The Alaskan Knights extend their lead

The sixth day was a day of firsts at the Global Chess League in London: Alireza Firouzja suffered his first loss, while R Praggnanandhaa and Anish Giri picked up their first wins of the event. All three matches had the exact same score of 5-14.

Alpine SG Pipers - upGrad Mumba Masters: 0-3 (5-14)

The first result was a draw between Humpy and Yifan. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated Magnus Carlsen for the second consecutive year at the Global Chess League. Peter Svidler and Raunak Sadhwani scored the crucial wins against Richard Rapport and Raunak Sadhwani to ensure upGrad Mumba Masters to beat Alpine SG Pipers. R Praggnanandhaa scored the sole win for his team, Alpine SG Pipers, as he defeated Vidit Gujrathi. It was also his first win of the tournament.

28.Ne2 started a nice sequence: 28...Re6 29.Nxf4 Rxe5 30.Nd3 Rd4 and now Magnus needed to capture the rook and bishop 31.Nxe5 Rxd2 32.Nxc6 when the game would have ended in a draw. Instead, he blundered with 31.Rc2 and missed that there is a ...Re6 retreat which saves both the rook and the 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.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave beat Magnus Carsen for the second consecutive year at the Global Chess League | Video: ChessBase India

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave made a strong comeback after losing to Alireza Firouzja twice in consecutive days

Magnus Carlsen made a little kid's day after the kid walked to the front row of the audience and stretched his arm, hoping to tag the world no.1.

Vidit Gujrathi needed to trade the queens first before recapturing the knight. 24...Qxc6? allowed White to do a double attack 25.Qd4 Rf7 26.Qa7 Rd8? 27.a5 and White won the game in the next few moves.

Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu scored his first win of the event while facing his Olympiad teammate Vidit Gujrathi

Richard Rapport suffered his first loss of the event, against Peter Svidler

Raunak Sadhwani avenged his previous loss against Daniel Dardha

Alpine SG Pipers - upGrad Mumba Masters: 0-3 (5-14) | Photo: Official site

Replay ASGP - uMM games

Triveni Continental Kings - American Gambits: 0-3 (5-14)

GM Elisabeth Paehtz scored the first win for American Gambits against GM Valentina Gunina. Alireza Firouzja suffered a shocking loss as he made a one-move blunder against Hikaru Nakamura. Wei Yi drew with Duda. Radjabov drew with Yangyi.

The only thing White should not do in the above position is trade rooks. That is exactly what Firouzja did: 68.Rc5?? Rxc5+ and White resigned after 69.Kxc5 Ke5 since Black wins the pawn endgame after capturing both f3 and g4, and the g5-pawn becomes unstoppable.

Attacking with the Jobava London System

The Jobava London System is a minor form of the London System. White tries to play Lf4 quickly followed by Nc3.

I was actually very disappointed seeing Magnus talk about this topic - Hikaru Nakamura

Elisabeth Paehtz set the tone for the match by scoring the first win for her team, the American Gambits (led by Hikaru Nakamura)

IM Bibisara Assaubayeva defeated the former Women's World Champion, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk

Triveni Continental Kings - American Gambits: 0-3 (5-14) | Photo: Official site

Replay TCK - AG games

Ganges Grandmasters - PBG Alaskan Knights: 0-3 (5-14)

Parham Maghsoodloo scored the first win of the match against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Anish Giri scored a huge win against Vishy Anand on the 'Icon' board. IM Alina Kashlinskaya and GM Nihal Sarin also scored crucial victories, over IM Nurgyul Salimova and GM Volodar Murzin respectively.

Giri played a nice move which is thematic to this opening: 38...e4! He vacated the e5-square for the knight, and also sacrificed the e4-pawn for c3. 39.Qxe4 Rxc3 40.Kg2 Rxc2 41.Rxc2 Ne5 and soon White lost an exchange - and eventually the game.

Anish Giri scored his first win of the event against the maestro Vishy Anand in a beautiful way | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Arjun Erigaisi survived a tough endgame to draw his encounter against Nodirbek Abdusattorov | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

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.

Parham Maghsoodloo made a short work of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in 25 moves | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

GM R Vaishali drew a back and forth battle which could have gone either player's way, against the Women's World Championship Challenger, GM Zhongyi Tan | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

IM Alina Kashlinskaya bounced back with a win after suffering her first loss of the event in the previous match | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Nihal Sarin is always alert. He does not miss the tactical chances: 30...Nxd4! 31.Nxa6+ Bxa6 32.cxd4 Rc8 33.Qe3 Bd3 34.Nb3 Rc3 35.Rc1 Rxb3!. One more tactical shot and Black won the game in the next few moves.

I hijacked Nihal's interview - Anish Giri

GM Nihal Sarin scored his fifth win of the event | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Ganges Grandmasters - PBG Alaskan Knights: 0-3 (5-14) | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy, Graphic: PBG Alaskan Knights

Replay GG - PBG AK games

Three amazing positions from the Global Chess League 2024 | Video: ChessBase India

From Cricket, Kabaddi To Chess - The Inspiring Story of Suhail Chandhok | Video: ChessBase India

This little tech Innovation at the Global Chess League 2024 is amazing! | Video: ChessBase India

Hikaru Nakamura Reacts To Sagar Shah's Commentary | Video: ChessBase India

Chief arbiter - IA Stephane Escafre on Nihal Dardha incident, pieces falling, draw claim and more | Video: ChessBase India

Standings after Day 6

Master advanced Tactics and Calculations like a super Grandmaster

The Indian chess grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi with an ELO of over 2700 (June 2023) is one of the best 20 players in the world. For the first time, the sympathetic top player presents himself in a video course. Let a world-class player show you tactical moti

PBG Alaskan Knights bounce back and stretch their lead again | Photo: Official site

Day 7 matches

PBG Alaskan Knights vs upGrad Mumba Masters from 1 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST.

Ganges Grandmasters vs Triveni Continental Kings from 3:30 p.m. local time, 8:45 p.m. IST.

American Gambits vs Alpine SG Pipers from 5 p.m. local time, 9:30 p.m. IST.

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