Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 463: Fourth Round of the Tournament! Sheva VS Alexander Dorchenko!

"Whoa, the fans sure kept increasing by the day, huh?" Sheva muttered in awe as more than fifty people had already gathered in front of the venue, waiting for their favorite players to come.

"Yeah, you know the drill. The closer it is to the final day, the bigger the crowd will be." Bagas said casually, helping his best friend navigate his way through the crowd. "At least, the fans here are not brutal. Well... Not as brutal as in Chennai." He added.

Sheva cringed at his own memory of playing the Olympiad in Chennai. While indeed, he won the biggest individual prize and created a beautiful memory, the crowd there was really unbearable, probably the only downside of that tournament. Hell, the security team couldn’t even stop the wave of the crowd at that time, letting the players get swarmed mercilessly. That single memory was enough to send a shiver down his spine, and that was the experience he didn’t want to repeat again for the rest of his life.

"Um... Are you Adrian Sheva?" Suddenly, someone interrupted his train of thought. When Sheva shook his head, he found a boy—probably slightly younger than Claudia and Duta—holding a chessboard while also looking at him nervously.

"Yes... I am." Sheva nodded slowly.

"Good!" The boy suddenly jumped in excitement, startling both Sheva and Bagas. "Um... Ah! Can I have a sign, please?" He offered the chessboard, which was already full of the signs from some of the best players here.

"Sure!" Sheva picked up the pen and signed it quickly.

This small interaction managed to gain attention, and a small part of the crowd who couldn’t get to the frontline to interact with their favorite players also shifted their target to Sheva immediately.

"Oh! You are Sheva, right? The one who crushes everyone in Challenger!"

"I really like your fearless style! Can I have a photo, please?"

"Hey, get in line! I am the first one to come!"

Well, since it was only five to six people who came, Sheva didn’t mind accepting their requests, even chatting with them for a while. Honestly, while they were not the most polite ones—quite blunt, they all were—Sheva was impressed with how orderly they were, not a single one of them being too aggressive like how the Indian fans were. If anything, this reminded him of his experience in Biel, where the young fans were always eager to interact with him but also knew how to hold back and not cross the line.

"Wow, superstar! Can I have one sign too, please?" Bagas asked with a Mickey tone, smiling teasingly after Sheva was done with the fans. Inwardly, though, the boy was proud when he watched Sheva like this. He had been following his best friend since the beginning of his career, and now, to see him thriving like this...

’So, is this how parents feel when they watch their son growing up? I am so proud...’ He wiped away the imaginary tears on the corner of his eye. 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"Oh, shut up, will you?" Sheva rolled his eyes in exasperation. "It is thirty minutes before the game starts, so we should be going in, right? Let’s go, don’t waste too much time here!"

As they entered the venue, the place where the master section was held was still quite empty, with only a few less prominent players to be found there. It seemed that the powerhouses were still getting entangled by the fans outside.

However, the same couldn’t be said for the challenger section, as all the players were ready for the war. Sheva walked into table 3, where Alexander Donchenko, the typical handsome European guy with clear blue eyes and blonde hair, had been waiting for him.

"Let’s have a good game." Sheva nodded, offering a handshake.

"Let’s have a good one." Alexander Donchenko nodded.

They waited for a while in silence, and slowly, all the players finally arrived, ready to start the round. Sheva could see some top players were still chatting around, though, like Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, and Levon Aronian. He remembered that those three were the main players for the USA during the Olympiad, so for them to stand together again in the same tournament, even though this time as rivals, was incredible.

’Man, it should be good to have a countryman or two to play together in this kind of tournament, right?’ Sheva couldn’t help but mutter in envy, also taking a glance at the Indian gang.

Honestly, for all the improvement that the women’s community enjoyed, the men’s community right now entered a stage of stagnancy, with only him still thriving higher. The others, like Taher, Novendra, or even Susanto, were now in a weird state, where the more they played in tournaments, the more they lost their rating. Hell, even Novendra had already crossed 2450, the lowest he ever had in the last two years.

’Well, if I cannot get any other men players to get into my level, maybe I should try to encourage the girls to climb higher?’ He pondered about the possibility. ’Anna, Laysa, and Claudia are still young, younger than me, even. If they are willing to leave the easy route of the women’s section and go further for the open one, that would be good for the entire county. Maybe I should talk with them about this.’ A plan had formed inside his head.

Unfortunately, it was not the time to do so, so Sheva could only save that on the back of his head. While he was daydreaming, time also passed by pretty quickly, and before he noticed, the alarm suddenly rang, showing that they could start the game.

’Oh, well... Let’s deal with the matter in front of me first.’ He shook his head strongly, trying to regain his concentration.

Just like the usual, Sheva didn’t hesitate to push his king’s pawn forward. He still adhered to the same principle: if it was not broken, no need to fix it. The opening that Alexander Donchenko picked to fight in this game, though, was enough to trigger a small smile on Sheva’s face.

’The Caro-Kann, huh? As expected...’