Giri's Alaskan Knights Impress On 2024 Global Chess League Opening Day

Beating reigning champions Triveni Continental Kings with a dominating 15-3 score, the PBG Alaskan Knights started the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League's second season impressively. The no-increment time control of 20 minutes for the whole game surely helped in producing some very tense and exciting games on the first day in London.

Behind the PBG Alaskan Knights, two teams are currently in shared second place: the American Gambits, who beat the Mumba Masters 11-6, and the Alpine Sg Pipers, who defeated the Ganges Grandmasters with the same score.

Day 2 starts on Friday, October 4, at 8 a.m. ET / 14:00 CEST / 5:30 p.m. IST.

Day 1 Standings

An exciting buzz can be felt here in London among the organizers, players, and fans at the start of the Global Chess League's second season. Everyone seems to be feeling at least a little bit special for witnessing this event continuing after just over a year. It still feels quite fresh, while it is also clearly establishing itself as a successful new addition to the chess calendar. I was told that a few dozen reporters have asked for press accreditation and there are journalists here from Canada to India.

Last year we had the inaugural season in Dubai. Some small oddities of this franchise league are still there, and the avid chess fan still might need a bit of time to get used to them. For example, black wins are more valuable than white wins (four points vs. three, with one point for a draw), teams play with the same colors on all boards (possible because it's a double round-robin), players only compete against the same category of player (with "icons" on top board only facing other icons, and women only facing other women) and not just the matches but also the games are staggered. 

As I was watching the players sit down at their boards, after a nice introduction directed to the local spectators by WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili, it was still somewhat strange to see the arbiters starting the clocks for two games, after a few minutes two more games, and after a few minutes more, the last two games. The idea is that the viewers of the broadcast would be missing too much of the openings with all six games starting simultaneously. (Check this article for more on the special format of this event.)

The broadcast is everything for this event, and everything seems directed toward it. There's a big team of commentators, including GM David Howell, IMs Jovanka Houska, Tania Sachdev, and Sagar Shah, and FM James Canty. Interestingly, the show is being broadcast on Kick.com, a relative newcomer to the scene after live streaming became a big thing on Twitch and then YouTube. Several chess streamers, including GM Hikaru Nakamura, are using Kick these days. 

The playing hall, the Light Auditorium of Friends House on Euston Road, is just stunning. With logo-filled sponsor boards all around the playing area and a large, four-sided LED screen hanging centrally above, it really does look like the spectacle of a boxing match. I counted about twenty cameras, from high-scale PTZs to smartphones set up on tripods. Before the rounds, lights project a circling event logo onto the chessboards – there are lots of little details like that. On this first day, in the middle of the week, about one fifth of the roughly 500 seats were filled up, but the coming Saturday and Sunday are sold out.

I've not been traveling to chess tournaments as much as I used to, but after witnessing this first round, I'm glad I picked this one. A big reason was that the organizers graciously allowed me to present my upcoming book, The Chess Revolution, during the opening ceremony on Wednesday evening (held in the beautiful Merchant Taylors' Hall).

The ceremony also included speeches and a trivia quiz, after which Indian food and drinks were served. The players were already wearing their team-specific outfits, but I noticed that here and there some team bonding still needed to be done. Because, let's face it: some of these players, who are playing for the same team, might not know each other too well yet.

American Gambits 11-6 Mumba Masters

GM Ramesh RB, a well-known trainer who has worked with many of today's top Indian players and here in London is the captain of the American Gambits, addressed the topic of bonding on the first day. He noted that all of his players are from different countries. About his "icon" board GM Hikaru Nakamura, Ramesh said: "He has been really jelling well with the team so there are no attitude issues. The players are really friendly with each other and they’re trying to support in the best possible way."

That positive attitude worked well for the team, whose name is partly inspired by the Netflix series The Queen's Gambit. They started with a convincing 11-6 victory over the Mumba Masters, with three board wins and one loss, alongside two draws.

The Global Chess League is clearly borrowing things from other sports (and why not), and one example is that for every match, a Man of the Match is chosen. The first to achieve this was GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who defeated GM Vidit Gujrathi with a lovely king attack.

“First of all, I’m very happy to win my first game ever in the Global Chess League because last season I didn’t manage to do so," Duda pointed out. "I think the game was actually very tense, a new season, a new venue, everything is new. I am happy with my opening choice, I’m just happy to get off the theory, hopefully make him spend a lot of time. I wasn’t sure about this sacrifice but I thought it was pretty dangerous to him and I also didn’t see a kind of alternative so I decided to close my eyes and go for it and see what happens."

I think the game was actually very tense, a new season, a new venue, everything is new.

—GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda

Here is the game, with annotations by GM Dejan Bojkov:

Helping his team to a win in the opening game, Jan-Krzysztof Duda seemed quite happy 🙌#TheNextMove #TechMGCL #UMMvAG | @tech_mahindra | @tech_mahindra | @GM_JKDuda | @AmericanGambits | @FIDE_chess | @chesscom | @chesscom_in | @JioCinema pic.twitter.com/Lw7f22wHzA

— Tech Mahindra Global Chess League (@GCLlive) October 3, 2024

GM Jonas Bjerre was the player who decided last year's league in a final sudden-death game, and he started the new season with another spectacular win. This time, he won the board-six clash against GM Raunak Sadhwani:

Alpine Sg Pipers 11-6 Ganges Grandmasters

Although the final score was another 11-6, the Alpine Sg Pipers used another way to reach it with two wins with the black pieces (that's already eight points) and three draws, while losing only one black game. The two icons in this particular case were the ones who played world championship matches in 2013 and 2014 against each other; this time the game wasn't much of a fight.

Nothing to separate the 🐐's!#TheNextMove #TechMGCL #GGvSG@GangesGMs | @AlpineSGPipers | @MagnusCarlsen | @vishy64theking pic.twitter.com/c23ORg3zev

— Tech Mahindra Global Chess League (@GCLlive) October 3, 2024

Here, it was GM Richard Rapport who was the Man of the Match for the Pipers thanks to his win against GM Parham Maghsoodloo, who played a good game but at some point blundered material:

GM Hou Yifan isn't playing much chess anymore, but obviously she is still a force to reckon with. She also played in season one and it's good to have her back. Today, the former women's world champion was too strong for GM Vaishali Rameshbabu, but only after surviving a scare in the opening:

PBG Alaskan Knights 15-3 Triveni Continental Kings

The PBG Alaskan Knights was the only team that maintained a fully undefeated status with three black wins and three draws. For a while, even an 18-2 score was on the cards as GM Anish Giri had a winning position against GM Alireza Firouzja.

Giri's 36th move was too nice not to show here, even if it didn't lead to a win:

Azerbaijani GMs Teimour Radjabov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov are good friends, and the large amount of mutual draws in their career wasn't exactly a coincidence. But today, playing for different teams, they had to go for it and it was Mamedyarov who came out on top. "In classical I’m sure he can find a good defense but in this time control he missed some moves and in the middlegame I got a winning position," he said.

When discussing Chess is your favourite thing 😂#TheNextMove #TechMGCL | @FIDE_chess | @balanalaskank | @trivenickings | @chesscom | @chesscom_in | @anishgiri pic.twitter.com/V5SQp4qKwg

— Tech Mahindra Global Chess League (@GCLlive) October 3, 2024

The Tech Mahindra Global Chess League 2024 consists of a preliminary group stage and a final contested by the top two teams. In each match, members of the same team play with the same color. All games have a 20-minute time control without increment.

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