GCL Day 4: Carlsen and Nakamura battle a thriller

Magnus tweets on Nihal-Dardha game

The PBG Alaskan Knights have won all five of their matches so far which means they have managed to beat every single team participating in this edition. However, this might change tomorrow. Why? Because Nihal Sarin made a draw claim with two seconds left on the clock. An arbiter was called to the board. Dardha accepted. But wait, that's not the end.

American Gambits - Ganges Grandmasters: 3-0 (10-4)

The first result of the match occurred in the game between IM Bibisara Assaubayeva and GM R Vaishali. The game ended in a draw. It is also the first scoring game for Vaishali at this event. Jan-Krzysztof Duda drew next with Arjun Erigaisi. Hikaru Nakamura scored the first win of the match on the 'Icon' board, against Vishy Anand. Parham Maghsoodloo made an insane save against Yangyi Yu. GM Elisabeth Paehtz (AG) defeated IM Nurgyul Salimova (GG).

Master Class Vol. 12: Viswanathan Anand

This DVD allows you to learn from the example of one of the best players in the history of chess and from the explanations of the authors how to successfully organise your games strategically, and how to keep your opponent permanently under pressure.

The maestro allowed 31.Nc6 Rxc6 32.Rxd6 Rcxd6. It is certainly a good option, however without increment it became incredibly difficult to defend, and eventually he ran out of time.

Hikaru Nakamura bounced back well after yesterday's loss against Alireza Firouzja

Jan-Krzysztof Duda had a well contested draw against Arjun Erigaisi

59.c7?? abandoned all hopes for White to win the game. 59.Qd8+ or Qd4+ would have maintained White's decisive advantage. 59.c7?? fell into a perpetual check where Black could afford losing the e4-pawn. Maghsoodloo managed to save the game when he was down to his last few seconds on the clock.

Parham Maghsoodloo redeemed his loss yesterday, although it could not save the team defeat

GM R Vaishali stopped her losing streak by drawing against IM Bibisara Assaubayeva

American Gambits - Ganges Grandmasters: 3-0 (10-4) | Photo: Official site

Replay AG - GG games

Alpine SG Pipers - PBG Alaskan Knights: 0-3 (7-9)

Anish Giri (PBG AK) made a paltry mistake and lost his knight in just a one-move tactic against Magnus Carlsen (ASGP). Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (PBG AK) drew with Richard Rapport (ASGP). Nodirbek Abdusattorov (PBG AK) defeated R Praggnanandhaa (ASGP) convincingly. Zhongyi Tan (PBG AK) overlooked a mate in one. However, she still managed to beat Yifan Hou. IM Alina Kashlinskaya (PBG AK) drew with GM Kateryna Lagno (ASGP). Nihal Sarin drew with Daniel Dardha and the team won the match.

21.Rxd4?? Rxc3 23.Qxb8 Rxb8 and White resigned as he cannot recover the lost material. White needed to trade the queens first with 21.Qxb8 Rxb8 before recapturing with d4.

Interview with Anish Giri | Video: ChessBase India

Anish Giri suffered a quick loss against Magnus Carlsen

A Supergrandmaster's Guide to Openings Vol.1 & 2

This video course includes GM Anish Giri's deep insights and IM Sagar Shah's pertinent questions to the super GM. In Vol.1 all the openings after 1.e4 are covered.

The Magnus and Anish banter | Video: ChessBase India

Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri joined their respective team captains for the toss. Tournament Director Bharat Singh Chauhan flips the coin to determine the colour

Nodirbek Abdusattorov outplayed R Praggnanandhaa in the double rook endgame.

Nodirbek Abdusattorov scored his second win of the event, while R Praggnanandhaa suffered his second loss

47.a3 Rxb7 48.Rxb7 Kc6 49.Re7 Kd6 50.Rb7 Kc6 Here Nihal could have repeated moves and accepted a draw. The team would have won the match. Instead, Nihal decided to continue the game with 51.Rg7, declining the repetition as the position was winning for him. Unfortunately, he was extremely low on time, and then he claimed a draw with only two seconds left on the clock. The Chief Arbiter, IA Stephane Escafre, gave the decision as a draw, as his opponent Dardha had no objection.

