"Oh, God! What the hell am I doing here?!" Magnus groaned loudly, instantly realizing the mistake he made right after he put down the piece on the board.
"Hey, hey, Magnus, what is going on? You didn’t win the tournant yesterday, so there is no way you are still drunk from the victory, right?" Anish exclaid in a faux shock, which only made the others twitch the corner of their lips speechlessly at him.
Yeah, out of anyone else here, Anish Giri was probably the only one who had the guts to mock Magnus Carlsen in front of the man’s face like this. Wesley So and Levon Aronian might be able to do so, but they were too polite to let themselves stoop so low as to the level of trash-talking their opponent like this.
"Oh, God... I fucking hate myself..." Magnus ignored the taunt from Anish, just covering his face in agony. It seed that all of his energy was sucked out of his body in just a snap.
In fact, the move itself wasn’t terrible. Hell, given the short amount of ti that Magnus only had, it was probably the most logical move that he could think of. Seeing that the pawn on D3 was under siege, he wanted to reinforce it by pushing the C pawn one square forward. It was a perfectly normal move, except that it was too slow for the black team, which was in the middle of the attack.
Even if they didn’t look at the computer engine, everyone here could see that the best move should be moving the knight first, using the D pawn as an anchor to threaten the rook on E1 before pushing the C pawn, like what Magnus did earlier. It was just a move difference, but the impact was huge. With the knight on C2, it would control so many strategic squares and still put great pressure on the white’s side, preventing the white pieces from exchanging everything recklessly.
Unfortunately, that was the ’what-ifs’ scenario. Now that the knight was still far away, the white team could start exchanging more pieces to neutralize the attack, and even though the black team refused, at least, they would still be able to kick out the attack from their own territory.
"Co on, Pragg! Don’t you dare make a mistake here!" Nodirbek growled impatiently.
"Ha! Who do you think I am?!" Praggnanandhaa snorted while also picking up the knight, putting it into the square that threatened the opponent’s queen imdiately.
Now that the ga had gone back to equal again, the tension subsided a little bit. However, as ti was running low, they started blitzing their way through each move, making one mistake after another.
First, it was Nodirbek who accepted the queen exchange for an unfavorable position, allowing the black piece to consolidate the situation on their own territory. Then, Levon made another mistake by rushing the black king too soon, eager to get it involved in the middle ga. After that, Anish doubled down with his lazy move, pushing the pawn one square forward to get into the promotion square even without any support from behind.
Honestly, if only they could see the evaluation bar, they would’ve had a heart attack seeing how volatile the movent was. It changed so fast from -2.9 to -0.4, then to 1.1, and went back again to -0.5. No one really knew who would win this ga, as anyone could make a mistake at any point.
"We all play like a bunch of idiots, eh?" Magnus grumbled grumpily, moving the piece into the square he wanted it to be.
"Tell about that." Wesley So snorted amusedly. "If only people saw us playing this ga, they would be appalled." He added while also enjoying the potato chip that he brought here.
"What do you an by if, Wesley?" Levon asked with the sa amount of amusent. "See that guy that Sheva brings here? He is recording this event, you know? I bet that once he uploads the video, the internet will be in uproar." He pointed his finger at Bagas, who just grinned and waved politely.
"Wait!" Wesley blinked in realization. "You an everything has been recorded since the beginning?!" He shrieked in panic. This ti, everyone just looked at him like he was an idiot, enough to make the Arican-Philippines man flustered on the spot. "I an, no one told anything, right?" He tried to defend himself weakly.
"Mister Wesley, for a smart person, you sure can be a little bit naive, right?" Sheva snorted. "You see my best friend bringing a cara here, setting it up, and watching everything unfold quietly from the background. If he isn’t here to record, what do you think he is doing?"
"Naïve? No need to be polite, Sheva." Anish chuckled. "You can say that Wesley can be stupid sotis. It’s okay, everyone knows about it."
Levon just let out a small chuckle while Wesley himself rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. However, it was clear that he wasn’t offended, which ant this was just a common joke among those elite players.
"Well, fortunately, I didn’t say anything controversial, or I would be in trouble tomorrow!" Wesley So laughed heartily; his cheerful deanor was enough to lighten up the mood.
The ga continued again for a while before Magnus made another mistake that made everyone stop thinking and turn around at the GOAT himself in shock.
"Magnus, are you okay today?" Anish couldn’t help but ask; now his tone was slightly worried. "If you are not feeling well, it’s okay, you can go back first. No one will talk badly about you, right?" He turned around to the others, asking for support.
Sheva didn’t know how the others reacted, but he just nodded silently, showing his silent support here. However, looking at the gleam in Anish’s eyes, he knew exactly what that Dutch GM wanted to do.
’He is too mischievous...’ Sheva couldn’t help but shake his head in exasperation. ’If I’m not wrong, he should be the first one to laugh if Magnus really leaves, right?’
Magnus himself gnashed his teeth in fury, knowing full well that Anish was up to no good. However, he could only swallow his anger, as indeed, he wasn’t in the best condition here. The mistake he made was too basic, too elentary for his level. In a lapse of judgnt, he suddenly hung a whole bishop for nothing, giving away the ga to the youngsters’ team without taking anything.
Knowing that he would get mocked no matter what happened, Magnus, a sole-loser that he was, finally agreed to the suggestion. "Yeah, I am not in good condition right now, so sorry for my rudeness, but I will leave first. Don’t worry, I will kick all of your asses when we et again in the future."
Then, he stord off, leaving all eight people dumbfounded on the spot.
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