GM Hikaru Nakamura‘s Fyers American Gambits beating GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave‘s upGrad Mumba Masters 16-1 was the standout result of day seven of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League 2025. That meant the Mumba Masters failed to catch the leaders, GM Alireza Firouzja‘s Triveni Continental Kings, who later went on to open up a six-point lead with a narrow victory over the Gambits.
Day eight starts on Sunday, December 21, at 5:00 a.m. ET / 11:00 CET / 3:30 p.m. IST.
Triveni Continental Kings have all but secured their spot in the Final after opening up a six-point lead, while the battle for second place includes all the remaining teams. Note that the upGrad Mumba Masters and Alpine SG Pipers have both played one match fewer than the rest.
Fyers American Gambits 16-1 upGrad Mumba Masters
Going into this match the question was whether the upGrad Mumba Masters would score their fifth win to rejoin the leaders, but instead they were put to the sword with the most crushing win of the tournament so far—only GM Bardiya Daneshvar managed to stave off defeat.
The massacre began with IM Teodora Injac delivering checkmate against GM Harika Dronavalli and was perhaps summed up by GM Wesley So suffering his first defeat against GM Vladislav Artemiev, who picked up his first win—and in the notoriously drawish Berlin Endgame.
Elsewhere GM Bibisara Assaubayeva pounced on a mistake by GM Koneru Humpy, GM Richard Rapport stylishly outplayed GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, and Nakamura swatted away attempts at counterplay to beat his first French opponent of the day, Vachier-Lagrave.
Once again Nakamura recapped the day’s action.
The day’s remaining three matches were all balanced on a knife-edge.
Ganges Grandmasters 10-9 Alpine SG Pipers
This match began with a surprise as GM Fabiano Caruana played 3…f5!?, the Janisch Gambit, against GM Viswanathan Anand‘s Ruy Lopez.
That had undoubted surprise value, but Anand handled all Caruana threw at him to score the only draw of the match. He also handled the crowd after the match!
Vishy Anand: “Sagar is always in front of me. Maybe I should just teach him my signature!” #TechMGCL #MegaMove pic.twitter.com/61IEuYecAk
— chess24 (@chess24com) December 20, 2025
It was a lively match with IM Stavroula Tsolakidou opening the scoring by delivering checkmate and inflicting the first loss of the event on GM Nino Batsiashvili. That was more than cancelled out by GM Hou Yifan‘s win over IM Polina Shuvalova, while GM Leon Luke Mendonca also scored a four-point win on the prodigy board. When GM Vincent Keymer spotted a tactic to beat GM Anish Giri it meant everything came down to the thriller that was GM Javokhir Sindarov vs. GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu.
The game was very far from flawless, but Sindarov ultimately deserved the glory of a match-winning performance after choosing to play on despite having missed a win and ended up somewhat worse if he didn’t take the repetition. Instead he went on to clinch victory.
Javokhir Sindarov “should” have taken a draw by repetition but his gamble paid off as he went on to beat Praggnanandhaa and give his team the narrowest of victories! https://t.co/Bv4mODXLXQ#TechMGCL #MegaMove pic.twitter.com/pek1YNnJws
— chess24 (@chess24com) December 20, 2025
The next match was vastly less dramatic, but also came down to the finest of margins.
Fyers American Gambits 7-8 Triveni Continental Kings
Nakamura’s second game of the day was a very quiet draw against Firouzja, the Frenchman’s first draw of the event. The next few boards took their cue from that game and also made relatively uneventful draws, so that everything came down to the bottom boards.
The win for Injac against GM Alexandra Kosteniuk came down to a single mistake, 27…c5??, and seemed set to clinch a second win of the day for the Gambits.
It wasn’t over, however, as on the prodigy board GM Marc’Andria Maurizzi managed to use his bishop pair to win a very drawish endgame and, since he won with the black pieces, he gave victory to his team—and a six-point lead over the field.
A huge win on demand for Marc’Andria Maurizzi gives the Triveni Continental Kings a 6-point lead! https://t.co/sYCnX6qTOC#TechMGCL #MegaMove pic.twitter.com/I0mLIaNUAB
— chess24 (@chess24com) December 20, 2025
No wonder the whole team congratulated the 18-year-old Frenchman!
when chess becomes a team sport🥹 #TechMGCL #MegaMove pic.twitter.com/tYcZ70cpoN
— Chess.com (@chesscom) December 20, 2025
That meant the American Gambits failed to win their second match of the day, and it would be the same for the Ganges Grandmasters in the final clash of the day.
PBG Alaskan Knights 9-7 Ganges Grandmasters
This encounter was decided by wins for IM Sara Khadem and Arjun, with the Indian winning a brilliant clash against Keymer.
That’s our Game of the Day, which GM Rafael Leitao has analyzed below.
In the end that meant it didn’t matter that GM Gukesh Dommaraju couldn’t quite exact revenge for losing to Anand in the first half of the event.
Gukesh called it “a lot of fun to play this game” and said of his team’s performance: “We were initially struggling but then we came back and we’re having a good time now.”
Hear it from the Champ himself.
Catch all the action live at 3:30 PM only on @JioHotstar and @StarSportsIndia.
Get your tickets on @district_india app.@DGukesh, @balanalaskank, @ChessbaseIndia, @chesscom_in, @chesscom
[TechMGCL, MegaMove, GlobalChessLeague, Season3] pic.twitter.com/cTNVh5wGmS
— Tech Mahindra Global Chess League (@GCLlive) December 20, 2025
The Alaskan Knights are still last, but they’re tied with two teams and only three points away from a spot in the Final, so that everything remains up for grabs in Mumbai with two days of the round-robin to go.
The Tech Mahindra Global Chess League 2025 consists of a six-team double round-robin group stage and a final contested by the top two teams. In each match, all members of a team play with the same color, with four points for a win with Black and three for a win with White. All games have a 20-minute time control, with a two-second increment from move 41.
Previous coverage:
