"The third place of the Master Tournament Open Biel International Chess Festival… The International Master Anna Marisa from Indonesia!"
Once the name was announced, Anna rose from her seat gracefully, followed by the wild cheers from all the Indonesian players around, who were far from being embarrassed to express their support.
The girl had her face flushed red in embarrassment, but the rosy smile on her face was enough to tell how ecstatic she was right now. Her hair looked slightly disheveled, and the clothes looked a little bit wrinkly here and there. However, the moment she accepted the handshake that the organizer offered, her presence looked so big, getting awe from all of her Indonesian fellows.
"Damn, she did it, huh?" Laysa whispered lowly, somehow feeling lost when she saw her rival bouncing so high and leaving her behind. "I have never thought that I would be the one who chases her…"
"Well, things can change, you know?" Sheva, who sat next to her, shrugged while still busy applauding the girl on the podium. "You have been neck-to-neck against each other for so long, and now that she has broken her shackles, it is time for you to catch up, or the gap will only be further away from now on."
Laysa just nodded silently, clenching her fist as she looked at the podium with an unwavering spirit.
This was the closing ceremony of the tournament, and while not all the players who participated here joined the fun, it was still full of the crowd. After announcing the result of the amateur section, they were now going for the open section, and the final one that everyone was waiting for would happen later, being saved for the last part of the event.
After chatting lightly with Anna on the podium and making sure that the girl had already stood in her assigned place, the MC started talking again, announcing the second place in the section.
"For the second place… The Grandmaster Samant Aditya from India!"
This time, while the boy who stepped forward was also ecstatic, there was no loud cheer following him along. After all, unlike Indonesia, which was basically a barren land for chess, India was definitely a heaven for this sport. It had been producing so many winners in several top tournaments, so this mere second-place in the open section wouldn't give too much joy for the community.
After the boy shook hands and exchanged words with Anna on the podium, the next announcement finally came.
"For the winner of the section… The Grandmaster Bu Xiangzhi from China!"
This time, the cheers seemed to be a little bit louder, coming from the Chinese teenagers who also came here to play. Most of them hadn't earned the title yet, with some probably experiencing their first tournament abroad. That was why the response was a little bit bigger right now.
Bu Xiangzhi himself just walked to the podium calmly, not even getting flustered by the cheers. This was not his first time getting this kind of achievement, so for the man, it was just basically a formality.
As the three top players sat on the podium and took some photos, someone suddenly whispered something here. "Still… Do you think it is strange? Out of the three players whose rating is above 2600, only one player gets into the podium, and the other three are nowhere to be seen. This must be a world record, right?"
Sheva took a glance back to see who spoke this, and she saw Dita Karenza looking at him for an answer. The one who answered the question, though, was Bagas, who had been holding the camera to livestream the event since the start back then.
"It looks strange, but if you notice it, besides Anna, the top ten players of the final standing are all the GMs who are the favorites of the tournament, and that includes the other two 2600-rated players here as well. It is just that Anna's performance is generational, something that can be compared to Sheva's achievement last year. But other than that, everything falls into place that everyone expected before the tournament."
Well, when Bagas said it like that, Sheva could see the point. Despite not being in the top three, both Daniil Yuffa and Aryan Chopra were so close in seventh and ninth place, trailing behind by only half a point. They kept fighting for the top until the end, and just slipped there in the last round of the game.
This was definitely a normal occasion in a tournament like this.
After the formality was done and the three winners of the section came down, the final announcement was finally made here. The winner of the grandmaster section, where the top players were going for the triathlon tournament from the standard format to the blitz one, was going to be announced, and while everyone knew about the winner, they still wanted to see the man walking to the podium by himself.
"And the winner of the Grand Master Triathlon… Grandmaster Le Quang Liem from Vietnam!"
As the Vietnamese man rose from his seat, the biggest cheer of the day echoed all over the venue. It wasn't just for the win, but also for how he achieved it.
It was a historic comeback, as the man didn't really do well in the standard format. Hell, he even sat in fourth place out of the eight participants, showing a mediocre result. However, once the format changed into a faster one, he turned into a beast, beating everyone black and blue.
Hell, he even double-killed Yu Yangyi, the top-seeded of the tournament, in both rapid and blitz formats, cementing his legacy as the back-to-back winner of the tournament. Yeah, he was also the winner last year, showing how dominant he was in this city.
As the man bowed at the crowd with his usual shining smile, though, people there started to leave the venue one by one. Sheva also felt the tug on his shoulder, and he saw that Bagas tugged his clothes gently, signaling him that they were going to leave.
Seeing that the others were also ready to go, Sheva sighed, staring at the venue one last time before muttering, "So, it is finally over, huh?"
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