Chapter 193: Ladies Internal Tournament!
To Sheva’s surprise, though, there was not a single surprise expression to be seen on the four women. They all stared at each other solemnly, giving a single nod before Medina muttering, "As expected, it always comes to this..."
"Yeah... A chess problem indeed should’ve been solved with chess..." Anna nodded, clutching her fist as if she was about to throw a punch.
"A double round-robin tournament, huh?" Irene mumbled. "Everyone will have a chance to play against each other with the white piece and black piece once, so this is definitely the fairest competition to determine who is the best among us."
"The best among us?" Claudia clenched her fist in determination. "This will be a chance for me to show them my skill!"
Yeah, those four seemed to have already thought of this possibility. Of course, Sheva, who was entangled with how he should treat this, was stunned to see that everything went smoothly, not even a single argument was made. Still, he couldn’t help but ask, "Are you going to just accept this arrangement like that?"
For that, he received the infamous ’Are you stupid or what?’ gazes from all directions, and the boy couldn’t help but feel the heat rising on his face, feeling embarrassed by the reaction he got.
"What? It is a fair question!"
"Oh, you sure are still new in this industry, huh?" Master Susanto patted his shoulder in pity. "Let me tell you, Shev. There is one absolute rule in the chess community, and that is that all chess problems should be solved with chess, exactly like the old school Yu-Gi-Oh or Beyblade. Remember that, okay?"
Sheva could feel the corner of his mouth twitching, too speechless with the answer he got. The boy also didn’t expect that Master Susanto’s knowledge of the old anime would be this good. Well, maybe because those names he mentioned were the childhood series that he watched, and that was why the man knew them well.
Still, it was good that the conflict could be solved peacefully like this, even though Sheva felt stupid for not thinking about this solution. He also gave a stinky glare at Irfan, who tried to look innocent, knowing that the man should’ve tried to fool him earlier.
’I have an idea my ass... It is clear that this is the custom, right?’ He grumbled inwardly, cursing the old man inside his head.
As the announcement was made, though, all the ladies started to prepare themselves for this mini tournament immediately. The guys also made some preparations, getting three sets of chess on the table while also making a fixed pairing for today.
The double round-robin was a format of a tournament where all the participants would have two chances to play against each other, one with the white piece and another with the black piece. This would ensure that the tournament was fair, as no one would be able to complain about the unfairness of their pairing.
With four participants, there would be six rounds to be played, so to ensure everything could run smoothly in one day, it was determined that the format would be a rapid one. It was the fairest of them all, not too long like a classical, but still allowed the players to think instead of using pure intuition like the blitz game.
After a while, Irfan was finally done with making the pairing for this tournament,
Game 1 / Game 4
Anna Marisa – Claudia Marisa
Aulia Medina Warda – Irene Kharisma Sukandar
Game 2 / Game 5
Irene Kharisma Sukandar – Anna Marisa
Claudia Marisa – Aulia Medina Warda
Game 3 / Game 6
Aulia Medina Warda – Anna Marisa
Irene Kharisma Sukandar – Claudia Marisa
P.S. Games 4, 5, and 6 would be the reverse of Games 1, 2, and 3.
All the female players there nodded solemnly, with some starting to tie their hair to show how serious they were. Well, since Medina wore a hijab, she couldn’t do that, so the woman just went straight to the battlefield and waited for her first opponent.
In this kind of format, it didn’t matter who their opponent was, since she would play against everyone else at the end of the day. Still, if she had a choice, Medina wouldn’t want to start the tournament against Irene. No, it would be ideal to play against Claudia and gain an early momentum for the rest of the tournament. No offense to the girl, but she was the weakest in this group, so she would be an easy prey to get here.
Still, she couldn’t complain about this, knowing full well why the Marisa Sisters were paired at the beginning of the tournament. This would ensure that there was no conspiracy made by those two to make one of them advance easily by giving up two games in a row. This was done even in the highest-level tournament, where the two legendary women players from Ukraine, Anna Muzychuk and Maria Muzychuk, would always receive this treatment.
’Oh, whatever.’ She shook her head quickly, trying to throw away all the distracting thoughts from her brain. ’Even if it is Sister Irene, I wouldn’t show any mercy in this tournament! I have to win, or I don’t know when I would get the same chance again!’
Coincidentally enough, the others also thought something similar here.
’A chance to play together in the same tournament with Sheva again? I have to get this ticket!’
’Ia has already gotten a chance to play with Sheva in Reykjavik, so this time, it should be me!’
’Biel, huh? I heard that the tournament is good, and the city is amazing. I wonder, what kind of experience would I have there? Oh, well, if I really want to know about that, there is only one way, win!’
As all the players were ready on their respective tables, Irfan, who acted as the emergency arbiter, checked the situation around first. He could see that Master Susanto, Sheva, and Arfan gathered on the corner while also whispering something, probably betting on who would come out as the absolute winner here.
Bagas was also there, putting on the camera in front of each table to make sure that everything was recorded. Irfan didn’t know when he came as the fat boy didn’t join the discussion before, but he had already become accustomed to the boy’s work as the PR team, so the man just let him do what he needed to do here.
After finding out that everything was ready, he finally pressed the enter button on his laptop, and right after that, a bell rang from that device, followed by the shout from the man, "Okay, everyone! Let this internal tournament begin!"