Carlsen vs Nepo in GCL final, Alpine APL Pipers face Ganges Grandmasters

Bengaluru: It’s going to be Magnus Carlsen vs Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League as the Alpine APL Pipers take on the Ganges Grandmasters in the battle for the top prize on Sunday.

The third-place match will have World Championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov’s Fyers American Gambits playing CheQ Mumbai Masters.

An unbeaten Carlsen lost for the first time in the tournament on Saturday to Alireza Firouzja of the Triveni Continental Kings, who had been on a winless run. “I think it was a very sharp game,” Firouzja said, “I didn’t play a bad game. I put pressure on him and then we went to time trouble.”

Nihal Sarin, who is turning out for the Fyers American Gambits, lost on time to fellow Indian Pranesh, snuffing out the team’s hopes of making the final. In a re-match of Saturday, they will again take on CheQ Mumbai Masters for the third place.

Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand-led PBG Alaskan Knights had a shot at third place, and though they defeated the Ganges Grandmasters 9-7, it wasn’t enough to see them through. With the tournament rules awarding four points for a win with Black, as opposed to three for White, Knights’ two wins with White fell short.

The match itself though wasn’t short of drama.

Leinier Dominguez of Ganges Grandmasters shook his head. He was down to his dying seconds. His opponent 15-year-old Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus was locked in, in bullet zone. With the clock ticking down and with no increment to lean on, the American grandmaster ended up sending his pieces flying in an attempt to make his move in time. He couldn’t complete his move and the teen walked away with a win for himself and his team.

The other decisive game in the match had Abhimanyu Mishra, who described his win as “karma” for his heartbreaking loss against Leon Mendonca, in their previous face-off, defeating Luke Mendonca. In their earlier game, Mendonca had won a dead lost game then after Mishra failed to complete a move on time. Mendonca had stopped the clock, called for the arbiter and Mishra had to redo the move with just one second on the clock. He failed and lost the game.

“They bring so much energy and they also have such an insane style,” Anand said about his young teammates, Mishra and Erdogmus. “Both of them like to live on the edge and I’ll probably need some time to understand what they’re doing. It’ll take some processing.”