It had been a long time since the live broadcast showed Sheva's game today. To be more exact, it was during the 25th move of the game almost two hours ago, and now, the game has already entered the 58th move.

Honestly, it was such a rookie mistake for Bagas to forget showing the marquee match for such a long time, but he couldn't really help it. The game entered a positional battle pretty early, and besides following the computer line like an idiot without knowing the reason behind every move recommended there, he decided to go for a more exciting one, where Medina and her opponent were fighting in a cutthroat tactical battle, which ended up in a bang. The boy himself didn't regret the decision to do that, yet somehow, he had a hard time picking up Sheva's game from where he left it earlier.

"Okay, so!" The boy clapped pretty loudly, trying to get everyone's attention. "This is where we left the game earlier, and this…" He pressed the arrow button on his laptop to push forward the game on the screen quickly. "This is the position right now. So, any comment, Anna?" He inquired.

"Well… It is difficult to judge…" Anna frowned a little, starting to rewind the game back to the beginning again. "Let me check it first…"

Yeah, even though she adapted well into the role of a commentator here, that didn't mean the girl could guess what was going on just based on the current position. No, she needed to know how both players led the game in this direction first before making a comment. That was quite normal for a commentator who came late, and even the best one in the world would also agree with her statement.

"So, they are going for the Queen's Gambit Decline, huh? And Muradli Muhammad plays quite aggressively today." Anna said with a startled tone. This was the first time she watched this game as well, since table one was always surrounded by the crowds there, so her reaction was justifiable here. "Well, it is a pretty equal game here, and even though at some point, Muradli Muhammad had the momentum, Sheva made a good counterplay by rerouting his knight. But other than that, both players are going for an insanely high accuracy today. I don't think that they make a single mistake in this game."

Indeed, that was the truth here. Even though at some point, Muradli Muhammad managed to push Sheva into an embarrassing situation where all of the boy's pieces got cramped on the back row, the man failed to capitalize on that as Sheva showed his defensive resourcefulness and forced the game back into a draw again.

On the other hand, Sheva also tried to do the same, trying to open up the position so that his queen and bishop could infiltrate further. However, Muradli Muhammad also showed that he was in his best state today, as the man pulled up an iron wall perfectly for the whole game.

Honestly, it was insane how they could play with a very high accuracy even when they were already exhausted. Normally, someone would've already wilted in this situation, yet somehow, both players still wanted to push forward.

Hell, the current situation itself was pretty drawish, with both Sheva and Muradli having one rook, three pawns, and an opposite-color bishop. There was no way any of them could make a breakthrough here, yet they still kept going, wanting to push their luck. Well, at least that was the case for Sheva, who still wanted to win the game.

As for Muradli Muhammad, the man had already tried to bait Sheva into threefold repetition, especially since the games featuring the two other GMs who could tie their scores with him had already ended. The game between Leon Luca Mendoca from India and Shant Sargsyan from Armenia, who both had 6.5 points and had a chance to pass Muradli's 7 points score, ended up as a draw, and as long as the man managed to force the game against Sheva into another draw, he would be the sole winner of this section.

That was why he was so eager to end the game here.

However, it wasn't Sheva if he wasn't so stubborn to win the game, especially when something big was on the line. He also noticed the final result of the game on board 2, and as long as the boy won this game, he would snatch the lead spot from everyone else with 7.5 points. That was what he had his eyes on right now, and no matter what, the boy would've never accepted the draw willingly.

Unfortunately, even the boy himself could see that his road was blocked here. No matter where he wanted to go and what kind of a breakthrough he wanted to make, Muradli Muhammad countered it perfectly, not giving the boy any chance to slip into his defense.

Somehow, this made the boy doubt himself, as he thought, 'Is this it? A fucking draw to end this tournament?' Even though he had already achieved his target, the boy would still regret it if he failed to win it all after being so close to the number one spot here.

65th move.

70th move.

75th move.

80th move.

85th move.

They still kept shuffling pieces back and forth, and by then, both players finally showed a hint of exhaustion. Sheva felt like his brain started lagging, and if he continued to push it to work harder, the boy didn't think that what the cartoon usually showed when a character had their brain burned would be unrealistic again. Still, he didn't want to end this game just like that, still having a glimmer of hope that somehow, he could turn the situation to his favor. It was a little bit delusional, but that was the only thing he got right now.

The crowd also started to disperse here, realizing that nothing drastic would happen in this game anymore. Everyone had already acknowledged that the game was a draw, and only Sheva insisted on continuing aimlessly like this.

However, as they entered the 94th move of the game, Muradli Muhammad suddenly stopped the clock, catching Sheva off guard. When he was about to ask, the Azerbaijan GM had already called the arbiter and just said two simple sentences that ended the game immediately.

"Sir, 50-move rule. Please, check it out."

And that was when Sheva knew that the dream of this tournament was finally over.

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