4V4 Blitz ga... Well, this was an interesting format.
It really forced chess, a ga that was always an individual sport, to turn into a team sport, where their fate was not in their own hand anymore, and they also had to trust their teammates. Even though the format was strange, it wasn’t the first ti they all saw this. After all, a few years ago, a video went viral of a bunch of top players gathering, with Gary Kasparov and Vishwanathan Anand forming a team to play with this format.
Even though it was just a friendly ga with them all joking around, for the viewers, that video was like a wet dream, seeing so many elites hanging around like that. The youngsters here also had that feeling, and the thought of replicating that ga was enough to let their fighting spirit burn brightly.
Sheva himself didn’t really know about that video. However, he also had a strong motivation for this ga, as the system suddenly alerted him inside his head.
[A New Mission Detected!]
[You are in a gathering of monsters! Make sure you let everyone rember your na!]
[Mission Objective: Play with an accuracy of more than 90 percent and prevent your team from losing!]
[Reward: Unknown.]
Even though the reward was still a little bit of a mystery, Sheva himself didn’t really care. This mission ca at the right ti, as it gave him more fuel to treat this event more seriously.
’Let’s see how far I fare in this ga...’ He muttered under his breath.
Since the the was set, everyone knew their teammates imdiately. It would be Sheva, Pragg, Vincent Kayr, and Nordibek Abdusattorov against Magnus Carlsen, Anish Giri, Wesley So, and Levon Aronian. Rating-wise, this ga was unfair for the youngsters. However, no one was willing to give up this opportunity, as those four teenagers decided to charge into the enemy bravely.
"Oh, this is going to be interesting..." Anish smirked a little, adjusting the pieces on the board playfully. "This will also give us a chance to see the winner of the master section against the winner of the challenger section, right? I wonder, how long could the winner of the master section last against Sheva... Oh, right! I am the winner of the master section, right?!" He slapped his forehead in a faux oblivion.
Hearing that, most of the players there had the corners of their lips twitching madly. Anish Giri had a lot of admirable sides, but honestly, his infuriating personality whenever he won a tournant was always a bit too much to handle.
"Ha! That’s a nice joke, Anish!" Levon laughed, always finding everything to be funny. "Anyway, you can challenge him later. Now, let’s have so fun first!"
With that thought in mind, all of them also turned their eyes to the board, with Bagas, being the caraman he was, recording the occasion thoroughly.
No discussion was needed, as everyone decided the order of the players here. Magnus would make the first move for the veteran team, followed by Nordibek Abdusattorov for the youngster team. Then, Wesley So would follow up, and Pragg would join the fun after that. Then there were Levon Aronian and Vincent Kayr for the third place, and lastly, Sheva and Anish were going fight on the bottom row of the order.
’It seems that he is serious about challenging , huh?’ Sheva glanced at Anish Giri subtly.
Honestly, Sheva thought that he would have to face Magnus. After all, he had a history of slandering the man a few months ago, so he thought he would have to face the GOAT’s revenge and got humiliated here. However, it seed that the boy overestimated himself here, as Magnus didn’t really take him seriously.
’Maybe, in his eyes, I am just another prodigy who likes to boast and gain attention, huh?’ Sheva thought inwardly. He then clenched his fist tightly, sohow feeling like his spirit was ignited once again. ’Well, this is in line with the system’s mission, right? Let’s just try to force the man to take seriously!’
As everything and everyone was ready, Magnus finally made his first move. With his cocky smirk, the man moved the B pawn one square forward, smiling tauntingly at Nordibek and the three youngsters in front of him.
"Oh, this should be your favorite against Fabi in blitz, right?" Wesley So chirped when he saw the first move that Magnus made.
"Yes, he was always annoyed whenever I pulled this Nimzo-Larsen combined with the Reti one. His reaction is always funny!" He chuckled lightly, reminiscing about his mory.
"If I rember correctly, you have also never won a ga against him with this opponent, yeah?" Levon chid in with his teasing smile, enough to shut Magnus’s mouth instantly.
Of course, everyone knew that Fabi, whom they ntioned was Fabiano Caruana, the super GM from Arica, who was playing in this tournant as well. Sheva himself also recognized this opening, as, whenever Magnus was being cheeky, he would go for this move. However, that ant the man was completely underestimating him and the three youngsters, and while he didn’t know what those three would do, he didn’t intend to let this slide easily.
’Co on, make a move already! I cannot wait for my turn to co!’
After that, Nordibek made the first move for the youngsters’ team, and that was when the fun finally began.
All of them rose from the chair, standing up so that they could reach the pieces easily. Move after move was made, and honestly, Sheva was surprised that no mistake was made even after the twentieth move of the ga. In his mind, this kind of ga was quite difficult, as they couldn’t synchronize with the others quite well in such a short ti. There was a mont where Sheva was annoyed about Vincent’s move, and he himself also noticed Nordibek groaned whenever he made a bold move that required the Uzbek GM to clean up his ss.
Still, so far, everything has gone perfectly for the two teams, even borderline a boring ga here. Hell, Sheva also started yawning, a dangerous idea flashing in his mind.
’Should I stir up sothing here?’
Fortunately, he didn’t really need to do that, as, soon enough after that, the ambiguous move that Wesley So made was enough to light up Sheva’s eyes.
’This is our chance!’
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