Tech Mahindra GCL Day 5: Alpine SG Pipers ends PBG Alaskan Knights' unbeaten streak
Alireza Firouzja is in the form of his life. He defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave for the second time in consecutive days. MVL tried to take the game to him, however, he could not find the good moves at the right moment. Alexandra Kosteniuk scored the only other win for the team which helped Triveni Continental Kings register their fourth win of the event, 0-3 (8-10) against upGrad Mumba Masters. Anish Giri made a nice queen sacrifice to build a fortress and draw with Magnus Carlsen. Yifan Hou and Kateryna Lagno scored the wins for SG Alpine Pipers. Nihal Sarin's sole win for Balan Alaskan Knights was not enough to win the match. Ganges Grandmasters scored their second match win of the event, thanks to GM Volodar Murzin and IM Nurgyul Salimova's individual wins. The sixth day will start with Alpine SG Pipers vs upGrad Mumba Masters from 1 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. Photos: Shahid Ahmed
PBG Alaskan Knights still in sole lead
PBG Alaskan Knight is the team to beat and SG Alpine Pipers managed to achieve that. They are now three points behind the leaders at 12/18 along with Triveni Continental Kings who is at second place with the same match points. Previous day's result of Nihal Sarin and Daniel Dardha stands. However, in their rematch Nihal showed his prowess by scoring a clean win.
Match #16: upGrad Mumba Masters - Triveni Continental Kings: 0-3 (8-10)
Alexandra Kosteniuk scored the first win of the match for her team upGrad Mumba Masters against Koneru Humpy. Alireza Firouzja beats Maxime Vachier-Lagrave for the second consecutive time at this event. Vidit Gujrathi defeated Wei Yi. Harika Dronavalli won against Valentina Gunina. Raunak Sadhwani drew with Javokhir Sindarov which resulted in upGrad Mumba Masters losing to Triveni Continental Kings.
Vachier-Lagrave - Firouzja
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave launched an aggressive attack on the kingside 23.g6 Bf6 White needed to follow through 24.h6. Instead, 24.gxf7+? Rxf7 turned things in Black's favor.
Firouzja made a beautiful finish 39...Nxa3 40.Qf3 b4 41.Rd2 Nc2+ 42.Rxc2 Bxc2 and Black won as Qa5 checkmate was inevitable.
Vidit - Wei
Although the double rook on second rank might look scary, it actually is not. Vidit kept pressing throughout the game. 40.h3 f5 41.Rd6+ Kg7?? 42.Rc1+ and the rooks weaved a mating net on the backranks from where the black king had no escape.
Replay uMM - TCK games
Match #17: Alpine SG Piper - PBG Alaskan Knights: 3-0 (9-7)
First result is a draw between Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri. The latter made a nice queen sacrifice which made things difficult for the world no. 1 to push for a win. The next result is a draw between R Praggnanandhaa and Nodirbek Abusattorov. GM Kateryna Lagno scored the first win of the match against IM Alina Kashlinskaya. Yifan won the next game over Zhongyi and cost PBG their first loss.
Magnus - Giri
Magnus decided to sacrifice an exchange 24.bxc3 to ensure he does not allow Black to get rid of the isolated d5-pawn. 24...Bg6 25.Nf4 Bxd3 26.Qxd3 Rc8
Anish Giri decided to sacrifice his queen 36...Qe5 37.Bxf7 Rxf7 38.Ng6+ Kg8 39.Nxe5 Rxe5 40.Qd1 Rxf2+ 41.Kh3 Kh7 eventually in the end White had one single opportunity to win the game, but it is not easy to find or even execute it. Thus, the game ended in a draw as Giri built a fortress with his rook and bishop.
Yifan - Zhongyi
The Women's World Championship Challenger made a big mistake 18...Bc5?? Her opponent, the World no.1 woman, Yifan Hou had no trouble seizing her opportunity 19.Be5 Nh7 20.Nxd5 f6 21.Bc7 Qc8 22.Nb3 and White went on to win the game.
Replay PBGAK - ASGP games
Match #18: Ganges Grandmasters - American Gambits: 3-0
The first result is a draw between GM R Vaishali and IM Bibisara Assaubayeva. The Icon board between Vishy Anand and Hikaru Nakamura ended in a draw. Volodar Murzin scored the first win for his team Ganges Grandmasters against Jonas Buhl Bjerre. Parham Maghsoodloo drew with Yangyi Yu. Arjun Erigaisi missed a win against Jan-Krzysztof Duda. IM Nurgyul Salimova beats GM Elisabeth Paehtz to win the game.
Arjun - Duda
36...Rec7?? created a winning chance for Arjun. He correctly spotted 37.Qh8+ Ke7 38.Rf4 Rc4 39.Rf6 Qb1+ 40.Kg2 Qe1 41.Qg8!! a fantastic move sacrificing his rook as there is a checkmate threat. 41...Qxe5 42.Rxf7+ Kd6 43.Qd8+ Kc6 44.Qa8+ Kd6 45.Rxc7 Kxc7 White lost his advantage soon and the game petered out to a draw. Instead, 44.Qb8 would have ensured White win the game soon.
Volodar - Jonas
GM Volodar Murzin mentioned while accepting the 'Player of the Match' award that 10.Nb5! was indeed part of his preparation. He got a decisive advantage in the first ten moves and managed to win the game. This win set the tone for the team to win the match.
Replay GG - AG games
Interview with Anish Giri and Vidit Gujrathi, also birthday celebration of Triveni Continental Kings Captain - GM Loek van Wely (NED) will be published soon. Stay tuned.
Video Gallery
Standings after Day 5
Day 6 matches
Match #19: Alpine SG Pipers vs upGrad Mumba Masters from 1 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST.
Match #20: Triveni Continental Kings vs American Gambits from 3:30 p.m. local time, 8:45 p.m. IST.
Match #21: PBG Alaskan Knights vs Ganges Grandmasters 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
