The first day of the tournant.
Usually, this was also the ga that all the high-rated players used as their warm-up. After all, the first round would always give them an easy opponent, a no-nad player with an ELO rating of around 1800 to 2000 for them to turn on their engine first. So people might even say that the real tournant only began in the fourth round, where all the top-seeded players started to fight each other.
However, that didn’t an they could underestimate their opponent. There would be so occasions where a genius whose rating didn’t reflect their rating would appear out of nowhere. In the past, Sheva was the one who held that role. However, since he could be considered a high-rated player right now, the roles reversed, and it was he who had to be wary of that this ti.
"Miraziz Kuziev, huh?" Sheva muttered under his breath. "A 12-year-old boy with an ELO rating of 2036. This is troubleso..." The younger his opponent was, the more Sheva felt that the ga was unpredictable. However, he himself also had high confidence, so this was just sothing he blurted out unconsciously; inwardly, the boy was still confident about his chances of winning the ga.
"It is good that you are not underestimating your opponent." dina nodded in approval. "Even though the first round is relatively easy, a bad result in this round could affect the whole tournant way more than a defeat against the top-seeded players in the fifth or sixth round. So, if you want to go further and challenge the top spot, winning is your only option." The woman stared at him knowingly.
Yeah, even though Sheva hadn’t really said anything about his ambition, dina could see it in his eyes, the hunger of a predator who wanted to establish his dominance against all the predators in this jungle. This was definitely not the Sheva who wanted to get a good result, but the Sheva who wanted to crush the whole competition and triumph as the ultimate winner after everything was unfolded.
"Don’t worry, Sister dina. There is no way I would underestimate my opponent." Sheva just waved his hand nonchalantly. "Anyway, what about you?" He asked back with a hint of curiosity.
The other opponents were also not that hard. Anna, Laysa, and dina would fight against the players with a rating of around 2000, while Claudia was even more miserable here. The girl was paired against a 1800-rated player, and with more than 400 rating difference between those two, no matter how good her win was, she would only be able to get a 0.8 ELO rating in this ga.
"No need to pout like that, Ia," Sheva said teasingly.
"Who is pouting?!" The little girl roared, even threatening to bite him. "Tch! It is just bad luck! I will just treat this ga as a snack!" She huffed indignantly, trying her best to ignore the urge to punch Sheva straight in the face.
"Oh, so, little Ia is not humble anymore, eh?" Laysa smiled playfully, joining the fun here.
"Don’t call little Ia!" Claudia retorted harshly, trying to avoid Laysa’s head-pat attack.
The others just smiled unconsciously when they saw this, yet decided to stay quiet while watching the fun in front of them. While no one dared to underestimate their opponents, they all ca here with the confidence of a group of players who had just created history, so the first ga of the tournant didn’t really make them feel uneasy at all.
Well, at least, that was what most of them thought. In fact, one player still felt quite anxious, and that was Duta. Yeah, the newcor here didn’t really feel good. After all, this was his first-ever tournant with so many GMs in the sa section as him. As a player with a rating of 1900, his opponents were usually around the sa, with the highest being at 2250. So, it was not strange for him to lose his composure right now.
Moreover, as a low-rated player in this tournant, his fate was quite different than the others. The boy got paired against Mohad Tissir, a veteran IM from Morocco with an ELO rating of 2386. Even though the IM was basically a no-nad player in the vast ocean of the chess community, it was still a mission impossible for a 1900-rated player like Duta to make an upset in this ga.
Just like any other players with a similar ELO rating to him, Duta was destined to be a snack in this round, a stepping stone for those high-rated players to get into their true form.
"Nervous?" Sheva asked with a knowing smile.
"Yeah," Duta nodded quietly, still having his eyes locked on the phone. "But..." A smile ford on his face as his voice trailed behind. "I am excited as well..."
"Good." Sheva sent a thumbs-up. "Only a fool or soone who doesn’t care about their career will not feel any nervousness if they are in your shoes. However, it is important for you to shift that feeling slowly into excitent. Imagine what would happen if sohow, you pulled up an upset. That would be crazy, right?"
Duta nodded once again, sohow understanding what Sheva was talking about here. "Is that what you always do before the ga?" He asked genuinely.
"Yeah, and I still think I am doing the sa whenever I et soone with an ELO rating that is far higher than mine." Sheva smiled softly. "It is difficult to maintain your best form for nine rounds continuously, so whenever you find a spark of excitent, it would be good if you could chase it down. It would be a good source of energy to recharge your spirit, allowing you to co back to the venue far stronger than today."
Duta nodded solemnly before thanking the boy. Although he didn’t quite understand what Sheva was saying, the boy still believed his words, trying to maintain his excitent for tomorrow. Sheva himself was also satisfied here. Usually, he would be the least-experienced player on the team, having to be taken care of by everyone else—Even Claudia, at so point. Now, for him to impart wisdom to younger generations like this...
’Yeah, maybe, I have a talent to beco a good teacher here...’
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