The last day came pretty quickly, and Sheva himself still couldn't comprehend how fast time passed by. He didn't even notice that they had already been in this cold city for one week, and tomorrow, they would leave this country for another adventure. However, it was not his problem right now, as the boy still needed to prepare for probably a rough day.

He yawned slightly after waking up, somehow shivering at the cold air piercing his bones. Unlike any other day, where the game would always start at around 11 in the morning, since today was a double-header day, the first round began at 8 in the morning. Even though Sheva himself was used to waking up early—just like any Asian teenager should be—the weather in Reykjavik was too harsh for him to survive that. Fortunately, he wasn't the only one who felt that way.

"D—D—Damn, whoever thinks it is a good idea to start the game this early is c—c—crazy…" Bagas felt his teeth chattering pretty loudly as the boy was suffering from the weather here. "This is so fucking unfair! I am sure that any other Asian players who grew up in a tropical country would be suffering right now! Damn!"

"Eh, no need to be too grumpy," Sheva said, tightening the jacket he used more. "Anyway, let's have a cup of hot coffee first. I would definitely need it for today."

"Sure."

Fortunately, the hotel they lived in provided breakfast for their guests as long as they were willing to pay more. Sheva couldn't help but shiver at the thought that he had to find a restaurant around that provided breakfast in such an early morning when the weather itself was not so friendly.

As they went down, those two boys also found out that both Claudia and Irene had already been there. Just like the boys, the female members of the group were also suffering from the cold. However, Irene didn't look that bad. Just like the usual, the woman still had a gentle smile on her face, as if nothing could be bothering her in this world. At least, this was able to put them all at ease, as having a reliable adult really made a big difference here.

"Don't worry, the air conditioner in the venue is working quite well. I am sure that once we all get there, we will forget about this weather instantly." Irene tried to reassure them all.

"Good." Sheva nodded, letting the hot coffee warm his hands. "No wonder all the local players are so grumpy and never have a smile on their face… If this is what I suffer on a daily basis, I wouldn't know what happiness is…"

"Oh, don't be dramatic! This is just cold weather, not the end of the world!" Claudia said with a mocking tone.

Sheva felt the corner of his mouth twitching, inwardly grumbling, 'You have no right to say that, you know?' After all, Claudia was the one whose attire was the thickest here, making her look quite funny and like a penguin when she walked. Still, he didn't say it out loud, feeling like an early argument would only exhaust him more.

Thirty minutes later, they finally went out to the venue. Gritting their teeth, the four Indonesians who had never suffered from cold weather brace themselves bravely, striding across the quiet road of Reykjavik to get to the venue. There, they also found a lot of players in a similar state, all of them grumbling in their local languages. Even if no one could know what they were talking to each other, most of them could understand what they were trying to convey, as this was basically a universal problem here.

Well, this only happened in front of the venue, as once they all entered the building, the warm feeling coming from the air conditioner engulfed their body, making them all sigh in relief. The four of them didn't chat for too long, just greeting each other first before going to their assigned place. For Sheva, he went straight to table 8, where the Iranian grandmaster was already waiting for him.

Sheva glanced for a moment, trying to observe the man's expression first. He also recalled the information he learned yesterday about the man in front of him. It seemed that a few years ago, the man was dubbed as one of the most talented players that Iran had ever produced. However, due to a lot of problems, his career was stuck, and more youngsters from the same country emerged, using him as their stepping stone.

Not to mention Alireza Firouzja, who changed his nationality to France, there were also two youngsters who somehow were already better than him: Parham Maghsoodloo and Amin Tabatabaei. Not only them, but there was also a talented young player, Sina Mohaved, who was born in 2010, who some local media thought would be the next big star coming from Iran, making Idani Pouya's name forgotten by a lot of people.

Still, there was no denying that Idani Pouya was a strong player. However, Sheva wasn't worried too much about it. Even though he was still wary of the man, after the deep research he had done yesterday, the boy was confident that he could at least steal a draw here, and if an opportunity was coming, he wouldn't hesitate to throw a punch and try to knock the man out in a heartbeat.

'Okay, now, let's just hope that my preparation is working…' Sheva muttered to himself.

They waited for the game to begin in silence, and five minutes later, once the alarm rang, the two players shook hands with each other before Sheva made his first move. Without hesitation, he pushed his E pawn two squares forward, which was returned with the mirrored move in a second. Seeing this, Sheva couldn't help but smirk, feeling satisfied that this was already within his expectations.

'Well, just like I thought, he would never use the Sicilian defense against a low-rated player like me.' He muttered to himself. Then, he picked up his F pawn, moving it two squares forward with a huge grin on his face. 'Now, let's see whether he would be flustered by this opening or not…'

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.