Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 394: First Day! (I)
The first day of the tournament.
Usually, this was also the game that all the high-rated players used as their warm-up. After all, the first round would always give them an easy opponent, a no-named player with an ELO rating of around 1800 to 2000 for them to turn on their engine first. Some people might even say that the real tournament only began in the fourth round, where all the top-seeded players started to fight each other.
However, that didn’t mean they could underestimate their opponent. There would be some occasions where a genius whose rating didn’t reflect their rating would appear out of nowhere. In the past, Sheva was the one who held that role. However, since he could be considered a high-rated player right now, the roles reversed, and it was he who had to be wary of that this time.
"Miraziz Kuziev, huh?" Sheva muttered under his breath. "A 12-year-old boy with an ELO rating of 2036. This is troublesome..." The younger his opponent was, the more Sheva felt that the game was unpredictable. However, he himself also had high confidence, so this was just something he blurted out unconsciously; inwardly, the boy was still confident about his chances of winning the game.
"It is good that you are not underestimating your opponent." Medina nodded in approval. "Even though the first round is relatively easy, a bad result in this round could affect the whole tournament way more than a defeat against the top-seeded players in the fifth or sixth round. So, if you want to go further and challenge the top spot, winning is your only option." The woman stared at him knowingly.
Yeah, even though Sheva hadn’t really said anything about his ambition, Medina could see it in his eyes, the hunger of a predator who wanted to establish his dominance against all the predators in this jungle. This was definitely not the Sheva who wanted to get a good result, but the Sheva who wanted to crush the whole competition and triumph as the ultimate winner after everything was unfolded.
"Don’t worry, Sister Medina. There is no way I would underestimate my opponent." Sheva just waved his hand nonchalantly. "Anyway, what about you?" He asked back with a hint of curiosity.
The other opponents were also not that hard. Anna, Laysa, and Medina would fight against the players with a rating of around 2000, while Claudia was even more miserable here. The girl was paired against a 1800-rated player, and with more than 400 rating difference between those two, no matter how good her win was, she would only be able to get a 0.8 ELO rating in this game.
"No need to pout like that, Ia," Sheva said teasingly.
"Who is pouting?!" The little girl roared, even threatening to bite him. "Tch! It is just bad luck! I will just treat this game as a snack!" She huffed indignantly, trying her best to ignore the urge to punch Sheva straight in the face.
"Oh, so, little Ia is not humble anymore, eh?" Laysa smiled playfully, joining the fun here.
"Don’t call me little Ia!" Claudia retorted harshly, trying to avoid Laysa’s head-pat attack.
The others just smiled unconsciously when they saw this, yet decided to stay quiet while watching the fun in front of them. While no one dared to underestimate their opponents, they all came here with the confidence of a group of players who had just created history, so the first game of the tournament didn’t really make them feel uneasy at all.
Well, at least, that was what most of them thought. In fact, one player still felt quite anxious, and that was Duta. Yeah, the newcomer here didn’t really feel good. After all, this was his first-ever tournament with so many GMs in the same section as him. As a player with a rating of 1900, his opponents were usually around the same, with the highest being at 2250. So, it was not strange for him to lose his composure right now.
Moreover, as a low-rated player in this tournament, his fate was quite different than the others. The boy got paired against Mohamed Tissir, a veteran IM from Morocco with an ELO rating of 2386. Even though the IM was basically a no-named player in the vast ocean of the chess community, it was still a mission impossible for a 1900-rated player like Duta to make an upset in this game.
Just like any other players with a similar ELO rating to him, Duta was destined to be a snack in this round, a stepping stone for those high-rated players to get into their true form.
"Nervous?" Sheva asked with a knowing smile.
"Yeah," Duta nodded quietly, still having his eyes locked on the phone. "But..." A smile formed on his face as his voice trailed behind. "I am excited as well..."
"Good." Sheva sent a thumbs-up. "Only a fool or someone who doesn’t care about their career will not feel any nervousness if they are in your shoes. However, it is important for you to shift that feeling slowly into excitement. Imagine what would happen if somehow, you pulled up an upset. That would be crazy, right?"
Duta nodded once again, somehow understanding what Sheva was talking about here. "Is that what you always do before the game?" He asked genuinely.
"Yeah, and I still think I am doing the same whenever I meet someone with an ELO rating that is far higher than mine." Sheva smiled softly. "It is difficult to maintain your best form for nine rounds continuously, so whenever you find a spark of excitement, it would be good if you could chase it down. It would be a good source of energy to recharge your spirit, allowing you to come back to the venue far stronger than today."
Duta nodded solemnly before thanking the boy. Although he didn’t quite understand what Sheva was saying, the boy still believed his words, trying to maintain his excitement for tomorrow. Sheva himself was also satisfied here. Usually, he would be the least-experienced player on the team, having to be taken care of by everyone else—Even Claudia, at some point. Now, for him to impart wisdom to younger generations like this...
’Yeah, maybe, I have a talent to become a good teacher here...’
