PBG Alaskan Knights Maintain Strong Lead; Ganges Grandmasters Get 1st Win
Adding a fourth win in Saturday's early round, the PBG Alaskan Knights maintained their firm lead in the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League's round-robin phase. The leaders defeated the Ganges Grandmasters, who went on to score their first, narrow victory later in the day in their round-three match against the Triveni Continental Kings.
Due to a schedule of sometimes three, sometimes four rounds per day, there are currently two teams who have played just three matches: the Alpine Sg Pipers, nonetheless in shared second place with the Triveni Continental Kings, and the American Gambits, in shared last place with the Ganges Grandmasters.
Day four starts on Sunday, October 6, at 8 a.m. ET / 14:00 CEST / 5:30 p.m. IST.
Day 3 Standings
Ganges Grandmasters 3-12 PBG Alaskan Knights
The PBG Alaskan Knights are absolutely crushing it so far in London, having scored 17.5 out of a possible 24 points following regular scoring. The only player who hasn't won a game yet is GM Anish Giri, who drew four times, but everyone else is on a plus score.
After defending a pawn-down endgame against GM Viswanathan Anand, Giri was interviewed impromptu and noted that he was't too thrilled with his own chess. "I'm very annoyed with my play to be honest," he said. "I played so sad. But of course the team won, that’s great. But I need to take a shower after this game, I played a very disgusting, very sad game."
I need to take a shower after this game.
—Anish Giri
"I need to take a shower after this game" - @anishgiri after his Team Balan Alaskan Knights scores their 4th win at the Global Chess League #TechMGCL pic.twitter.com/nLvd8D5tFC
— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) October 5, 2024
This first match was another one where the score didn't really represent how topsy-turvy the games were. GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov ended up winning the Man of the Match prize for the second time, even though he had been dead lost for half of the game. 22 seconds on the clock should have been enough for GM Parham Maghsoodloo to find 67...Kd3:
Just like her brother GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu the other day, GM Vaishali Rameshbabu didn't handle the extreme time-trouble phase correctly in her game with GM Tan Zhongyi. Vaishali had fought back from a lost endgame and reached a drawn rook endgame, but with one second on the clock, she raised her hand and waived at the arbiter instead of stopping the clock. The arbiter came straight away, but by then her flag had already fallen. (It should be noted that although the endgame was completely equal, the arbiter likely wouldn't have declared it a draw right then and there.)
The longest second of Vaishali's life 💔
— Tech Mahindra Global Chess League (@GCLlive) October 5, 2024
A moment that no one will ever forget in Stake presents #TechMGCL 📽️#TheNextMove #GGvPBG | @FIDE_chess @chesscom @chesscom_in pic.twitter.com/MAq7DK7hxP
American Gambits 3-15 Triveni Continental Kings
Led by GM Hikaru Nakamura, the American Gambits lost their second out of three matches today as the Triveni Continental Kings scored three devastating black wins. So far, the Gambits have scored just three board wins over three matches.
Nakamura lost to GM Alireza Firouzja, nicknamed "the Crown Prince" these days and a very well-performing last-minute entry to the tournament. After beating Carlsen and Nakamura, the French top GM would also win against Anand later in the day.
"We were always in control for the whole match so I was very confident that I could at least make a draw at any point I wanted, and I had a very good position," said Firouzja. "I think it was a very convincing victory for our team."
🔥 @AlirezaFirouzja has just defeated BOTH Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura for the Triveni Continental Kings! pic.twitter.com/apnIU45D21
— Chess.com (@chesscom) October 5, 2024
Nakamura commented on the tournament in general in an interview recorded at the end of the second day:
There are a couple of ways it’s fun, and a couple of ways it’s not fun. Today, for example, I played Anish Giri in the second game and we made a relatively quick draw. I think if this game were in an individual event one of us would have won the game, I don’t know who it would have been, but it would have been more decisive. When you’re playing in team events sometimes you don’t want to take that huge risk, you’d rather let other people try and win their game or lose the game. And if you do actually lose an important game you feel a lot more responsibility. So that is one way it’s very different, but also I think having different phases and feeling like you’re not just playing for yourself can make for a very interesting event.
Having different phases and feeling like you’re not just playing for yourself can make for a very interesting event.
—Hikaru Nakamura
Alpine SG Pipers 12-4 upGrad Mumba Masters
GM Magnus Carlsen was probably eager to bounce back straight away, something he is quite good at after suffering a loss, but it was GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave who was pressing for almost the whole game. In the end, it was two black wins on lower boards that brought victory for the Alpine Sg Pipers.
GM Richard Rapport won an important game against GM Peter Svidler, who got into trouble after the opening but fought like a lion in the remainder, only to lose the rook endgame by a single tempo. Always tough...
Here is the game, with annotations by GM Dejan Bojkov:
The game on the last board between GM Raunak Sadhwani and GM Daniel Dardha was wild, with first White having a chance to play with two queens, but then Black being the one to do so:
Ganges Grandmasters 10-8 Triveni Continental Kings
This match, played last, was in fact a matchup from the third round and it became the first win for the Ganges Grandmasters, despite Anand's loss to Firouzja. This was a clear case of two black wins deciding everything, as they were worth four points versus only three points each for the two white wins scored by the Kings.
Firouzja won his third game in a row after starting his game with Anand with 1.Nc3. That turned into a Jobava London, for which the five-time world champion had a solid setup ready but later on Anand went wrong after all. A very powerful game by Firouzja.
The final phase of the game between GM Valentina Gunina and IM Nurgyul Salimova was slightly peculiar. With two seconds on the clock, Gunina claimed a draw by threefold repetition, probably thinking 'why not, otherwise I'll lose anyway.' When it wasn’t granted, she resigned straight away, in fact by tipping over her king, something you normally only see in Hollywood!
🤏 A little bit of drama followed by celebrations from The Ganges Grandmasters at #TechMGCL pic.twitter.com/MgpGGo6jz4
— Chess.com (@chesscom) October 5, 2024
How to watch?
You can watch the event on Kick. Games from the event can be viewed on our events page.
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.
Previous report:
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms.
Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools.
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In October, Peter's first book The Chess Revolution will be published!
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