"Yes! Constantin Lupulescu makes a mistake!" On the media booth, Bagas clenched his fist tightly as he saw that Taher's game was about to reach a climax. "After we see Master Susanto struggling to survive against Grandmaster Bogdan-Daniel Deac, now hope is finally rising, with Yoseph Taher gaining a huge advantage against Constantin Lupulescu! This is such a monumental moment, because far on board four, Sheva is also putting pressure on his opponent! If they both could win their games and Arfan could survive until the end, we have a chance to snatch this matchup from Romania! This is insane!"

Hilda99: Let's fucking go!

Itelante: That's my boy over there! Come on, Taher!

RonaldOSIu007: We have a chance to win against Romania? Someone, don't wake me up from this beautiful sleep!

Froggies: Damn, yeah! Come on, everyone! Don't blow this up, please!

The chat also exploded once they all saw the evaluation bar move up for Taher's advantage out of the sudden. Yeah, it was out of the blue, since everyone initially thought that the game would end up in a draw.

They couldn't be blamed for thinking so. After all, the game went pretty quickly with the Symmetrical English Opening, the line where most games would end up in a draw. Not only that, but both players also moved so fast as if this were a blitz game, shuffling their pieces back and forth and even exchanging some of them mindlessly.

It had been only one hour since the game began, yet they had already reached the 15th move of the game. Normally, a game would reach this stage after almost 90 minutes or more, since both players tended to use their time carefully so that they could make the best move on the board. It was a classical game, after all, and the best approach was to try to think of the best computer line possible while waiting for the opponent to make a mistake.

So, yeah, the fact that Taher and his opponent, Constantin Lupulescu, went down this route made everyone think that they would go for a draw to save energy for tomorrow.

Things went south, though, when suddenly, Constantin Lupulescu made a mistake. No one knew why he did that, but somehow, the 39-year-old GM moved his queen to the worst square possible. He put his own queen on the C7 square, and not only did it not help the man improve his position, but if anything, he only self-pinned his queen, walking straight to the diagonal where Taher's black bishop was staring at. Now, the pawn on the D6 wouldn't be able to move, and his own position got locked instantly on the back.

*Author note: If you want to visualize the position better, check the comment below.

Of course, it was not an easy job for Taher to navigate his way to take advantage of this mistake. However, everyone had the confidence that he could do it.

"Besides Sheva, Taher has probably the sharpest eyes among all the players whom I know when it comes to recognizing opponents' mistakes." Novendra, who sat next to Bagas, said with a solemn tone. "In fact, some people might argue that he is the best player in our generation. Even if I am the one who earns the GM title, I am not his match at all, especially when he is in his best state. S, I am sure that he would be able to spot the best way to take advantage of that."

Novendra's statement only made the audience's confidence soar. True enough, after the tense ten minutes where more than a thousand people watched Taher's action, once the man finally found the best move, the chat room exploded once again.

KilluaZe: Yes! Yes! Yes! He found it! Damn!

Hilda99: What a clutch move by Taher! Come on!

DiaGlee: GothamChess is right! Top players are those who know how to move their pieces back! This is crazy!

…

Of course, Taher didn't really know that a thousand people were currently cheering on him. Right now, the man clenched his fist unconsciously, even having a tense posture as he tried to look over everything on the board. This was a rare advantage that would never come twice, so he had to play clinically and kill the man as quickly as possible before he lost composure and crumbled under the stress here.

'Hmm… My light bishop is back and ready to get rerouted. It would be hard, since I basically gave up that diagonal for now. It would take a long time for me to reclaim that. But in return, my dark bishop is so strong, preventing him from castling and putting his king in a safe place. Yeah, he would never castle, forever. This is the road that I should exploit.'

*Author note: If you want to visualize the position better, check the comment below.

His opponent was also thinking hard right now. It seemed that the man also realized how fucked up his position was. No matter what kind of move he made, it would only drag him deeper into the web of a trap that Taher had already set.

The pace suddenly slowed down at an alarming rate. If before, the first fifteen minutes ran like a blitz for just fifteen minutes, now both players spent their time carefully, both with their own ambition. Taher didn't want to throw away the advantage that he gained here, while Constantin Lupulescu was trying hard to find a breakthrough that could at least put the game into an equal state once again. Hell, the Romanian GM even tried to sacrifice his bishop for just a mere pawn, trying to lure Taher's king into an open space and make a counterplay.

Unfortunately, that didn't work.

With the calmness of a top player, Taher showed why he was chosen to represent this country in this event. He didn't even make a single mistake for the rest of the game, making all the accurate decisions to the point that Constantin Lupulescu was suffocated on the back.

In the end, what all the Indonesian audiences waited for on the live broadcast finally happened.

After nearly two hours of playing, Constantin Lupulescu finally put his hand on the clock, stopping it completely from running further. Taher widened his eyes in shock as he saw the man offering him a handshake, and after he accepted it, the fact finally started to sink in his head.

Constantin Lupulescu resigned, and in just 25 moves, Taher won the game, giving Indonesia the first point of this matchup.

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