Chapter 114

114 Aim For A Draw

"How? How can you play so fast? Do you even calculate all of these moves?"

Carrion couldn't help but ask in shock to Allen.

"You could say that it's all according to keikaku (plan)."

Allen vaguely answered Carrion while pushing the frame of his glasses as light glimmered through the lenses.

Hearing Allen's words, Carrion couldn't help but believe it since from what Allen had shown, he indeed could calculate his moves up to this point. Nevertheless, Carrion had a strong will and he would never give up this early so he moved his rook to c7.

Seeing Carrion's move that was so passive, Allen decided to go for an aggressive move as he moved his queen to d6, offering for a queen trade.

'Should I trade queens with him? If I don't, Allen might be able to easily defeat me if he still has his queen. I don't want to lose that fast against him so I might as well trade queens with him.'

Carrion accepted the queen trade as he took Allen's queen that was on the d6 square. Allen retaliated by taking Carrion's queen that was on the d6 square using his pawn. Not only did it take Carrion's queen, but it also gave his pawn a nice position as it was currently threatening to take Carrion's rook on the c7 square.

'',

Carrion wasn't stupid enough to blunder his rook as he retreated his rook to the d7 square. His intention was not only to move away from an attack but to also block the path of the pawn so the pawn was frozen as it could no longer move forward.

This time, Allen took a few seconds to examine the board again to find possible moves that wouldn't put him in a disadvantageous position. After a few seconds, he moved his knight to the g3 square as he threatened to take Carrion's pawn that was on the h5 square.

Carrion couldn't do anything to defend the h5 pawn and from his calculations, Allen would likely not take his pawn on the h5 square as it would put his knight in a bad position.

After all, if Allen took the pawn on the h5 square, it would allow Carrion's rook to take Allen's pawn on d6 so rather than trading pawns with Carrion that wouldn't improve his position, Allen planned to make his position more advantageous for him.

That was why Allen moved his rook to b1 to activate his rook as it was blocked by Carrion's knight. Seeing that Allen didn't defend his d6 pawn, Carrion took Allen's pawn using his rook as he moved it to the d6 square.

"Check."

Allen commented to Carrion after pushing his rook to b8. Carrion blocked the check using his bishop as he moved his bishop diagonally to the e8 square.

Instead of taking the pawn on h5, Allen took the pawn on e4 since it would threaten Carrion's rook rather than when he would take on h5 that wouldn't do anything to Carrion's pieces other than his pawn.

Carrion slid his rook to the h6 square to not only retreat from Allen's knight but also defend his h5 pawn in case Allen decided to reroute his knight back to the g3 square.

Even if the h5 pawn was defended, Allen still rerouted his knight back to the g3 square which caught Carrion off guard as he knew that it wasn't the best move that Allen could have used.

But Allen wasn't only going to use the best moves possible like some chess engines. No, he would choose moves that were a combination of the best moves and moves that were unpredictable despite not being the best moves available.

Such unpredictable moves caught Carrion off guard since it wasn't within his calculations. But Carrion wasn't hailed as the <Supreme Strategist> for nothing as he recovered from his shock and proceeded to concoct another strategy.

'',

After finding out that his knight was quite passive, Carrion moved his knight to the c5 square which wasn't the best move available from what Allen knew but it's not like he could comment about it since, like Carrion, he also didn't perform the best moves available.

So if it was reviewed by a chess engine, it would, without doubt, detect some inaccuracies and mistakes from Allen and Carrion's moves but never a blunder or missed win since the two of them wasn't that stupid to blunder their pieces.

Allen slid his rook one square to the right or specifically the c8 square to keep the bishop pinned to the king while also threatening to take Carrion's knight that was on the c5 square.

Moving away from Allen's rook attack, Carrion moved his knight to the d7 square while Allen responded by moving his rook to the a8 square. Carrion moved his rook to the c6 square which also wasn't the best move available but it was a good move nonetheless.

Since Carrion moved his rook away from the h5 pawn, the pawn no longer had any defenders so Allen took advantage of that as he took Carrion's h5 pawn using his knight. Carrion anticipated Allen's move so he pushed his rook to the c5 square.

Seeing Carrion threatening his knight with Carrion's rook, Allen retreated his knight to the f4 square. Carrion no longer had any best moves available other than a pawn to g3 so he did just that.

Using his pawn, Allen took Carrion's pawn on g3, and with that, Carrion only have 1 pawn left and it was the f7 pawn that hadn't moved since the start of the game.

Carrion moved his knight to the f6 square to activate his knight since it became passive again. This time, Allen activated his king as he moved his king to the f2 square.

Carrion also did what Allen had done which was to activate the king piece so Carrion moved his king to the e7 square.

Seeing that the bishop was no longer pinned to the king, Allen moved his rook to a7. Carrion responded by moving his king yet again as he moved his king to the d6 square.

"Are you sure of that move? It's a mistake according to my calculations. You left your pawn hanging. Even if it was defended by your bishop, that's only a fake defense."

Hearing Allen's comment, Carrion could only sigh. He knew that he had no hope of winning the endgame. He could only aim for a draw.