Chapter 191: Biel International Chess Festival
[MASSIVE UPDATES ALERT! MASSIVE UPDATES ALERT!]
[Shoutout to MizuKen, who gives this story 12 Golden Tickets in one go, making the total Golden Ticket that we have accumulated since the beginning of the month pass the threshold of 20. Also, thanks to the other contributors as well, such as Head, Abhijeet, Blackbird71, and some others who also gave this story their Golden Ticket. Without you guys, we would not have reached this point this quickly. As I promised, we will have a massive update once it happens, so here we go! Also, our next target is 50 Golden Tickets, so let’s get this done before the end of the month! Thank you!]
[Federixo_01]
-0-
Biel International Chess Festival.
This was a strong tournament that was held in Biel, Switzerland, annually, gathering a lot of top players from all around the world to compete for one spot as the absolute winner of them all.It was a legendary tournament that could be traced back to 1968, and this tournament also became the stepping stones for all the historical players in the world during their youth.
It might seem rude to say something like that, but it was the harsh reality. In 2007, Magnus Carlsen won the entire tournament when he was still young and had just entered the 2700-rating club. Three years later, it was Fabiano Caruana who followed in his step, making the man’s name—he was still a boy at that time—resound throughout the chess world in one sweep. Before that, the legendary Vishwanathan Anand also won this tournament in 1997, and there were still many notable players in history who cemented their names in this Biel International Chess Festival.
This year, the tournament would be held from the 14th to the 22nd of July, and it would end exactly a week before the Olympiad began. This was a good stage for most of them to warm up before going to a bigger tournament.
The participants of this tournament were also quite insane. Although there was only one player whose rating was above 2700, the talented players on the stage would also be tough to handle. As the top seed of the tournament, the Vietnamese grandmaster, Le Quang Liem, would be challenged by three genius youngsters: Gukesh Dommaraju from India, Vincent Keymer from Germany, and Nordibek Abusattorov from Uzbekistan. Those three were names who had been wreaking havoc in a lot of tournaments this year, and some people even thought that they would have no problem entering the 2700-rating club this year.
However, those three were not the only troublesome opponents for Le Quang Liem to handle. No, there was also Salem Saleh, a legendary grandmaster from the UAE who was famous for his dynamic and aggressive playing style, and even the legendary Gata Kamsky from the USA would also join the fun here. The participants of this master section were truly insane, promising such an entertaining event for the audiences outside.
Still, Sheva couldn’t care less about them all, though. No, the boy knew that he was still far away from this master section. Hell, he himself still hadn’t gotten his GM yet, so there was no way any sane official would invite him to a high-rating tournament with his condition still like this. No, what Sheva cared about the most was the open section, the place where Sheva had his chance to enter it.
Yeah, theBiel International Chess Festival had a lot of sections; from the grandmaster one, the rapid, the blitz, the Fischer Random, and even the open section one. Honestly, it was quite normal for a tournament that had a master section to also provide an open one for any enthusiastic chess players in the world.
Usually, though, this kind of open section would have quite a big difference in ratings compared to the master one.
That was why not a lot of top players came when they weren’t invited into the tournament directly. Not only would they not gain a lot of ratings, but once they were defeated, they would’ve lost a ton of ratings in one go, which was definitely not ideal if they wanted to climb higher in the ladder rank.
However, the same couldn’t be said for this Biel International Chess Festival.
When Sheva saw the starting rosters for the open tournament, he couldn’t help but widen his eyes in disbelief. "Holy fuck?! A 2700-rated player is joining in? Wait, no, there are two of them?! Also, 2686? 2672? Are you fucking real?! Is this something that you can still identify as an open tournament?!" He turned to Irfan questioningly.
"How is it? Good, right?" Irfan smiled knowingly. "This is definitely one of the best open tournaments in the world. You wouldn’t be able to find a better field to fight against the top players in the world when you yourself are still a 2300-rated player."
Sheva nodded in understanding, yet his eyes were still completely on the list. Indeed, this tournament was definitely one of the best he had ever seen for an open one. Also, the boy remembered that the Biel Tournament was also on the list that Dina gave to him, so picking this one wouldn’t be too much trouble for his sponsor.
Still...
’Yu Yangyi? Kiril Alekseenko?’ Sheva muttered to himself. ’Two super grandmasters with the rating above 2700, huh? I hope that I will get a chance to play against them too.’
Of course, just as he was engrossed with his own world, the others could only stare at him in envy. After all, they too, wanted to play there and gained some ratings and experiences before they went to India for the Olympiad. The one who felt envy the most, though, was Aulia Medina Warda, probably the one whom not a single person would imagine to have such a bad feeling about this.
Yeah, even though Medina was a cold and aloof person, everyone admitted that she had her soft side that would make them all respect the woman. She was the big sister of the group, keeping them all in line. Hell, even Irfan, Susanto, and Irene, who were older than her, had to listen to Medina sometimes, which showed how much prestige she has in this group. No one would ever think that she would have any negative feelings toward Sheva, especially after they resolved their difference during the first time they met.
However, thinking about it, Medina’s reaction was understandable.
She was the second woman in Indonesia to get an IM title. Yeah, the second one, after Irene got that almost ten years ago. And just like any other second place in the world, she received less attention compared to Irene, and just as everyone expected, less attention meant less sponsorship.
Oh, she could still live a good life in Jakarta with chess as her career. However, the woman hit a brick wall in her career, couldn’t even climb higher due to her financial limitations. So, to see someone with the unlimited financial support like Sheva was enough to trigger the envious feeling that she tried to repress.
However, her chance finally came, as the next day, Sheva suddenly came with big news that could change the entire course of her career.