Tech Mahindra GCL Day 7: It's a three-way race between Alaskan Knights, Continental Kings and SG Pipers
Upgrad Mumba Masters started the seventh day with a win over the leaders - PBG Alaskan Knights in Round 8 of Tech Mahindra Global Chess League 2024. It was the closest match of the event so far as the final score was 10-9. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won his second consecutive game. He defeated Anish Giri on the 'Icon' board. Koneru Humpy won against Zhongyi Tan. Raunak Sadhwani ended Nihal Sarin's unbeaten run. Their wins nullified Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov's four pointer wins. Ganges Grandmasters lost to Triveni Continental Kings. Alireza Firouzja, Teimour Radjabov and Alexandra Kosteniuk scored four points each. The remaining three games were won by the GG players. R Praggnanandhaa and Daniel Dardha powered Alpine SG Pipers to a 6-11 win over American Gambits. PBG AK, TCK and ASGP are the only three teams who will battle it out for the spots in the Finals. Round 9 starts tomorrow with American Gambits vs upGrad Mumba Masters from 1 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. Photos: Shahid Ahmed
upGrad Mumba Masters, American Gambits and Ganges Grandmasters are virtually eliminated
The final two teams will be between PBG Alaskan Knights, Triveni Continental Kings and Alpine SG Warriors as the latter two teams are going to face each other on the final day of the round-robin stage. PBG still needs to win one more match to secure their place in the Finals. The remaining three teams - upGrad Mumba Masters, American Gambits and Ganges Grandmasters have no mathematical chance left to finish in the top two.
Match #22: upGrad Mumba Masters - PBG Alaskan Knights: 3-0 (10-9)
GM Harika Dronavalli drew with IM Alina Kashlinskaya. Vidit Gujrathi hung a rook and overlooked a simple threat by Nodirbek Abdusattorov's queen. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated Anish Giri in a back and forth rook and few pawns endgame where Giri missed a couple of chances to save the game. It was certainly not easy to defend especially in low time. Peter Svidler lost to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Koneru Humpy defeated the Women's World Championship Challenger, Zhongyi Tan. Raunak Sadhwani ended Nihal Sarin's unbeaten run at this event.
Vachier-Lagrave - Giri
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated Magnus Carlsen on the previous day. So it goes without saying that his confidence level is skyhigh. In a complex rook and few pawns endgame, Anish Giri made an incorrect decision of capturing more pawns 49...Kxb4?? instead of attempting to create a passed pawn of his own on the queenside. 50.Rxe4++- Kc5 51.f4 Kd5 52.Re7 b5 53.h5? gxh5 54.f5 Rc4 55.g6
Black's last chance to save the game was 55...Rg4+ 56.Kh3 Kd6 instead 55...b4?? 56.g7+- Rg4+ 57.Kf3 b3 58.f6 b2 59.Re1 b1Q+ 60.Rxb1 Ke6 61.Rb8 and White won.
Svidler - Mamedyarov
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is tactically defending the d4-pawn as his opponent, Peter Svidler has backrank weakness. 38.g3? a minute inaccuracy d3 39.Kg2 Kg7 40.Rb2 f5 41.Rdd2 Kf6 42.Rb1 g5 Black gradually improved his position and White succumbed.
Raunak - Nihal
Raunak got a good position early in the middlegame. He liked his moves 17.b4 and 19.b4. What gave him a substantial advantage was after 23.f4 and then it became just a matter of time before Black's position crumbled.
Replay uMM - PBG AK games
Match #23: Ganges Grandmasters - Triveni Continental Kings: 0-3 (9-12)
Alireza Firouzja scored the first win of the match against Vishy Anand after the maestro blundered in an already difficult position. Arjun Erigaisi scored his first win of the event against Wei Yi. R Vaishali lost her substantial advantage early in the middlegame and went on to lose the game. Teimour Radjabov scored his first win of the event against Parham Maghsoodloo. For the first time at this edition, all six games ended decisively.
Anand - Firouzja
Vishy Anand blundered in a difficult endgame 26.Nf2?? Rxe1+ 27.Bxe1 Qe2 28.Nh3 Bf8 29.Qd2 Qf1+ 30.Ng1 Bc5 and Black won.
Arjun - Wei
Wei Yi one small mistake in the major piece endgame 52...Qc7? Arjun Erigaisi seized his advantage 53.g3 R8e6 54.Kg2 Rd6 55.Rc1 Re7 56.Qf5 Qd8 57.Rcb1 Qd7 58.h6+ Kg8 59.Qxd7 Rdxd7 60.a6 bxa6 61.Rxc6 Black started losing one pawn too many and went on to lose the game.
Maghsoodloo - Radjabov
Parham had an advantage for a while. However, 39.Nf6+? turned things in Black's favor Bxf6 40.Rd7 Ne2+! 41.Kh3 Nxf4 42.Kh2 Qe5 43.Qxb7 Qxg5 44.Kg3 Be5 45.Kf3 Ne6+ 46.Ke4 Qxg4+ 47.Kd5 Qf3+ and Black won.
Salimova - Gunina
IM Nurgyul Salimova sacrificed her piece 11.0-0. It has been played a few times before. 11...exf3 12.Nc4 Qd8 13.Qxf3 Bg7 14.Rfd1 Bd7 15.Bxc6 bxc6 16.Bxf6 Bxf6 17.Rb7 0-0 18.Rdxd7 and White eventually went on to win the game.
Replay GG- TCK games
Match #24: American Gambits - Alpine SG Pipers: 0-3 (6-11)
The first result is a draw between Yangyi Yu and Richard Rapport. Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen had a relatively quiet draw. R Praggnanandhaa scored a huge win over Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Bibisara drew with Yifan. Elisabeth won against Lagno.
Duda - Praggnanandhaa
R Praggnanandhaa made his intentions clear early in the game when he went 9...g5. At the right moment, he played a very nice move 21...Nf3+! 22.Nxf3 gxf3 23.Kf2 Ne5 Black focused all his pieces on the kingside and went on to win the game nicely.
Replay AG - ASGP games
Standings after Day 7
Day 7 matches
Match #25: American Gambits vs upGrad Mumba Masters from 1 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST.
Match #26: Alpine SG Pipers vs Ganges Grandmasters from 3:30 p.m. local time, 8:45 p.m. IST.
Match #27: Triveni Continental Kings vs PBG Alaskan Knights 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
