The win by Sheva somehow elevated almost all the pressure that the other Indonesian players on the table felt right now. While they were still being too cautious in their game, at least, the domination that Sheva showed was enough to lift their confidence a little.

Right now, even though the other three games were still pretty much equal, at least, Sheva could see that Arfan tried to break through the deadlock, wanting to create something in his position. This alone was enough for Sheva, as he really wanted to see a positive attitude in this matchup.

As for Master Susanto and Novendra… Well, honestly, Sheva didn't really have a high hope for them. At this point, he had been playing alongside them long enough to realize that their passiveness would only lead the game into a draw, no matter who their opponent was. Right now, the only hope he had was on Arfan, who was still fighting for a chance to attack.

'Come on, Arfan… Don't disappoint me here…' Sheva hummed, crossing his arms in front of his chest while also staring at the game on board 3 from behind Arfan.

Unfortunately, being stared at so intently with eyes full of judgment from Sheva only made the boy squirm uncomfortably. Well, who would be able to go all out under such a scrutinizing gaze? Arfan even stole a glance several times at Sheva, signalling the boy to go away first as he got distracted. However, Sheva seemed not to get the hint here, as the boy didn't budge even a single inch from his spot.

In the end, Arfan could only grit his teeth, inwardly thinking, 'So, you want to watch my game, huh? Fine! Let me show you how much I have improved!'

Currently, Arfan was playing against Ritvars Reimanis, an IM from Latvia with an ELO rating of 2377, definitely an equal game based on paper. Sheva couldn't help but snort, though, at the name of the opponent.

In the Indonesian Language, the word 'Manis' meant sweet, and yet somehow, the man was the complete opposite of it. Ritvars was probably the stereotype of a tough man from Eastern Europe, with his grumpiness, and would throw the first punch whenever someone disagreed with his opinion. He could be anything, but sweet was definitely not the best word to describe his appearance.

However, his amusement disappeared instantly when Sheva realized the current situation on Arfan's board. They seemed to be in a complicated position, where one mistake was enough to make everything crumble on the spot. It was a good decision by both players to maintain the tension, not taking the initiative to break through the deadlock. However, both Arfan and his opponent had been shifting back and forth aimlessly, making Sheva nervous that it would end up in a draw.

'At some point, an exchange would have to happen to make the game progress further.' Sheva pondered for a moment. 'Still, whoever does that first will lose the initiative, and it would hurt in the long run. I cannot expect Arfan to take the risk here, because a draw is still better than losing.'

Yeah, if it were him in this position, Sheva would definitely make a breakthrough, wanting to bait the opponent into some action. While it might put him at a disadvantage, the boy was always confident that he could overturn the situation by forcing the game into a complicated one. He had done so for a lot of games in the past, and the result was quite satisfying.

However, Arfan's playing style was far different than his. If anything, it was similar to Claudia's game, where the preparation and positional warfare played for 70 percent of their style. While they could still hold on in a tactical battle, they would never deliberately fall into the pit to lure the opponent to fall into the same hole.

Fortunately, the win that Sheva achieved earlier not only brought confidence up for his teammates, but also put greater pressure on the opponent as well. While Latvia was not a strong team and most of the matchups involving them and top countries would only end up with them being the punching bag, against a country with the same level, they still wanted to triumph, and Indonesia was one of the countries that was pretty equal in terms of rating, so losing was not an option for them here.

That was why Ritvars was the one who made the first significant move in this game. The man tried his best to avoid the draw by offering a knight trade, which was far from beneficial for him. Not only did it allow Arfan to infiltrate his pieces deeper into his territory, but the defensive wall that protected his king also got a massive hole right now. The evaluation bar spiked up to +2.4 for Arfan's advantage, and honestly, in this position, any human player would've thought that the advantage should be more than that.

'Yes, now, the game could progress more.' Sheva clenched his fist tightly. 'One point lead is not safe yet. Come on, someone, win one more game to secure the deal here…'

Meanwhile, the situation on the other boards was hopeless. Sheva just glanced for a second, and he knew that the games on boards 1 and 2 would end up in a draw. In Master Susanto's game, with two rooks and four pawns against two rooks and five pawns, besides being one pawn down, the man could still maintain his position pretty well. However, the one pawn down made it almost impossible for the man to win this game, so Sheva didn't want to stay for too long just to watch this boring game unfold.

As for Novendra's game, the situation was still a little bit more complicated. It was a rook, a same color bishop, and several pawns in an endgame, and anything was possible for this situation. However, Sheva could see the sweat on Novendra's face, and the man's tensed shoulder was enough to tell him that Novendra would not be able to find the W he wanted here.

'Yeah, it is lucky that he hasn't made any mistakes yet to this point, so let's be grateful for it.' The boy shook his head quickly. 'If Arfan managed to win the game, at least we will be able to secure the victory here, so at least we achieve what we want in this matchup. As the process… If either Novendra or Master Susanto still failed to win against a lower-rated opponent like this, either one of them has to go, and I think I know who it will be…'

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