Chapter 104: Closing Ceremony
"For the U2250 section, in the third place, we have a young, bright woman who is trying to climb higher and stepping up into the big stage with her sister, please welcome, Claudia Marisa, with 7.5 points!"
Everyone applauded politely when Claudia rose from her chair, her face flushed red as she walked onto the stage like she belonged there. Her annoyance at only getting third place was gone by now, as she realized that a lot of people wanted to be in her position. Still, since it was just the lowest-rated section, there were not a lot of people who knew about her, so the greetings she received weren’t that good.
Of course, Sheva also clapped his hands enthusiastically. Unlike most of the people here, he and Claudia were friends, so there was no need to be polite. Just like his happiness when he saw Anna thriving and getting closer to her dream, he was also delighted to see that Claudia was one step closer to standing up beside her sister too, something that the little girl had always dreamed of.
"For the second place!" Sheva jolted instantly when he heard the host’s voice, knowing that he was next. "He comes out of nowhere and takes the chess world by storm! He has never lost a game even once, since he started playing chess! He is the genius whom International Master Irfan Aditya recruits himself! Please give the warmest welcome to our super prodigy! Adrian Sheva!"
That.... Was exaggerated. Taking the chess world by storm? God gracious... His new rating was just 2100, not enough to catch the attention of those top players in the world. It was just a mere coincidence that his game against Arfan caught GothamChess’s attention, but that was it. As for his undefeated record that the host mentioned, he didn’t even dare to brag about this, especially since most of his opponents were pretty much low-rated ones. If he could say anything about his current level, it should be around Claudia’s one, since he had never been able to defeat the girl even once in an official game.
"Congratulations, Boy." The legendary grandmaster and the leader of the Indonesian Chess Federation, Utut Ardianto, smiled when they shook hands. "Your game against that boy, Arfan, was incredible. It reminds me a lot of my youth, you know?" He chuckled lightly while reminiscing about the past.
Sheva just rolled his eyes secretly, yet still put up his best smile on the forefront. This was just like an old grandpa who was thinking about his heyday. However, Sheva was still polite enough not to comment about it and give the old man his best smile here. After shaking hands with a few more important figures, he finally stood next to Claudia, who also put her best ’fake’ smile there.
’Man, what a hassle...’ He murmured lowly, low enough so that only Claudia could hear his words. ’This is more exhausting than playing for more than 4 hours, you know?’
’Psst... Shut up, there are a lot of cameras pointing at us!’ Claudia hissed lowly without even turning her head at him. Sheva was sure that if it were a normal occasion, the girl would just stomp his foot mercilessly.
"Finally! For the first place in the U2250 section!" The host announced excitedly, and right after that, Arfan rose from his chair with full confidence. "The anomaly himself! The one who is unfortunate to be here, yet still proving to everyone that his level is far higher than that! The one who almost sweeps the entire section under his feet! The one and only, our genius, Aditya Bagus Arfan!"
Sheva had a sweatdrop when he heard that, feeling like this was more like an MMA competition rather than a chess one. The host sure knew how to hype each player here, even the low-rated ones like him and Claudia. What he didn’t know, though, was that this was the federation’s attempt to promote chess more, since those higher-ups also knew that chess players in this country didn’t really have a good life. They hoped that by making the players more famous, it would attract more sponsorship and improve the players’ lives in the future.
After those three winners stood in the center of the stage, some higher-ups also went there, taking a few photos with them for the documentary. Sheva followed the rest of the process without making a complaint even once, knowing that it wouldn’t change anything. Instead of doing that, he let his mind wander far, thinking about the prize he got from the tournament.
’The second place got 300 US dollars, huh? It is basically the same as the first place that I got in the Hanoi Tournament. Not bad... It seems that the federation really put their money on this tournament.’ He thought to himself. ’At least, with the addition of this money, mom doesn’t have to worry about our financial situation for the next two months. Still, this is not sustainable. I need to have a long-term solution here. It seems that I have to talk to Bagas soon.’
Well, that would be a story for tomorrow, as for now, he had to follow the entire closing ceremony first. Right after he and the other two went down from the stage, the host announced the winner of the IM section, and this time, it was Laysa Latifah, the girl who barged into the Black Rook club a few days before the tournament began. Sheva was taken aback for a moment, but after remembering that the girl had quite a good result in the first few days, it was not a brainer for her to win it all.
However, her achievement was definitely more than that. After getting 4 wins, 4 draws, and one loss in this tournament, Laysa officially crossed the 2300 rating ELO, becoming the fourth Indonesian woman to do so after Irene Kharisma Sukandar, Aulia Medina Warda, and Anna Marisa. Not only that, the good result here also earned her the second WGM norm, putting her close to her rival Anna. This was definitely a huge result for the girl herself.
Then came the section that everyone had been waiting for, the GM one. The result itself didn’t really bring much surprise. Suleymanli Aydin, the young Azerbaijani genius, dominated the entire field by winning six games and having three draws. This domination was definitely far more impressive than Arfan’s one in this tournament or Sheva’s one in Hanoi, since the boy did it at the highest level, against so many grandmasters. Master Megaranto Susanto grabbed the second place with 6.5 points, one whole point behind Aydin. As for the third place, the Indian grandmaster Akash Ganesan earned it even after a quick draw against Anna in the eighth round.
As he watched the three grandmasters taking a photo on the stage, Sheva didn’t realize that he had let his shoulder slump a few inches down here. It seemed that the exhaustion accumulated from the beginning of the game until now finally hit his body hard. Still, there was a relief feeling washed upon him as he thought, ’It is finally over... Now I can finally sleep soundly at night...’