Chapter 113: The Bomb News from Master Irfan!
"Master Irfan! We are here!" Claudia shouted, barging into Irfan’s house as if it were her own. Anna could only sigh helplessly when she saw that, having already given up reprimanding her sister for her rudeness at this point. Meanwhile, Sheva also followed Claudia’s step while also waiting patiently for the host to come and greet them.
Yeah, Irfan called him earlier to invite him and Claudia to come over. None of them knew why the man wanted to exclude Anna, but since they were all there, those three teenagers decided to go and confront the IM directly at his house. Surprisingly, though, the one who greeted them was not Irfan himself, but a beautiful woman with a hijab and calm demeanor, smiling at them gently.
"Oh, you three are here!" The woman’s smile spread nicely when she saw them all there. "My husband has already told me that you guys are going to come, so I have prepared a bunch of snacks for you. Don’t be shy, okay?" She allowed them to come into the living room, where a few plastic jars were full of a variety of snacks that were enough to feed three starving teenagers for a whole day.
"Thank you, Aunty!" Claudia’s eyes shone a little bit when she saw her favorite snack, dashing immediately as if she were in her own home.
"Sorry for her rudeness, Aunty..." Anna smiled awkwardly, trying to apologize for her sister.
"Oh, don’t be. You know that Irfan and I don’t mind your intrusion." The woman giggled at Claudia’s antic, having been used by it now. "Wait for a moment, okay? He still has to take Delia to her school first and will probably be back in ten minutes."
"Yes, Aunty..."
Delia, whom the woman was talking about, was Irfan’s youngest daughter, probably still around 7. As for the woman herself, the name was Dina, and she was Irfan’s wife. Still, despite being the wife of a chess player, she herself didn’t quite understand or find the game fun at all. That was why whenever there was a club meeting in the house, she would’ve been gone with all of her children, taking their sweet time to go for a family holiday session while also letting Irfan stay at home taking care of his own club.
They waited for about fifteen minutes, and when Claudia was having her jitter episode from waiting for too long and was about to ask Dina about Irfan’s whereabouts, the host finally arrived. He was surprised when those three teenagers were already there, yet he regained his composure immediately in one breath.
"You three are here? Good. Wait for a moment." He drank a glass of water first before sitting in front of them. Looking at the impatient Claudia, the man finally went straight to the point here. "Sheva, you are going to play in the Reykjavik Open, right?" He asked.
"Um?!" Sheva was taken aback, confused at why the man started with this topic, and how did the man know about this information.
"Bagas doesn’t really keep this as a secret, you know?" Irfan explained his silent question. Sheva just nodded when he heard that, knowing full well that Bagas would’ve talked about this with Irfan too. Then, the IM turned around at Claudia and asked, "Ia, you shouldn’t have anything to do in April, right? I mean, I don’t think I have heard you talking about any plan, but I cannot see you willing to join the national training camp for the Southeast Asian Games later in June just to be the reserve member, right?"
"No need to rub it on me, Master..." Claudia pouted indignantly, feeling sour when she heard that. Even though she wasn’t willing to be the reserved member, it was still better compared to having to stay at home when her big sister and Sheva were playing and improving their ratings outside.
She misunderstood one thing, though. Irfan wasn’t here just to gloat over her misfortune. No, he invited her here to drop the news here. The man shifted his seat a little bit to make himself comfortable before dropping the first bomb. "Let me ask you here. Do you want to go together with Sheva to Reykjavik? All the costs will be mine to handle, so you just have to play there."
Claudia had her jaw dropped instantly when she heard that, while both Sheva and Anna were quite dumbfounded at the sudden offer. At first, they all thought that this was just a cruel joke to tease the little girl here. However, Irfan was dead serious, making them doubt their lives a little bit.
"What is the catch?" Sheva, who was still calm enough to think, decided to ask the most crucial thing here.
"Good question, Sheva." Irfan nodded appreciatingly at the boy. "It is simple, and I will also put a slightly higher target than you. In the next two months, I will try to give you more chances to play abroad, but I want you both to try reaching a significant target. For you, Sheva, I want you to cross the 2300 threshold, while you, Claudia, at least you have to get 2250 or above. As for you, Anna, you have already been included in the final plan as one of the members of the team, so you don’t have to worry about that. So, what do you two think? Is it a possible target?"
This time, those three frowned instantly, finding things to be very strange. First, the target itself was quite high. Although due to their young age and lack of playing games, it was easier to raise the rating, that didn’t mean it was that easy to elevate it to be 150 points higher than their current rating. Hell, in Sheva’s case, he even had to raise his rating to be 200 points higher than now, and they were only given two months to do so. It was basically a nearly impossible mission to complete.
Then, there was also the exception for Anna and the ’team’ that Irfan was talking about. Everything was so mysterious that they didn’t even know what they ask here.
"Master, what is going on here?" In the end, it was Anna who asked. "Is there anything big happening in the next two months or what?"
Irfan was quiet for a moment, clearly pondering over what he should say here before finally heaving out a deep sigh. "I should’ve never said this to you, but I am sure the others wouldn’t mind about it." He paused for a moment to create a dramatic moment here, getting the tension rise and the teens in front of them nervous unnecessarily. "Well, don’t tell the others about this news yet, but we are considering you both to be the reserve members of the national team for the Chennai Chess Olympiad next July, but only if you could meet the target. So, how is it?"