Chapter 200: Anna VS Claudia Again!
Fifteen minutes later, the lunch break was finally over, and the four female warriors who were still in the middle of a war arrived back at the battlefield once again, ready to fight for one spot on the Biel International Chess Festival next month.
The pairing was back to the first round again, with Claudia playing against Anna, and Irene had another matchup against Medina. However, this time, they would switch sides, with Claudia playing the white piece and Anna having the black piece. With each of them still having a chance to win the tournament, this was a crucial round to establish their domination, as a win would definitely put pressure on the other players as well.
"So, who do you think will win, Shev?" Bagas couldn’t help but ask his best friend.
Sheva pondered for a moment, and in the end, he just shook his head firmly. "I think Ia will try her best to get back on track first, so she would play safe and force a draw if she could. As long as she didn’t make any mistakes, Anna wouldn’t be able to penetrate her defensive line. Sister Irene and Sister Medina would also play conservatively, wanting to get their point in the game against either Ia or Anna. This round will end up with no decisive result, if I have to guess."
"That is a bold guess..." Bagas crooked one of his eyebrows slightly. "Still, I would really want to see Ia win some games and get back on the track, though. She has a pretty rough tournament so far." He looked at the little girl sympathetically, remembering the heart-to-heart chat he had with her earlier.
"Yeah, and that’s because she got cocky and thought that winning would be an easy matter for her." Sheva retorted with an eye roll. "It might be difficult for her to win straight away, but once she managed to cut off the bad momentum on her side, Ia would be able to play better. As for taking a few wins... That really depends on the other players as well..."
Bagas could only sigh when he heard that. However, this was a competition sport. Those who played well could still not win the entire game, especially when the opponent played a better game. Everything still depended on both sides of the board.
Meanwhile, both Anna and Claudia also walked into the table, ready for the game. There was an awkward silence between those two, as the little girl still tried to muster her courage to say something here. If there was one thing she was afraid the most, it was to disappoint her big sister, and it seemed that she was so close to doing that here. In the end, though, Claudia swallowed her fear, and words finally escaped from her mouth.
"... I am sorry..." She squeaked lowly, not daring to stare at her big sister’s eyes directly.
Anna just stared at her silently with both arms crossed in front of her chest, enough to make her sister squirm uncomfortably on the other side of the table. However, it seemed that both Marisa Sisters weren’t the type of person who held grudges here, as the big sister suddenly let out a big sigh with her expression softened a bit.
"You know that it is not me whom you should say sorry to, right?" Anna reminded, not in a harsh tone. Seeing Claudia nod, she added, "I know that you are in a bad mood, but that doesn’t mean you can snap at Sheva like that. He has a feeling too, you know? He always took care of you, and even helped me get better, and tried to be with us whenever we lost, but what did he get? Even though his joke was bad, that doesn’t mean he deserves to receive that treatment from you..."
"I know, I will apologize later." Claudia nodded, her voice barely a whisper. Still, she couldn’t help but let out a relieved sigh. Just like when she talked to Bagas earlier, her mood also got better once she finished talking with Anna. As for Sheva...
’I will apologize to him later. But Brother Bagas is right. Rather than saying it out loud, the best way to do that is to show her that I am okay, playing a good game, and making him proud of me. This is not going to be an easy game, but I have to try!’
A moment later, the alarm from Irfan’s laptop finally rang, showing that the fourth round of the tournament had started. Playing with white, Claudia rushed her E pawn two squares forward immediately. The girl had been preparing for the Sicilian Defense, knowing that it was her sister’s favorite opening with black.
However, to her surprise, instead of moving the C pawn two squares forward to the C5 square, the big sister only pushed it one square, going for a completely different system here.
’A Caro-Kann?’ Sheva crooked one of his eyebrows when he saw this. ’It should be the first time I see her playing this, right? Is she trying to get a quick draw or what?’
Even though his system had been upgraded from the first-ever version, all the rewards Sheva got in the past didn’t disappear, and one particular opening besides the Dutch Defense that the boy got as a high-level reward was the Caro-Kann defense. It wouldn’t be exaggerated if Sheva said that his knowledge about the Caro-Kann defense was better than that of a lot of players inside this room.
Still, even though it was a solid opening, almost all the variations of the Caro-Kann defense always led to a lot of exchanges, which would force the game into the endgame phase quicker than anyone expected. More often than before, in a high-level game, the usage of this opening would lead to a draw game.
Claudia herself also frowned, not expecting that Anna would pull this opening out of nowhere. Of course, she didn’t want a quick draw. The little girl went for the variation where the chance of winning was still pretty much open, the advanced variation where she didn’t take the pawn on the D5 square.
However, once again, much to her surprise, Anna didn’t play this opening for a quick draw. No, in the next few moves, the big sister showed her fangs first, and it was enough to scare the shit out of her little sister.