GCL | Carlsen outwits Giri, but Knights rule

“Magnus, Magnus,” they screamed. “Giri, Giri,” shouted the rest.

It wasn’t the most usual of sights you would see ahead of a game of chess. Normally there would be pin-drop silence. But, the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League is not the usual chess tournament.

The crowd at Friends Hall was excited as Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri, two of the most popular stars in chess, walked to take their seats for the Icon board clash in the match between Alpine SG Pipers and PBG Alaskan Knights. There was an anti-climactic end to the game, though, as Giri blundered a piece and Carlsen won in just 22 moves.

Giri’s teammates, however, rose to the occasion again. Nodirbek Abdusattorov defeated R. Praggnanandhaa and Tan Zhongyi beat Hou Yifan in a contest between two former World champions from China.

The game between Nihal Sarin and Daniel Dardha produced drama, and controversy, too. Nihal was clearly winning, but he had much less time. He claimed a draw, which was allowed. That meant Knights won 9-7, their fifth victory in as many matches. SG Pipers lodged an appeal, a decision on which hadn’t been taken at the time of filing this report.

Knights, with 15 match points, retained their lead at the halfway mark.

The results: American Gambits bt Ganges Grandmasters 10-4 (Hikaru Nakamura bt Viswanathan Anand; Jan-Krzysztof Duda drew with Arjun Erigaisi; Yu Yangyi drew with Parham Maghsoodloo; Bibisara Assaubayeva drew with R. Vaishali; Elisabeth Paehtz bt Nurgyul Salimova; Jonas Buhl Bjerr drew with Volodar Murzin).

Alpine SG Pipers lost to PBG Alaskan Knights 7-9 (Magnus Carlsen bt Anish Giri; R. Praggnanandhaa lost to Nodirbek Abdusattorov; Richard Rapport drew with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov; Hou Yifan lost to Tan Zhongyi; Kateryna Lagno drew with Alina Kashlinskaya; Daniel Dardha drew with Nihal Sarin).

Triveni Continental Kings bt Upgrad Mumba Masters 12-3 (Firouzja Alireza bt Maxime Vachier-Lagrave; Wei Yi bt Vidit Gujrathi; Teimour Radjabov drew with Peter Svidler; Alexandra Kosteniuk drew with Koneru Humpy; Valentina Gunina bt D. Harika; Javokhir Sindarov drew with Raunak Sadhwani)

SG Pipers bt Gambits 9-7 (Carlsen drew with Nakamura; Pragganandhaa drew with Duda; Rapport drew with Yu; Hou bt Assaubayeva; Lagno lost to Paehtz; Dardha bt Bjerre).

(The correspondent is in London at the invitation of Tech Mahindra)

Published - October 07, 2024 12:30 am IST