GCL 2026: Magnus Carlsen’s Pipers enter final, with help from Mumba Masters

File - Magnus Carlsen in action during the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season 4. | Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN

Alpine APL Pipers owes it to Cheq Mumba Masters.

The only way for Magnus Carlsen’s team – after the 6-11 loss to Triveni Continental Kings in the day’s first match – to make it to the final of the Global Chess League was a victory for the Masters in the last league match, against Fyers American Gambits. And they obliged.

The Masters won an edge-of-the-seat thriller 11-6, but it easily could have gone the other way around, and the American Gambits would have been in Sunday’s final. Nihal Sarin was in a winning position against M. Pranesh, but the Kerala Grandmaster blundered under severe time pressure, and then he went on to lose on time. The Gambits’ biggest star, Javokhir Sindarov, did his bit, beating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on the Icon board, but that wasn’t going to be enough.

So, the Pipers will take on Ganges Grandmasters in the match for the top prize in Season Four of the GCL at the Lalit Ashok. The Grandmasters also tasted defeat in their last league match, going down 9-7 to PBG Alaskan Knights. But their superior games points ensured their ticket for the final.

At the end of the double round robin league, the Grandmasters and the Pipers finished with 18 points. The Grandmasters topped the table by virtue of higher game points, 95 against the Pipers’ 88.

The American Gambits and the Mumba Masters scored 15 points each and will contest the playoff for the third place. Two-time champion Continental Kings and PBG Alaskan Knights ended with 12 points apiece and finished at the bottom.

The results:

Alpine APL Pipers lost to Triveni Continental Kings 6-11 (Magnus Carlsen lost to Alireza Firouzja; Anish Giri drew with Wei Yi; Vidit Gujrathi lost to Aravindh Chithambaram; Divya Deshmukh drew with Zhu Jiner; Koneru Humpy drew with Alexandra Kosteniuk; Volodar Murzin bt V. Pranav).

PBG Alaskan Knights bt Ganges Grandmasters 9-7 (Viswanathan Anand drew with Ian Nepomniachtchi; Arjun Erigaisi drew with Levon Aronian; Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus drew with Leinier Dominguez Perez; Kateryna Lagno drew with Polina Shuvalova; Nino Batsiashvili lost to Stavroula Tsolakidou; Abhimanyu Mishra bt Leon Mendonca).

Cheq Mumba Masters bt Fyers American Gambits 11-6 (Maxime Vachier-Lagrave lost to Javokhir Sindarov; M. Pranesh bt Nihal Sarin; Shakhriyar Mamedyarov drew with Daniil Dubov; D. Harika drew with Bibisara Assaubayeva; Carissa Yip bt Sarasadat Khademalsharieh; Bardiya Daneshvar bt MarcAndria Maurizzi).