Chapter 134: The Current Situation for All Indonesian Players
"So, this is Pragg’s contact information?"Claudia stared at Sheva’s phone for a long time with an envious gaze, somehow making the boy uncomfortable.
"Don’t text anything weird to him, okay?" Sheva said warily. "In fact, don’t text him anything! Even though we exchange contact like this, that doesn’t mean we suddenly become friends, you know?"
"Well, it is still special!" Claudia tried to argue, albeit petulantly.
"What is it that is so special about this, though?" Sheva could feel the corner of his mouth twitching. "I mean, you saw Praggnanandhaa with your own eyes, and you know that he is just like any normal boy, right? It is just that he is good at chess, but other than that, he is just a normal human."
"Well, yeah, it is just that he is good at chess, which coincidentally enough is something that I am interested in!" Now, Claudia was pouting like a child. "I mean, it is like having a Taylor Swift fan getting offered a friendship by Ed Sheeran. Those two might be different singers, but who would refuse such a gesture from a famous person like that?!"
Sheva felt his mouth twitching again, too speechless to understand the way Claudia’s brain worked. Even though, yeah, the boy was a little bit hyped when he got Pragg’s contact information, but after thinking for a while, he regained his calmness quickly after realizing that... Well, Pragg was just like him, a normal boy who was somehow good at chess. Other than that, Sheva didn’t feel anything special either from himself or Pragg.
He just didn’t realize yet that it wasn’t about him getting Pragg’s contact information, but more about Praggnanandhaa himself. Yeah, somehow, Claudia had a little crush on the Indian prodigy, and that was why she was making a fuss here.
Seeing that the only reaction she got was the flat expression from Sheva and the amused smile from Irene, Claudia’s irritation grew more. "Oh, come on! There is nothing wrong with what I said! I mean, you should understand my feeling, right, Sister Irene?" She turned and asked for support from the other female member of the group.
"I mean, I don’t know..." Irene smiled playfully at Claudia. "I myself also have a lot of contact information from the other top players, so I couldn’t understand what you are talking about."
"Not you too!" Claudia threw her hands in exasperation, which only made the other people there laugh immediately.
It was after the day was over, and just like yesterday, they all gathered in Sheva’s room to relax. The atmosphere was quite harmonious, especially since the day itself went pretty well for all of them. Besides Sheva, who somehow managed to pull a miracle and steal a half point from Praggnanandhaa, Irene and Claudia were also successful in securing a win for themselves. Now, all three of them were having the same two points out of three games, definitely a great thing for players who were in the middle to bottom tier of the pack.
In total, Claudia had gained about 48 points from the first three games, and while she suffered a defeat against Mishra Abhimanyu in the second round, due to the huge rating difference between those two, the points she lost there were so small that it was ignorable.
Unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for Irene. Although she got the same point as Claudia, since the woman had already played more games in her life and the opponents who she beat were pretty much lowly-rated ones, her ELO rating only got increased by 1.9, something that wouldn’t affect her rank at all. Well, Irene herself came to Reykjavik with the consciousness that something like this would happen, so she herself didn’t bother about it too much.
The one with the biggest leap this time was, of course, still Sheva. Not counting the upset win he got against the England IM Brandon Clark in the first round, the two draws he snatched from the mouth of two dangerous beasts were enough to elevate his rating to a new high. Hell, even one draw from Pragg gave him 18 points, and now, with all the results accumulated, his rating catapulted into 2185, about to cross the 2200 threshold.
Honestly, his improvement was too big that it left everyone stunned, not believing something like this could happen. If the trend continued, it would be soon before Sheva finally reached the target that Irfan set before the tournament began, and then, he would’ve already secured one spot—albeit as a reserve member—in the Olympiad team.
Still, that was something to think for the future. For now, Sheva wanted to focus on the next round, especially since the pairing was out already.
"So, who is your next opponent?" Claudia leaned to peek at Sheva’s phone even though she could read it on her own.
"Oh, well, look at yourself." Sheva gave up his phone immediately, knowing that the girl wouldn’t give up before she got the answer she wanted. "My next game shouldn’t be as hard as before, I guess." He shrugged.
There, on the website, Claudia found the name she was searching for.
Adrian Sheva (2115) – (2337) Marina Brunello
"Hmm... Not bad..." Claudia nodded satisfactorily. "This will get you an easier chance to get free points, right?" She asked, realizing that this should probably be the easiest opponent that Sheva would face in this tournament.
"Well, not really." Sheva sighed helplessly, trying to remind the girl that he didn’t want to underestimate his opponent. "Besides the fact that her rating is slightly higher than mine..." Claudia just rolled her eyes exasperatedly when she heard that, not believing that excuse at all. "This woman is the one who force a draw against Praggnanandhaa in the second round, so I bet the game will not be as easier as I expect to be."
"Really?!" Claudia widened her eyes in disbelief before snatching the phone from Sheva’s hand rudely. "Wait, let me see it!" She said seriously, not even thinking that what she was doing was wrong here.
Once again, Sheva could only twitch his mouth speechlessly. However, he could understand why Claudia reacted like that. After all, even though Praggnanandhaa himself was not in his best state, stealing a half point against him was a difficult matter, as he had already felt it directly in the game earlier. So, for this Marina Brunello to do that, she should’ve had something special here.
Knowing that, Sheva would never dare to underestimate the woman. Even though he had already done a very good job up until now, the boy knew that one slip would be enough to become his downfall, so it was better to be careful than to suffer from the late bitterness.
Still, the boy didn’t really expect that Claudia would react so excessively, even holding both his hands while staring at Sheva’s eyes intently. Honestly, this was just like the scene coming from a romantic comedy story, but imagining himself together with a 12-year-old girl whom he started to treat like a sister was enough to make him vomit on the spot.
"Urgh... Claudia... What is going on?" He asked warily.
"Listen, Sheva," Claudia answered with determination burning in her eyes. "You know that a new friendship is quite fragile, right? This is your chance to prove your loyalty to Pragg! Beat her senseless and take revenge for Pragg, you get it?!"