"That’s it, folks..." Bagas announced, choking a little bit as he felt teary-eyed right now. "Idani Pouya finally resigns, giving Sheva his first-ever win against a grandmaster in his career. A milestone that seems to be impossible to achieve this quickly, but he has done it! We are truly witnessing sothing legendary here! This might be one small step for him, but it is definitely a huge leap for the Indonesian Chess community!"
If Sheva heard how Bagas quoted Neil Armstrong’s famous words after the man landed on the moon to describe his achievent right now, the boy would vomit imdiately. That, or he would slap his best friend hard, trying to wake the fat boy up from his daydreaming. After all, while the win itself was impressive, Bagas really exaggerated it here, putting it in a way that Sheva was the only hope for the Indonesian Chess community. If the senior players in the country heard that, they would have the urge to beat him on the spot, sothing that Sheva really didn’t want to deal with once he was back in his holand.
Bagas himself didn’t notice that he just put his best friend on fire. No, he was too emotional, staring at Sheva from the screen with tears falling from the corner of his eyes. The boy still rembered the first ti he dragged his best friend to play against Irfan a while ago, and in just three months, the boy really defied fate and erged as one of the most talented players in the country’s history. Having the privilege to witness the rise from the start up until this point, Bagas only had one thought right now.
’Damn... I am so proud of you, Shev...’
As for Sheva, the boy could feel his shoulder slumped as all the energy he had suddenly ebbed away from his body. While the ga wasn’t that long, it was basically the most draining one for him ntally. After all, with the excitent he felt, the boy had to balance it out constantly for the entire ga, draining his brain quickly. Now, he was not sure that he could continue playing for the last round later.
’Still... A win against a grandmaster, huh? And it is a strong one with the rating of 2600 above...’ A small smirk ford on his face as he recalled the win a mont ago. ’Damn, I am really aweso!’ He clenched his fist under the table, still feeling the euphoria of the victory here.
The boy was still too flabbergasted here, not even realizing that Idani Pouya had already left the table. Yeah, after shaking hands with each other earlier, the Iranian grandmaster walked off the venue quickly, probably too embarrassed to stay here. After Sheva’s consciousness was back, though, he finally realized that the table was surrounded by most of the top players of the tournant.
Sheva could see Hans Niemann nod his head repeatedly while staring at the last position on the board, Gukesh walking back to his own table, but not before sending one last glance to Sheva, and Praggnanandhaa, who gave him a nod of approval for a wonderful performance here. Sohow, their acknowledgent really sparked sothing inside his heart, as this was the recognition from those top players for him.
’Just wait, you guys...’ He clenched his fist once again. ’Soon, I will chase you all and stand equally against you. Just wait...’
After the euphoria from the victory finally started to dissipate, Sheva took one last deep breath before rising from his chair. He still had one last round later this evening, and based on his win earlier, he would definitely play against another top player. He needed to rest now more than ever, at least to gather a little bit more energy for a tough ga the next evening.
However, the mont he walked out of the venue, the boy was stopped by a man with glasses whom he was familiar with.
"Um, excuse , young man. Do you mind for a short interview?" The man asked with a thick accent.
"Sagar Shah from the ChessBase India?" Sheva blurted out unconsciously, not expecting the famous man to appear here and ask him for an interview. "Why would you want to have an interview with ?" He asked confusedly.
Yeah, the man was Sagar Shah, probably the second-famous person in the chess world who helped the community grow bigger besides the infamous GothamChess himself.However, unlike GothamChess, who was a pure influencer and entertainer, Sagar Shah was a true journalist, so the story that he produced was always deeper, more formal, and more sophisticated.
"Why do I want to interview you? Of course, because of your impressive win against Idani Pouya." Sagar Shah chuckled warmly, showing that he was as approachable as the person he showed in front of the cara. "Don’t worry, it is just a short, formal interview to ask about your feelings and sothing like that, no difficult questions at all. How about it?"
"Um..." Sheva wanted to say sothing, yet words seed to be stuck in his throat. His nervousness kicked in, especially when imagining him talking in front of the cara. This ti, though, he didn’t have Bagas, Anna, or Claudia to use as his shield. "Do I have to?" He asked weakly, glancing at the cara that the Indian man brought.
"Well, you don’t have to, but this is an opportunity to make everyone notice your na. Also, if you are nervous about talking in front of the cara, don’t worry, it is not live. We can rehearse it as much as you want, and if you still feel that you don’t want it to get uploaded, I will respect your choice and delete the video."
Good man... It seed that Sagar Shah also noticed him glancing at the cara a few tis just in that short period and connected the dots imdiately. Still... Honestly, Sheva was tempted to reject the interview request. After all, his anxiety whenever the cara was pointing at him was hard enough to cure. He could already imagine how his palm was sweating and his entire body was shaking from the nervousness.
Still, he rembered what Bagas said about him making a na for himself, and this was indeed a chance for him to get free exposure. Looking at the expectant Sagar Shah, he was also too embarrassed to refuse. After all, who was he here? The boy was not in a position to refuse the free interview. Hell, if anything, he should’ve been the one who begged for that.
So, with that in mind, Sheva finally took a deep breath, resolving his determination before giving the man in front of him a short nod. "Fine, let’s do this interview."
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