GCL Day 5: Alpine SG Pipers end PBG Alaskan Knights' unbeaten streak

PBG Alaskan Knights suffer first loss, still lead

The PBG Alaskan Knights are the team to beat, and SG Alpine Pipers managed to achieve that. They are now 3 points behind the leaders at 12/18 along with Triveni Continental Kings. The previous day's result of Nihal Sarin and Daniel Dardha stands. However, in their rematch, Nihal showed his prowess by scoring a clean win.

upGrad Mumba Masters - Triveni Continental Kings: 0-3 (8-10)

Alexandra Kosteniuk scored the first win of the match for her team, upGrad Mumba Masters, against Koneru Humpy. Alireza Firouzja beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave for the second consecutive time at this event. Vidit Gujrathi defeated Wei Yi. Harika Dronavalli won against Valentina Gunina. Raunak Sadhwani drew with Javokhir Sindarov, which resulted in upGrad Mumba Masters losing to Triveni Continental Kings.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave launched an aggressive attack on the kingside with 23.g6 Bf6. White needed to follow through with 24.h6. Instead, 24.gxf7+? Rxf7 turned things in Black's favour.

The French Defence - Structures, Tactics and plans Vol.1 & 2

This video course is aimed as a tactical guide for Black, featuring the most typical combinations for the French structures.

Firouzja made a beautiful finish: 39...Nxa3 40.Qf3 b4 41.Rd2 Nc2+ 42.Rxc2 Bxc2 and Black won as ...Qa5 checkmate was inevitable.

The faster it gets, my chances improve - Firouzja after beating Carlsen, Vishy, Hikaru and MVL | Video: ChessBase India

Alireza Firouzja defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave twice in a row

Although the double rook on the second rank might look scary, it actually is not. Vidit kept pressing throughout the game. 40.h3 f5 41.Rd6+ Kg7?? 42.Rc1+ and the rooks weaved a mating net on the back ranks, from where the black king had no escape.

Vidit Gujrathi scored his first win of the event against Wei Yi, who seemed to be hitting his form in the past couple of games

GM Harika Dronavalli scored the only win for her team against GM Valentina Gunina

upGrad Mumba Masters - Triveni Continental Kings: 0-3 (8-10) | Photo: Official site

Replay uMM - TCK games

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

The first result was a draw between Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri. The latter made a nice queen sacrifice, which made things difficult for the world no. 1 to push for a win. The next result was a draw between R Praggnanandhaa and Nodirbek Abusattorov. GM Kateryna Lagno scored the first win of the match against IM Alina Kashlinskaya. Yifan won the next game over Zhongyi and cost PBG their first loss.

Magnus decided to sacrifice an exchange with 24.bxc3 to ensure he does not allow Black to get rid of the isolated d5-pawn. 24...Bg6 25.Nf4 Bxd3 26.Qxd3 Rc8

Anish Giri decided to sacrifice his queen: 36...Qe5 37.Bxf7 Rxf7 38.Ng6+ Kg8 39.Nxe5 Rxe5 40.Qd1 Rxf2+ 41.Kh3 Kh7. Eventually White had one single opportunity to win the game, but it is not easy to find or even execute it. Thus, the game ended in a draw, as Giri built a fortress with his rook and bishop.

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.

Anish Giri made Magnus Carlsen a believer in fortress, at least for this game

The Women's World Championship Challenger made a big mistake with 18...Bc5??. Her opponent, the World no.1 woman, Yifan Hou had no trouble seizing her opportunity: 19.Be5 Nh7 20.Nxd5 f6 21.Bc7 Qc8 22.Nb3 and White went on to win the game.

Yifan Hou won the all-China battle against Zhongyi Tan

Nihal Sarin managed to beat Daniel Dardha within the allotted time and clean too

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

Replay PBGAK - ASGP games

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

The first result was a draw between GM R Vaishali and IM Bibisara Assaubayeva. The Icon board between Vishy Anand and Hikaru Nakamura ended in a draw. Volodar Murzin scored the first win for his team, Ganges Grandmasters, against Jonas Buhl Bjerre. Parham Maghsoodloo drew with Yangyi Yu. Arjun Erigaisi missed a win against Jan-Krzysztof Duda. IM Nurgyul Salimova beat GM Elisabeth Paehtz to win the match.

Vishy Anand and Hikaru Nakamura had a well contested draw

36...Rec7?? created a winning chance for Arjun. He correctly spotted 37.Qh8+ Ke7 38.Rf4 Rc4 39.Rf6 Qb1+ 40.Kg2 Qe1 41.Qg8!!, a fantastic move sacrificing his rook, as there is a checkmate threat. 41...Qxe5 42.Rxf7+ Kd6 43.Qd8+ Kc6 44.Qa8+ Kd6 45.Rxc7 Kxc7 White lost his advantage soon and the game petered out to a draw. Instead, 44.Qb8 would have ensured White's victory soon.

Arjun Erigaisi was on the verge of his first win of the event against Jan-Krzysztof Duda

IM Nurgyul Salimova once again scored a crucial win to ensure her team's second match victory of the event

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!

GM Volodar Murzin mentioned while accepting the 'Player of the Match' award that 10.Nb5! was indeed part of his preparation. He got a decisive advantage in the first ten moves and managed to win the game. This win set the tone for the team to win the match.

GM Volodar Murzin scored his first win of the event, and it was well appreciated by all

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

Replay GG - AG games

Interview with Anish Giri and Vidit Gujrathi - the birthday celebration of the captain of the Triveni Continental Kings, GM Loek van Wely (NED), will be published soon.

upGrad Mumba Masters - Triveni Continental Kings | Video: ChessBase India

Magnus Carlsen smiles as Anish Giri declines the draw offer | Video: ChessBase India

Standings after Day 5

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.

PBG Alaskan Knights suffered their first match loss, but are still in the sole lead | Photo: Official site

Day 6 matches

Match #19: Alpine SG Pipers vs upGrad Mumba Masters from 1 p.m. local time

Match #20: Triveni Continental Kings vs American Gambits from 3:30 p.m. local time

Match #21: PBG Alaskan Knights vs Ganges Grandmasters 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