Nihal Sarin and Daniel Dardha was an exciting battle which ended in a draw

The Captain of Alpine SG Pipers mentioned during their second game toss that there is a need to 'review' the decision. Perhaps a DRS or VAR needs to be introduced in chess too? It should also be noted that the Chief Arbiter of this event, IA Stephane Escafre (FRA), was also the Chief Arbiter of the World Championship Match 2018 between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana. Also, the regulations do not mention anything about the draw claim rule.

Magnus Carlsen tweeted on the incident

Alpine SG Pipers - PBG Alaskan Knights: 0-3 (7-9) | Photo: Official site

Replay ASGP - PBGAK games

Triveni Continental Kings - upGrad Mumba Masters: 3-0 (12-3)

Harika Dronavalli lost to Valentina Gunina. Alexandra Kosteniuk drew with Koneru Humpy. Alireza Firouzja won an endgame which could have gone either way against his compatriot Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Wei Yi defeated Vidit Gujrathi to seal the match for the Triveni Continental Kings.

For the second time at this event, Alireza Firouzja had a double bishop vs double knight endgame. This time it was him who had a bishop pair against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's two knights. Once again Firouzja was losing but he persevered and, eventually, MVL blundered and lost the game.

Master Class Vol.16 - Judit Polgar

In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Judit Polgar. Let them show you which openings Polgar chose to play, where her strength in middlegames were, or how she outplayed her opponents in the endgame.

Alireza Firouzja won the all-French battle against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Wei Yi made a nice practical bishop sacrifice to expose Vidit Gujrathi's kingside. 24...hxg6 25.Qh4 Kf7 26.Qh7+ Ke8 27.Qxg6+ Kd7 28.Rh6 and White eventually went on to win the game as it became incredibly difficult to defend.

Wei Yi is certainly going to be a force to be reckoned with for the rest of the tournament

Triveni Continental Kings - upGrad Mumba Masters: 3-0 (12-3) | Photo: Alpine SG Pipers

Replay TCK - uMM games

Alpine SG Pipers - American Gambits: 3-0 (9-7)

The first result was a draw between Richard Rapport (ASGP) and Yangyi Yu (AG). Elisabeth Paehtz scored the first win for the team against Kateryna Lagno. R Praggnanandhaa drew with Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura ended in a thrilling draw. Yifan Hou defeated Bibisara Assaubayeva.

Nakamura found an amazing defensive resource: 41.Rf4+ Kg7 42.g3 h4 43.Rxh4 fxg3+ 44.Kh1 Rg6 45.Rg1 Rexe6 as these were the only moves Black needed to find to save the game. 46.Rxg6+ Rxg6 47.Qb7+ Kf6 48.Qf7+ Kg5 49.Qxh7 Nf5 and here Black needed to play Rh6 to win the game.

Magnus Carlsen - Hikaru Nakamura was another battle for the ages

Middlegame Secrets Vol.1 + Vol.2

Let us learn together how to find the best spot for the queen in the early middlegame, how to navigate this piece around the board, how to time the queen attack, how to decide whether to exchange it or not, and much more!

Yifan Hou and Daniel Dardha's wins resulted in overall victory for Alpine SG Pipers

Alpine SG Pipers - American Gambits: 3-0 (9-7) | Photo: Alpine SG Pipers

Replay ASGP - AG games

Video Gallery

I hope that justice will be served - Magnus Carlsen | Video: ChessBase India

Fans love Hikaru Nakamura | Video: ChessBase India

Standings after Day 4

PBG Alaskan Knights maintains their perfect score (15/15), while Triveni Continental Kings and Alpine SG Pipers are at 9/15 each | Photo: Official site

Day 4 matches

Match #16: Triveni Continental Kings vs upGrad Mumba Masters from 1 p.m. local time

Match #17: PBG Alaskan Knights vs Alpine SG Pipers from 3:30 p.m. local time

Match #18: Ganges Grandmasters vs American Gambits from 5 p.m. local time

Scoring System for Game Points (GP)

Scoring System for Match Points (MP)

• 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

Chess-results

Tournament Regulations

Tech Mahindra Global Chess League: Official site, facebook, twitter, instagram, youtube and linkedin

Tech Mahindra: Official site, facebook, twitter, youtube and linkedin