"Ah… It is good to be back…" Sheva groaned a little, stretching his stiff body while also taking a seat on his own chair.

"Don't act like that, it is disrespectful!" Arfan slapped his shoulder a little bit hard, trying to remind Sheva to act decently. "Look, they are here already! Don't embarrass us too much with your behavior, okay?"

"I know, I know…" Sheva grumbled. However, he still followed his friend's words, knowing that being respectful was a basic necessity in any sport in the world, and that also included chess. The boy shook his head strongly, turning his eyes to the new person who had just sat in front of him."So, this is FM Maksims Golubovskis, huh?"

The man looked so young, and with his semi-bald hair, he looked like a young teenager who had just graduated from high school. However, Sheva didn't dare to underestimate him, not when the team needed a win the most. One slip was enough to drag the team to its downfall, so he was being extra careful here.

'System, check my stats for the last time before the game begins, please.' He muttered inwardly.

[DING! The scan is successful!]

[Name: Adrian Sheva]

Attacking 85

Defense 80

Calculation 81

Strategy 79

Intuition 78

Time management 83

Title Slot: [Endgame Master] [Empty] [Empty]

'Hmm… Based on my stats only, I should be in the middle-tier of the GM, right? Probably around 2600…' Sheva nodded, feeling satisfied with his own stats. 'My rating after the tournament in Biel is 2388, and with the addition of this Olympiad up until now, it is probably around 2420 in this tournament. To get the GM title, I need to have one more norm and cross the threshold of 2500 at least once. Well… The latter one is impossible to get, but can I earn my last norm in this Olympiad?'

Honestly, the possibility was pretty open for him to do that. After all, Sheva had done an amazing job up until now, winning four out of his four games, including against two GMs from Romania and Poland. However, to get his norm, the boy would need the rest of his opponents to be at least at the GM caliber, and to do that, the country had to perform better so that they could face a stronger opponent.

'It would be difficult if they still couldn't get into their rhythm.' Sheva thought, glancing at both Master Susanto and Novendra, who had been playing terribly in this tournament. 'In the end, if we really want to win, Brother Taher is going to be a better choice compared to them. Still, they have the seniority here, and one of them is the team leader. I cannot do anything about their situation on the team.'

After pondering for a while, the boy finally let out a deep sigh. 'Oh, well… This is not a problem that I should think of. Let's just focus on the game in front of me first. If they still can't win their game, maybe we really need to have a talk with them about this. For now, let's get the victory against Latvia first.'

Right after that, the alarm suddenly rang, indicating that the game had finally begun. Playing with the black piece, of course, Sheva waited to see what kind of move his opponent would make. To his disappointment, though, the man started the game with 1.d4, initiating the Queen's Pawn opening.

'Ah… Will it be another boring game where he tries to outmaneuver me in the endgame?' Sheva sighed while also pushing his knight to the G6 square. 'This is going to be a long day…'

Yeah, Sheva had a big prejudice against the 1.d4 opening. While it was solid, most of them were heavy in theory, and it was quite easy for the game to end up in a draw. Hell, most of his games that resulted in a draw all began with the 1.d4, and that was why the boy groaned when he saw this opening was on the board.

However, his eyes suddenly lit up when he saw the man's second move, pushing the C pawn two squares forward to control the center. If anything, it was a normal approach in the Queen's Pawn opening, initiating the infamous Indian game that was quite aggressive on the queenside. It seemed that his opponent, Maksims Golubovskis, still wanted to push his luck here.

However, that was not the thing that excited Sheva the most. No, a strange idea suddenly popped, and right after that, a mischievous smile curled slightly from the corner of his mouth, as a plan was constructed one brick after another inside his head.

'Yeah, I can do this!'

In the end, instead of the usual D6 followed by E5 that was quite normal in this system, Sheva pushed his C pawn forward, challenging the center immediately. This was the Benoni Defense, an old opening system that not a lot of players use anymore. This caught Maksims off guard, and straight after that, the man spent about three minutes thinking of how he should respond to the move.

Even though three minutes was not that much, in an opening stage where both players usually had been prepared for that, those were quite significant, basically showing that the opponent's move was not in his preparation. Even though it didn't really mean anything on the board, psychologically, the opponent had already gotten the first blood in this case.

In the end, Maksims managed to think of the best move that he could make, and that was to push his D pawn forward. This locked the center immediately, and even if Sheva wanted to challenge it with the E6 move, at least, the man still had his E pawn and the knight ready to support from behind.

However, the surprise didn't just end like that. No, Sheva still had more up his sleeve, and the boy was ready to show it off in this game.

Right after Maksims Golubovskis made that move, the boy didn't go for the usual route again. If anything, he went berserk, challenging the C pawn with the B5 move immediately. Looking at this, Maksims paused for a moment, looking at Sheva in disbelief while also muttering something in his local language.

'The fucking Benko Gambit? Seriously?!'

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