GCL 2026: Carlsen’s Pipers secure win over Gambits before Carlsen wins over crowd
File - Vidit Gujrathi said he was honoured by Magnus Carlsen’s gesture to hand over the Player-of-the-Match trophy to him. | Photo Credit: PTI
File - Vidit Gujrathi said he was honoured by Magnus Carlsen’s gesture to hand over the Player-of-the-Match trophy to him. | Photo Credit: PTI
Magnus Carlsen showed his magnanimous side on Friday. The World No. 1 was presented with the Player-of-the-Match trophy after his team, Alpine APL Pipers, scored a crucial win against Fyers American Gambits at the Lalit Ashok.
He, however, handed over the trophy to his teammate Vidit Gujrathi, crediting the Grandmaster from Nashik for the 9-7 victory in the match between the two top teams at the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League.
Carlsen, who beat Javokhir Sindarov, the challenger for the upcoming World championship, said: “In my game, I was doing pretty well early on but Sindarov put up a good fight, but I was able to wriggle out and find the win. I will say though as much as I am happy with my win, I don’t deserve the award as much as the man who won us the match.”
That statement was greeted with loud applause by the excellent crowd. Vidit said he was honoured by Carlsen’s gesture.
The five-time World champion wasn’t the only one who was feeling generous on this day. Ganges Grandmasters’ Stavroula Tsolakidou was named the Player-of-the-Match for her win against Carissa Yip of Cheq Mumba Masters. She, however, presented the trophy to the team’s coach B. Adhiban.
The Grandmasters romped home 16-1, with five of the six players winning their games. Going into the final day of the league phase, they have 18 points, the same as the Pipers. But the Grandmasters have 88 points, six more than the Pipers.
The two franchises are inching closer to the final, with only the American Gambits, who are on 15 match points, having an outside chance, but it is not in their hands alone.
The results:
PBG Alaskan Knights lost to Triveni Continental Kings 7-13 (Viswanathan Anand drew with Alireza Firouzja; Arjun Erigaisi bt Wei Yi; Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus bt Aravindh Chithambaram; Kateryna Lagno lost to Zhu Jiner; Nino Batsiashvili lost to Alexandra Kosteniuk; Abhimanyu Mishra lost to V. Pranav).
Alpine APL Pipers bt Fyers American Gambits 9-7 (Magnus Carlsen bt Javokhir Sindarov; Anish Giri drew with Nihal Sarin; Vidit Gujrathi bt Daniil Dubov; Divya Deshmukh lost to Bibisara Assaubayeva; Koneru Humpy drew with Sarasadat Khademalsharieh; Volodar Murzin drew with MarcAndria Maurizzi).
Ganges Grandmasters bt Cheq Mumba Masters 16-1 (Ian Nepomniachtchi bt Maxime Vachier-Lagrave; Levon Aronian bt M. Pranesh; Leinier Dominguez bt Shakhriyar Mamedyarov; Polina Shuvalova drew with D. Harika; Stavroula Tsolakidou bt Carissa Yip; Leon Mendonca bt Bardiya Daneshvar).
Published on Sep 11, 2026
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