"In the third place of the open section, please welco Leon Lucas ndonca from India!"
It was pretty late in the evening, and Sheva found himself still sitting in the venue. This ti, though, all the exhaustion was gone, and with a stomach full of food, the boy didn’t even make a single complaint here. Hell, if anything, he was pretty excited, knowing that his na would’ve been called out later.
The venue was half empty at this point, as not a lot of players were willing to join the closing ceremony. Most of them—especially those who didn’t really do well in this tournant—decided to go back ho already, or maybe they were still here, yet they were too exhausted to co, wanting to sleep more than anything else. Sheva understood that feeling as well, since he himself also had that kind of thought before.
This was also what he did in the Reykjavik tournant. Since Sheva didn’t win anything and had nothing else to do with the closing ceremony, he decided not to go there, wanting to wind down imdiately after spending a week full of stress.
Still, it was a different story this ti. The fact that Sheva managed to win second place in the tournant also excited him a lot here, especially since he himself had never expected sothing like this to happen. Even though he was gutted by the fact that he failed to win earlier, that feeling was gone already the mont he realized the amount of money that he would get here.
As for the honor of getting the second place... Oh, well, Sheva was currently in the stage where he didn’t care for any of those. He had just found a way to get out of his poverty, so everything had to be asured with money. In his mind, honor couldn’t get him food, so it was better to exchange it for anything else.
This was the phase where all the players who didn’t co from a well-off family would have to experience. They would prioritize money over anything else because they had just found that they could make a living out of this ga. Once their level was high enough to the point that money would’ve just co no matter what, though, that was when they would start to chase honor.
Well, that was the story of tomorrow, as right now, Sheva was waiting for his na to be called out.
"In the second place of the open section, please welco Adrian Sheva from Indonesia!"
Sheva rose from his seat with his face flushed red, sohow getting excited for the second ti in a day. The boy could see that, amidst the cheers and polite applause around him, a lot of people also stared at him intently, as if trying to put his face deep into their brains. It seed that the wave he created was big enough to the point that almost everyone in this venue knew about him already.
"Congratulations, Young Man." The chief organizer of the tournant patted his shoulder firmly. "You did a very good job in this tournant. I am sure you will achieve more in the future, so at least, we can say it proudly that our tournant is the one that let everyone get to know your na, right?" The man chuckled a little, which Sheva only returned with a polite smile.
He shook hands with a few more important people on the stage, and of course, the boy also didn’t forget to congratulate Leon Luca ndonca, who got third place. Honestly, the race was so tight here, with him, Leon Luca, and Shant Sargsyan had the sa 7 points. Unfortunately for Shant Sargsyan, his tie-break point was the lowest, so the Arnian GM had to be satisfied with not getting on the podium.
From the top of the stage, Sheva could see the entire venue clearly. Bagas, Anna, and dina were sitting far in the back row, with the boy having a phone getting attached to a selfie stick in his hand. Even without looking at it, Sheva knew that his best friend should be recording this event live on his YouTube channel, so the boy didn’t hesitate to wave even from the stage.
"In the first place of the open section, please welco, Muradli Muhammad from Azerbaijan!"
As the MC announced the winner of the tournant, most of the people in the venue gave a standing ovation, appreciating the roller coaster section here. No one thought that a player with the rating of 2500 and 2300 would dominate the entire field, not when more than 15 players had the ELO rating of above 2600. The run that Muradli and Sheva made here would beco a legend in the future, centing their nas into the biggest underdog story in chess history.
They went for a little bit more formality, with them having another group photo with the organizer and important people who ca here. Of course, they also received a giant check with the amount of the prize written on it, and this was probably the most exciting part for Sheva. The smile on his face kept getting wider, making it hard to mask into a polite one.
After everything was over, he didn’t go back to his original seat in the front row, yet decided to go straight to Bagas and the others.
"Good job, Brother!" Bagas grinned widely, offering a fist bump the mont he saw his best friend approaching him. "You make history here! Co on, chat! Say hello to our boy!" He signaled Sheva to wave at the cara.
"Hey, everyone. Thank you for your support here." Sheva smiled stiffly, still not getting used to appearing in front of the cara. Still, he really appreciated the support from the viewers on Bagas’s broadcast, as the boy could see the chat room was filled with so many ssages congratulating him on this achievent. Even though he didn’t know them personally, it felt as if they were always behind him, accompanying his journey from the beginning up until this point.
After letting Bagas drag him into his shenanigans for a while, Sheva finally managed to escape from his best friend’s clutch, just to find out the two ladies were staring amusedly at him. The boy coughed a little, fixing the imaginary ss on his collar to hide his embarrassnt. Feeling like an awkward silence was about to fall here, he decided to prevent it with a single question.
"Now... What should we do?"
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