Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!

The next day, Sheva walked into the hall of the hotel with deep bags under his eyes, clearly showing that he didn’t have a good sleep last night. Well, it seemed that this was a common theme here. Not that the hotel was subpar and uncomfortable, but Sheva treated every game too seriously, researching until late at night in fear that he would miss something.

So, yeah, Irfan’s assumption that he was being arrogant was definitely far from the truth. At least... That was from Sheva’s perspective.

He walked into the venue, just to find that Bagas was already there. Instead of setting up his broadcast equipment, the fat boy just stood in front of the entrance door, having his arms folded in front of his chest.

Seeing this, Sheva just rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Why are you trying to act cool here? Who are you trying to impress? Don’t tell me that you have your eyes on another girl, okay?"

Bagas snapped his head quickly, his jaws dropped at the sudden accusation. "Bastard, I am here to console you, and you accuse me of that?! What kind of brother are you?!" His face was slightly red.

"So... You are not here for girls?"

"Of course, not! Who do you think I am?!"

"Good." Sheva breathed out a relieved sigh. "At least, I don’t have to tell Sarah anything bad here." He smirked a little, enjoying how his best friend’s face turned white instantly.

"D—Don’t joke about something like that so easily, Brother! You know how bad her temper is, right?" This time, the anger subsided, and the fat boy sounded panicked and desperate here.

"Yeah, yeah, I am just joking." The smirk widened as Sheva punched his best friend’s shoulder lightly. "Anyway, what are you doing here? I swear, I heard something about consoling me, but I don’t think I need one, right?" He asked curiously.

"Oh, well... The old man, I mean, Master Irfan, told me that he is going to watch your game intently today, so he is going to nitpick more..." Bagas rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.

Hearing this, Sheva felt like a headache was coming. Not that he didn’t like Irfan’s care, of course, but the man tended to overthink, seeing every gesture other than sitting with a stone-cold face for the whole three hours of the game as a disrespect toward the opponent.

Sheva learned a lot of things during his time studying with Irfan, but this was definitely one thing he couldn’t agree on the most.

"But don’t worry! If I know that Master Irfan is going to scold you, I will not accept the call at all! At least, just go all out and don’t worry about people back home!" Bagas patted his chest reassuringly.

This touched Sheva for a moment before he frowned instantly. "Would that mean you are going to offend him?"

"Bah! What offense?! We are not that close in the first place, you know?!" Bagas waved the concern nonchalantly. "You might not know this, but in the last few months, besides our cooperation in the live broadcast like this, we have never had a proper chat, even once! Rejecting a call once would never make things worse, I swear."

Sheva was still skeptical, but Bagas’s confidence finally made him nod reluctantly. "Oh, well... At least, I owe you one here."

"Don’t worry, just treat Sarah and me to dinner, and we’re even!" Bagas grinned goofily.

Sheva just rolled his eyes slightly, but nodded in agreement. After chatting more for a while, he finally walked toward the table he was assigned to. There, the boy also saw that everyone was ready, including Nils Grandelius himself.

"Nice to meet you." Sheva offered a handshake politely.

"Yeah, nice to meet you as well." The Swedish GM nodded stiffly.

Once he sat there, they spent a moment in an awkward silence, minding their own business in their head. Right now, Sheva’s eyes were wandering around, glancing at every table to see the pairing today.

’Damn, Gukesh is playing against Arjun? It would either be a quick draw or those two would go all out for each other’s throats from the beginning. Fucking hell, that would be interesting...’ The boy shook his head at the sight of two Indians staring at each other quietly at table one.

That game was quite big, not only because two Indian prodigies would have to fight against each other, but their current position on the standings also demanded that both players go for a win.

Gukesh was still on top of the list, and if he wanted to hold that position, a full point was necessary. Meanwhile, Arjun had just lost two games in a row, putting him in the second-to-bottom position on the current standings. While winning the tournament seemed to be impossible now, he couldn’t embarrass himself too far, so the boy also eyed a win, even if the opponent was his best friend.

It was clear that the game would be explosive later, and honestly, if Sheva wasn’t here as a participant, he would want to enjoy it with a popcorn in his hand.

"Oh, well, there is also Peter Svidler’s game, right?" Sheva pondered for a second, glancing at table 3 where the Russian veteran was sitting and waiting for his opponent.

This game also piqued his interest, since Peter Svidler had done amazingly in the last two rounds after Sheva beat him on the opening day. The man won two games consecutively, beating both Boris Gelfand and Arjun Erigaisi in the last two days. He started to exert his muscle here, as those two wins were enough to propel his position to third place in the tournament, right below Sheva and Gukesh.

’With one more win, he would be able to join the chase for the title. Man, another rival to watch, huh?’ Sheva rubbed his forehead a little bit, somehow getting a headache.

Nevertheless, that was not his problem here. No, the boy still had to face Nils Grandelius in front of him, and the moment the bell rang for the beginning of the game, both players shook hands, nodding at each other politely.

"Let’s have a good game!"