Pipers face Kings in GCL Mumbai finals
Alpine SG Pipers qualified for the final against Triveni Continental Kings despite losing their final league match 6-11 against PBG Alaskan Knights on day 9 of the $ 1 million Global Chess League, a joint initiative of Tech Mahindra and FIDE, at the Royal Opera House, Mumbai. Indian icon Vishy Anand led Ganges Grandmasters who narrowly missed out qualifying for the finals would now fight it out with PBG Alaskan Knights for the third place.
The 3rd season of the GCL got truly exciting as Pipers began their final match needing to defeat Knights or score at least 6 game points to confirm their place in the finals. World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju and fellow Indian GM Erigaisi Arjun gave Knights a flying start defeating Super GMs Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri respectively. Into the closing stages, the Pipers trailed Knights 5-10, and all stakes hinged on the final prodigy game between GMs Leon Luke Mendonca and Daniel Dardha. The Indian Grandmaster gladdened the hearts of his team-mates holding Dardha to a draw in a tricky ending, thus taking Pipers into the finals, with a better tie-break score.
In other matches of the day, Ganges Grandmasters came back strongly defeating FYERS American Gambits by a 12-3 score, while Triveni Continental Kings overcame upGrad Mumba Masters by a narrow 10-9 margin. Former World Champion Vishy Anand held icon board star GM Hikaru Nakamura to a solid draw. But wins in the middle boards from GMs Vincent Keymer, Raunak Sadhwani and IM Stavroula Tsolakidou saw Ganges coasting to a win by a huge margin. The massive win raised hopes of an entry into the finals, but Alpine SG Pipers had the final say as they squeaked through (Pipers game points 84 to Ganges’ 83) by just one game point.
Two time champion Triveni Continental Kings wrapped up their final match accounting for upGrad Mumba Masters by a 10-9 score. Wins by Alireza Firouzja, Wei Yi and Zhu Jiner put the Kings on top while a draw by former women’s world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk sealed the match win taking them to an unassailable 10 match points. A late surge by Mumba Masters saw them reduce the deficit, going down by a 9-10 score.
A novel points scoring system is used here comes to an end with the league phase. The title and the 3rd place matches carries the traditional points structure, 1 for win and 1/2 for a draw. 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.
With speed time control ruling the roost, most of the games went up to the very last second, producing several exhilarating moments. 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 Indian giant Tech Mahindra and FIDE (International Chess Federation) is into its third successful edition having started off in Dubai 2023 followed by London 2024.
Day 10 starts on Tuesday, 23rd December, by 4:30 AM ET / 10.30 PM CET / 3 PM IST.
Final League Standings: 1. Triveni Continental Kings 24, 2-4. Alpine SG Pipers, Ganges Grandmasters, PBG Alaskan Knights 15, 5. upGrad Mumba Masters 12, 6. FYERS American Gambits 9 match points.
Results (Day 9): Ganges Grandmasters beat FYERS American Gambits 12-3 (Vishy drew with Hikaru, Keymer beat Artemiev, Sindarov drew with Rapport, Shuvalov drew with Assaubayeva, Tsolakidou beat Teodora, Sadhwani beat Murzin), Triveni Continental Kings beat upGrad Mumba Masters 10-9 (Firouzja beat MVL, Wei Yi beat Wesley So, Vidit lost to Mamedyarov, Zhu Jiner beat Humpy, Kosteniuk drew with Harika, Maurizzi lost to Bardiya), Alpine SG Pipers lost to PBG Alaskan Knights 6-11 (Caruana lost to Gukesh, Giri lost to Erigaisi, Pragg drew with Dominguez, Hou Yifan beat Lagno, Batsiashvili drew with Sarasadat, Mendonca drew with Dardha).
Fabiano Caruana (2751) – Gukesh Dommaraju (2692) 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. Bb5+ Nd7 4. O-O a6 5. Be2 Ngf6 6. d3 g6 7. c4 Bg7 8. Nc3 O-O 9. d4 cxd4 10. Nxd4 Ne5 11. Be3 Bd7 12. Rc1 Rc8 13. b3 Qa5 14. a4 Neg4 15. Bd2 Nxh2 16. Nd5 Qd8 17. Kxh2 Nxd5 18. cxd5 Bxd4 19. Rxc8 Qxc8 20. Bh6 Be5+ 21. f4 Bg7 22. Bxg7 Kxg7 23. Qd4+ Kg8 24. Bd3 Qc7 25. Rf2 Qc1 26. Qb4 Bg4 27. Qd2 Qc5 28. Bc4 b5 29. Bf1 Rc8 30. axb5 axb5 31. b4 Qb6 32. f5 f6 33. Bd3 Qd4 34. Bxb5 Qxe4 35. Bd7 Rc4 36. Qh6 Qe5+ 37. g3 Bxf5 38. Rxf5 Qe2+ 39. Kh3 Qg4+ 40. Kg2 Rc2+ 41. Rf2 Qe4+ 42. Kf1 Rc1+ 43. Qxc1 Qh1+ 44. Ke2 Qxc1 45. b5 Qc4+ 46. Ke1 Qxd5 47. Bc6 Qc5 48. Rd2 e6 49. Kd1 d5 50. Rb2 Qb6 51. Ra2 Kg7 52. Ra6 Qd4+ 53. Ke2 Qc4+ 54. Kf2 Kh6 55. Bd7 d4 56. Rxe6
56…d3 0-1
Leon Luke Mendonca (2498) – Daniel Dardha (2592) 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. g3 Bd6 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O Nc6 7. e3 b6 8. Nc3 Bb7 9. Nd2 Na5 10. cxd5 exd5 11. b3 c5 12. dxc5 Bxc5 13. Nf3 Nc6 14. Bb2 Rc8 15. Rc1 Ba6 16. Ne2 Nb4 17. a3 Nd3 18. Rc2 Ng4 19. Bd4 Ndxf2 20. Rxf2 Nxe3 21. Bxe3 Bxe3 22. Ned4 Qf6 23. Bf1 Bxf1 24. Kxf1 Rxc2 25. Nxc2 Bxf2 26. Kxf2 Qb2 27. Nd4 Rc8 28. a4 g6 29. Qd2 h5 30. Kg2 Qb1 31. Qe2 Qc1 32. Ne1 Qg5 33. Nd3 Qf6 34. Qf2 Kg7 35. Qxf6+ Kxf6 36. Kf3 a5 37. h4 Ke7 38. Ke3 Rc3 39. Kd2 Rc8 40. Ke3 Rc3 41. Kd2 Rc8 42. Ke3
42…f6 1/2-1/2
Photo Courtesy: Tech Mahindra Global Chess League
Official Site: https://globalchessleague.com/
