No drawn matches in Mumbai
For a fourth consecutive day, all three matches at the Global Chess League in Mumbai ended decisively, with Triveni Continental Kings and upGrad Mumba Masters both recording victories to return to the top of the standings. After suffering defeats on Tuesday, the two teams had been joined at the summit by other contenders, but their wins on Wednesday left them once again as the only joint leaders of the event.
Defending champions Continental Kings were led once more by Alireza Firouzja, who continued his outstanding form by defeating Viswanathan Anand with the white pieces to claim his fourth win in as many rounds. Anand had come into the match after beating Gukesh Dommaraju the previous day. Further victories by Wei Yi and Alexandra Kosteniuk secured an 11–6 win over Ganges Grandmasters, whose sole success came on board three, where Javokhir Sindarov overcame Vidit Gujrathi in a wild, time-trouble-fuelled game.
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The Mumba Masters produced the most lopsided result of the tournament so far, crushing PBG Alaskan Knights by 18–2. Playing with the black pieces on all six boards, the Mumba team saw Wesley So, Humpy Koneru, Harika Dronavalli and Bardiya Daneshvar all score victories. Both So and Koneru were required to recover from difficult positions against Arjun Erigaisi and Kateryna Lagno, respectively, before converting their games.
In the remaining match, Alpine SG Pipers defeated Fyers American Gambits by 10–4. The four top-board games all ended in draws, leaving wins by Nino Batsiashvili and Leon Luke Mendonca on the lower boards to decide the outcome. The American Gambits, who had beaten the Continental Kings in the previous round, dropped back after the loss and now form part of a group of three teams on 6 match points, trailing the co-leaders by 3 points.
Match #10: Pipers 10–4 Fyers American Gambits
| Alpine SG Pipers | Rtg | – | Fyers American Gambits | Rtg | 10 – 4 |
| Caruana, Fabiano | 2751 | – | Nakamura, Hikaru | 2732 | 1 – 1 |
| Giri, Anish | 2685 | – | Artemiev, Vladislav | 2727 | 1 – 1 |
| Praggnanandhaa, R | 2663 | – | Rapport, Richard | 2702 | 1 – 1 |
| Hou, Yifan | 2536 | – | Assaubayeva, Bibisara | 2461 | 1 – 1 |
| Batsiashvili, Nino | 2346 | – | Injac, Teodora | 2360 | 3 – 0 |
| Mendonca, Leon Luke | 2498 | – | Murzin, Volodar | 2642 | 3 – 0 |
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Leon Luke Mendonca | Photo: Official website
The draws on the top three boards of this matchup featured balanced, well-played struggles, with the remaining three games more than compensating in terms of entertainment value.
While Hou Yifan failed to make the most of a blunder by Bibisara Assaubayeva and ended up drawing her game, her teammates Nino Batsiashvili and Leon Luke Mendonca both came out on top following mutual missed chances in complex endgames.
Match #11: Alaskan Knights 2–18 Mumba Masters
| PBG Alaskan Knights | Rtg | – | Upgrad Mumba Masters | Rtg | 2 – 18 |
| Gukesh, D | 2692 | – | Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime | 2730 | 1 – 1 |
| Erigaisi, Arjun | 2714 | – | So, Wesley | 2702 | 0 – 4 |
| Dominguez Perez, Leinier | 2703 | – | Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar | 2707 | 1 – 1 |
| Lagno, Kateryna | 2452 | – | Koneru, Humpy | 2448 | 0 – 4 |
| Khademalsharieh, Sarasadat | 2356 | – | Dronavalli, Harika | 2435 | 0 – 4 |
| Dardha, Daniel | 2592 | – | Daneshvar, Bardiya | 2498 | 0 – 4 |
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Wesley So got the better of Arjun Erigaisi | Photo: Official website
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave safely held a draw with black against world champion Gukesh Dommaraju on the top board – this was the first non-decisive game of the Frenchman.
Out of the four decisive games favouring the Mumba Masters, two could have gone the opposite way, with Arjun Erigaisi and Kateryna Lagno both failing to make the most of superior middlegame positions against Wesley So and Humpy Koneru, respectively.
Match #12: Continental Kings 11–6 Ganges GMs
| Triveni Continental Kings | Rtg | – | Ganges Grandmasters | Rtg | 11 – 6 |
| Firouzja, Alireza | 2754 | – | Anand, Viswanathan | 2727 | 3 – 0 |
| Wei, Yi | 2751 | – | Keymer, Vincent | 2640 | 3 – 0 |
| Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi | 2650 | – | Sindarov, Javokhir | 2704 | 0 – 4 |
| Zhu, Jiner | 2435 | – | Shuvalova, Polina | 2360 | 1 – 1 |
| Kosteniuk, Alexandra | 2450 | – | Tsolakidou, Stavroula | 2358 | 3 – 0 |
| Maurizzi, Marc’Andria | 2506 | – | Sadhwani, Raunak | 2611 | 1 – 1 |
Zhu Jiner was the first player not to lose against Polina Shuvalova at the team competition in Mumbai | Photo: Official website
Alireza Firouzja correctly gave up his queen for a rook and a knight to outplay Vishy Anand on the top board, while Wei Yi needed 34 moves to convincingly take down Vincent Keymer’s Caro-Kann Defence.
Joining the two winners on the top boards was Alexandra Kosteniuk, who beat Stavroula Tsolakidou in what was her second consecutive win in Mumbai.
Vidit Gujrathi was inches away from scoring a fourth win for the defending champions, but he incredibly failed to find a mate-in-two sequence while both he and his opponent, Javokhir Sindarov, were mostly “living on increments”
Black’s 52…Qe4?? allowed 53.Rf7+ Ke8 54.Qf8# checkmate – but Vidit failed to find this basic idea and played 53.Qh5?? instead.
Following Vidit’s missed chance, the position with four pawns for a bishop is dynamically balanced, but the Indian grandmaster again faltered in the very last stage of the game. He had simplified into a rook and bishop v. rook endgame, but a mistake on move 70 prevented him from escaping with a draw in the pure technical setup.
