Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 365: The Overall Situation of the Olympiad

The situation in the venue was pretty much chaotic, with the fan zone jam-packed with a sea of people. This was the last day of the tournament, after all, so everyone wanted to see the coronation of the new king of the chess world.

The other reason why the crowd went crazy today was that two of India’s teams were still in the race to become the number one. With the same 7 wins, 2 draws, and 1 defeat, both India’s 1st team and 2nd team were at the number 3 and 4 spots on the standings, only behind Armenia and Uzbekistan. They were only one win away from those two, so if they managed to win while the other two slipped, they could basically dominate the open’s section by grabbing the gold and silver medals at the same time.

It was nearly impossible, but the hope was still there.

’Speaking of which, it is crazy that Uzbekistan and Armenia are at the top two. I mean, no one looked at them seriously enough in the beginning of the tournament, right?’ Sheva muttered to himself. ’Compared to that, the powerhouse country like the USA...’

While the USA wasn’t that terrible—they were still at the 5th on the table with a 7-2-1 record—this was definitely one of the tournaments to forget for all of their players. It was crazy, though, as they all lost ratings in this tournament despite still being the number 5th out of almost 200 countries that participated. That showed how bad their performance was, especially from Fabiano Caruana.

The man who was hailed as the second-best player of this generation after Magnus Carlsen was getting trampled black and blue, getting used as a stepping stone so many times in this tournament. The young prodigies here sure didn’t have martial ethics. First, it was Nordibek Adusattorov, and then, Gukesh also got a piece of him later. Right now, with one round to go, Fabiano Caruana has already lost 17 ELO rating, which would be difficult to recover when a player is at the highest level like this.

’Yeah, just to show that the ELO rating doesn’t reflect a player’s true ability, especially for us youngsters.’ Sheva smiled wryly.

Well, Fabiano was quite lucky in this regard, because while he didn’t perform at his best, at least his teammates were still carrying him behind, elevating the team record to this point. The same couldn’t be said for the best player in the world, though. While Magnus Carlsen played like a beast, beating everyone black and blue, unfortunately, the other Norwegian players failed to follow his lead.

Hell, their current ranking was even lower than Indonesia, only winning 5 matchups out of 10 rounds so far. This was embarrassing for a team with the GOAT in it, but this was the harsh reality. A country might be able to produce one or two generational talents like Magnus, but in a team-format tournament like this, the one who won it all would be those who were solid enough to give birth to excellent players.

’Yeah, and I think that would be my fate in the future.’ Sheva chuckled bitterly, knowing that he was in the same position as Magnus here. If no one was able to break through into the top level, every time a team tournament like this happened, he would be dragged by his teammates, which was a pain in the ass. ’No, no, I cannot stay pessimistic about it.’ Sheva shook his head quickly. ’I can also be like Vishy Anand, helping to produce top talents from all over the country. With the system’s help, that shouldn’t be hard, right?’

While Sheva was lost in his thought, a moment later, all of India’s players finally arrived, followed by the hysterical screams from the fan zone. Even Sheva had to wince unconsciously, not expecting that the reception would be this crazy.

"Man, when will our country be this welcoming to chess..." Arfan couldn’t help but sigh.

"Be good and win something big first, and maybe, people will start treating us like this." Sheva retorted quickly.

"Well, that’s your job, right?" Arfan smiled with his eyes closed, forming a comical curve that was enough to make Sheva’s mouth twitch madly. "I mean, you are basically the gold medalist and the best performer of the tournament, and you have just gotten second place in Biel. If you didn’t get the heroic reception like this, I would be mad, you know?"

Indeed, even though it seemed like it was a long time ago, the Biel Open had just ended two weeks ago, and since that time, Sheva hadn’t come back home once to enjoy it. Now, with him adding one more honor, the reception back home sure would be crazy, especially if his sponsor, BNI, knew about it.

’Yeah, it would be good if it could happen...’ Sheva muttered inwardly.

He wouldn’t say it out loud, but the boy was quite jealous to see Pragg, Gukesh, and the other Indian players being surrounded by so much love like this, as if they had just won the war for the country. This kind of love was what every athlete yearned for, and Sheva was not the exception here.

’Oh, well, I will have more chances for something like that in the future.’ Sheva tried to cheer himself up. ’Anyway, let’s focus on today’s game first. Let’s create a record of a 100 percent win in this tournament, and leave my name in the history of the chess world!’

It was a big ambition, but definitely not an impossible one. However, before he could achieve that, Sheva had to face the last wall here with the name of Puranik Abimanyu, a 22-year-old GM with an ELO rating of 2612. Not the easiest opponent, of course. Still, Sheva was confident that he could continue his historical run and ended the tournament with a bang here.

’Yeah, while he is good, his result in this tournament is definitely not ideal.’ Sheva tried to recall everything about the man in front of him. ’Well, it is still quite good, but most of his opponents are around 2400. While I am also one of them, my true ability should be far more than that, right? Yeah, there is no need to worry here. Just play like usual, and the win would be mine! Let’s fucking go!’