CHAPTER 207: BIEL, HERE WE GO!

The journey to Switzerland took about twenty hours by plane, including one transit in the middle of the journey. It was a usual operation for any airways that whenever a plane was going to cross the continent from Asia to Europe or vice versa, they would go to Doha first for a couple of hours. This time, though, Sheva didn’t really feel any discomfort going on a plane, showing that he had started to get used to this way of travelling.

’Man, who would’ve thought that I would get used to traveling abroad like this? I thought something like this could only be enjoyed by wealthy people...’ He muttered to himself.

They arrived at Zurich International Airport pretty early in the morning, followed by about seven hours of travel with a train for about seven more hours. This last part of the trip before they arrived at Biel, though, was definitely the most incredible thing that Sheva had ever experienced in his life.

For more than seventeen years that Sheva lived in this world, he knew that his experience abroad was pretty limited. In total, besides his home country, Indonesia, the boy had only ever visited two countries so far, Vietnam and Iceland. He didn’t count the other countries where the plane transited for a little while, since all he ever did during that time was stay at the airport. While yes, those two countries were decent, but they all looked bland—very bland, in fact—compared to what he just witnessed here.

As the train moved slowly under the warmth of the summer sun, the boy was amazed by the scenery that put any other country to shame. The sun made the mountains and green fields shine brightly. He loved looking out the window at the clear blue lakes and tall trees. The peaceful villages with colorful houses added to the charm. Everything around him looked so fresh and lively.

It was his first time in Switzerland, and Sheva felt happy and lucky to pick this tournament to go to. Honestly, if it weren’t for the chess tournament tomorrow, the boy would like to explore the country for a while. This place was surreal; a textbook holiday destination for all people around the world.

"Man, I don’t know about you guys, but this is definitely the most beautiful country that I have ever visited." Sheva made a comment after they left the train. "Not that I have visited a lot of countries, mind you, but I doubt this could be matched so easily even by ours."

Yeah, even though Indonesia was infamous for its natural beauty, Sheva still thought it was hard to match the scenery he had just witnessed earlier. Of course, this was just his subjective mind, as his knowledge about his own country was limited to the places that he saw on the internet. The boy himself had never left Jakarta, even for once, before he joined the chess community, so his opinion couldn’t be used as a good reference here.

Still, his mind might change in the future, but for now, Sheva thought that this was definitely the most exquisite country in the world.

"Yeah, this is a nice country..." Anna nodded in agreement, taking a deep breath while also enjoying the fresh air of the evening in Biel. "Still, the sun is almost set right now, so we’d better be quick and get into the hotel if we don’t want to spend our night outside."

"Oh, you are right." Medina nodded as she watched the sky start to turn dark. "Let’s go to the hotel first and take a rest as soon as possible. We will have a tough day tomorrow."

At the reminder, all four people there picked up their luggage immediately, ordering a taxi to go to the hotel. It was a nice one near the center of the town, and just based on its own location, Sheva knew this was a very expensive place. The boy was just glad that he was here on a sponsorship, so not a single cent came out of his pocket.

The reason why they picked up this hotel as their living place for the next eight days, though, was not because it was close to the center of the town. No, the main reason was that the hotel was just one block away from the venue of the tournament, the Concert Hall of the Biel Congress Center, probably the biggest building in this town.

Since Biel itself was a pretty small town, such an international event like this tournament was promoted quite nicely, as they could see a lot of people setting up a chessboard in every corner of the road to try to challenge the players who were going to fight in this tournament.

Even though the open session would officially start tomorrow, this was already the second day of the tournament. The GMT section, the highest stage where all the invited top grandmasters were playing, had already started yesterday, and based on the murmurs he heard from the passerby, Sheva knew the second round of their section should’ve been finished this evening.

’So, how is it? Any good result?’

’Just one win, that Vietnamese GM against Nordibek.’

"Really? Well, that’s good, since he lost in the first round yesterday. What about your favorite youngster?’

’Gukesh got a draw result. I don’t know his opponent, though.’

’Well, too bad, he failed to continue his momentum after winning the game yesterday.’

Even though most of the conversation had a pretty strong German accent, Sheva could still pick up one or two things there, and he was surprised to hear a familiar name in the GM section of this tournament.

’Gukesh is here? And he is playing in the highest section?’ He couldn’t help but murmur; his mind flew back to Reykjavik two months ago. ’He should’ve been improved a lot since his time in Reykjavik, right? Man, I wonder how his stats would look under my scan... Unfortunately, I am not on the same stage as him. Still... With how big the difference between our ratings is, I wonder when we would have a chance to play against each other again... Damn, I cannot wait to have revenge on him in the future!’