Tech Mahindra GCL Day 6: Hikaru ends Firouzja's unbeaten streak, Carlsen blunders against MVL
Hikaru Nakamura ended Alireza Firouzja's unbeaten streak at Tech Mahindra Global Chess League 2024. Just when everyone thought the game will end in a draw, Firouzja offered his rook up for trade. The resultant pawn endgame turned out to be completely winning for the Speed King. IM Bibisara Assaubayeva and GM Elisabeth scored the crucial wins to secure teh win for American Gambits over Triveni Continental Kings. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated Magnus Carlsen for the second consecutive year at this event. Alpine SG Pipers suffered a loss against upGrad Mumba Masters. Peter Svidler and Raunak Sadhwani were the other two victors of uMM. Anish Giri scored his first win of the event against Vishy Anand. Alina Kashlinskaya and Nihal Sarin scored the wins to ensure they beat Ganges Grandmasters. PBG AK is now one match win away from securing their spot in the Finals. The seventh day will start with PBG Alaskan Knights vs upGrad Mumba Masters from 1 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. Photos: Shahid Ahmed
PBG Balan Alaskan Knights extend their sole lead; A day of firsts and 5-14 for all three matches
The sixth day was a day of firsts - Alireza Firouzja suffered his first loss, R Praggnanandhaa and Anish Giri picked up their first win of the event. All three matches had the exact same score of 5-14.
Match #19: Alpine SG Pipers - upGrad Mumba Masters: 0-3 (5-14)
First result is a draw between Humpy and Yifan. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated Magnus Carlsen for the second consecutive year at Global Chess League. Peter Svidler and Raunak Sadhwani scored the crucial wins against Richard Rapport and Raunak Sadhwani to ensure upGrad Mumba Masters beat Alpine SG Pipers. R Praggnanandhaa scored the sole win for his team Alpine SG Pipers over Vidit Gujrathi. It is also his first win of the tournament.
Carlsen - Vachier-Lagrave
28.Ne2 started a nice sequence Re6 29.Nxf4 Rxe5 30.Nd3 Rd4 now Magnus needed to capture the rook and bishop 31.Nxe5 Rxd2 32.Nxc6 and the game would have ended in a draw. Instead, he blundered 31.Rc2 and missed that there is a Re6 retreat which saves both his rook and bishop.
Magnus Carlsen made a little kid's day after the kid walked to the front row of the audience and stretched his arm, hoping to tag the World. no.1
Praggnanandhaa - Vidit
Vidit Gujrathi needed to trade the queens first before recapturing the knight. 24...Qxc6? allowed White to do a double attack 25.Qd4 Rf7 26.Qa7 Rd8? 27.a5 and White won the game in the next few moves.
Replay ASGP - uMM games
Match #20: Triveni Continental Kings - American Gambits: 0-3 (5-14)
GM Elisabeth Paehtz scored the first win for American Gambits against GM Valentina Gunina. Alireza Firouzja suffered a shocking loss as he made a one-move blunder against Hikaru Nakamura. Wei Yi drew with Duda. Radjabov drew with Yangyi.
Firouzja - Hikaru
The only thing White should not do in the above position is trade rooks. That is exactly what Firouzja did 68.Rc5?? Rxc5+ and White resigned 69.Kxc5 Ke5 and Black wins the pawn endgame as he captures both f3 and g4, the g5-pawn becomes unstoppable.
Replay TCK - AG games
Match #21: Ganges Grandmasters - PBG Alaskan Knights: 0-3 (5-14)
Parham Maghsoodloo scored the first win of the match against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Anish Giri scored a huge win against Vishy Anand on the 'Icon' board. IM Alina Kashlinskaya and GM Nihal Sarin also scored crucial victories over IM Nurgyul Salimova and GM Volodar Murzin respectively.
Anand - Giri
Giri played a nice move which is thematic to this opening 38...e4! He vacated the e5-square for the knight and also sacrificed the e4-pawn for c3. 39.Qxe4 Rxc3 40.Kg2 Rxc2 41.Rxc2 Ne5 soon White lost an exchange and eventually the game.
Volodar - Nihal
Nihal Sarin is always alert. He does not miss the tactical chances 30...Nxd4! 31.Nxa6+ Bxa6 32.cxd4 Rc8 33.Qe3 Bd3 34.Nb3 Rc3 35.Rc1 Rxb3! another tactical shot and Black won the game in the next few moves.
Replay GG - PBG AK games
Video Gallery
Standings after Day 6
Day 7 matches
Match #22: PBG Alaskan Knights vs upGrad Mumba Masters from 1 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST.
Match #23: Ganges Grandmasters vs Triveni Continental Kings from 3:30 p.m. local time, 8:45 p.m. IST.
Match #24: American Gambits vs Alpine SG Pipers 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
