CHAPTER 247: A LITTLE CELEBRATION

"Good job, everyone!" As Sheva, Medina, and Anna walked out of the venue, they were greeted by Bagas, whose face was still red from the excitement that this round brought. "Three games, all won! Good job!"

Indeed, besides Sheva, Anna and Medina managed to steal the win from their opponents. Medina’s game was an absolute cinema, where she outlasted her opponent, Alexander Motylev, in a five-hour battle. The woman really took advantage of the fact that she faced an old man here, trying to force the game into an endurance battle where she killed the Russian GM once the man was exhausted enough to think straight.

As for Anna, she really made her opponent, Raja Panjwani, pay for underestimating her by using such a crappy opening, the Alekhine Defense in the game. The girl won in just 24 moves, not giving her opponent any chance to fight back at all.

As a result, now, Sheva was sitting in the second place, followed by three grandmasters who had the same 6.5 points out of 8 rounds. It was just a pity that Muradli Muhammad, the Azerbaijan GM, won his game, making the man the sole leader of the section with 7 points out of 8 rounds. This made everyone who supported Sheva click their tongue in annoyance, as that meant his win against Kirill Alekseenko didn’t really do him much favor in the standings.

’Oh, well, let’s just look at the positive side.’ Sheva thought. ’At least, in the next round, my opponent is going to be him. I don’t need to rely on the others to win this game.’

Indeed, other than him, the other three GMs, whose point was 6.5, the same as his, were the players whom he had already met before. Those were Yu Yangyi, the Chinese super GM, Aryan Chopra, the handsome Indian GM, and Shant Sargsyan, the Armenian GM, whom Sheva forced to have a draw result against him. Those three managed to bounce back after failing to win against Sheva, and now they were all trailing behind Muradli Muhammad as the sole leader to get the first place in the tournament.

Unfortunately for them, though, they all had already played against Muradli Muhammad too, so that meant it depended on Sheva whether the Azerbaijan GM would win the entire tournament or not. Of course, the boy would aim for victory, as one more win would make him climb to the top of the ladder.

Meanwhile, Medina also trailed behind with 6 points out of 8 rounds. Even though she had no chance to aim for the number one spot, the girl still wanted to push her name higher, especially since she was just a half point away from getting the first-ever GM norm in her career. Yeah, even though normally,6 points were enough to earn a player a norm, it was unfortunate that her opponent’s quality in this tournament was pretty low.She needed to get a positive result in the last round to push her average performance over 2500.

As for Anna... Well, honestly, she didn’t really have to do anything in the last round. After all, her win against Raja Panjwani earlier was enough to secure her second IM norm, and the girl was out of the race already, so she didn’t really have any burden to go to the last round.

However, that didn’t mean Anna would aim for a quick draw. No, even though she still didn’t know who her next opponent would be, the girl also wanted to push her luck, especially since both Sheva and Medina would go for a win. It would be strange if this didn’t motivate her to do the same.

Still, overall, those three had a really great run here, even exceeding their own expectation before they went into this tournament. That was why, even though they were heading into the last round with a target inside their mind, none of them felt the tension in the air. If anything, this made them feel the opposite, as they had already celebrated their amazing run in the Vietnamese restaurant that they usually went to for dinner.

"Come on, eat more! We can still order if you don’t have enough!" Bagas said with a mouth full of food. "Here, spring roll. It is really good! Don’t just eat the Pho! It will not be enough to fill your stomach! Order more fried dishes! Don’t worry, money is not a problem here!" He grinned, eating all the food in front of him so quickly as if he inhaled them all in one breath

Hearing the boasting from his friend, Sheva couldn’t help but narrow his eyes suspiciously. "What do you mean by money is not a problem, Gas? I don’t remember that we have a lot of money to come with, you know?" Both Anna and Medina also stopped eating, looking at the fat boy curiously.

"Bah! You underestimate me!" Bagas scoffed, picking another fried dish with his chopstick. "The live broadcast is not just to promote you, okay? It is the most promising field to earn quick bucks! I mean, don’t you know how much people donate to our channel?"

"Um... I don’t know?" Sheva shrugged, not having a slight idea about this. In his mind, since chess was not popular, the money shouldn’t be that much, right? Oh, well... It was clear that he was not familiar with the streaming business, not knowing that the amount of money a good streamer could earn was insanely high.

"It is 20 million rupiah, Shev! 20 million!" Bagas boasted. "In one week, we have already gathered 20 million rupiah! We are fucking rich!" The boy laughed boisterously, enjoying the shocked expression on the three people in front of him.

20 million rupiah... That was about 1300 US Dollars, and while the amount was not that much, people who donated the most here came from Indonesia, where the currency was pretty weak. That amount of money was about seven times the monthly minimum wage that most people in Jakarta would earn, so yeah, that was definitely a lot for Indonesian people.

"You see, it is not just you lot who are thriving, you know?!" Bagas grinned widely. "While you are killing your enemies on the frontline, I also did my task, securing our financial problem from behind the scenes! So, what do you think?"