Unfortunately, even with Sheva's help, there was not a lot that could be done here. After having a good first three days of the tournament, all the Indonesian players finally faced a tough one in the first round, as they met a stronger opponent than themselves.
Honestly, it was so strange considering this was not their first rodeo, what with them doing the same for the first three days here. However, as exhaustion built on their shoulders, their performance grew sloppier, and none of them could steal a win today.
Yeah, seven games and zero wins, definitely a rough day for the Indonesian players in Biel. The closest one to get a good result was Anna, who came so close to beating Shamant Aditya in a 55-move game before the girl finally blundered in the last second, throwing away her win for a mere draw.
The girl was so shaken by this result, as this was the second time she wasted a winning position for nothing. While yes, she could justify it with the opponent being stronger, it was definitely not a good thing to repeat the same mistake over and over again. This was also a big difference between a strong player and an ordinary one, with the strong being able to take advantage of everything they had and not just waste it for nothing.
Still, this result was definitely way better than what her rival showed today. Against Bu Xiangzhi, she failed to put up a good fight like the Marisa Siblings, getting beaten in a positional masterclass that lasted for only 2 hours. It was definitely a disappointing result, especially since Anna and Claudia did a wonderful job against the Chinese GM before.
Speaking of Claudia, though, the little girl also suffered another defeat today. Even with Sheva's preparation, she still failed to equalize a tough endgame against Victor Erdos, having to accept the loss after getting checkmated with the man's two rooks. She tried her best until the end, not even giving up, even when the mate was on the board. Unfortunately, while her effort was commendable, at the end of the day, it wasn't enough to snatch even half a point in that game.
Another player who did a great job was Devi. She still managed to maintain her undefeated streak by forcing a draw against a young Indian IM, Harikrishnan, in an equal game that lasted for 39 moves. The game wasn't as smooth as she liked, though, what with her keep making things difficult for herself with one after another mistake that she made. Fortunately, her opponent was also playing like a shit today, even making more mistakes than her.
It was definitely a spectacle, what with them blundering all around the place. The evaluation bar was like hyperventilating, moving up and down so fast that it couldn't even catch a breath. In the end, just like GothamChess said, a perfect game always ended up in a draw, and this was also the case, as everything went until nothing was left but the two kings from the two sides of the board.
Meanwhile, Sheva's two other students had a completely different result.
Nayaka was lucky that he managed to get a quick draw here, finding a trick to get a stalemate by locking down his opponent's king on the corner and forcing perpetual check. It was clear that his opponent, a young Chinese player named Wang Chen, was not satisfied with the draw. However, Nayaka was happy to get one, especially with little to no effort like this. Every rating he earned would boost his situation, so the boy would take all he could get in this tournament.
Funnily enough, he was probably the only one among the seven Indonesians here who was satisfied with the result. Even though some managed to get a draw, they were all so close to winning, so the disappointing feeling was still lingering in their heart.
As for Duta, he was struggling against the Vietnamese IM, not being able to find anything worth fighting before getting beaten in just 26 moves. Honestly, Sheva took a note on the boy's performance, and it was truly concerning.
In his last 20 games in all competitions, Duta always got beaten whenever he fought against an opponent whose rating was 200 or more above his. His current record was 0-0-6, which definitely was not a good one for a young player who wanted to take a step further.
Of course, it wasn't his fault, since on paper, his opponent was definitely a stronger one. However, if the boy wanted to take a giant leap into the elite level, he had to deal with this matter; he couldn't just lose all of his games against a stronger opponent.
Lastly, for Dita Karenza, her game turned into a brutal beating, where she couldn't even lay a finger on her opponent's territory. Honestly, the performance was so appalling that Sheva even questioned whether she was serious or not. Hell, the woman didn't even look worried, as if expecting this result since the beginning.
The boy took note of it inside his head, wanting to ask Dita Karenza herself.
Overall, only three players managed to get a draw, which were Anna, Devi, and Nayaka. The rest of them had to be satisfied, stuck at the same point, getting dragged down by the other players who had a positive result in this round.
Anna was still leading the pack with 3 points out of 4 rounds, but the girl couldn't have the heart to be happy, knowing that she had a chance to get into the top, but just threw it away. Behind her, Laysa, Devi, and Nayaka followed with 2.5 points, keeping the race tight. Then, the others were half a point behind, getting a fifty-percent result so far.
On paper, it looked good, especially since they all were the lower-rated players in this tournament. Any result other than a loss could propel their rating quite high just in one go. However, Sheva knew that the challenge would start tomorrow, when they all had just gotten a bad result with the mental exhaustion on their shoulder.
'Now… Let's see who can survive this ordeal…'
Comments