The tournament had basically reached a final stage here, and since the winner hadn't been determined yet, the tension on the front side, where all the favorite players gathered, was quite high. The silence was palpable there, and Sheva was sure that if he let out a single word to escape from his mouth, someone would slide his throat to silence him on the spot.
Sheva also noticed the pairings for the last round, and this was probably the first time he felt that this was a high-rated tournament. In table 1, the two Indian geniuses, Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa, would have a civil war against each other. They both had 6.5 points, currently leading the standings together with Max Warmerdam from the Netherlands. This was probably the most anticipated matchup, as everyone believed that those two were the best players in this tournament.
