Kings lead, Knights score 1st win @ GCL Mumbai
Riding on GM Alireza Firouzja’s 5/5, defending champions Triveni Continental Kings defeated upGrad Mumba Masters in a clash of leaders after the fifth round of the $ 1 million Global Chess League, a joint initiative of Indian giant Tech Mahindra and FIDE, at the Royal Opera House, Mumbai. In the second spot with 9 match points are Ganges Grandmasters and upGrad Mumba Masters.
In the three featured matches for the day, PBG Alaskan Knights secured their first win of the event convincingly defeating Alpine SG Pipers 12-8, while joint leaders upGrad Mumba Masters went down to Triveni Continental Kings 5-9, while FYERS American Gambits went down to Ganges Grandmasters in the last match of the evening.
A dream 5/5 start by GM Alireza Firouzja carried Triveni Continental Kings across the line against joint leaders upGrad Mumba Masters at the half way mark. It turned out to be truly one-man show today as Firouzja defeated fellow French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and rest of his team-mates drew giving Kings a crucial 9-5 win over Mumba Masters and a head start sole lead with five rounds remaining.
After four successive defeats, PBG Alaskan Knights turned it around against Alpine SG Pipers, thanks to the wins on the top four boards from GMs Gukesh, Erigaisi, Dominguez and Lagno.
It seemed like the light at the end of the tunnel for Knights as World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju delivered the first blow defeating US Champion Fabiano Caruana. Fellow Indian GM Erigaisi Arjun followed suit with a brilliant win over Dutch GM Anish Giri. Wins by GMs Dominguez and Lagno in the third and fourth boards sealed the match in favor of Knights. The first win coming right at the half way mark should spur PBG Alaskan Knights to greeter glory in the rounds to come.
In the final match of the day Vishy Anand led Ganges Grandmasters defeated FYERS American Gambits. In the icon board GM Hikaru Nakamura could get no more than a draw against Indian icon former world champion Viswanathan Anand. World Cup winner Javokhir Sindarov’s win with black pieces against GM Richard Rapport paved the way for a narrow win for team Ganges. Gambits women star GM Assaubayeva’s defeat of Ganges IM Shuvalova only helped reduce the margin.
A novel points scoring system is used here, one that gives four game points for a win with Black and three game points for a win with White, which makes draws (1 game point) not that lucrative. The playing format remained unchanged, comprising six players in each team including two women and a junior player. Like the previous edition, the time control remains 20 minutes per player per game, but this time there is now an increment of two seconds per move after move 41.
This mega & colorful event that has assembled the cream of all the top players in the world, runs from 14th to 23rd December, 2025. Global Chess League (GCL), a joint initiative of Tech Mahindra and FIDE (International Chess Federation) is into its third successful edition having started off in Dubai 2023 followed by London 2024.
Round 6 starts on Friday, 19th December, by 6:30 AM ET / 12:30 PM CET / 5 PM IST.
Results (Round 5): PBG Alaskan Knights beat Alpine SG Pipers 12-8 (Gukesh beat Caruana, Erigaisi beat Giri, Dominguez beat Pragg, Lagno beat Hou Yifan, Sarasadat lost to Batsiashvili, Dardha lost to Mendonca), upGrad Mumba Masters lost to Triveni Continental Kings 5-9 (MVL lost to Firouzja, Wesley So drew with Wei Yi, Mamedyarov drew with Vidit, Humpy drew with Zhu Jiner, Harika drew with Kosteniuk, Bardiya drew with Maurizzi), FYERS American Gambits lost to Ganges Grandmasters 7-8 (Hikaru drew with Vishy, Artemiev drew with Keymer, Rapport lost to Sindarov, Assaubayeva beat Shuvalova, Teodora drew with Tsolakidou, Murzin drew with Sadhwani).
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2730) – Alireza Firouzja (2754) 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 e6 7. Be3 Qc7 8. a4 Be7 9. O-O Nc6 10. Nb3 b6 11. f4 O-O 12. Bf3 Rb8 13. g4 Na5 14. g5 Nd7 15. Nd2 b5 16. axb5 axb5 17. Be2 b4 18. Nb5 Qd8 19. Nf3 Nc5 20. e5 d5 21. Nbd4 Bd7 22. b3 Nab7 23. Nd2 Ra8 24. Bf3 Rxa1 25. Qxa1 Na5 26. h4 Nc6 27. Kg2 Qc7 28. Ne2 Na7 29. c3 Nb5 30. cxb4 Nd3 31. Qb1 Nxb4 32. Rc1 Qb8 33. Nd4 Rc8 34. Nf1 Nxd4 35. Bxd4 Bb5 36. Rxc8+ Qxc8 37. Ne3 Nd3 38. f5 Bc5 39. Qa1 Bb4 40. Bg4 Nf4+ 41. Kf2 Bd7 42. fxe6 fxe6 43. Kg3 Nd3 44. Qf1 Nc5 45. h5 Ne4+ 46. Kg2 Nxg5 47. h6 gxh6 48. Qf6 Bf8 49. Nxd5 Bc6 50. Bf3 Bxd5 51. Bxd5 exd5 52. e6
52…Qxe6 0-1
Gukesh Dommaraju (2692) – Fabiano Caruana (2751) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d3 Be7 5. Nbd2 O-O 6. a4 d6 7. O-O a5 8. c3 Be6 9. Re1 Bxc4 10. Nxc4 h6 11. Bd2 Re8 12. b4 Bf8 13. b5 Nb8 14. Qc2 Nbd7 15. d4 b6 16. Rad1 Qc8 17. Bc1 g6 18. Bb2 Bg7 19. dxe5 dxe5 20. Ba3 Bf8 21. Bxf8 Kxf8 22. Ne3 Kg7 23. Nd5 c6 24. bxc6 Qxc6 25. c4 Re6 26. Qb2 Rae8 27. h3 Nh7 28. Rb1 Nc5 29. Qa1 Nd7 30. Rb5 Nhf6 31. Nd2 Rb8 32. f4 Kh7 33. Rf1 exf4 34. Rxf4 Rf8 35. Nf3 Nh5 36. Nd4 Qd6 37. Nxe6 Qxe6 38. Rg4 Ne5 39. Nc7 Qe7
40. Qxe5 1-0
Erigaisi Arjun (2714) – Anish Giri (2685) 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 c6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 Be7 7. e3 O-O 8. Qc2 Nbd7 9. g4 Nxg4 10. Bg3 dxc4 11. Rg1 Ngf6 12. O-O-O Nd5 13. Bxc4 b5 14. Nxd5 cxd5 15. Bd3 Ba6 16. Kb1 Rc8 17. Qe2 Kh8 18. Ne5 Nf6 19. Bf4 Qe8 20. Qf3 Rg8 21. Bxh6 gxh6 22. Qf4 Rg5 23. Rxg5 hxg5 24. Qxg5 Nh7
25. Qh5 1-0
Photo Courtesy: Tech Mahindra Global Chess League
Official Site: https://globalchessleague.com/
