"Good game." Anna smiled politely, setting the pieces back to the original setup.
"Yes, you too." Bu Xiangzhi grumbled with his rough Chinese accent. After pondering for a while, he finally asked, "Yesterday… Your sister?" His English was quite broken, with him only able to speak one word after another slowly. However, the message was conveyed perfectly here, as Anna understood what he was trying to ask.
"Yup! My little sister." She smiled widely as if it were a proud thing to be Claudia's sister.
"… You two are strong." The Chinese GM nodded in approval. "Yesterday was close, and today is the same. You will go far." Right after saying that, he got up from the chair, leaving without even waiting for Anna to reply to his words.
The girl herself was so dumbfounded, not expecting the stone-cold Bu Xiangzhi to praise her and her sister like that. However, a smile also spread slowly on her face, somehow satisfied with this.
'Ia also said yesterday that she got praised by Bu Xiangzhi, right?' She murmured. 'It seems he is not a stone-cold person, but just an awkward GM who is kind enough to give his praise. Oh, well, like any ordinary GM outside, right? A bunch of awkward adults, they are.' She giggled a little.
After she was done fixing all the pieces back to the board, the girl left the table immediately. On her way to leave the venue, though, she got a lot of nods from the players around, a strange thing since she didn't really know them well.
"Big Sis!" Claudia's squeal suddenly registered through her brain, snapping the girl from her own thought. The younger girl herself didn't hesitate here, leaping forward to her embrace as if it were the most natural thing in the world. "Congratulations! You really stole a point from Bu Xiangzhi!" Claudia praised, her eyes shining in admiration.
Anna giggled once again while rubbing the girl's head fondly. "Thank you, Ia, but people won't see it that way. They would probably say that I threw away my winning position for nothing, and I am not ready for high-level chess or something like that." Her tone was bitter and helpless when she said that, clearly not the first time she suffered from that treatment.
"Don't listen to their trashy words, Sister!" Claudia shook her head strongly, and a big frown formed on her face. "They are all just talks, a dog that can bark but cannot bite! No one knows how strong Bu Xiangzhi is, and if they are on your shoes, I doubt they can do half as well as you!" She insisted, showing her support for her big sister.
"Ia is right in this case, you know?" A familiar male voice came from behind, intruding on their little reunion. When Anna's gaze shifted, she saw Sheva smiling with Bagas behind, waving at her. The fat boy was still busy with his broadcasting equipment, so he didn't come like Sheva in front of them right now.
"Yes, Sheva! Tell her that they don't mean anything!" Claudia's head bobbed so quickly that the big sister was afraid she would injure her neck.
Sheva smiled helplessly at the little girl's antics before his eyes met Anna's for a second, enough to make her smile as well here.
"First of all, congratulations. You did an incredible job in the game, even to the point that you had a great advantage and threatened to win the game. Stop it!" He raised his hand immediately before Anna could interrupt his speech. "Wait for me to finish first, and you can complain about it later, okay?"
Anna was so stunned by this that she just nodded unconsciously.
"Good." Sheva smiled in a satisfied manner. "Yes, you threw all that advantage away, and yes, it looks very bad. However, you have to remember that your opponent is strong, and you have to face the pressure of his presence as well. I tell you what, lower-level players mostly failed to convert their winning position because the pressure they feel from their opponent is too great. Yes, you failed in this game, but I tell you that it is normal."
Well, at least this consolation was enough to make Anna feel a little better. However, a wry smile formed back on her face as she remembered something. "It is nice, but people would never agree to this, right?"
"The same people who criticized me for drawing my game against Gukesh a week ago?" Sheva sneered sarcastically. "The same people who criticized me for withdrawing from this tournament? They themselves don't know anything, and only dare to say it in front of the screen. Ask them to say it in your face, and they would cower immediately. They are just a bunch of leeches, wanting to stick on our popularity to make a name for themselves."
This also reminded Sheva of words from the famous boxer Mike Tyson. The Internet really made people way too comfortable with disrespecting even more capable people, forgetting that a punch in the face was guaranteed for the same scenario in real life.
Anna nodded, digesting every word coming out of Sheva's mouth so seriously. After a while, though, she shook her head quickly, her gaze shifting to the little sister next to her. "What about you, Ia? How is your game going?"
"Me?" Claudia's eyes lit up immediately, couldn't wait to tell her sister the news. "Of course, I won! It is a piece of cake for me!" She grinned widely, showing a big peace sign so childishly.
Sheva also nodded in agreement here. "It is an impressive win. She managed to get it done in just one and a half hours, beating her opponent in 22 moves. An incredible positional display to corner the opponent's queen and made him resign immediately once that piece was gone."
Claudia laughed silly, her complexion rosy.
"However, it is not just you both who achieve a good result today." Sheva smiled mysteriously. At their intrigued feeling, he continued, "The others are also doing well. In fact, I tell you what, we have four wins and three draws today, with all the draw results from a stronger opponent as well! Come on, let's meet with the others! This is definitely something worth celebrating for!"
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