"Damn, that is a crazy crowd over there…" Sheva whistled lowly, twisting his body from the chair so that he could see the entrance gate behind him. "The number should be higher than the last two days, right?"

"Well, you can probably say that…" Arfan also did the same, staring at the crowd blocking the door in awe. "I mean, their three men's teams and two women's teams have done quite well up until now, so it is not even a question why they become this enthusiastic. Still, this is quite nuts, you know? I have never expected that chess could attract this many people…"

"India sure is built differently, huh?" Sheva muttered lowly.

It was the third day of the tournament, and unlike the first two days, the Indonesian team decided to go a little bit early, not wanting to get caught by the crazy crowd outside. They didn't want to be affected by the external factor like this on such an important day, so they all woke up pretty early and left the hotel one hour before the game began.

Hell, even with that, the moment they arrived, the crowd had already gathered, even though it was still quite small. However, Sheva and the others were sure that if they came five minutes later, they would still be outside right now.

"Okay, don't think too much about that. Just focus on your preparation, okay?" Master Susanto urged the boys, feeling a little bit worried since Sheva and Arfan were quite relaxed here. If he didn't know better, the man would've thought that those two boys were here for a vacation, not going for a crucial game that could affect the direction of the whole country. "Even though I know you both are talented, never underestimate your opponent, okay? You are still green in this field, so you don't know how cunning some players are." Master Susanto reminded them both once again.

"Don't worry, Master Susanto, we have never underestimated our opponent," Sheva answered lazily.

"True, true." Arfan parroted the words immediately. "Who do you think we are, Master, a bunch of children? We know what to do here."

Master Susanto squinted his eyes dangerously at the two teenagers. However, those two didn't even bulge, giving him their best innocent smiles that would fool anyone who didn't know them better. Honestly, for the first time in a while, he regretted not having Medina here, as the woman was probably the only one who could control the teenagers in the group easily.

Also, somehow, this made him feel old, as he couldn't really understand what teenagers these days thought before the game. During his youth, he would've been shaking on the corner of his room before such an important matchup began. That, or he probably wouldn't be able to sleep for a whole night, becoming too anxious to relax his nerves. However, here, he saw Sheva and Arfan chatting so casually, like they were going for a picnic, making Master Susanto wonder whether there was something wrong inside their heads.

"Oh, whatever." He sighed in defeat. "As long as they could deliver and didn't disrespect their opponent, everything should be okay. What about you, Taher?" He asked the last member of the group, the quiet IM, who also had a great tournament so far.

"I am not 100 percent sure about anything here, but I am confident that I could get out with something in this game," Taher said, pushing his glasses upward.

They chatted for a while, waiting for their opponent to arrive while also watching the fun unfold at the entrance door. As the security team got involved, the flow through the building somehow became better, with players who were still outside finally being able to enter without having to survive the crowd outside.

It was fortunate that the building had a lot of air conditioners and all of them worked quite well. It was pretty hot in Chennai during this summer time, with the temperature hitting around 34 degrees Celsius. Coupled with the fact that more than 1000 people gathered inside the building, the atmosphere here was enough to melt everyone's brains.

Luckily for the Indonesian team, they lived in a tropical country where the climate was quite similar, so they didn't have to adapt too much here. However, looking at the European players who were sweating and walking around in discomfort, they somehow felt pity toward them.

'Oh, well, why would I feel pity for them?' Sheva shook his head, trying to banish that thought. 'It would be better if they couldn't perform their best, right? I mean, our next opponent is from Romania, so I wouldn't mind having my opponent feel uncomfortable due to the temperature here.'

As his mind wandered around, the Romanian team finally arrived at the table. They all looked disheveled, with some having their hair messy while the others even had their shirt a little bit dirty from having to escape the crowd before.

"Sorry, we are late. We cannot enter at all." The leader of the Romanian team, Bogdan-Daniel Deac, greeted Master Susanto immediately.

"Oh, don't worry. Have a seat, please." Master Susanto answered immediately. "We still have ten more minutes before the game starts. Just relax and drink some water first." Even though they were opponent, that didn't mean they couldn't act nice to each other.

While the Romanian team was trying to settle down, Sheva also had his eyes on them, trying to observe everything that they were doing here. Unlike before, the playfulness was gone from his expression, as the boy was completely locked in right now. He also shifted his attention to one particular person on the other side of the table, the one who he thought would be his opponent.

"So, that is David Gavrilescu, huh?" He muttered inwardly. "19 years old, just becoming a grandmaster one year ago, 2528 ELO rating. A prodigy, but definitely not the most outrageous one. I don't think that he has ever played outside of Europe, so at least he could be at a disadvantage due to the external factor. Still, I couldn't find his previous games in such a short time last night, so this is going to be a shot in the dark. Let's just hope that he is not a troublesome opponent.'

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