Ganges Grandmasters beat Alpine Pipers to win maiden GCL title

Magnus Carlsen erred. Ian Nepomniachtchi capitalised.

The Russian could not have timed his win against the Norwegian better. His victory with black pieces in the second match of the final against Carlsen led his team, Ganges Grandmasters, to its maiden title in the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League.

For Alpine APL Pipers, which had won the title last year in Mumbai without Carlsen, it was indeed a disappointing end to its campaign.

After the first match was drawn 3-3, the Pipers were looking well poised in the second match, with Carlsen, after playing superbly to create an excellent position to force a win against his former World championship rival, but on the 28th move, his unwise decision to capture a pawn with his queen allowed Nepomniachtchi to come back into the game.

Soon another weak move by Carlsen, with his king, made his position weaker.

Nepomniachtchi, on the other hand, found the right moves and forced the World No. 1 to resign after 39 moves; the black pawn on the queenside was ready for promotion.

Stavroula Tsolakidou’s win against Koneru Humpy was enough to decide the match in favour of the Grandmasters. The other four games were drawn.

There were no heroics this time for the Pipers, unlike the first match, in which Volodar Murzin scored a late win against Leon Mendonca to tie the match; the Grandmasters had been ahead following Levon Aronian’s win against Anish Giri.

Aronian now could boast a perfect record at the GCL: he was part of the champion side in the first edition (Triveni Continental Kings). He had missed last season.

Earlier, Fyers American Gambits had something to cheer about for the home fans, winning the third place, after beating Cheq Mumba Masters.

The results: Final: first match: Ganges Grandmasters drew with Alpine APL Pipers 3-3 (Nepomniachtchi drew with Carlsen; Aronian bt Giri; Perez drew with Vidit; Shuvalova drew with Divya; Tsolakidou drew with Humpy; Mendonca lost to Murzin).

Second match: Pipers lost to Grandmasters 2-4 (Carlsen lost to Nepomniachtchi; Giri drew with Aronian; Vidit drew with Perez; Divya drew with Shuvalova; Humpy lost to Tsolakidou; Murzin drew with Mendonca).

Third place playoff: first match:Cheq Mumba Masters lost to Fyers American Gambits 2.5-3.5 (Vachier-Lagrave drew with Sindarov; Pranesh lost to Nihal; Mamedyarov drew with Dubov; Harika bt Assaubayeva; Yip drew with Sarasadat; Daneshvar lost to Maurizzi).

Second match:Gambits bt Masters 4-2 (Sindarov drew with Vachier-Lagrave; Nihal bt Pranesh; Dubov drew with Mamedyarov; Assaubayeva drew with Harika; Sarasadat drew with Yip; Maurizzi bt Daneshvar).