Time flew so quickly, and before anyone could notice it, they were already so close to the final day of the tournament. It was a long and colorful journey, with some satisfied with their result while others felt like they could do better.
Duta, who had been struggling in this tournament, managed to scrape every little point he could earn against a lower-rated opponent. In total, out of eight rounds he played, the boy managed to get three wins, two draws, and three defeats. This was definitely better than his expectation, what with him still staying in the line of the 50 percent point here.
Not only that, after the loss he suffered in the fourth round, the boy managed to bounce back quickly. In the last four rounds, he got one win, two draws, and one defeat, which might not be too much and far from letting him earn a title norm, but enough to propel his rating high to cross the 2150 threshold.
It wasn't that much, especially considering he was at the stage where even a single win could give him 20 to 30 points. However, after such a slow start, Duta would take anything that he could get at this point, being grateful for even half a point he earned with sweat and blood.
Then, after being unbeaten for the first four rounds, Devi finally crumbled in the fifth and sixth rounds, losing two games in a row. Well, Sheva had already seen this coming, what with her fighting against a GM and a high-level IM continuously. However, this hit Devi quite hard, and she ended up depressed, not even wanting to leave her hotel room except for the game day.
Fortunately, her results in the last two rounds were decent enough. She managed to get a win against an opponent whose rating was lower than hers—which was rare, since she was the 91st player out of 100 participants in this section—and forced a draw against an FM with a rating of around 2300. This allowed her to be on the 50-percent line as well, standing side-by-side with Duta.
As for Nayaka, the boy definitely did it better than the other two. While in terms of ability, they were basically at the same level, but in mental fortitude, Nayaka was indeed the superior one here.
In the last four games, he just lost one against the Spanish veteran Alan Pichot, but was able to win two games, including against the Cuban experienced GM, Luis Ernesto Quesada Perez, and the Vietnamese IM who beat Nayaka a few days ago, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son.Coupled with a draw that he got from the game against a young Chinese player, Huang Renjie, he was sitting comfortably at the top 20 of the standings with 5 points in total.
The boy continued his amazing performance from the Asian Chess Zone 3.3 a month ago, and this time, he was so close to getting through the 2200 rating threshold.
The one who had the worst time here, though, was Dita Karenza. She was beaten left and right, couldn't even lift a finger to put up a fight. In total, out of 8 rounds she played, the woman could only get 3 points out of two wins and two draws, with four losses on her record.
Hell, she was even beaten by an opponent whose rating was below hers, which hurt her rating quite a lot. However, to Sheva's surprise, Dita Karenza wasn't really worried about this, just shrugging it off like nothing.
"Well, I don't have any target for this tournament, so I am willing to lose a few games to experiment more. I am still trying to develop a new playing style for the World Cup next, and I can see that the vision is clear here. I just want to refine this style in a competitive atmosphere, and this is the best chance to do that."
At least, that was Dita Karenza's explanation for her bad result. It was also a normal operation for a player who was about to go into a high-level competition to lose some games in a lower-level one, wanting to test so many ideas to see which one was usable and which one was pure trash.
Still, Sheva had to give the woman a hat's off for her willingness to improve her skill, even letting herself face a setback to bounce back later in the future. She would just look stupid if, after all the preparation and sacrifice, she were defeated in the first round of the tournament. However, the willingness to do so was something that Sheva lacked.
'Well, I have a system inside my head, so why would I do that?' The boy shrugged while also shaking the idea out of his head.
Laysa and Claudia were also doing okay. They both had 4.5 points out of 8 rounds, but the process was a little bit different. Claudia, who always seeks stability, somehow had a rough road, getting beaten twice while also winning in the other two rounds. Unfortunately, the level of opponents she beat was quite low, not enough for her to get her into a title norm.
As for Laysa, the girl who always went wild in every game, somehow displayed a tame show in this tournament. In the last four games she played, the girl got four draws as if she didn't want to win. However, if anyone looked at all those games closely, they would see how close each one of them was, and there was no way Laysa could get anything out of her opponents.
As for the best performer of this tournament, it was no surprise that Anna got that. The girl was even in the title race with 6 points, the same as the other seven players who sat in second place. She was just half a point behind Bu Xiangzhi, who was in the lead right now, with her chance of getting onto the podium quite wide open.
However, that was not what the girl cared about. No, after sweeping the first eight rounds without losing a single one of them, she somehow got something more precious here, which was the last IM norm she needed to advance to the next title.
Yeah, it was official even before the tournament was over. Anna would bring the IM title back home, becoming the third woman from Indonesia to do so.
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