"Hey, Shev! Just look at this!"
Sheva perked up for a mont, just to find himself catching the flying phone that his best friend threw so casually. He couldn’t help but have the corner of his lips twitching, sohow finding this attitude to be outrageous.
"I know that you are rich as fuck and for you, a phone is just like a candy, but please, don’t do sothing like this again, okay?" He complained.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Bagas just waved his hand nonchalantly. "Anyway, read the news that I have already compiled." He nudged his head, telling the boy to do what he said. Curious, Sheva turned his attention to the phone, just to find himself so speechless over what he read.
Shock! Who is Adrian Sheva, the Young GM Who Takes the Chess World by Storm?!
From Tambora to Wijk Ann Zee, here is the Miracle Journey of Adrian Sheva!
8 Wins out of 9 Rounds, Adrian Sheva is on the Verge of Victory!
One Win Away from Glory! Adrian Sheva’s Incredible Journey in Wijk Ann Zee!
Unbelievable! This is how much GM Adrian Sheva is worth!
"Seriously? This again?" Sheva sent a side-eye to his best friend. "I thought we had already gotten through this phase after the Olympiad and my GM title, how could we have the sa thing again?"
Also, what the hell was that last article? Soone still kept an eye on his pocket? This was ridiculous!
However, instead of answering, Bagas just stared at Sheva knowingly, asking a question, "Don’t you see anything wrong or different in it?"
"Um?" Sheva frowned, narrowing his eyes at the news on his phone. If Bagas said sothing was suspicious here, then he had to read it again carefully. It took a while, but in the end, the boy blinked in realization. "All of this news... Are they in English?" He asked hesitantly.
"Exactly!" Bagas clapped his hands happily. "See? The first one is from chess, the second one cos from FIDE’s official website, and then you can see that CNN Asia and Al-Jazeera Sport are also covering your deeds. There are still a few from major companies that I didn’t include, like the BBC or even Tis India, but you have the gist of the situation here! You are famous internationally!"
This ti, Sheva was clearly dumbfounded by the news. Those companies... Of course, Sheva knew so of them quite well. After all, his deceased father was also a journalist in the past, so he had so knowledge about it. However, the boy had never expected that he would be the headline of them all like this.
"This... This is not a scam, right?" He couldn’t help but ask.
"Of course, it is fucking real~!" Bagas scoffed. "There is no way soone could fake news like this, especially when it is from so many big news corporations. If you don’t believe it, just watch your personal Twitter or Instagram, you will see a major upgrade in your follower numbers."
Hearing that, Sheva grabbed his phone imdiately, checking his dia social account. The number he saw, though, was enough to make his jaw drop instantly.
His Twitter account had a massive boost in followers, from 10k to almost 30k. The Instagram was even more ridiculous. From the original 55k, it doubled up to 120k, putting him at the sa level as those famous internet personalities. Honestly, if Sheva didn’t know better, he would doubt that this was real, thinking that soone—most likely Bagas—paid for a tool to increase his followers.
Hell, he even saw so notable nas on the list of his viewers, such as the Dutch GM Anish Giri, his good friend from Germany, Dmitrij Kollar, and so many more. Coupled with the 99 private ssages that he received, the sudden fa was enough to freeze his brain to death.
"So... What do you think I should do with this?" He asked his best friend with a lost expression.
Unexpectedly, Bagas just snorted in exasperation. "What else can you do? Just ignore them and focus on the ga tomorrow!"
"Um?"
"I an, what else do you want to do? Even all those followers wouldn’t help you win the ga, right?" Bagas asked rhetorically. "You have to rember the nature of fans. They will flock to you if you win, but they will also be the first ones to scold you once you slip. So, don’t think too much about them, especially on social dia, and just put your focus on the ga tomorrow. I an, you are one win away from winning it all prematurely, don’t you dare to slip, okay?"
Well... After pondering for a mont, Sheva couldn’t find any fault in Bagas’s explanation, so he tried to shift his focus back to the ga tomorrow. With 8.5 points out of 9 rounds, the closest one from him only had 6.5 points, and coincidentally enough, the man, Mustafa Yilmaz, would be his next opponent. If he managed to win the ga tomorrow, no one would be able to overturn the table with only three rounds left, so he could be declared the winner tomorrow.
That was why so many commotions suddenly happened around his na.
"Oh, well... Let’s just think of my opponent tomorrow." Sheva shook his head, starting to explore everything about the Turkish GM. "Mustafa Yilmaz, an experienced GM, whose playing style is solid. So news even said that he spent 5 hours a day studying the computer line so that he could replicate it. What the heck?! Why in the hell would soone want to play like a computer?" He blinked repeatedly.
"Not everyone is a tactical genius, you know?" Bagas rolled his eyes once again. Even though he wasn’t a real pro like his best friend, the boy could see better the struggles of the ordinary players. "For most of the players outside, this is indeed the best way to approach the ga, as it is easier to rember the computer line rather than developing so tactical senses that couldn’t always work in the ga."
Sheva just nodded silently, finding that the explanation was reasonable. He didn’t dwell on it for too long, though, as a grin ford on his face. "I pity him, but unfortunately, I am the antithesis of a player like this." He said. "I don’t need any complicated strategy for tomorrow’s ga. As long as I could catch him off guard and drag him into the system that he is unfamiliar with, the ga will be in my hands. So, get ready, because I will secure the victory tomorrow, Gas!"
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