Tech Mahindra GCL Day 8: Tenacious Giri outplays Firouzja, PBG Alaskan Knights secure their place in Finals
PBG Alaskan Knights defeated Triveni Continental Kings 12-8 to become the first finalist of Tech Mahindra Global Chess League 2024. They will face the winner between Alpine SG Pipers and TCK tomorrow. The last match of the double round-robin stage will now be a virtual Semifinal. Anish Giri, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Zhongyi Tan and Alina Kashlinskaya scored the victories to ensure their place in the finals. Alpine SG Pipers defeated Ganges Grandmasters 13-5 to stay in the hunt. Giri showed extreme tenacity to beat Alireza Firouzja. It was evident from his play that he was determined to win the game. Round 10 starts tomorrow with Ganges Grandmasters vs upGrad Mumba Masters from 1 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. Photos: Shahid Ahmed
Alpine SG Pipers and Triveni Continental Kings to face each other in a virtual Semifinal
PBG Alaskan Knights scored their much-needed win over Triveni Continental Kings. Apart from Giri, Nodirbek Abdusattorov also played fantastic chess to beat Wei Yi. Zhongyi Tan won a time scramble against Alexandra Kosteniuk. IM Alina Kashlinskaya completely decimated GM Valentina Gunina. Only Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Nihal Sarin suffered losses. However, they will have one last match against American Gambits tomorrow before they play their Finals on Saturday.
Match #25: upGrad Mumba Masters - American Gambits: 0-3 (6-11)
Hikaru Nakamura scored the first win of the match by hunting Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's king. Harika Dronavalli drew with Elisabeth Paehtz. Peter Svidler shared the point with Yangyi Yu. Vidit Gujrathi lost on time from a winning position against Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Raunak Sadhwani scored the sole win for his team upGrad Mumba Masters against Jonas Buhl Bjerre.
Vachier-Lagrave - Nakamura
Hikaru Nakamura mentioned in the post-game interview that this was the best game he played in this tournament. He found some really good moves like 22...Nc5+ instead of playing d5. 23.Bxc5 dxc5 24.Ne4 Ke7 25.Rhd1 Ra8! was the best move he found in the game, he revealed, sacrificing his c5-pawn.
The World no.2 believes that 28.b4? is the critical mistake made by his opponent. 28...Rd8 29.Ke4?? is losing for White as 29....Re2 dropped the e3-knight and it became just a matter of time before Black won the game.
Vidit - Duda
Vidit Gujrathi got a substantial advantage against Jan-Krzysztof Duda when he went 31...e4? 32.Qxf5. However, in time trouble Vidit fumbled big time. His decisive advantage turned to equal and then he went on to lose on time which was also positionally lost.
Raunak - Jonas
Jonas Buhl Bjerre played ambitiously against Raunak Sadhwani. First he sacrificed an exchange 8...Rxh4 9.gxh4 Ng4 10.d3 Bd6 11.e3 Qxh4+ 12.Kd2 then he decided to sacrifice his knight Nxe3 13.Qe1 Qh3 instead computer suggests to trade the queens Qxe1+ 14.Rxe1 Nf5 to keep things in balance. The lack of developed/active pieces played a crucial role in Black's attack getting fizzled out.
Replay uMM-AG games
Match #26: Alpine SG Pipers - Ganges Grandmasters: 3-0 (13-5)
Richard Rapport struck first against Parham Maghsoodloo. He scored a beautiful win, sacrificing his bishop first then rook. Arjun Erigaisi drew with R Praggnanandhaa. Magnus Carlsen defeated Vishy Anand. Yifan Hou and Kateryna Lagno scored wins over R Vaishali and IM Nurgyul Salimova respectively. Volodar Murzin scored the sole win for Ganges Grandmasters in their losing effort against Alpine SG Pipers.
Carlsen - Anand
Magnus Carlsen made a few pawn sacrifices in the entire game against Vishy Anand. The best one has to be the final one 38.g6! which gave White the decisive advantage. 38...fxg6 39.Rg1 Ra3 40.Rxg6+ and White won in the next few moves as checkmate threat became inevitable.
Praggnanandhaa - Arjun
R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi had an explosive start. However, it petered out to a draw.
Rapport - Maghsoodloo
Richard Rapport made a beautiful bishop sacrifice 18.Bxe6! fxe6 19.Nxe6 Qb6 20.a5 Qc6 21.c3 Rc8 22.d4 cxd4 23.cxd4 Qc4 24.Qf5 Nf8 25.Qh5+ Neg6 26.Rxf8+! Bxf8 27.Qxg6+ Kd7 28.d5 and White checkmated in the next five moves.
Replay ASGP - GG games
Match #27: PBG Alaskan Knights - Triveni Continental Kings: 3-0 (12-8)
Nodirbek Abdusattorov scored the first win for his team against Wei Yi. Anish Giri defeated Alireza Firouzja convincingly. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov lost to Teimour Radjabov. IM Alina Kashlinskaya won against GM Valentina Gunina. Zhongyi Tan won on time against Alexandra Kosteniuk in a time scramble. Nihal Sarin also suffered a loss against Javokhir Sindarov.
Giri - Firouzja
Anish Giri made a nice practical exchange sacrifice 38.Rxe5 Kxe5. He explained it very nicely in the post-game interview that the motif was there for quite some time. Black gave up his a-pawn to stop White's passed c-pawn. Giri played spectacularly to create chances and eventually went on to win the game.
Nihal - Sindarov
White needed to follow through correctly in a sharp position 29.Rxf6 Rxg2+ 30.Kf1 Rcd2 this is a computer line which is extremely difficult to spot. Nihal played 29.Kh1? Rxb2-+ and it was over for White as he did not have enough compensation for the lost piece.
Replay PBG AK - TCK games
Standings after Day 8
Day 9 matches
Match #28: Ganges Grandmasters vs upGrad Mumba Masters from 1 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST.
Match #29: American Gambits vs PBG Alaskan Knights from 3:30 p.m. local time, 8:45 p.m. IST.
Match #30: Alpine SG Pipers vs Triveni Continental Kings 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
