Chapter 128: The Pairing for the Third Round!
No one needed to be commanded twice here, as the moment they heard what Sheva had just said, those three people took out their phones immediately, starting to check the tournament website. True enough, the pairing for the third round was already out, and right after that, they scanned through the entire list to find their name.
After losing the second round, Irene would play against an easy opponent, someone called Kull Florian with a rating of 2138 from Germany. Claudia was also the same, getting paired with someone low-rated in this round. She would play against Raj Jaivardhan with a rating of 2016 from India.
Irene accepted this pairing calmly, while Claudia grumbled about having to face such a low-rated player here. After all, the rating improvement after winning this game wouldn’t be too much, and a draw or a defeat would hurt her rating a lot. It was definitely not a good thing to be paired against a low-rated opponent when she wanted to improve her rating.
In the end, though, she just nodded begrudgingly, knowing full well that this had already been set in stone. The girl knew that the consequence of losing would always be having to be paired against a low-rated player with the same score. Well, some might not see this as a consequence or a punishment, as this was a way to get their tournament points up again. Still, if she could, Claudia would want to play against a high-rated player, not just a no-name one like this.
’Well, that means I have to go back to the winning track, right?’ She clenched her fist in determination. ’One—no, not one. I need two wins in a row to put me back on the track to play against the top-seeded players. Come on! I can do this!’ She tried to hype herself.
Both Irene and Claudia basically had already accepted their next opponents, especially since they got easy pairings here. However, the same couldn’t be said for Sheva, whose brows met each other pretty deeply on his face. It was clear by his expression alone that his next opponent would be troublesome. When Irene checked it, she was stunned at the name of Sheva’s next opponent.
Praggnanandhaa R (2624) – (2115) Adrian Sheva
"You are playing Pragg?!" Claudia gasped in surprise.
"Um?!" Sheva frowned once again, not expecting this kind of reaction. "You know about him?" He asked curiously. After all, his only concern here was that he would play against one of the best Indian youngsters and probably the most talented player below 20. However, based on Claudia’s reaction, it seemed that this Praggnanandhaa was more than that.
"Knowing him?! Of course, I know!" Claudia said in exasperation when she noticed that Sheva had no clue about his next opponent. "He just went viral a month ago, you know? He just became the third Indian player to beat Magnus Carlsen in any time format, beating him in the Champion Chess Tour last February! He is the young man whom even Magnus himself acknowledges as having talent!" The girl said excitedly.
However, Sheva couldn’t share her excitement right now, as he found his opponent, Praggnanandhaa, was more troublesome than what he had initially thought. He knew that for young players, sometimes, rating couldn’t reflect their true abilities. However, the fact that Praggnanandhaa’s rating was just 2624 while he had already played against the player caliber Magnus Carlsen showed that he should’ve been among the top players of the world already.
"Sheva, listen to me." Suddenly, Irene, who was always calm and gentle, got serious, meaning that whatever she wanted to say would be big. "You have to know that the gap between you two is quite big, and I am not talking about rating here. No, ability-wise, his calculation is top-notch, and his intuition is as sharp as the best sword in the world. Even though he is not the best Indian youngster currently, his ability is regarded as one with the most potential, even by Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura themselves. You know those two names, right?"
Sheva gulped nervously, yet still conscious enough to nod his head here. To be regarded as the youngster with the most potential by two of the best chess players meant that Praggnanandhaa was definitely not on his level. Still, he didn’t know what Irene was about to talk about here.
"What I want to ask is..." Irene took a deep breath, as if bracing herself for whatever she wanted to say. "Now that you know how big the gap is between you two, what are you going to do for the next game? I mean, what is your target there?"
All the eyes suddenly turned to Sheva, and the tension rose instantly as they all waited for him to answer. Sheva himself was still too stunned, too confused at this. He didn’t know why Irene asked him this question or how to even answer it as well. However, when he saw the seriousness in Irene’s eyes, the boy pondered for a moment before a smile formed on his face.
"What I want to do for the next game, huh?" He mused. "Well, there is one additional mission here, and that is to see with my own eyes how big the gap between us is. However, besides that, I don’t think my objective would change. I would still go all out and play with my usual aggressive style, and if he gives me a chance, I will strike where it would hurt him the most. As for winning... Well, I know it is a bit preposterous coming from me, but the purpose of the game is to win it all, right?" He smiled diabolically, stunning both Bagas and Claudia.
"W—What the hell are you trying to say? I mean, I mean, it is Pragg that we are talking about!" Claudia stuttered in disbelief.
"Yeah, and?" Sheva shrugged.
"You almost got beaten by Mads Andersen, for God’s sake!" Claudia yanked her slightly messy hair in frustration. "If you couldn’t even beat Mads Andersen, how could you win against Pragg? Don’t you understand that Pragg is another whole level above all of your opponents in the past?"
"That is why I said it is preposterous, right?" Sheva shrugged once again. Still, the memory of his game against Mads Andersen earlier knocked into his head, and he had to admit that what Claudia said made sense. Still... "Chess is not just a statistical game where the low-rated players would have no chance against the higher-rated ones. Even the best player himself could make a mistake, so why not Praggnanandhaa?"