Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 523: Sheva’s Thought & Worry

Meanwhile, in Prague, it was a rare sunny day in February, the perfect weather to go out for a walk. However, Sheva couldn’t muster the energy to do that, opting to just be lazy in his comfortable bed. He had been scrolling through his phone since morning, only moving to roll over to the other side of the bed once he got uncomfortable.

If his mother saw him, Sheva didn’t have any doubt that he would get scolded mercilessly. That, before he would be chased away with his mother shouting for him to go outside and not just playing with his phone.

’Well, Mom is not here, and Bagas is not a tattletale, so it is time for me to do what I want!’

In fact, he wasn’t the only one who thought about that. Not the specific thought to escape from mother’s scolding, of course, but more like choosing to be lazy. After all, today was a rare day off in the schedule before they would fight again for the second half of the tournament. It was an important holiday to refresh their brain, as some players started to find their performance declining at the end of the fifth day.

Unfortunately, no matter how much he tried to put his body in a relaxed state, Sheva always failed to do that. His fingers kept moving from the media social to the Chess.com account, checking about the games where his proteges were fighting right now.

’Nayaka still hasn’t made a move? Is he worried that his position will collapse? He shouldn’t think about that right now! He has a nice chance to counterattack!’

’Duta... As expected, his approach is still giving me a headache. Still, sooner or later, he has to take his chance to attack, and I really want to see how he would do that...’

’Devi... Hmm... Nice! She really takes Dmitrij’s advice to heart! Just get one quick advantage, and exchange everything before destroying her in the endgame phase! It would be hard for the boy to do something like that because they were not that flexible in their thinking, but Devi? She definitely has what it takes to refine this playing style.’

Sheva was really grateful that he could find the coverage of this tournament at Chess.com, as the platform usually didn’t show any low-level tournaments. Even if it did, the tournament covered by the platform would only be those who paid a lot of money to promote that, and this Asian Chess School Tournament seemed to be in this case.

"You are still watching their games?" Bagas suddenly barged in with a bag of potato chips in his hand. "You don’t need to worry about them; they would be okay." He said casually while still chewing the snack in his mouth.

"Easy for you to say, they are not your student," Sheva grumbled, not even turning his head around. "Anyway, I am just worried if somehow, they got into trouble. What if they were too nervous, their minds went blank, and they even crashed out in the middle of the game? What if they were crushed by the pressure there? I mean—" 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

"Okay, you need to stop it!" Bagas raised his hand quickly, having a headache listening to his best friend’s worry. "You are overthinking right now! There is no way they would suffer from even half of the things that you mentioned! Just stay calm and watch them here, no need to stress yourself!" He reprimanded the boy.

Sheva took a deep breath, realizing that Bagas was right for this case. "... I just couldn’t help it, though. This is the first time I have students, and I don’t want anything g bad happen to them..." He smiled weakly.

"You are projecting them on your experience, which is not good." Bagas shook his head in disapproval. "I know that your worry comes from the memory of your first-ever tournament last year, but your situation back then is different from what it is right now. At least, they are not completely clueless, having been competing in the National Tournament for so many years. Compared to that, you should be the inexperienced one, right?"

Sheva was stunned for a moment, but after thinking about it, he couldn’t help but smile wryly. ’Yeah, my experience is too insane that I sometimes forget that I have only been here for one year. Compared to Nayaka, Duta, and Devi, who have been fighting for so many years, I am still quite green in this field.’

As Sheva got calmer, Bagas couldn’t help but nod in approval, glancing at the phone in Sheva’s hand and asking, "So, how are they faring? There should be no problem, right?"

"Yeah, no problem at all." Sheva smiled wryly, realizing that he was overthinking before. "Devi is the most optimistic one, followed by Duta and Nayaka." He added.

Bagas raised one of his eyebrows slightly. "Nayaka is the last? Is he the one you thought personally?"

"...Indeed." Sheva rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Still, the opponent is quite tricky, and he is still trying so hard to suppress the urge to charge forward here, not wanting to reveal any crack in his defense. It is a good improvement, as he could finally curb his bad habit."

"Not bad... Still, their opponent shouldn’t be that hard, right? I mean, not for you, of course, but even for them, there should be no complication, right?"

"... I think so?" Sheva answered hesitantly. "I know the three rank quite high in the initial ranking, so their opponent should come from the lower-rated section. However, you know how the grassroots level works. You cannot say your opponent’s rating is the best reflection of their ability, right?"

Bagas nodded, knowing exactly what Sheva was saying here. It referred to Sheva’s experience having to play in the 2250 section the first few tournaments he played, and even if at that time, Sheva’s rating was ass, the boy could still slaughter everyone left and right. Even if the chance of someone like Sheva appearing again is so slim, it was definitely not zero.

"Oh! It seems Devi is starting to make a move!" Sheva suddenly turned his eyes back to the game, noticing that the board where the girl played finally moved. "Damn! It seems we are going to have our first win here!"

-Author’s note-

Hey, everyone! Thank you for supporting my story! I have written a new one with the hope of getting a contract for that story as well, the title is ’The Rise of the Iron Wall!’. It is a football story, so if you like, please give your support by adding it to your collection and giving your power stone to that story! Thanks!