Tech Mahindra GCL Day 4: Carlsen and Nakamura battle a thriller, Balan Alaskan Knights maintain their sole lead
Alireza Firouzja continues his phenomenal form at this event. He won the French derby against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to power his team Triveni Continental Kings to a victory over upGrad Mumba Masters 3-0 (12-3). American Gambits started the day with a win over Ganges Grandmasters 3-0 (10-4). However, they finished the day with a loss against Alpine SG Pipers 3-0 (9-7). Hikaru Nakamura showed some excellent resiliency against Magnus Carlsen. He even got a winning chance at the end but unfortunately he missed it and the game ended in a draw. PBG Alaskan Knights registered their fifth consecutive win. Alpine was their fifth victim. However, Nihal Sarin and Daniel Dardha's game stirred up a hornet's nest. Magnus waits for 'justice to be served'. Triveni Continental Kings will face upGrad Mumba Masters from 1 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. Photos: Shahid Ahmed
Will Nihal's draw against Dardha be upheld?
PBG Alaskan Knight has won all five of their matches so far which means they have managed to beat every single team participating in this edition. However, this might change tomorrow. Why? Because Nihal Sarin made a draw claim with two second left on the clock. Arbiter was called to the board. Dardha accepted. But wait that's not the end.
Match #12: American Gambits - Ganges Grandmasters: 3-0 (10-4)
The first result of the match occurred on IM Bibisara Assaubayeva and GM R Vaishali's board. The game ended in a draw. It is also the first scoring game for Vaishali at this event. Jan-Krzysztof Duda drew next with Arjun Erigaisi. Hikaru Nakamura scored the first win of the match on the 'Icon' board against Vishy Anand. Parham Maghsoodloo made an insane save against Yangyi Yu. GM Elisabeth Paehtz (AG) defeated IM Nurgyul Salimova (GG).
Nakamura - Anand
The maestro allowed 31.Nc6 Rxc6 32.Rxd6 Rcxd6 it is certainly a good option to play this, however without increment it became incredibly difficult to defend and eventually he ran out of time.
Yangyi - Parham
59.c7?? abandoned all hopes for White to win the game. 59.Qd8+ or Qd4+ would have maintained White's decisive advantage. 59.c7?? fell into a perpetual check where Black could afford losing the e4-pawn. Parham managed to save the game when he was down to his last few seconds on the clock.
Replay AG - GG games
Match #13: Alpine SG Piper - PBG Alaskan Knights: 0-3 (7-9)
Anish Giri (PBG AK) made a paltry mistake and lost his knight in just a one-move tactic against Magnus Carlsen (ASGP). Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (PBG AK) drew with Richard Rapport (ASGP). Nodirbek Abdusattorov (PBG AK) defeated R Praggnanandhaa (ASGP) convincingly. Zhongyi Tan (PBG AK) overlooked a mate in one. However, she still managed to beat Yifan Hou. IM Alina Kashlinskaya (PBG AK) drew with GM Kateryna Lagno (ASGP). Nihal Sarin drew with Daniel Dardha and the team won the match. The
Giri - Magnus
21.Rxd4?? Rxc3 23.Qxb8 Rxb8 and White resigned as he cannot recover the lost material. White needed to trade the queens first 21.Qxb8 Rxb8 before recapturing with d4.
Abdusattorov - Praggnanandhaa
Nodirbek Abdusattorov outplayed R Praggnanandhaa in the double rook endgame.
Nihal - Dardha
47.a3 Rxb7 48.Rxb7 Kc6 49.Re7 Kd6 50.Rb7 Kc6 here Nihal could have repeated moves and accepted a draw. The team would have won the match. Instead, Nihal decided to continue the game 51.Rg7, declining the repetition as the position was winning for him. Unfortunately he was extremely low on time and then he claimed a draw with only two seconds left on the clock. Chief Arbiter, IA Stephane Escafre, gave the decision as a draw, as his opponent Dardha had no objection.
