CHAPTER 101: RECAP & THE LAST DAY OF THE TOURNAMENT

For Sheva, the last two rounds passed by quite fast. After all, he had already faced every strong opponent in this section before, and what was left were those low-rated players who somehow managed to have a good tournament and were unlucky enough to be paired against him. This was also the same for Arfan and Claudia, and knowing those two would never lose against such an opponent, the boy had already figured out that the final standing would be the same as the current one.

Aditya Bagus Arfan – 2226 – 6.5/7

Adrian Sheva – 1877 – 6/7

Claudia Marisa – 1992 – 5.5/7

Yeah, by now, all the people could see that those three were the best players in the entire section, far better than their opponents. They swept the entire tournament under the rug, only losing points from each other. Their hegemony was unshakable, and everyone could guess that this would still be the same until the tournament was over.

True enough, in the eighth round of the tournament, those three swept their respective opponent cleanly, without making a single mistake. Sheva himself faced Ido, one of the Black Rook members who had a decent result in this tournament. It was unfortunate for the man to get paired against him, as Sheva didn’t show any mercy from the beginning.

Arfan was also the same. He faced the Belgian player, Yansen, whom Sheva had faced before he played against Ummi in the fifth round, and also won the game. He didn’t give a chance to the blonde man from a foreign country, showing his merciless nature and killing the man in just fifteen moves.

Meanwhile, not like the two boys, Claudia’s route in the eighth rank was a bit bumpy. She was on the verge of another draw against her opponent, and it took her almost 35 moves before the girl found a glimpse of hope to win the game. Fortunately enough, her awareness of positional advantage was quite sharp, and she solved everything pretty quickly.

The last round was also the same. Those three went all out, no matter whether the final result had been determined or not. For them who were still in the lowest-rated section, every game mattered since they still needed to get every bit of rating point available. While for Arfan, he wouldn’t get that many points since the boy had already stepped through the 2300 threshold, but for Claudia and Sheva, just a win was enough to make their rating skyrocket.

As the final game was over, Sheva finally ended the tournament in the second place with 8 points, a wonderful result for his second ever tournament. Even though he failed to win it all, Sheva was satisfied with his own performance. More than that, the rating point he got with 7 wins and 2 draws was jaw-dropping. Overall, his rating skyrocketed through the 2100 threshold with the additional 238 points, making his total ELO rating 2115. While it was still pretty low, at least he could start thinking about getting an official title now, since the threshold of getting the FM title was 2300 ELO rating.

Claudia also had a massive increase in her rating. Although not as incredible as Sheva’s achievement since her first two opponents were below 1800 and she also suffered a defeat against Arfan, the girl also crossed the 2100 threshold in one go. However, she was still fuming, especially since the girl realized that her new rating was below Sheva.

Yeah, after playing for nine rounds, her rating was just 2102, 13 points below Sheva’s new one.

As for Arfan, Sheva himself didn’t know how many points did the boy get, but one thing was for sure: the boy had already crossed the 2350 threshold. Honestly, he shouldn’t be playing in the lowest-rated section, since the boy’s ability was far beyond that. It was just an unfortunate event that he was put in such a bad place, making it impossible for him to climb higher just from the tournament. However, the win was still good enough to boost his confidence, and Sheva heard the murmurs from people around him that after this, the boy would go on a month-long European tour to get his IM norm as quickly as possible.

’Damn, a rich player sure is different.’ Sheva cursed inwardly. ’I have to talk to Bagas about this, too. I couldn’t always rely on Master Irfan to go abroad since it is too slow, and sooner or later, my improvement will be stuck if I don’t play in a stronger tournament.’ He took a note inside his head.

But that was another discussion for the future. Now, the U2250 section of the Jakarta International Chess Festival was finally over, with Aditya Bagus Arfan coming up as the absolute winner here. However, that didn’t mean the entire festival itself was over. No, there was still one match that... Actually, it didn’t affect the final standing at all. It had already been confirmed that both players would end in the middle-lower part of the table. However, for one of them, this was a career-defining match, as one win would bring her closer to a new title.

Yeah, it was the game between IM Irfan Aditya and WGM Anna Marisa.

Most of the spectators who didn’t know about it might be confused about why they both still tried hard even if it wouldn’t affect the final table. After all, most of the players would try to get an easy draw in the final round, wanting to get over it as quickly as possible.

However, that wasn’t the case for Anna. No, after the win against IM Jodi in the seventh round, somehow, she miraculously forced a draw against a strong Indian GM, Akash Ganesan, in the eighth round. The result didn’t affect Akash Ganesan’s rating that much, but for Anna, this was like someone opening a door for her to step into a new realm. Yeah, after she opened the tournament with three losses and one draw, the girl managed to bounce back, accumulating one point after another until she got 3.5 points. It wasn’t a lot, but in such a high-rated tournament, Anna only needed to have 4.5 points to get her first-ever IM norm, and this was her chance to do so.

Since this was the last game of the tournament, just like the usual, people had already surrounded the table, wanting to get a closer look at the game. Sheva and Claudia were also there, and as always, the little girl was the one who worried the most about her big sister here.

’Come on, Big Sis... Win the game, please...’