Ganges Grandmasters (GG) maintain their dominance at the end of the third day of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League at Le Meridien opposite Dubai airport on Saturday. GG are the only team in the Global Chess League to have three victories out of all three matches.
With 9 match points out of three matches, Ganges Grandmasters have a significant lead. They are chased by Triveni Continental Kings, who are on six match points and have the same number of game points as GG (32) but have played four matches. SG Alpine Warriors are also on six match points but have 23 game points.
upGrad Mumba Masters have four match points, Balan Alaskan Knights have three but they are the second team in the Global Chess League to have played four matches.
Chingari Gulf Titans have a tough challenge ahead. They are at the bottom of the board, with just one match point, having failed to win any of the matches.
Ganges Grandmasters not only had the leaders’ advantage, the coin flip went their way and they started with white. The match began with an intriguing prelude as Henrik Carlsen, the father of Magnus Carlsen, appeared at the toss ceremony, even to the son’s surprise.
Board one witnessed a swift draw between Vishwanathan Anand and Ian Nepomniachtchi, where the leader of the Balan Alaskan Knights made 30 moves without even spending a minute. Simultaneously, things were firing up on board six between two prodigies: GG’s Andrey Esipenko took the initiative early on against Raunak Sadhwani and won. Soon, the Knights found themselves in trouble as they were losing on more boards.
The only string of hope for them was in the Chinese matchup on board four. In a game between two former women’s world champions, Grandmasters’ Hou Yifan was losing badly to Tan Zhongyi playing as black. However, at the same time, Ganges’ Leinier Dominguez Perez and Richard Rapport had a significant advantage in their games. While Perez converted his into a victory, Rapport blundered his winning advantage in time trouble, allowing his opponent Abdusattorov to escape with a draw.
Despite an impressive rook sacrifice, Knights’ Bella Khotenashvili lost to her Georgian compatriot Nino Batsiashvili, and Grandmasters secured a 11-6 win.
SG Alpine Warriors edge Triveni Continental Kings
This was a duel between two teams in the middle of the scoreboard looking to make a push to the top. Following the first two rounds, both had three match points each and 15 game points. The coin toss dropped in Kings’ favour.
The most anticipated encounter took place on board one with a faceoff between two icon players, world heavyweight Levon Aronian (as white) and the highest-rated chess player, Carlsen. Both sides put up a fierce fight and Carlsen ended up defending an uncomfortable position with a minute on his clock against Aronian’s eight. Aronian tried but Magnus, the best endgame player in the world, was confident and held his opponent to a draw.
When two other games ended in a draw the score was 3:3. The first break came when GM Yu defeated Gukesh with white, scoring important three points for the Kings. The tables turned on the Kings when Indian Praggnanandhaa beat Jonas Bjerre scoring four points with black.
Everything was hanging on the game between Irina Krush of Warriors and Kateryna Lagno. Despite Krush creating a dominating position, both sides were in serious time trouble. The fact that Lagno is a three-time world champion in blitz came in handy as she managed to keep her nerve and get a draw.
Warriors’ 8-7 win gave them three crucial match points. Carlsen acknowledged that teams so far are seeing white as a advantage even though “wins with black are so valuable. People are still trying to find the optimal strategy here and we’re seeing some interesting decisions that you don’t see in team chess.”
In the other games, the clash between Chingari Gulf Titans and upGrad Mumba Masters proved to be a humdinger but ended up in a 6-6 draw, the first game of the tournament where all players were in a stalemate. Kings came out 10-8 winners against the Knights for their first win in four matches.
For upGrad Mumba Masters, Koneru Humpy had an excellent chance to force a win with white against Nino Batsiashvili, but she missed out on the opportunity. Though the endgame was a stalemate, their clash extended for a marathon 117-moves, as Humpy kept chasing aggressively for her rival to blink, in vain. Humpy said she realised her mistake but failed to attribute it to team pressure.
“I was focusing on my game only. By the time I realised that others had drawn, I know I had lost the advantage in my game but there was nothing to lose in trying for the team,” Humpy said.
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