Road to be the Best Chess Player in the World!-Chapter 493: Envy

"Now that our boy Magnus is gone, the game should be over, right?" Anish sighed regretfully. "It is a pity, but our princess is always delicate, so we cannot help it..." The faux concern he showed wasn’t enough to hide the wide smile on his face, as it was clear that the man was mocking Magnus here.

"Anish, you horrible, horrible man." Levon started to set the board again while he was trying to hold back his laughter. "If not for your fake concern, Magnus will never be that embarrassed to stay here, you know?"

"Hey, it’s not my fault! Who would’ve thought that he would make such a stupid blunder like that!" Anish defended himself.

Seeing the two veterans bickering back and forth like this, Sheva was quite dumbfounded. Honestly, he had never thought that everyone’s relationship would be this good, as chess itself was an individual sport. He imagined them to be civil to each other, but it was hard to believe that competitors could be this friendly outside of the board. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Somehow, the boy forgot that he also made some friends through the games he played in the past.

"Anyway, since Magnus is not here, let’s just play casually." Levon suddenly said. "Anyone wants to play here? Let’s do a knockout game, one loss, and you are out."

"Oh, let me go first!" Pragg offered himself, sitting on the other side of the table, immediately. Nodirbek and Vincent also eyed the veteran fiercely, waiting for their turn to play.

They were currently at the stage where they were convinced that they themselves belonged to the elite players, yet they lacked the chance to prove that theory. That was why they were eager to challenge any high-level players, no matter what the occasion was. It didn’t help that they played quite terribly in the Tata Steel Master yesterday, which only fueled their spirit to fight further for their place.

Sheva himself started to lose interest in this event. He couldn’t help but yawn, glancing at Bagas subtly. The thought of going back to the hotel flashed in his mind, but before he could do that, Anish shifted the conversation to the topic he was interested in, so the boy buried that idea instantly as he put more attention to the Dutch GM.

"So, what is your plan next, Sheva? Any big level tournament to play?" The man asked casually.

"Me? Probably just the Prague one. My name is still quite small, so it is hard to get any invitations." Sheva shrugged. At first, he just answered nonchalantly. However, when the boy saw the pity in everyone’s eyes, he couldn’t help but have a bad feeling here. "What about you guys? I don’t think that there is any big tournament other than the Prague one this month, right? If I remember it right, Vincent should be the only one who will play there, am I right?"

Vincent Keymer nodded, but the German GM still stared at him in pity. Fortunately, before Sheva could lose his patience and snap, Wesley So was kind enough to explain.

"All of us here are going to play in the WR Master next month, Sheva. It is a new invitational-based tournament held in Germany, so it should be close to your place, right, Vincent?"

"Not that close, but I can be considered a homegrown talent in this tournament." The German GM nodded in confirmation.

"Um? WR Master?" Sheva frowned, turning to Bagas, who was his main source of information.

"You really don’t know this?" Anish asked in a faux shock. Honestly, Sheva figured out why Magnus couldn’t stand this man. The constant mocking and teasing were enough for any short-tempered man to snap and choke the Dutch GM to death.

"Oh, well, I think it wouldn’t hurt to tell you this. So, basically, 10 people are invited to that tournament, and coincidentally enough, all of us here besides you are among those 10 people, so we will basically meet again in Germany about three weeks later. Should we make a WhatsApp group first to communicate with each other, guys? Wait, should we invite Sheva as well? He is not going to be there, right?"

It seemed that Anish Giri was really eager to die here. He didn’t even notice the malicious intention radiating from Sheva, while the other guys also spread around, trying to get away from any possible confrontation between them. Bagas also put his camera aside, sending a warning glance at Sheva to control his temper.

In the end, Sheva was still calm enough to think clearly, and after taking a deep breath, he just grunted, shutting his mouth tightly.

Honestly, the only reason Sheva didn’t pounce on the man to the ground was that they weren’t familiar with each other. If it were Bagas, he wouldn’t hesitate to fight the boy to the death. However, Anish was neither his friend nor family, so doing anything like that could be considered an attack, which would complicate things. So, even though he was angry, the boy could only swallow his fury, inwardly promising himself that if he met Anish Giri in any official tournament, he would beat the man to pulp.

Still, Sheva knew that beneath the boiling fury inside him, there was one feeling hidden deep in his guts, and that was envy.

Yeah, envy. This seemed to be a common feeling that Sheva had whenever he interacted with any high-level players. After all, they knew how to brag, and in Sheva’s mind, the only reason they achieved so much was due to their reputation, and some hadn’t even won anything for... Well, forever. Replace them with any lesser-known 2700-rated players, and the result would probably be far better.

In the end, the envy really came from the lack of opportunity. Even though Sheva had already won the individual gold medal in the Olympiad and even with the Dubai Master and this Tata Steel Challenger, at the end of the day, his rating was still far below that no invitation really came his way.

’Okay, no need to be impatient here...’ He took a deep breath, trying to ease his mind once again. ’No need to worry... Once I sneak into the candidate tournament next year, I am sure that they will be the ones begging for me to come to their tournament. For now, let’s be patient and kill any opportunity coming to my hand...’