaranto (2529) – (2620) Alexander Indjic

Priasmoro Novendra (2478) – (2581) Velimir Ivic

Yoseph T. Taher (2455) – (2561) Ivan Ivanisevic

Arfan Aditya Bagus (2341) – (2539) Milos Perunovic

Women's team: India I VS Indonesia

Humpy Koneru (2580) – (2388) Irene Kharisma Sukandar

Harika Dronavalli (2517) – (2412) Aulia Medina Warda

Vaishali Rameshbabu (2442) – (2321) Laysa Latifah

Tania Sachdev (2398) – (2270) Claudia Marisa

On paper, everything looked bleak for the Indonesian team. Even the lowest-rated member of Serbia and India was still better than the best one that Indonesia's team could provide. If chess were a game of statistics, there was no way they would be able to overcome the matchup today.

However, chess was not just a mathematical game. Both teams had already proven in the last few rounds that they could still win even though their opponent was far better by beating Romania for the men's team and stealing the win against France for the women's team. Everything could happen on the board, so it wasn't like they had no chance in this matchup.

Froggies: Where are Sheva and Anna, by the way?

LikitaW: Yeah, it is not like them to miss such an important game!

DabbyDObre: Didn't you watch the game yesterday? Medina said that they will take a day off today!

Hilda99: Yeah, even though it is a pity that they are not playing, this was arranged yesterday, and those two really need to have a rest.

Fortunately, Medina told everyone about the plan yesterday, so no one suspected anything had happened inside the club. Both Bagas and Sarah sighed in relief before smiling wryly at each other, knowing that sooner or later, the viewers would smell the problem inside the team easily.

"Okay, let's go to the venue, where all of them are about to make their first move! Come on, everyone! Show your best support toward our boys and girls!"

Right after that, the alarm rang, and all the players in the venue shook hands with each other before making the first move. The camera on the broadcast also panned onto one of the games on the women's side. Not only because they had a better performance so far compared to the men's team and that they faced the top-seeded team right now, but this was also Bagas's subtle attempt to support his friend. Since Sheva was not here playing for the men's team, why would he want to spend so much time giving them exposure?

Call him petty, but the boy was still infuriated with what Novendra said yesterday about Sheva being someone who just filled the blank, dismissing his best friend's value as if it was nothing when in reality, Sheva was the one who carried the team both in the game against Poland and Romania.

Of course, the players didn't really know about it. No, in fact, the moment they sat on their chair, they could only think about one thing, and that was how to survive this matchup. Claudia was under even greater pressure, especially since she couldn't bring shame to her big sister, whom she replaced today.

'Yes, I have to be careful here! I cannot disappoint Big Sis!'

With this determination, the girl started the game with a solid approach. Facing the queen's pawn opening, she chose one of the most stable responses possible, the King's Indian Defense. She moved her G pawn up one square, let the knight get out, and before fianchettoing her dark bishop into the G7 square, the girl didn't forget to challenge the center with her C6 and D5 moves.

Pieces flew all over the board, with both players still wanting to test the water while also developing slowly on their own territory. The most important part, though, was that they managed to put their king into safety. Looking at how quickly the center was occupied, the game would soon explode into chaos, and if the king was not safe enough, it could get caught in the crossfire.

Both Claudia and Tania seemed to move so fast here. Within twenty minutes, they had already reached the 15th move of the game. Usually, players would reach this far after the first 45 minutes, and sometimes, in a more complicated game, it could reach the 15th move of the game after the time runs more than 90 minutes off the clock. The speed that both players showed indicated one thing, and all the viewers all over Indonesia could clearly guess what was going on here.

'Does Claudia want a quick draw?'