Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 405: Another Tough Pairing! Against Two Indian Prodigies?!
"The pairing is out!"
They didn’t need to be told twice, as everyone grabbed their phone and started to go to the tournament’s website immediately. This had been a tradition at this point, ending the dinner with them looking for their next opponent tomorrow.Then, if someone had an idea or wanted to help others, they would just go straight away to the hotel room and discuss it there instead of at the restaurant.
Sheva operated his phone quickly; his head started to wander, wondering who his next opponent was. However, his instinct suddenly screamed, and the boy had a premonition about his next opponent. ’Is it going to be....’
True enough, when he saw his name on the second row of the list, Sheva could only smile wryly, as he had already guessed this outcome right before the boy saw it.
Praggnanandhaa R (2661) – (2477) Adrian Sheva
’Yeah, fuck! I should’ve seen this coming!’ Sheva cursed inwardly. After all, only a few players still had a perfect record, 3 wins out of 3 games, and fate always liked to make fun of him. Well... That, or it was the system that pulled up some strings here.
System: Fuck! Host, you cannot blame me like that! I don’t even know anything here!
Seeing the frown on Sheva’s face, Bagas leaned his body slightly, asking curiously, "Who are you playing against, Shev?" When the boy saw the name paired to his best friend, though, he was utterly dumbfounded. "Holy shit... You are going to play against Pragg?!" He exclaimed.
This was enough to attract everyone’s attention, as they all looked at him in pity.
"Damn! You are so unlucky here!"
"Hey, maybe you can make another miracle here!"
"Yeah, the third round against the top seed, and the fourth round against Pragg. It seems you need to start praying better, Shev!"
It was strange, but in everyone’s mind, it seemed that Pragg was a more difficult opponent than Predke, even though the boy was just the fourth seed in this tournament. However, it couldn’t be helped. Pragg’s exposure was massive, being hailed as one of Vishy Anand’s successors. People also recognized that his ability was around 2700s, and the only thing preventing him from entering that elite club was opportunity.
Moreover, compared to any other top players, they were the most familiar with Pragg, and even though none of them had ever played against him—well, besides Sheva, of course—they all still thought unconsciously that the boy was way stronger than what his rating reflected on paper. That was why everyone reacted greatly to this pairing.
"Well, Sheva is not the only one who will have a tough match, you know?" Anna suddenly spoke, her tone was full of bitterness. That was when everyone realized that, indeed, she was also one of the few who still had a perfect score out of three rounds.
"Who is your opponent tomorrow?" Sheva asked out of concern.
"Just look at yourself, straight above your name," Anna answered helplessly. Sheva frowned, checking the table once again. The others also did the same, and when they found out that Anna’s name was on top of the table list, everyone was dumbfounded, not expecting to see that in the first place.
Arjun Erigaisi (2692) – (2391) Anna Marisa
"Holy..." Sheva had his mouth gaping wide. "You are playing against Arjun?!" If anything, this should be the real highlight, as Arjun’s rating was far higher than Pragg’s.
"Yeah, curse my luck." Anna smiled grimly.
At this point, no one really cared about their pairings anymore, as they still tried to comprehend how the fuck they got two Indian prodigies at the same time like this. They looked at the two victims in front of them, and besides pity, no one really offered any words here, for anything would be useless, hell, probably even became the reason for their downfall. After all, their motivation was a bit fragile right now, and one light tap would be enough to destroy their mind immediately.
Unsurprisingly, though, Sheva was the first one to lift the mood here.
"Hey, why are you all so gloomy?!" He raised his voice, showing a bravado smile. "Don’t look at us as if this will be our funeral! We are not dead yet, you know?! Who knows, maybe we can create an upset tomorrow!"
Unfortunately, not a single person in this table shared his optimism. Anna just smiled wanly, saying, "I appreciate your attempt, Shev, but let’s be realistic. I don’t think any of us believe I can believe Arjun, right?"
Indeed, while none of them said anything, Anna could see that not a single person here thought that she had a chance tomorrow. She was not Sheva, after all, and miracles didn’t come to her side quite often. Also, Arjun was currently in a hot form, having just earned an individual silver medal for board 2 in the last Olympiad. He had played a lot of tournaments this year, and the times he was defeated could be counted with a single hand. That just showed that he was on a historical track here.
"Hey, no need to be so pessimistic like this, you know?" Sheva said a little bit helplessly. "Also, let me tell you this. Arjun is a madman on the board. He will go berserk from the beginning, so you can counter him with this... Then you can also try this one as well..."
He kept throwing a lot of ideas, wanting to show Anna that while it might look like a mission impossible, there was still hope that the tables could be turned tomorrow. While the girl herself was skeptical, it seemed that the pep talk worked here, as she nodded thoughtfully, as if considering what Sheva was saying right now.
Even though this wasn’t the right attitude to come to the game, at least, this was a slight improvement compared to a moment ago, and Sheva would take that gratefully.
’Yeah, it might seem that we don’t have a chance, but everything could happen in chess.’ Sheva thought, trying to remind himself as well. ’They are definitely better and more mature players, so we cannot just stay passive. No, I have to take initiative if I want to get something. Let’s start to dig into my repertoire and see what kind of a surprise attack that I could pull tomorrow...’
