The fourth season of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League began on Saturday at the Lalit Ashok hotel in Bengaluru. A day earlier, players and guests had attended the opening ceremony at Bengaluru Palace, the 19th-century Tudor-style landmark that served as the setting for the official launch of the event.
The first stage of the competition is a six-team double round-robin running from 5 to 12 September. Matches are played sequentially, with four encounters scheduled on each of the first six days and three on each of the final two days, for a total of 30 matches. The match for third place and the final will take place on Sunday, 13 September.
The magnificent Bengaluru Palace | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Two teams had double duty on the opening day, and their results could hardly have been more different. The FYERS American Gambits won both of their matches to take the early lead, while the Triveni Continental Kings suffered two defeats. The two sides met in the fourth and final encounter of the day.
The American Gambits had opened their campaign against the PBG Alaskan Knights. Javokhir Sindarov defeated former world champion Viswanathan Anand, while Marc'Andria Maurizzi scored against Abhimanyu Mishra. Those two victories were enough to give the Gambits a winning start, as all remaining games ended drawn.
Later in the day, the Gambits also got the better of the Continental Kings. Nihal Sarin, Daniil Dubov and Maurizzi won on boards two, three and six respectively, while Alexandra Kosteniuk registered the Kings' only individual victory on board five. Maurizzi thus finished the opening day with two wins from two games.
The Continental Kings had already suffered a defeat in their first match, against the Ganges Grandmasters. Levon Aronian, Polina Shuvalova and Stavroula Tsolakidou all scored wins for the Grandmasters.
The slow start is notable given the Continental Kings' record in the competition. They won the first two seasons of the Global Chess League and also reached the final in 2025, where they were beaten by the current defending champions Alpine SG Pipers (now Alpine APL Pipers).
Humpy Koneru, Divya Deshmukh and Vidit Gujrathi are playing for the Alpine APL Pipers alongside Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Amruta Mokal
The Pipers began the new season with a victory. In their opening-day encounter against the CheQ Mumba Masters, Vidit Gujrathi and Humpy Koneru provided the decisive wins. The Mumba Masters also recorded two wins, by Pranesh M and Harika Dronavalli, but since the Pipers held the black pieces on all six boards, the innovative scoring system employed in the league granted them the match victory (wins with black grant 4 points, while wins with white grant 3 points in Bengaluru).
In his first outing for the Pipers, world number one Magnus Carlsen played the Accelerated Dragon Sicilian against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and reached a favourable rook endgame with 4 v. 3 pawns, but correct defence by the Frenchman led to a 55-move draw.
| FYERS American Gambits | 10-4 | PBG Alaskan Knights |
| Javokhir Sindarov | 3-0 | Viswanathan Anand |
| Nihal Sarin | 1-1 | Arjun Erigaisi |
| Daniil Dubov | 1-1 | Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus |
| Bibisara Assaubayeva | 1-1 | Kateryna Lagno |
| Sara Khadem | 1-1 | Nino Batsiashvili |
| Marc'Andria Maurizzi | 3-0 | Abhimanyu Mishra |
In this match, crucially, Arjun Erigaisi first blundered into a lost endgame from a position of strength. He was an exchange up and faltered with 49.Ne5??
The knight move allows Black to turn the tables with the simple 49...Bf4+.
However, a further twist would decide the game and eventually the match. Erigaisi, with two minor pieces and two pawns against a rook, erred with 56...Kc8?
After Black placed the king on c8, White's 57.Kd6 meant there was no way to defend the pawns on e6 and c6 following a few forcing moves. Instead, 56...Bc7+ 57.Kd4 Bd6 (diagram) would have allowed Erigaisi to keep the white king away, with a winning endgame still.
| Ganges Grandmasters | 10-9 | Triveni Continental Kings |
| Ian Nepomniachtchi | 1-1 | Alireza Firouzja |
| Levon Aronian | 3-0 | Wei Yi |
| Leinier Dominguez | 0-4 | Aravindh Chithambaram |
| Polina Shuvalova | 3-0 | Zhu Jiner |
| Stavroula Tsolakidou | 3-0 | Alexandra Kosteniuk |
| Leon Luke Mendonca | 0-4 | Pranav Venkatesh |
Levon Aronian got the better of Wei Yi after getting a strong initiative out of the opening and finding the formidable 26.Rxe7! to break through Black's defences.
26.Rxe7 Bxe7 27.Qxe7 Ne4 28.d6, opening up the light-squared diagonal.
After 28...Nxd6 29.Ng5 Wei resigned since 29...Rxc3 fails to 30.Bxf7+, with checkmate in a few moves (seven at most).
***
| CheQ Mumbai Masters | 8-10 | Alpine APL Pipers |
| Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | 1-1 | Magnus Carlsen |
| Pranesh M | 3-0 | Anish Giri |
| Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 0-4 | Vidit Gujrathi |
| Harika Dronavalli | 3-0 | Divya Deshmukh |
| Carissa Yip | 0-4 | Humpy Koneru |
| Bardiya Daneshvar | 1-1 | Volodar Murzin |
From what had been a tension-filled knight endgame with passed pawns running on opposite flanks, a blunder by Carissa Yip allowed Humpy Koneru to grab a crucial win for the Pipers.
53.Qxd5+?? loses to 53...Kxd5 54.Ne3 and Black can play either 54...Kd4 or 54...Ke4, as the king will collect the knight soon and will then be close enough to capture the white pawns on the kingside. Apparently, after 54.Ne3, Yip either lost on time or resigned.
Instead, 53.Kb3 would have kept the balance in the position.
| Triveni Continental Kings | 5-14 | FYERS American Gambits |
| Alireza Firouzja | 1-1 | Javokhir Sindarov |
| Wei Yi | 0-4 | Nihal Sarin |
| Aravindh Chithambaram | 0-4 | Daniil Dubov |
| Zhu Jiner | 1-1 | Bibisara Assaubayeva |
| Alexandra Kosteniuk | 3-0 | Sara Khadem |
| Pranav Venkatesh | 0-4 | Marc'Andria Maurizzi |
It was a bad day at the office for Wei Yi, who lost both his games for the Continental Kings. Against Nihal Sarin, he was already in trouble in an endgame with rooks and knights on the board, but his 36.f3? only made matters worse.
36.Rb4 was the way to keep the battle going. Wei's f-pawn push, on the other hand, allowed 36...Rxe3 37.Kf1 Rxe2!
Now 38.Kxe2 loses immediately to 38...Nc3+, while after 38.fxe4 Rxe4 39.Rxa6, as seen in the game, Black's two extra pawns give him a winning advantage.
| Advertising |
