Chapter 188: Timeskip - Anna & Claudia’s Improvement
Time passed by quickly, and before Sheva knew, it was June already, and it was also fifty-eight days away from the Olympiad, the big event that everyone was waiting for. A month had already passed since the Reykjavik Open, and while Sheva could feel his hand was itchy for another tournament, he still didn’t just go abroad to chase rating in any low-rated competition, wanting to wait for the right place and the right moment.
Of course, the boy was not idle during that time. No, he visited Irfan’s house more frequently since the last meeting with the other veteran chess players in this country, and somehow, everyone treated him pretty warmly after that day.
After showing his real ability—yeah, real ability, not just a mere potential—all the people there could see Sheva’s terrifying ceiling in the future, and they warmed up to the boy immediately. Well, that was not the only reason for the change of treatment. Just like any other community outside, people would always respect the strong one, and in this case, Sheva really showed that he was a top dog in this game. Hell, even Priasmoro Novendra and Aulia Medina Warda, the two players whom he pretty much humiliated with his trash talk, also changed their attitude to be a polite one instantly.
As for the reason why Sheva visited Irfan’s house more frequently, of course, it was to get to know his future teammates better. After all, he himself still had a crucial mission here, and that was to help the country enter the top 15 in the last standing of the Olympiad. Honestly, even though the system said that Indonesia had the potential to do so, Sheva couldn’t help but feel discouraged, especially when he saw the starting players of the other countries.
’Holy shit! Our starting rank is at the 46th! Our rating average doesn’t even cross 2500!’ Sheva muttered incredulously, staring at the roster of the players who would play in the tournament. ’Why the fuck does India have three teams?! Three fucking teams! And all of them are in the top 15 of the standings! All of them have an average rating of above 2600! System, do you really think that the mission is still possible?!’
Sheva also grimaced when he saw the starting list of Indian’s second team. There, he saw Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa in the same team, and the third player behind them was another emerging genius from the country, Nihal Sarin. Those three alone could wreak havoc and make a scene against the top countries like the USA, and also make their names resound throughout the event.
This was an opportunity for the youngsters like them to show off their abilities and make those big names remember their names, and there was no way they would hold back in such an event.
However, it wasn’t just India that went all out here. No, the USA, the top seed of the tournament, also showed its heavy-hitter here. They were going with their top players, such as Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, and Wesley So, to ensure that they got the first place without any upset, clearly wanting to establish their dominance as the best chess country in the world in this event.
Then, there were also some notable countries on the rank, such as Norway with Magnus Carlsen, the Netherlands led by their superstar Anish Giri, or even England, which came out with their veteran legends such as Michael Adams, Gawain Jones, and David Howell. All the countries took this Olympiad seriously, and honestly, Sheva couldn’t think of any way for Indonesia to sneak into the top 15 in the last standing.
[Don’t worry, Host. The system will never give a mission that is impossible to achieve. Also, Host, you need to know that the formal rating that the players wear could be different from their actual ability. Just like you, Host, your formal rating is still 2308, but your actual ability should be around high 2400 to low 2500.]
Sheva just felt the corner of his mouth twitching at this explanation. He still believed that it was impossible for Indonesia to get into the top 15 in the Olympiad this year. However, since the system had already set this target, the boy would try hard to achieve it.
"Hey, Shev! Why are you daydreaming like that? You look stupid!" Suddenly, a voice snapped Sheva from his thought. When he turned around, the boy could see Claudia grinning provocatively at him, knowing full well that this banter would get his reaction.
"Where are your parents, little girl?" Sheva answered the banter with a little smile, trying to act innocent. "Also, should this still be school time? Are you skipping out here? Tell me, where did you go to school? Should I call them?"
"... No need to go that way, okay?" Claudia huffed, crossing her arms after taking a seat in front of Sheva. It was clear that she didn’t like for Sheva to make fun of her young age.
"Where is Anna, by the way?" Sheva ignored her petulant gaze and asked.
"She is going to be here. Just wait."
Oh, yeah, this was something that Sheva, Claudia, and Anna did pretty regularly in the last two weeks. They would meet in the same café where they usually gathered, and there, they would play chess for about an hour or two while also exchanging ideas inside their heads. This was Sheva’s idea so that he could help those two girls to improve their chess skills, and he started to see the effect of it here.
[Name: Anna Marisa]
Attacking 78
Defense 74 (+1)
Calculation 74 (+1)
Strategy 70 (+2)
Intuition 78
Time management 77
[Name: Claudia Marisa]
Attacking 65 (+2)
Defense 68 (+3)
Calculation 71 (+1)
Strategy 71
Intuition 55 (+6)
Time management 60 (+3)
Those were the new stats of the two girls in front of him, and after only two weeks of training together, Sheva was satisfied with this result. While in Anna, he didn’t see that much improvement; at least, her strategic thinking was getting better, and her calculation skills also got upgraded slightly during that time.
It was Claudia, though, who caught everyone off guard.
The girl really improved from a player who barely scraped her stats through the FM threshold to someone who was already a standard FM / WGM player. With her intuition and time management improving that much, she didn’t have any glaring weakness anymore, and the girl would be able to fight equally or even gain a slight advantage against the players with the FM or even IM title in the world.
Although her stats were still not good enough, people should also remember that Claudia was just a 12-year-old girl, and not a lot of women players could get their rating this high at such a young age. It was clear that her potential could be higher than her big sister, and when Claudia herself tried to get closer to her potential proactively, Sheva couldn’t help but give a nod of approval to the girl.
’Oh, well, we might not be able to enter the top 15 countries in the open section, but at least, in women, we don’t have any other excuse to not break into the top 10. Come on, Anna! Claudia! Get better quickly and start dominating the women’s section!’