Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 489: A Team Game!
4V4 Blitz game... Well, this was an interesting format.
It really forced chess, a game that was always an individual sport, to turn into a team sport, where their fate was not in their own hand anymore, and they also had to trust their teammates. Even though the format was strange, it wasn’t the first time they all saw this. After all, a few years ago, a video went viral of a bunch of top players gathering, with Gary Kasparov and Vishwanathan Anand forming a team to play with this format.
Even though it was just a friendly game with them all joking around, for the viewers, that video was like a wet dream, seeing so many elites hanging around like that. The youngsters here also had that feeling, and the thought of replicating that game was enough to let their fighting spirit burn brightly.
Sheva himself didn’t really know about that video. However, he also had a strong motivation for this game, as the system suddenly alerted him inside his head.
[A New Mission Detected!]
[You are in a gathering of monsters! Make sure you let everyone remember your name!]
[Mission Objective: Play with an accuracy of more than 90 percent and prevent your team from losing!]
[Reward: Unknown.]
Even though the reward was still a little bit of a mystery, Sheva himself didn’t really care. This mission came at the right time, as it gave him more fuel to treat this event more seriously.
’Let’s see how far I fare in this game...’ He muttered under his breath.
Since the theme was set, everyone knew their teammates immediately. It would be Sheva, Pragg, Vincent Kaymer, and Nordibek Abdusattorov against Magnus Carlsen, Anish Giri, Wesley So, and Levon Aronian. Rating-wise, this game was unfair for the youngsters. However, no one was willing to give up this opportunity, as those four teenagers decided to charge into the enemy bravely.
"Oh, this is going to be interesting..." Anish smirked a little, adjusting the pieces on the board playfully. "This will also give us a chance to see the winner of the master section against the winner of the challenger section, right? I wonder, how long could the winner of the master section last against Sheva... Oh, right! I am the winner of the master section, right?!" He slapped his forehead in a faux oblivion.
Hearing that, most of the players there had the corners of their lips twitching madly. Anish Giri had a lot of admirable sides, but honestly, his infuriating personality whenever he won a tournament was always a bit too much to handle.
"Ha! That’s a nice joke, Anish!" Levon laughed, always finding everything to be funny. "Anyway, you can challenge him later. Now, let’s have some fun first!"
With that thought in mind, all of them also turned their eyes to the board, with Bagas, being the cameraman he was, recording the occasion thoroughly.
No discussion was needed, as everyone decided the order of the players here. Magnus would make the first move for the veteran team, followed by Nordibek Abdusattorov for the youngster team. Then, Wesley So would follow up, and Pragg would join the fun after that. Then there were Levon Aronian and Vincent Kaymer for the third place, and lastly, Sheva and Anish were going fight on the bottom row of the order.
’It seems that he is serious about challenging me, huh?’ Sheva glanced at Anish Giri subtly.
Honestly, Sheva thought that he would have to face Magnus. After all, he had a history of slandering the man a few months ago, so he thought he would have to face the GOAT’s revenge and got humiliated here. However, it seemed that the boy overestimated himself here, as Magnus didn’t really take him seriously.
’Maybe, in his eyes, I am just another prodigy who likes to boast and gain attention, huh?’ Sheva thought inwardly. He then clenched his fist tightly, somehow feeling like his spirit was ignited once again. ’Well, this is in line with the system’s mission, right? Let’s just try to force the man to take me seriously!’
As everything and everyone was ready, Magnus finally made his first move. With his cocky smirk, the man moved the B pawn one square forward, smiling tauntingly at Nordibek and the three youngsters in front of him.
"Oh, this should be your favorite against Fabi in blitz, right?" Wesley So chirped when he saw the first move that Magnus made.
"Yes, he was always annoyed whenever I pulled this Nimzo-Larsen combined with the Reti one. His reaction is always funny!" He chuckled lightly, reminiscing about his memory.
"If I remember correctly, you have also never won a game against him with this opponent, yeah?" Levon chimed in with his teasing smile, enough to shut Magnus’s mouth instantly.
Of course, everyone knew that Fabi, whom they mentioned was Fabiano Caruana, the super GM from America, who was playing in this tournament as well. Sheva himself also recognized this opening, as, whenever Magnus was being cheeky, he would go for this move. However, that meant the man was completely underestimating him and the three youngsters, and while he didn’t know what those three would do, he didn’t intend to let this slide easily.
’Come on, make a move already! I cannot wait for my turn to come!’
After that, Nordibek made the first move for the youngsters’ team, and that was when the fun finally began.
All of them rose from the chair, standing up so that they could reach the pieces easily. Move after move was made, and honestly, Sheva was surprised that no mistake was made even after the twentieth move of the game. In his mind, this kind of game was quite difficult, as they couldn’t synchronize with the others quite well in such a short time. There was a moment where Sheva was annoyed about Vincent’s move, and he himself also noticed Nordibek groaned whenever he made a bold move that required the Uzbek GM to clean up his mess.
Still, so far, everything has gone perfectly for the two teams, even borderline a boring game here. Hell, Sheva also started yawning, a dangerous idea flashing in his mind.
’Should I stir up something here?’
Fortunately, he didn’t really need to do that, as, soon enough after that, the ambiguous move that Wesley So made was enough to light up Sheva’s eyes.
’This is our chance!’
