Chapter 111: Sheva’s Next Tournament?!
Honestly, Sheva was overwhelmed a little here. Although he knew that he had asked for Bagas’s help and had already expected the result of it, when the help itself was about to be realized, words seemed to be stuck in his throat. He didn’t even realize that his eyes were teary as he still froze in his chair.
The boy didn’t know what kind of good deeds he had already done in his past life. Whatever it was, though, he was confident that it must be far from ordinary. After all, even though in his life, he still had a lot of hardships like poverty and his father’s death, Sheva still had a loyal friend like Bagas, who was always willing to offer a hand whenever he was pushed by life itself.
Then, there was also Bagas’s father, who was always ready to back his family up financially. It wasn’t the first time Bagas’s father did so, as during the first few months after his father’s death, the man had always sent his family some sort of allowance to keep them afloat. Sheva didn’t know why Bagas’s father was so kind to his family, but nevertheless, he would always be grateful toward the man.
"Oh, stop being such a crybaby!" Bagas suddenly said with a teasing tone, snapping Sheva from his own thought. "Don’t worry, just repay this with lunch for a full month, okay?" He smiled, breaking the tension.
"Oh, shut up!" A smile cracked as Sheva wiped the trace of tears from the corner of his eyes. "You sure know how to ruin the mood, aren’t you?"
Bagas just grinned widely, knowing full well that they were not very good at emotional things like that. He waited until Sheva was calm enough here before finally asking, "So, are you ready to hear the two tournaments that you can go to?"
"Sure." Sheva straightened his back immediately, trying to gain his focus on Bagas’s laptop.
"Well, good. First of all, we have one in Madrid, Spain, around 13th April, if I am not wrong. The name of the tournament itself is Open Internacional de ajedrez Semana Santa en Torrevieja." Bagas said the last part with difficulty, not used to speaking in Spanish. "Well, the name itself is not important, but what will catch your interest is definitely the list of the participants there." He opened an Excel file and showed Sheva a table full of names.
’Is this the list of the participants there?’ Sheva muttered, leaning forward. ’Hmm... Interesting...’
Just like Bagas said, the list somehow caught his interest, as there were quite a lot of good players there. The highest rating among them was a grandmaster from Armenia called Karen Grigoryan with the ELO rating of 2630, followed by a French Master Jules Moussard with the same rating, before a bunch of Spanish grandmasters with the rating around 2500 following behind. Not only that, there was also a bunch of IMs around the rating of 2400 playing here, which made the entire field pretty competitive. This was an open tournament, so one or two wins would be enough for Sheva to challenge such a high-rated player, which was something that he had wanted to try for a long time.
Seeing his best friend’s reaction, Bagas smiled and said, "Wipe your drool first, because I can assure you that the second tournament has the same quality."
"Oh?!" Sheva crooked one of his eyebrows slightly, now feeling intrigued. The first tournament alone was enough to catch his interest, so he was wondering what kind of tournament Bagas would bring to him. "Now, I am expecting something here..."
"Don’t worry, you won’t be disappointed." Bagas snorted before changing the page on his laptop.
Indeed, just like the fat boy said, the second tournament had a similar quality in terms of participants. Hell, Sheva might even say that the second one definitely had the higher average rating. The tournament itself was called the Reykjavik Open, being held in Iceland during the first week of April.
Just like the first tournament, there were a lot of good grandmasters playing here, from the genius Indian youngsters, Gukesh Dommaraju and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, the American Prodigy Hans Niemman, and even the youngest grandmaster in history, Abhimanyu Mishra, would play there too. Even though Sheva himself didn’t know which one was better, at least the Reykjavik one was more diverse.
Still, the two tournaments looked appealing, and now, Sheva had a tough time picking one of them. Bagas waited patiently while his best friend was pondering over his two choices. After a while, Sheva finally asked, "Budget-wise, which one is cheaper?" This was definitely the basic question for someone who had been suffering from poverty for a long time. However, for Bagas, this was a ridiculous question.
"Budget-wise? Don’t worry, we can afford them all." He snorted, saying as a matter of fact. Sheva was stunned at his best friend’s arrogant words, but the fat boy himself just shrugged. "What? I am telling the truth here! My father even told me that if only the schedule of those two tournaments didn’t clash, he would want you to enter them both."
"Urgh..." Sheva was speechless, not knowing what to say here. This also added more pressure on his shoulder, as he knew that Bagas’s father would expect a lot from him. He wouldn’t be able to look at himself in the mirror if somehow he played badly and only embarrassed himself and wasted the money that Bagas’s father had already spent on him.
Still, Sheva had to choose now, and without having to worry about budget, he could just pick the tournament he wanted to play the most here, and that was the problem. Both tournaments had similar quality, and he himself was still quite new in the chess world to know anything about those players on the list. In the end, he couldn’t help but turn around at Bagas one more time and ask, "Any advice here?"
Bagas blinked his eyes repeatedly for a moment before asking, "You want my advice?" He pointed his finger at himself as if asking for confirmation. Seeing Sheva’s nod, the boy snorted amusedly. "Well, this should be the first time you are asking about my opinion instead of me dragging you around, right?"
Sheva opened his mouth, yet words stuck in his throat once again as he realized that Bagas was right. Usually, he would just follow the boy around without thinking about anything else. Hell, him starting to play chess, joining Irfan’s club, and going to Hanoi were because Sheva had to drag his ass, not something that the boy himself was willing to take initiative even with a system inside his head. The only time he took the initiative to ask first was probably a month ago, and now, with the result of his request lying in front of him, it was a bit embarrassing to ask again.
"Eh, whatever." In the end, he could only grumble, eliciting chuckles from Bagas. "Anyway, do you have any advice or not here?" Sheva glared playfully at his best friend.
Bagas pondered for a moment, letting Sheva feel the tension a little bit before finally saying, "Well, if I were you, I would go for..."