The Captain of Alpine SG Pipers mentioned during their second game toss that there is a need to 'review' the decision. Perhaps a DRS or VAR needs to be introduced in chess too? It should also be noted that the Chief Arbiter of this event, IA Stephane Escafre (FRA) was also the Chief Arbiter of the World Championship Match 2018 between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana. Also, the regulations does not mention anything about draw claim rule.
Magnus Carlsen tweeted on the incident
Replay ASGP - PBGAK games
Match #14: Triveni Continental Kings - upGrad Mumba Masters: 3-0 (12-3)
Harika Dronavalli lost to Valentina Gunina. Alexandra Kosteniuk drew with Koneru Humpy. Alireza Firouzja won an endgame which could have gone either way against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Wei Yi defeated Vidit Gujrathi to seal the match for Triveni Continental Kings.
Firouzja - Vachier-Lagrave
For the second time at this event, Alireza Firouzja had a double bishop vs double knight endgame at this event. This time it was him who had a bishop pair against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's two knights. Once again Firouzja was losing but he persevered and eventually MVL blundered and lost the game.
Wei - Vidit
Wei Yi made a nice practical bishop sacrifice to expose his opponent, Vidit Gujrathi's kingside. 24...hxg6 25.Qh4 Kf7 26.Qh7+ Ke8 27.Qxg6+ Kd7 28.Rh6 and White eventually went on to win the game as it became incredibly difficult to defend.
Replay TCK - uMM games
Match #15: Alpine SG Pipers - American Gambits: 3-0 (9-7)
The first result is a draw between Richard Rapport (ASGP) and Yangyi Yu (AG). Elisabeth Paehtz scored the first win for the team against Kateryna Lagno. R Praggnanandhaa drew with Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura ended in a thrilling draw. Yifan Hou defeated Bibisara Assaubayeva.
Magnus - Hikaru
Nakamura found an amazing defensive resource 41.Rf4+ Kg7 42.g3 h4 43.Rxh4 fxg3+ 44.Kh1 Rg6 45.Rg1 Rexe6 these were the only moves Black needed to find to save the game. 46.Rxg6+ Rxg6 47.Qb7+ Kf6 48.Qf7+ Kg5 49.Qxh7 Nf5 here Black needed to play Rh6 to win the game.
Replay ASGP - AG games
Video Gallery
Standings after Day 4
Day 4 matches
Match #16: Triveni Continental Kings vs upGrad Mumba Masters from 1 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST.
Match #17: PBG Alaskan Knights vs Alpine SG Pipers from 3:30 p.m. local time, 8:45 p.m. IST.
Match #18: Ganges Grandmasters vs American Gambits from 5 p.m. local time, 9:30 p.m. IST.
Scoring System for Game Points (GP)
4 GP (3+1) | A player wins the Game with Black Pieces |
3 GP | A player wins the Game with White Pieces |
1 GP | Draw |
0 GP | Defeat |
Scoring System for Match Points (MP)
3 MP | The team that scores more Game Points |
1 MP | If both teams are level on Game Points |
0 MP | The team that scores lesser Game Points than the opponent |
The Final will be played over best-of-2 matches. There will be a drawing of lots to determine which Team is White in Match 1, this team will then be black in Match 2. The team who wins more matches will be the Champion. In the event of a tie:
• There will be a playoff blitz fixture, which will be a best-of-2 match. The team that was white in Match 1 and black in Match 2 will play white in Match 3 and black in Match 4. The time limit for each game will be all moves in 3 minutes plus 2 seconds. The Team that wins the most matches in the fixture will be the Champion.
• If the Teams remain tied, there shall be a drawing of lots to determine a board from 1 to 6. The player from each Team on this board will then participate in a sudden-death blitz game. The time limit for this game will be 3 minutes plus 2 seconds per move. The player from the Team who was white in Matches 1 and 3, will play white in this game.
• If the sudden death blitz game is drawn, then the procedure is repeated except that the colour of the player from each team alternates from the colour the team had in the preceding sudden death blitz game.
• If the tie remains unbroken, the above procedure is repeated until a sudden death blitz game has a winner.
Links
Tech Mahindra Global Chess League: Official site, facebook, twitter, instagram, youtube and linkedin
Tech Mahindra: Official site, facebook, twitter, youtube and linkedin
