Chapter 118: The Broadcast Room
"Hello, everyone! Welcome back to the Black Rook channel, where we are going to follow the journey of our club members to climb higher in the chess world! This time, we will have our boy, Adrian Sheva, our talented girl, Claudia Marisa, and a legendary player as a guest, Master Irene Kharisma Sukandar, playing in the Reykjavik Open!"
RonaldOSIu: Hell, yeah! Here we go again!
Hilda99: First! Old viewers, let’s gather here!
MessitheGOAT: Damn! I didn’t expect that Sheva and Claudia would play in Reykjavik! This is a decent tournament, right?! Also, where is Anna?! Why is she not here too?!
Frwoggies: Decent? Frick! This is more than decent! Don’t you know any other open tournament with this kind of a strong lineup?! I mean, look at how many talented players here!
Hilda99: I mean, even Master Irene is here, too, right? I don’t even remember the last time I saw her playing in this kind of tournament, you know?
Jiraiya106: Oh! So many beauties here! Anna Cramling... Botez sisters... Hehehe... XOXO
Hakeem94: Oh, hell nah! Another pervert?!
Hilda99: Damn! You should’ve been banned by the admin a long time ago, right?! How could you be here again?!
DING! Jiraiya106 has been banned from the chat.
Hilda99: Good job, Admin! Just ban him again!
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It had only been three minutes since he started the streaming here, but Bagas was already sweating profusely right now. He didn’t expect that some of the wild viewers would still be here just to act like creeps they were. Fortunately, he noticed this quickly enough and banned all of those bastards who crossed the line, gaining absolute support from the other viewers in the broadcast room.
"Thank you for your support here, guys! I am sure the players would appreciate this if they could see your chat." Bagas started with a small talk while also waiting for the game to begin. "Where is Anna? Our Instagram page has already published this matter, Guys! She will be joining the national team to prepare for the Southeast Asian Games next June! So, we will stick with her little sister for this tournament, okay? Yes, thank you for your support, Ajisan87! Hello to you too!"
The fat boy was in quite a good mood right now. After all, even without any boost from Sarah or beauty like Anna, the stream itself managed to reach 100 viewers within five minutes, showing that the channel itself also started to get more popular from the chess content inside. Even though at first, he just came here to support Sheva, somehow, Bagas was invested in this PR stuff, wanting to see the YouTube page developed further into a top channel in Indonesia.
It was still ten minutes before the first round began, so he decided to have a little chat with his viewers. He also did this to wait for his guest to appear. Yeah, after all, Bagas himself was just a novice who couldn’t really understand the logic behind moves that any top players would make, so it was important to have someone knowledgeable to be the commentator next to him and explain everything to the audience. In this case, though, he invited the leader of the club itself, Irfan Aditya, to join his broadcast room today.
"Bzzt... Bzzt... Lo... Hello... Hello, everyone! Can any of you hear me clearly?" Master Irfan’s voice suddenly greeted the broadcast, albeit with a lot of noise.
"Um... We cannot hear you clearly, Master Irfan. Could you fix your microphone for a moment, please?" Bagas asked politely.
"Bzzt... Kay... It for a second..." After that, the sound from Irfan’s side was disconnected, and within a few seconds, the man was back again with a clearer sound. "So, what about now?" The man asked, this time with a clearer sound.
"Perfect. Thank you for coming today, Master Irfan. It is a pleasure to have you here." Bagas greeted the man politely.
"Thank you. It is also my pleasure to watch the members of my team thriving in such a good tournament." Irfan replied to the compliment easily.
"So, without further ado, Master Irfan, can you give us a little bit of a prediction over what we should expect here?" Bagas asked. "I mean, it has been about one and a half months since they played in the Jakarta International Chess Festival, right? Do you think that Sheva and Claudia would have a big improvement after that?"
"Well, I should hope so. I mean, they have a new coach, and the man is definitely better than me." Irfan said with a smile, not even mentioning the name of the coach.
Yeah, this was the engagement strategy from Bagas, trying to make the viewers curious and guess for a while before revealing Sergei’s existence when the hype was at its peak.
"Still, I hope that we can give them time to adjust here. I mean, unlike their tournament before, this time, they are going to play a lot of better players here. For example, Sheva is going to play IM Brandon Clarke, who is 350 points higher than him. Claudia is also the same, playing against the local IM whose rating is about 400 points higher than hers. This is going to be a tough day for those two, so I just hope they can get a positive result today while also trying to gain momentum for tomorrow and the rest of the tournament."
"Thank you for your insight, Master Irfan. Indeed, we cannot ask too much of them both since the opponents in this tournament are completely on another level. However, we can expect that Sheva and Claudia will give their best, putting fight into every game they play, and try to get a positive result out of this tournament." Bagas added. "Anyway, let’s go back to the venue, where all the players are ready to start the game. Master Irene will play on table 34 against the young Swiss player, Heer Stephan, followed by Sheva on table 37, and lastly, Claudia will be on table 44 against IM Vignir Vatnar Stefansson. All the players have already shaken hands with each other, and with the white pieces making the first move, the Reykjavik Open 2022 officially begins now!"